SSG News
March-April 2004 Newsletter
SSG Welcomes New Board Members
Donna Lee Wong
SSG welcomes Donna Lee Wong, Esq. as a new Board member. Ms. Wong is a Deputy City Attorney for the City of LA, and works in the Neighborhood Prosecutor Program assigned to the Rampart Division. A very demanding City Attorney position she handles all aspects of filing, jury trials, motions, & pre-trial appearances. She also manages a prosecution caseload of approximately 400 cases.
As an emerging professional Ms. Wong has already accomplished a great deal. She attended UCLA and graduated with honors in Sociology and Political Science. As a young Bruin she was also the Finance and Politics Editor of the famous campus newspaper, the Daily Bruin, and involved in numerous on-campus Asian American student groups. After UCLA she then attended Loyola Law School where she also graduated with honors. During law school she served as a law clerk for the LA City Attorney's Office, served as a research Assistant to Professor John Nockleby, a noted legal scholar, and, served as a judicial extern with Judge William J. Rea of the United States District Court.
In her capacity as Deputy City Attorney Ms. Wong has continued to complement her legal work with an active community and civic involvement in numerous neighborhood councils, law enforcement commissions and community-based organizations.
As you can see Ms. Wong brings a wealth of legal, civic and community knowledge and experience to the SSG Board and she is "happy to be serving as a board member for such a vibrant and diverse organization." We are pleased to welcome her to the SSG family and look forward to working with her. By the way... if some of you are wondering if Ms. Wong may be in some way related to our beloved former Board member of 28 years, Dr. Andrew Wong, please note that she is indeed related... she is his niece!
John Eckman
SSG is honored to welcome John Eckman as a new Board Member. He is highly skilled, intelligent and dedicated to making positive changes through community involvement. He is currently Director of Operations for Edison Carrier Solutions in the Southern California Edison Company. He is responsible for network engineering and design, construction of inside and outside telecommunication plant and equipment, operation and maintenance of SCE's telecommunication network. He began his twenty-five year career with Edison in the Controller's Department and the Audits Department. John and wife Mary, married for 22 years, have two children, Laura, 18, and John Patrick, 15. He has two Bachelor of Arts Degrees from the University of California at San Diego, one in Biology and the other in Economics. He also has a Master's Degree in Business Administration in Finance from San Diego State University. He has taken advanced business, negotiating strategy, and electric system theory courses at Harvard University, School of Business, the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business, and the University of California at Berkeley.
Throughout his career he has been involved with various charitable organizations. With two children, he has active experience with his local public school system as well as at the district level representing parents on several school board advisory committees. He is a charter member of FOCUS, a fundraising organization to promote research for a cure to Multiple Sclerosis. He also is a long standing member of the San Diego Zoological Society and a member of the Parish Council at his church. In his spare time he enjoys playing golf and gardening. During football season, he participates in several NFL fantasy football leagues.
SSG Establishes Institutional Review Board
SSG has established our own IRB to review community-based research projects by SSG programs and our allies. All research projects dealing with human subjects have to go through a rigorous review process to make sure their protocol adhere to federal guidelines on human protection. Chaired by our own Executive Director Herbert Hatanaka, the SSG-IRB includes the following members: Megan Berthold (Program for Tortured Victims), Cheryl Branch (Faith in Communities), Sarah Bream (Occupational Therapy Training Program), Mary Anne Foo (Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance), Trang Hoang (Asian/Pacific Islander Mental Health Alliance), Leo Pandac (Pacific Asian Alcohol & Drug Program), Lola Sablan-Santos (Guam Communications Network), Saul Sarabia (UCLA Center for the Study of Urban Poverty), and Rev. Eugene Williams (LA Metropolitan Churches). If your program is considering a research project, please contact Eric at CD&GIS: 213-553-1B20 or ewat@ssgmain.org.
BACUP & HOP - Successful Collaboration for New Grant!
Congratulations! In response to a Social Security Administration Program Announcement to fund 3-year cooperative agreements for Homeless Outreach Projects and Evaluation (HOPE), SSG proposed an intra-agency partnership with Benefits Assistance Client's Urban Project (BACUP - lead) and Homeless Outreach Project (HOP) to provide benefits application assistance and supportive case management to homeless individuals living with a mental illness.
Grant awards were announced in April and in addition to SSG, two other homeless service providers in LA were also awarded these contracts including the Volunteers of America (VOA) and the Ocean Park Community Center in Santa Monica.
On April 13", 2004, a press conference was held to announce federal funding awards for homeless programs. Philip Mangano, Executive Director of the Federal interagency Council on Homelessness came from Washington DC to speak to the LA grantees. He later toured the new HOP/ICS site in South Los Angeles.
Congratulations to all and a big Thank You' to the SSG Development team, Andrew Posner (BACUP Director) and Michael Neely (HOP Director).
