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Check out the latest cacf news on our new blog: www.cacf.org/blog and on Twitter: www.twitter.com/cacf.

Civic and Community Orgs Call on NYC DOE

to Do More to Protect Youth from Harassment and Bullying

On June 30, 2009, a group of five civic and community advocacy organizations released a white paper and report card showing that the New York City Department of Education (DOE) is falling short on its duty to protect public school students from bias-based harassment and bullying.

Dignity Now: The Campaign to Stop Bullying and Bias-Harassment in New York City Schools, a white paper by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and the New York City Bar Association’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Committee, uses legal analysis and students’ first-hand accounts to conclude that though Mayor Bloomberg and the DOE have made strides toward ending the problem of bullying and biased-based harassment in the schools, more effort is necessary.

Bias-based Harassment in New York City Public Schools: A Report Card on the Department of Education’s Implementation of Chancellor’s Regulation A-832, produced by the Sikh Coalition, the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), assesses the DOE’s progress enforcing Chancellor’s Regulation A-832, which was issued last September to address student-to-student bullying and bias-based harassment. Based on a survey of more than 1,100 students and educators in the city’s public schools, the report card demonstrates that the regulation is not being fully implemented. 

Among the report card’s key findings:

• 76 percent of students do not know they can report bias-based harassment anonymously by emailing respectforall@schools.nyc.gov.
• 80 percent of students have not attended a training or presentation to discourage harassment.
• 16 percent of students who reported experiencing bias-based harassment said the harasser was a teacher, staff member, or security agent.

 You can download a free copy of the report here.

recording voices report released:

youth feel the burden of taking on the role of parent

On June 16, 2009, CACF released a new report, Recording Voices: Stories of Asian Pacific American Youth as Language Brokers in New York City, which finds that Asian Pacific American families often rely on children and youth to be translators and interpreters when accessing public services. These bilingual children and youth are known as “language brokers,”who are forced to translate or interpret for limited English proficient (LEP) parents in daily situations without any special training. CACF found that 49% of youth translate for their parents “always/a lot.”

The report was released at a community briefing co-sponsored by the CUNY Asian American/Asian Research Institute (AAARI) and held at the CUNY Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies. Speakers included: Kleber Palma, Director, Translation and Interpretation Unit, New York City Department of Education and Stefanie Trice, Senior Director, Office of LEP / Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS), NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC).

You can download a free copy of the report here.

CACF responds to New York Times blog post on health disparities

“By saying that African Americans are the only group whom the NYS health system has failed diminishes the fact that Asian and Latino communities face tremendous health disparities and barriers.  While Asian Americans and Latinos might have had better health indicators under some of these measures, they have poor health in other indicators. For example, in New York City alone, up to 15 percent of Asian Americans have chronic hepatitis B, and liver cancer is 10 times more likely to occur in Asian Americans than in the rest of the American population. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among Asian-American women age 15 to 24; and these women have the highest suicide rate of any community.

All communities in NYS are falling short of meeting many of the Health People 2010 goals for key health indicators. Highlighting one racial group undermines the reason why we must all work together to ensure that the health system is meeting the cultural and linguistic needs of all the diverse communities of New York.”

-Wayne Ho, Executive Director

See the original article here: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/18/racial-disparities-found-under-state-health-plans/?scp=1&sq=disparities&st=cse

CACF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Honored at kafsc 20th anniversary gala

On May 2, 2009, Wayne Ho, CACF Executive Director, was honored at the Korean American Family Service Center’s (KAFSC) 20th Anniversary Gala Benefit: Raising Hope… Transforming Lives.  The Korean American Family Service Center (KAFSC) is a nonprofit organization established to promote healthy relationships and address domestic violence issues in Korean American families in the New York metropolitan area through a wide range of bilingual programs and services.  Honorable Kyung-wha Kang, United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, served as the keynote speaker who addressed the importance of women’s rights as human rights as a means for women’s empowerment.   Over 400 guests attended, including distinguished guests Council Member Elizabeth Crowley, Assemblywoman Grace Meng, and Council Member John Liu.

