end of the year 2012 newsletter

7/30/2019 End of the Year 2012 Newsletter

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Dear good friends,

As 2012 comes to a close, we look back and witness a year full of activity, of testingout new methods of work, of ambitious goals, of loss, but also of hope. We invested in re-grounding our culture & history through bringing Exit Saigon to Philadelphia for the firsttime; in youth leadership and social justice, through AYEPwhere we saw our largest groupever!; and in civic engagement, through CIVIC & Viet Vote. We invested in our own com-munitys wisdom on health and wellness through the Southeast Asian Roots Farm, where

elders and youth worked together, many for the first time.

We remember those folks in our family such as Michelle, Melissa, Candice and Thuwho have moved on to exciting projects and programs of their own and we welcome newfolks: Quynh and Linh. With that, we saw a huge increase in volunteers as well as new boardmembers, and for this we are thankful. We are building our community up while building out

our base. Such an exciting year!

The Vietnamese community in Philadelphia holds so much promise, and our workstrives to encourage working together to create a more just and dignified futureforallcommunities. That is the task in our hands.

Onward,Nancy Nguyen

BPSOS-Delaware ValleyBranch Manager

December 2012

Upcoming EventsClasses

Philadelphia:

- ESL Class (Begins Jan. 7)

M/W @ 5-7 pm

- Vietnamese Language Class(Begins Jan. 8)

T/THU @ 3:30-5 pm

- Citizenship Class(Begins Jan. 8)

T/ THU @ 5:30-7:30pm

WorkshopsMovie, Dinner

New Jersey:

- ESL (Begins Jan. 7)

M/W @ 5:30-7:30 pm

- Citizenship Class(Begins Jan. 7)

M/W @ 5:30-7:30 pm

Philadelphia:

- LiHEAP (Jan. 16)

Wed. 6-8 pm

Low-income home energy

assistance program

- FASFA (Feb. 2)Sat. 6-8 pm

Apply for your studentsfinancial aid

- Tax Preparation (March 6)Wed. 6-8 pm

How to fill out your taxes

Philadelphia: (Fridays)

- Mr. Cao Goes to Washington

(March 29) @ 6-8 pm

What happens when the naivet of apolitical rookie clashes with the reali-

ties of racial and partisan politics of

the South?

- A Village Called Versailles

( June 28) @ 6-8 pm

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katri-na, residents rebuild their homes

only to have them threatened by atoxic landfill planned in their neigh-

borhood. As the community fights

back, it turns a devastating disaster

into a catalyst for change.

- Enforcing the Silence (Sept.

27) @ 6-8 pm

explore silence and loss in the tragic

story of a young community worker

who may have been murdered for

expressing his political beliefs.

(All events and classes are held at the BPSOS office)

& Discussion


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Viet Vote

Community & Connections: Tazia

Moon FestivalPhilly Viet Vote is a citywide

voter mobilization campaign launchedby BPSOS-Delaware Val ley. Thepurpose of this project is to encourageand mobilize more Vietnamese Ameri-cans, and Asian Americans as a whole,to register to vote and practice theirrights as citizens.

For 5 months, nearly 80

volunteers helped fill out over 500 voter

registration cards, dialed 2,636 phone

numbers, addressed, stamped, and

mailed out more than 3,000 postcards

to Vietnamese-Americans households

in the Philadelphia area in order to

remind and encourage Vietnamese vot-

ers to go to the polls. The impact of this

project remains to be seen but it defi-

nitely was a wonderful opportunity to

get the Vietnamese community

engaged in the civic process.

Congratulations to thefraternity Delta Chi Psi of TempleUniversity for winning the API Colle-giate Race to the Vote, a competition

between four different student groupsfrom around the city to collect voterregistration forms for the API (Asianand Pacific Islander) community.

Other participating groupsincluded the Asian Student Associationof Temple University (TUASA), thePan-Asian Initiative of the Universityof Pennsylvania, and the Asian PacificAmerican Caucus of PennsylvaniaState University Between these fourgroups, over 100 voter registration

forms were collected!

Laughter and conversationwas flowing on October 5 th as BPSOS

hosted a Community & Connections

event at Tazia restaurant located near

Chinatown in Philadelphia. For those

who attended, it was a chance to so-

cialize and talk to new BPSOS sup-

porters or to catch up with friends

they have not seen in a while with deli-

cious food and exciting karaoke. Con-

gratulations to all our raffle winners that

night, and especially to Quynh Tran for

walking away with the Apple Ipad prize.

Stay tune for the next BPSOS Communi-

ty & Connections event!

community to get politically involved,

had two local representatives from the

Democratic and Republican parties part

take in a mini-debate, and a speaker from

One Love Movement. The showcase

closed with one of America's most re-

nowned Asian-American spoken word

artists, Bao Phi, who performed various

pieces from his new book, Sng I Sing.

