TCC meeting highlights: brainstorming, workforce develop ment, church expansion
Oct 23, 2009
By Samuel Tsoi
Ideas abound inside the new Chinatown Storefront Library during a brainstorming session at the Chinatown Coalition (TCC) monthly meeting on October 8.
In small groups, representatives from various Chinatown agencies, city departments and social service providers discussed problems they face at work, and how TCC may offer resources in overcoming those challenges.
“There are many stalled housing developments [in Chinatown],” said Dennis Lui of the Chinese Economic Development Council, pointing to the effects of the down economy.
Notwithstanding all the bad economic news, the gospel of this recession is government grants. “We need to identify funding opportunities…be aware of grants from stimulus projects,” said Elaine Ng of the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC).
Representatives from BCNC, Chinese Progressive Association and Asian American Civic Association (AACA) also stressed the importance of having a collective voice in advocating for long-awaited development projects, such as a permanent library.
Despite the high unemployment rates, social service providers have trouble locating the right candidates to fill their open positions. The Golden Age Center described the difficulty in recruiting culturally sensitive and linguistically competent staff, which is critical in serving the elderly.
Representatives from the AACA said they find it a challenge to recruit students who are Boston residents.
Several of AACA’s programs are grant-funded by the city and thus require the beneficiaries be local residents. This issue of residency highlights the crucial role Chinatown plays in improving the immigrant experience; many Chinese-speaking immigrants from the suburbs travel to Chinatown to seek social services.
Realizing the steady need of immigrants, AACA and BCNC said they, as well as other service providers, should collaborate among themselves to effectively share the available resources. This collaboration will ensure that that the agencies in Chinatown are not competing for the same funds, and that they can share best practices and platforms.
Richard Goldberg, Director of Education at AACA, introduced a one-page pathway chart that seeks to help immigrants navigate social services available in Chinatown. The chart includes information that will guide immigrants to further education, citizenship and employment at a mainstream English-speaking job.
Speaking of economic development, many community organizers across the nation’s cities are eager to plug low-income and immigrant workers into “green jobs.” This includes work such as weatherizing aging or inefficient buildings, installing energy-saving systems in homes and offices and building alternative energy equipment.
Sunny Schwartz, AACA’s Deputy Director, later presented recruitment information on their many workforce development programs, including the Building Energy Efficient Maintenance Skills (BEEMS) course. Schwartz also explained the current timeline and availability of the numerous Federal Stimulus funds for workforce training, especially in the sustainability industry.
Advocating for job access in that growing sector is an effort TCC members would like to collaborate on. As the session wrapped up, a consensus of having a more robust and collaborative effort emerged. Many in the coalition are already encouraged by the effectiveness of attending each other’s events, being more strategic and intentional in communicating and sharing space for meetings.
Steven Chin, senior pastor of the Boston Chinese Evangelical Church (BCEC), presented the church’s latest phase of physical expansion on Parcel A. The parcel by Marginal Road and Washington Street has been a vacant lot for many years, and it is currently the temporary site of the Josiah Quincy Upper School (JQUS) and adjacent basketball courts.
Chin, who has worked for the church for three of its almost five decade history, has seen it grow from a few dozen to a thousand regular worshippers. The early days of the church included gatherings at the Pine Street Inn, and an eventual capital campaign in the 1970s during hard economic times which led to the present building on Harrison Avenue.
Currently, BCEC functions in the 200-plus capacity building in Chinatown and the larger Newton campus, with multiple congregations gathering in Mandarin, Cantonese and English every Sunday – overflowing to the Quincy Elementary School auditorium. Gatherings for youth and adults, an after-school program, summer camps and ESOL and citizenship classes also occur throughout the week.
With the support of over a dozen of community organizations, BCEC has recently extended the tentative agreement with the Boston Redevelopment Authority to swap the current trapezoid-shaped site on one end of Pine Street, to an equal-size rectangular plot by Washington Street.
The proposal, which began in 1996, would allow BCEC to build on the 12,000 square-foot lot while still using the existing space during construction. The city will then reclaim the plot after the old church building is demolished by BCEC. A potentially new Parcel A is envisioned by BCEC and others to be ideal for affordable housing developments similar to Oak Terrace, with a central courtyard and street-level common space.
Last spring, members of the church pledged $8.4 million for the expansion project over the next three years. The estimated cost of a four-story building is $18 million.
“We are blessed by God [for BCEC’s ministries and the faith of the members in expansion]” said Chin, who also acknowledged that further steps depend on the fluctuation of construction costs, the development of JQUS and the church’s ongoing capital stewardship campaign. Meanwhile, many community stakeholders are eager to see the JQUS and BCEC developments move forward.
The next TCC meeting will be held on Thursday, November 12th, 9:30 AM at the BCNC 4th Floor Conference Room.