PALS for Health Program & ALAS para tu Salud Project - Rev/on Run/Walk for Women on May 8, 2004
PALS for Health and ALAS para tu Salud has been accepted as one of 15 beneficiaries of the Entertainment Industry Foundation's Revlon Run/ Walk for Women. In the last decade, this event has raised more than 28 million dollars for cancer research and outreach programs. This year's run/walk will take place on May 8, 2004 at the LA Memorial Coliseum/ Exposition Park.
As a 2004 beneficiary, Team PALS for Health and ALAS para tu Salud will (wo)man a table at the event and volunteer at various event booths. We invite the SSG family (you!) to come join us at this fun-filled charity event. Funding which we receive will go towards much needed no-cost health care interpretation services in Spanish, and multiple Asian and Pacific Islander languages for limited English proficient (LEP) cancer patients. Please contact Rommony Chung at (213) 553-1818 if you have questions or would like to participate.
Asian Pacific Counseling & Treatment Centers
Thank you to all of you who shared your precious individual time with us at LA marathon last Sunday. It was such a meaningful and heartwarming event. And you showed how much you care by going out of your way to help others. Because of your personal contribution and thoughtfulness, Young Kak church sponsored the AP Housing Program with a $7,000 check. We also want to show our deep appreciation to Young Kak church and its congregation for its generosity and contribution to the community. We also want to thank Deacon Paul Koh, Dr. Sun, & Elvie Soldevilla for their effort to make the event possible. The money will be used for our housing clients who are in need with deposits, furniture, cookware & utensil, etc. We truly thank our volunteers, Yvonne Sun, Vicky Tai, Eric lee, Yoo Jin Kirn, Jennifer Hai, Jane Chang, Jane Dang, Danny Hui and Al Choi.
Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team
On March 24, 2004, the Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team and a panel of guests discussed the progress on the war against HIV/AIDS, which is growing in our communities in the United States and the Philippines. The lecture was designed to discuss the present state of HIV and AIDS, and the impact/response of the Filipino community to the virus from both medical and personal perspectives. Practical information on how you can protect yourself, and what you can do to help find a cure was also be provided. This event was sponsored by the Filipino American Library (FAL) and Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team (APAIT).
LA Asian Pacific Heritage Month Event May 27, 2004
Los Angeles Asian Pacific Heritage Month is approaching quickly! Each year, a committee comprised of community, business and civic leaders and volunteers assemble to plan and organize various events to commemorate Asian Pacific Heritage Month in May. The month long celebration is a testament to the contributions made by Asian and Pacific Islander Americans to our great city. In addition, Mayor Hahn honors several outstanding members of the community for being role models in the areas of government, leadership, business, sports, entertainment, and media. SSG is proud to be part of LAAPAHM by providing fiscal sponsorship as well as volunteer support and technical assistance. For more information on this event please call SSG Program Specialist, Jennifer Tang at (213) 553-1875.
Older Adults Program - David J. Yim. MSW. Program Director
Great job OAP for demonstrating the true essence of collaborative work! The Older Adults Program was approached by the University of California at Irvine, libraries for permission to include selected materials from the REACH 2010 HAPAS Project resource kit. This resource kit produced in 2001 provided an analysis of a one-year needs assessment finding which addressed the disparities in health related to immunizations, diabetes type II, and cardiovascular diseases among eight Asian and Pacific Islander older adult communities. Portions of the resource kit will be made available through a HTML-based web portal which will be available to college and university faculty and K-12 teachers using Southeast Asian American content in their courses. In addition, the REACH 2010 HAPAS Project has made another significant stride by collecting over 1,600 surveys on older adult immunizations in the past year thanks to the hard work and dedication of the collaborative partners: Little Tokyo Service Center/Asian & Pacific Islander Older Adults Task Force; Cambodian Association of America; St. Mary Medical Center/Families in Good Health' Federation of Filipino-American Association; Guam Communications Network; Samoan National Nurses Association; Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance; and the University of California at Los Angeles School of Public Policy and Social Research Department of Social Welfare. David Yim and Dr. Ailee Moon in the next several weeks will work together to analyze the data for publications on behalf of the collaborative. Way to Go!
Census Data & Geographic Information Services - Eric Wat, MA, Research Analyst
Program Evaluation - On April 12, 2004, CD&GIS facilitated the first in a series of workshops on program evaluation. This interactive workshop was lead by SSG's new Research Analyst, Eric Wat and was attended by 12 individuals from 5 SSG programs as well as SSG's development team. At the workshop, participants learned the various types of program evaluation as well as how to develop an evaluation plan. Participants also brainstormed on creative ideas on how to demonstrate long-term impact of their programs on the communities they serve. As part of the evaluation of the workshop, they identified various evaluation topics to be explored next. Keep your eye out for the next evaluation training. If you have any questions regarding evaluation for your program, please contact CD&GIS ewat@ssgmain.org.