Our Annual Moon Festival wasa huge success! With a youth commit-tee 20 folks deep, and nearly 50 youthand adult volunteers, we were able tobring out our Mayor, members of theFreeholder Board, and hundreds of fami-ly members to have a great time. Every-one had a fun night with plenty of games,food, and performances such as dragondancing, singing, and breakdancing. Ourraffle brought in over $1100 raised to-wards youth programs. We thank oursponsorsespecially Confident DayCare, Horizon Total Blue Cross BlueShield, Diem Chau Pharmacy for beingour biggest sponsors of the night!Check out our BPSOS-DelawareValleyFacebook Page for photos of theevent, and we hope you decide to join usnext year!

On October 19th, BPSOS

collaborated with Temple Universitys

Asian Student Association, the Cambo-

dian Association of Greater Philadelphia,

and One Love Movement to host Lyrical

& Loud!, an evening devoted to voter

mobilization and empowerment held on

the campus of Temple University. The

event stressed the importance for the API

API Collegiate Race to Vote

Bao Phi: Award Winning Spoken Word Artist


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The CIVIC program wasdesigned to provide Legal PermanentResidents (LPR) of the communities anopportunity to fully integrate into Ameri-

can society by becoming naturalized U.S.citizens. We use culturally competentinstructional methods to equip individu-als with the tools they need to completethe naturalization process. While ourcore competency is serving the Vietnam-ese population, all LPRs are welcome toattend our classes and benefit from thep r o g r a m .

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In Camden County, NewJersey, BPSOS continues to promotecommunity health and awareness in theVietnamese-American community byhosting monthly cancer screening andworkshops, in partnership with CooperHospital. In addition, we are workingwith the Centers for Disease Control(CDC) to increase knowledge of variouscancers, including breast, cervical, lung,and prostate. The CDC is also assistingBPSOS with disseminating information

on the causes, risks, and treatment ofliver cancer.

Data have shown that Vietnam-ese women have the highest rates ofcervical cancer among all ethnic andracial groups in the United States. Therate of cervical cancer screenings forthis group of women is decidedly low;culturally appropriate and easily acces-sible interventions to encourage Pap test

receipt are of prime importance.

Our health program focuses topromote community health and aware-ness in the Camden County Vietnamesecommunity; we hope to expand ourwork to members in Philadelphia in2013. Health staff members recently

Citizenship Initiative in VietnameseImmigrant Communities (CIVIC) Program

Health Awareness

completed 40 hours of ProfessionalMedical Interpreter Training, Bridgingthe Gap, through Nationalities ServiceCenter in an effort to continually keep

BPSOS updated and informed.

And Promotion (HAPP) Program

Our program offers regular ESLclasses and Citizenship Preparation clas-ses to address the different levels of profi-ciency. The ESL class will focus on build-

ing the foundation to understand basicEnglish while the Citizenship Preparationclass will help prepare students for thenaturalization process through the intro-duction of the 100 civic questions and

mock interviews.

Staff members are also able to

help fill out N400 application forms.

David Phan's untimely death on Nov.29th, prompts API and Vietnamese communityin Taylorsville, Utah, and around the Nation toact. School officials blamed David, even thoughhe was dealing with chronic bullying and biasharassment in the school. Stories coming outfrom friends and supporters point to homophobiaand bias violence as cause. BPSOS sends oursupport to the family. Please stay tuned for more.

Vietnamese YouthLoss of Life PromptsCommunity to OrganizeTo End Bias ViolenceAnd Homophobia

SDP Massive SchoolPrompts QuestionsAnd Concerns

In mid-Dec, the School Districtreleased a list of 39 schools to close acrossPhiladelphia, including many that serveimmigrant and limited English proficient stu-dents. BPSOS is setting up a meeting withschool district officials to answer questionsfrom parents in early January. If you are inter-ested in joining, please call 215-334-1500 to

RSVP.

New US citizens with their teachers


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Move to End Violence Convening 6:

Holiday Fundraiser

VIYO in PhiladelphiaBPSOS works with Asian

Americans United, Victims WitnessServices of South Philadelphia, and thePhiladelphia Student Union to form theSchool Safety Collaborative (SSC), acoalition of Chinese, Vietnamese, and

English-speaking students who congre-gate to plan and strategize ways to im-prove school safety. The Vietnameseyouth group BPSOS works with calls

Shoppers hit the streets againfor another busy season. Thank you toall the folks who came by Ten Thou-

sand Villages on 11/18 to support FairTrade goods and BPSOS programming!We were able to raise ~$450 towardsour programs for 2013!

themselves the Vietnamese ImmigrantYouth Organization (VIYO), a collectiveof 15-20 Vietnamese-American and immi-grant students who work together to em-power one another to speak up about socialjustice and to build a stronger Vietnamese

community in South Philadelphia HighSchool and the Greater Philadelphia re-gion. They aim to promote school safetyfor all students and to address issues of

bias-harassment. VIYO this year plansto create a multi-media project aroundthe lives of Vietnamese students.