Samuel Tsoi is a Sampan correspondent.
Ideas abound inside the new Chinatown Storefront Library during a brainstorming session at the Chinatown Coalition (TCC) monthly meeting on October 8.
In small groups, representatives from various Chinatown agencies, city departments and social service providers discussed problems they face at work, and how TCC may offer resources in overcoming those challenges.
“There are many stalled housing developments [in Chinatown],” said Dennis Lui of the Chinese Economic Development Council, pointing to the effects of the down economy.
Notwithstanding all the bad economic news, the gospel of this recession is government grants. “We need to identify funding opportunities…be aware of grants from stimulus projects,” said Elaine Ng of the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC).
Representatives from BCNC, Chinese Progressive Association and Asian American Civic Association (AACA) also stressed the importance of having a collective voice in advocating for long-awaited development projects, such as a permanent library.
Despite the high unemployment rates, social service providers have trouble locating the right candidates to fill their open positions. The Golden Age Center described the difficulty in recruiting culturally sensitive and linguistically competent staff, which is critical in serving the elderly.
Representatives from the AACA said they find it a challenge to recruit students who are Boston residents.
Several of AACA’s programs are grant-funded by the city and thus require the beneficiaries be local residents. This issue of residency highlights the crucial role Chinatown plays in improving the immigrant experience; many Chinese-speaking immigrants from the suburbs travel to Chinatown to seek social services.
Realizing the steady need of immigrants, AACA and BCNC said they, as well as other service providers, should collaborate among themselves to effectively share the available resources. This collaboration will ensure that that the agencies in Chinatown are not competing for the same funds, and that they can share best practices and platforms.
Richard Goldberg, Director of Education at AACA, introduced a one-page pathway chart that seeks to help immigrants navigate social services available in Chinatown. The chart includes information that will guide immigrants to further education, citizenship and employment at a mainstream English-speaking job.
Speaking of economic development, many community organizers across the nation’s cities are eager to plug low-income and immigrant workers into “green jobs.” This includes work such as weatherizing aging or inefficient buildings, installing energy-saving systems in homes and offices and building alternative energy equipment.
Sunny Schwartz, AACA’s Deputy Director, later presented recruitment information on their many workforce development programs, including the Building Energy Efficient Maintenance Skills (BEEMS) course. Schwartz also explained the current timeline and availability of the numerous Federal Stimulus funds for workforce training, especially in the sustainability industry.
Advocating for job access in that growing sector is an effort TCC members would like to collaborate on. As the session wrapped up, a consensus of having a more robust and collaborative effort emerged. Many in the coalition are already encouraged by the effectiveness of attending each other’s events, being more strategic and intentional in communicating and sharing space for meetings.
Steven Chin, senior pastor of the Boston Chinese Evangelical Church (BCEC), presented the church’s latest phase of physical expansion on Parcel A. The parcel by Marginal Road and Washington Street has been a vacant lot for many years, and it is currently the temporary site of the Josiah Quincy Upper School (JQUS) and adjacent basketball courts.
Chin, who has worked for the church for three of its almost five decade history, has seen it grow from a few dozen to a thousand regular worshippers. The early days of the church included gatherings at the Pine Street Inn, and an eventual capital campaign in the 1970s during hard economic times which led to the present building on Harrison Avenue.
Currently, BCEC functions in the 200-plus capacity building in Chinatown and the larger Newton campus, with multiple congregations gathering in Mandarin, Cantonese and English every Sunday – overflowing to the Quincy Elementary School auditorium. Gatherings for youth and adults, an after-school program, summer camps and ESOL and citizenship classes also occur throughout the week.
With the support of over a dozen of community organizations, BCEC has recently extended the tentative agreement with the Boston Redevelopment Authority to swap the current trapezoid-shaped site on one end of Pine Street, to an equal-size rectangular plot by Washington Street.
The proposal, which began in 1996, would allow BCEC to build on the 12,000 square-foot lot while still using the existing space during construction. The city will then reclaim the plot after the old church building is demolished by BCEC. A potentially new Parcel A is envisioned by BCEC and others to be ideal for affordable housing developments similar to Oak Terrace, with a central courtyard and street-level common space.
Last spring, members of the church pledged $8.4 million for the expansion project over the next three years. The estimated cost of a four-story building is $18 million.
“We are blessed by God [for BCEC’s ministries and the faith of the members in expansion]” said Chin, who also acknowledged that further steps depend on the fluctuation of construction costs, the development of JQUS and the church’s ongoing capital stewardship campaign. Meanwhile, many community stakeholders are eager to see the JQUS and BCEC developments move forward.
The next TCC meeting will be held on Thursday, November 12th, 9:30 AM at the BCNC 4th Floor Conference Room.
Samuel Tsoi is a Sampan correspondent.
Article Reference: http://www.sampan.org/show_article.php?display=2137
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