CACF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR RECEIVES

CHILD ADVOCACY AWARD

On April 24, 2009, Wayne Ho, CACF Executive Director, received the Child Advocacy Award from Commissioner John Mattingly of the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS).  April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and ACS joined the nation in stressing the importance of reducing child abuse and neglect.  The other award recipients were Dr. Jocelyn Brown, Manhattan's Child Advocacy Center; Detective Luz Figueroa, NYPD, Queens Child Abuse Squad; and Melissa Plowden-Norman and Christina Richburg of Bed-Stuy Advocates. Photo by Christopher Auger-Domínguez

Asian Pacific American

City Advocacy Day

12% and Growing Coalition held New York City’s first Asian Pacific American City Advocacy Day on April 22, 2009!  It was exciting, powerful, and inspiring to see the diverse Asian Pacific American community united to protest the City’s budget cuts. 

During the City Advocacy Day, 12% and Growing Coalition advocated for budget priorities that would benefit Asian Pacific American and immigrant communities.  The day saw:

• 150 community members from over 30 community based organizations (CBOs) attend the rally and press conference at City Hall
• 8 ethnically diverse staff and clients of the CBOs speak at the press conference
• 25 CBO staff participate in 13 legislative visits with City Council Members
• 13 mainstream and Asian ethnic press cover the event

Click here for our FY 2010 Budget Priorities and press conference photos.  CACF will work with our coalition members to continue advocating for a fair City budget until the deadline of June 30, 2009.  If you would like further information, please contact Vanessa Leung, Deputy Director, at vleung@cacf.org.

CACF is Going Green!

To reduce paper consumption, CACF is in the process of going green! Beginning in mid-2009, CACF's newsletter Progress will be sent electronically! To ensure you don't miss out on the lastest CACF information, please make sure we have an updated email address on file!

Please email Elizabeth Lee at elee@cacf.org or call 212-809-4675 x. 108 to stay connected!

cacf RELeases

new multilingual parent brochure

CACF is proud to announce the release of Keeping Children Safe and Families Together: A Guide for Immigrant Families to Understand Child Abuse and Neglect Laws and Support Services in New York.  The brochure provides information for Asian Pacific American parents on the child welfare system, appropriate childrearing practices, child discipline laws, parents’ and children’s rights, and support services.  The brochure is available for free and is translated into seven languages (Bengali, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Punjabi, Urdu, and Vietnamese).  The brochure will be used as part of Project B-SAAF (Building Supports for Asian American Families), which provides free, citywide, 90-minute trainings to Asian Pacific American parents.  Trainings are conducted in English with interpretation/translation as necessary. 

If you would like copies of the brochures or are interested in the trainings, please contact Vanessa Leung at (212) 809-4675 or vleung@cacf.org.

To access the PDF version of the brochure click here.

10th annual

caring for children awards gala

Thank you for your continued support and for helping us make the 10th Annual Caring for Children Awards Gala a success!

At the 10th Annual Caring for Children Awards Gala, CACF celebrated 5 years of empowering youth to become advocates through the Asian American Student Advocacy Project (ASAP), and honored distinguished Asian American leaders:

Saru Jayaraman

Julian Liau

Tara Tran Nguyen

upcoming events

Summer lovin'

A Speed Dating Fundraiser Brought to you by the Action Council

Summer is here and it's time to find someone special! Come find your special someone or make new friends with similar interests, all for an amazing cause!

friday, July 17, 2009

7pm-10pm

blvd, 199 bowery

(Between Rivington and Spring Streets)

$25.00 - Early Bird Special before June 25th

$30.00 - After June 25th

Click here to register.

Click here for more information or contact Tam Dinh at tdinh@cacf.org.

2009 Caring for Children Awards gala Reception

Save the Date!

Wednesday, November 9, 2009

6:30PM-9:30PM

Strata, 915 Broadway, at 21st Street

Click here to purchase online.

Click here for more information or contact Kim To at kto@cacf.org.