updates - Asian Counseling and Referral Service

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ProgramFOCUS Assistance Gives Hope to Homeless Asian Pacific Americans Struggling with mental illness or chemical dependency is difficult enough as it is. The situation is even more stressful when one is also homeless. Homelessness and poverty affects Asian Pacific Americans more than people think. For example, 22% of the county’s Cambodian population and 33% of its Hmong population live below the poverty line, compared to only 8% of the total King County population. The per capita income of the county’s Vietnamese population ($14,451) is half that of the overall per capita income of the entire county population ($29,521) and lower than all other minority groups. The per capita income figures are lower for Laotians ($12,307), Cambodians ($10,377), and Hmong ($6,730). The City of Bellevue has awarded ACRS’ Naturalization and Immigration Assistance (NIA) Program a two-year contract of $15,098 to provide weekly citizenship classes and one-on-one assistance to immigrants living in the Eastside. Classes will be held at the King County Bellevue Regional Library, 1111 110th NE, and will use the same successful curriculum and model already used in ACRS’ longrunning citizenship classes in Seattle. Bellevue is becoming home to a growing number of Asian Pacific Americans. According to Census 2000, Asian Americans make up 19% of the city’s population and 60% of Asian Asian Counseling and Referral Service sees how these statistics play out through the people who end up at its food bank, behavioral health and substance abuse treatment programs, and recovery center. Staff say they have seen many more clients who are homeless or on the verge of becoming homeless in the past year. To help stabilize their living arrangements so they can focus on their recovery, ACRS is starting HOPES, Housing Opportunities to Encourage Self-sufficiency, through a grant totaling $675,205 for five years from King County Department of Community and Human Services, King County Housing Authority and Seattle Housing Authority. The new project, which starts in January, will allow ACRS to provide Section 8 ACRS Citizenship Classes to Come to Bellevue Americans in King County are foreign born. “The citizenship classes and immigration assistance we will provide will allow more Bellevue residents to improve their English and realize their dream of becoming a U.S. citizen,” said ACRS NIA Director Julia Freimund. The schedule for the Bellevue classes was not available at press time. For more information, contact ACRS NIA Program Coordinator Chip Tan at 206-695-7578 or chiptan@acrs.org 4 housing vouchers to people dealing with mental illness and/or substance abuse. “Our clients face so many challenges,” said ACRS Behavioral Director Yoon Joo Han. “They are often shunned by their families because of their mental illness or addiction, so they don’t have a place to call home. They are hospitalized or jailed as a result of their mental illness symptoms, and often lose their housing and public health benefits. This affects their credit rating and rental history, making it harder for them to find affordable housing once they are released. It is such a terrible cycle. HOPES will help them break that cycle so they stabilize their lives.”
ProgramFOCUS ACRS Works with Sikhs to Address Harassment, Other Issues ACRS’ Roop Sandhu provides information and assistance each Sunday at the Renton gurudwara and organizes workshops for parents. Since 2005, Asian Counseling and Referral Service has brought its services weekly to the Sikh community at the Gurudwara Singh Sabha of Washington in Renton. Every Sunday, in a corner room off the cafeteria where hundreds gather for food after worship, they see ACRS Sikh Advocate Roop Sandhu with questions about becoming a U.S. citizen, sponsoring family members to come to America or finding affordable health care for their elders. With new funding from the United Way of King County Venture Funds, the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World and Comcast, ACRS has expanded its services to address another question: how to deal with the bullying and harassment Sikh children are facing at school. Jasbir Kaur, who teaches a Punjabi class for children at the gurudwara, says that many children have confided in her. “The boys are hit on the head and teased, ‘What’s that on your head?’ ‘Why don’t you cut your hair?’” According to religious practice, Sikh males grow their hair long and never cut it. Boys cover their hair and, when they are older, wear a turban. Girls and women also cover their hair with a head scarf. Jasbir says that in some cases, the persistent harassment is too much to bear. One student transferred schools six times in four years. Recently, a student hit a Sikh boy on the bus and a fight broke out. A few days later, another student hit the same boy. One Sikh girl refuses to go outside for recess for fear of being harassed by her classmates. The grants received allows ACRS’ Children, Youth and Family Program to serve as a liaison between affected families and the schools, and to provide education and support so parents can better advocate for their children. In 2006, ACRS worked with the Seattle Public Schools’ Student Support 5 Services to conduct a workshop on how parents can get involved in their children’s schools and how to address concerns. It partnered with Hate Free Zone for a workshop on addressing bullying and harassment in schools. It also worked with Northwest Education Loan Assistance to present another workshop on preparing for college. In the coming year, ACRS plans to offer a girls empowerment group for high school Sikh girls. “It’ll be modeled after our successful Teen Peer Advocate Program that we’ve had at Seattle and Bellevue high schools,” said CYF Supervisor Souchinda Viradet Khampradith. “We hope to start the group at the gurudwara and it will focus on strengthening the girls’ cultural identity and increasing their knowledge about community resources available to them.” By giving parents and youth information, tools and support, the program will help Sikh community members strengthen their ability to address the challenges they face.
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updates - Asian Counseling and Referral Service

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