Youth Work in South JerseyB-Cubed Re-Up & Afterschool

Project Opens The Community Plan-ning & Advocacy Council (CPAC)evaluated a total of 43 applications,including that of BPSOS, for the 2012Camden County Human Services GrantFunds. The Camden County Freeholdershappily announced BPSOS-DelawareValley as the recipient of a grant in the

amount of $11,000 for our Asian YouthEmpowerment Program to continue ourYouth Leadership Development workfor 2012-2013! We are excited to beable to continue to build on our YouthLeadership Projects (BPSOS BasementBreakers) and our Afterschool Home-work Support Project!

At Ten Thousand Villages

Nancy Nguyen recently waspromoted as the National CommunitiesAgainst Domestic Violence Program

Manager, a national position that will bemanaging and developing our integralanti-violence program in five differentstates. As a part of this work, she joined150 leaders, strategists, and movement-makers from across the country to dis-cuss the state of the womens movement

in the US and what challenges lie ahead.W e a r e s o p r o u d o f h e r !

For more information please

see: www.movetoendviolence.org

Building Movement 2012Advancing Justice

In between customers, I had talks withmembers of the staff which kept meentertained through the hours. Theenergy was very hospitable and amica-ble . says Kenny, an active volunteer.

Conference

Linh Pham, the Program Coordinatorfor the CIVIC program attended the2012 Advancing Justice Conference:Communities on the Rise in Chicago,IL on September 27th, 2012. Communi-ty mobilizers, academics, and directservice providers from around the USconvened to discuss important issuesrelated to the Asian American and Pa-cific Islander community. The forumespecially addressed growth of

minority communities in both in literalnumbers and activism in the UnitedStates and how that affects the land-scape of the American public. Keynotespeakers, including, civil rights activistAi-jen Poo and Illinois Senator DickDurbin, were there to speak at lengthabout common challenges and ways towork collaboratively on issues in the

AAPI communities.
http://www.movetoendviolence.org/http://www.movetoendviolence.org/http://www.movetoendviolence.org/


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PLEASE SCAN T HE QR C ODE WI TH YOURSMART PHONEAN D VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR ORGANIZATION!

BPSOS's humanitarian and community development ismade possible by generous donors from the community.We are always in need of a helping hand to continueour services and benefit others. The following is a listof items that we currently need. All donations are tax-

deductible.

To donate, contact us (BPSOS-Delaware Valley) at

215-334-1500 or email us at [email protected].

Wish List

Office:- Computers

- New Desktops for staff

- Laptops for ComputerClass (can be used and/or

old)

- New Office Desk(Philadelphia Office)

- Shredder

- 3 New Phones: Cisco IP

Phone

Kitchen:- Refrigerator

- Snacks for AfterSchool Children (NewJersey Office)

Fundraiser:

- Event Hall Spaces

- Gift Cards

- New In-box Items for

Raffles

BPSOS National Updates

We mobilize all sectors in the Vietnamese Americancommunities across the United States to systematicallyraise public awareness, rescue and protect victims,promote and assist law enforcement, and advocate forappropriate policies with the ultimate goal of ending

domestic violence and human trafficking.

Communities AgainstDomestic ViolenceAnd Human Trafficking

Strong Survivors ofViolence and Exploitation

Through our national survivor services program, weprovide direct assistance, including case management andlegal representation for immigrant victims of domesticviolence and human trafficking. The program team alsoconducts outreach to the community, service providers,and law enforcement to increase awareness of and provideeducation on these subjects.

How You Can Support Us

Office Info

New Jersey Office

5043 Westfield Ave., Suite A

Pennsauken, NJ 08110

Office: 856-486-7770

E-mail: [email protected]

Philadelphia Office

600 Washington Ave., Suite18U-A

Philadelphia, PA 19147

Office: 215-334-1500

Stay in touch!Like us on Facebook at

www.facebook.com/bpsosdelval

to stay updated on all of the latest news on BPSOS

throughout the year.

Become a Volunteer or InternOur organization can not do all of our various projects with-out the support of our volunteers and interns who bringtheir energy and passion to the organization. We have manydifferent positions open that will fit your skill set: teaching,mentoring, writing, social media, project support, and

more! Check our website for details at bpsos.org!
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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We thank the following sponsors for their generous support

end of the year 2012 newsletter

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