Know friends who are raising teens in the U.S. and facing cross-cultural challenges? This workshop might be helpful for them – Cross Cultural Parenting Workshop Series IV, this coming Saturday, May 31st 10:00am-12:30pm @ Church for Today, 1449 Cornell Avenue, Berkeley, CA. Parenting guidance that addresses the physical, emotional and social development of children from 13-18 years old. Open to all Parents and Child Care Providers.

CHAA and the East Bay Refugee Forum invite you to please join us for World Refugee Day @ San Antonio Park, Foothill and 16th Street in Oakland from 12noon to 3:00pm. This is our annual celebration to honor, appreciate and raise awareness about refugees around the world and in Oakland. Come for great food, fun games, cultural performances and speakers. Free tickets to the Oakland Zoo for the first 100 families.

Asian Heritage Month! Come celebrate the culture, traditions and history of Asian Communities with free food, entertainment, children activities and educational resources. Saturday May 31, 2014, 3:00-6:00pm at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Avenue, Albany CA 94706

 Please join us for our Moving Dialogues Movie Night on May 23rd. This month features select clips from a nearly-finished documentary film about Ko Aung Myo Min, a Burmese human rights activist (child rights, women’s rights, ethnic rights, LGBTQ rights, etc.) who was in exile for 25 years, and who has now returned to Burma and is a civil society member of Burma’s Human Rights Commission. We will be able to talk with the film maker, Jeanne Marie Hallacy. 

 Words of appreciation and gratitude go to Corrina Gould of the Native American Child Resource Center and Tsering Yangkey of CHAA for their work with the Native American Youth in our community. All of these youth have some Native American blood and/or Ohlone heritage and this link is an important connection to their culture and roots.  Corrina and Tsering offer grounding, gardening and cooking to these youth in an after-school program.  Grounding exercises involve bringing balance and healing energy to our feelings of being out-of-sorts, unfocused, irritable or overwhelmed. Grounding helps us to rebalance and reconnect with ourselves. Tsering facilitates the 5 senses meditation exercises utilizing sight, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting. Gardening at the CHAA plots @ the Lake Merritt Garden has been a wonderful source of getting back to nature for these youth. The spirituality of growth, accomplishment and watching something emerge from seedling has been beneficial and nurturing.  Tsering also teaches the Tibetan food culture and the youth were able to taste, feel and smell “barley flour” used to make Tsampa, the food staple in Tibet. Finally, a gift of “Khata” was given as the traditional ceremonial silk scarf symbolizing goodwill, auspiciousness and compassion.  Tsering and Corrina encourage, promote and inspire these links to their culture in the hopes to instill that sense of pride that comes from traditions, history and our pasts. The rewards shine through in these faces with appreciation, gratitude and smiles as they look forward to the next activity and life lesson. 

 CHAA congratulates Banteay Srei on their 10th anniversary of ongoing support and empowerment of young Southeast Asian Women impacted by sexual exploitation in Oakland. Since 2004 the Banteay Srei grass roots movement  has been lead by five amazing women  Jackie Wong, Chanda May, Manith Thaing-Rice, Elizabeth Sy and Jennifer Lee who banded together to form a nonprofit organization with the sole vision of aiding and helping API youth at risk or involved in human trafficking. Asian Health Services and the current leadership of their program manager Kkauj Iab Yang, Banteay Srei has changed the lives of many young women through their youth empowerment model that teaches life skills, promotes creativity and builds self esteem. The Holga Photo Project is a program where the young women capture and reclaim their neighborhoods through photography. The Sauce Program allows the young women to build sisterhood through the sharing of food, culture, and cooking skills. These two collaborative enterprises help the youth to extend, create and develop from within. CHAA’s involvement comes from our own amazing Clinical Therapist, Calix Vu Bui’s whose clinical background and expertise working with trauma in SEM (Sexually Exploited Minor) and CSEC (Community Sexual Exploited Children) populations enabled her to collaborate with Banteay Srei to provide these youth with comprehensive mental health services.  Calix works together Banteay Srei’s Case Managers and Youth Advocates to help victimized minors get back on track in many aspects of their lives.

http://gogetfunding.com/project/richmond-summer-youth-program
Please help support our Richmond Summer Youth Program

About our Agency:
CHAA provides mental health treatment services to adults at risk of homelessness, children, and adolescents, victims of domestic violence, students at the RYSE Center in Richmond and at schools in Alameda and Contra Costa County. CHAA is the treatment provider for West County’s Juvenile Drug Court and runs the only outpatient adolescent AOD treatment program in West County (OATS). CHAA has offered presentations, clinical findings, cultural competency training, and recommendations to public systems and decision-makers including the Richmond City Council, Oakland Unified School District, San Francisco Juvenile Probation, Contra Costa County Probation, and Contra Costa Health Services.

About our Program:
Our focus is specifically with high school aged youth and we saw the need for a summer program that could provide healthy and positive activities for the youth we serve since there is a major shortage of resources and positive activities for youth in Richmond. This past summer we created a program with some of our youth that included field trips, team building, assistance with getting into college, and recording music in an effort for the youth to use lyric writing as a coping mechanism as an alternative to substance use and support with anger management.

The Results of our program:
The outcomes for our youth were astounding! Three of our youth were struggling to graduate high school going into the summer with little to no direction in their lives. By the end of our program, these three youth had not only graduated from high school but were all registered and attending classes at their local college with full financial aid from our assistance during the summer! Some of these youth have voluntarily continued to work with us through the fall because they recognize the importance and benefits of our services. Other youth in the program have also shown improvements in their interactions with peers, reduction of substance use and improvements with grades.

How You Can Help!
Unfortunately, we are going into this summer with no funding for our program this year despite the success and appreciation from all youth involved. As a result, we are asking for your help in keeping this program running. We hope to not only continue what we started last year but to expand the number of youth we can serve, increase the quantity and quality of our field trips which could include a college tour of various schools in the bay area. We also need support to provide better and more nutritious food to our youth since they spend several hours with us on a daily basis and only received snacks due to our lack of funds. We chose to not put an end date on our fundraiser because ultimately; we would like to provide this type of programming to our youth year round and your support could make this possible. Thanks in advance to any of you for your generous contributions and know that you are helping to enrich the lives of our incredible youth in Richmond!
Many of our former graduates that are eager to continue their work in the program and have asked if it would be possible to create a paid internship. Through this position former graduates could act as mentors to current group members and assist with group presentations. Your contributions can make the ideas of our clients become a reality.

 CHAA invites you to the San Francisco 10th Anniversary Celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Monday, May 5th, 2014 at City View at the Metreon, 135 Fourth Street, San Francisco. APA Heritage Awards Ceremony and Reception 5:30 pm. Attire: Ethnic Festive  Please RSVP at www.apasf.org by April 30, 2014.

 CHAA invites you to the Thingyan Burmese New Year Water Festival, Sunday May 25, 2014 at Kennedy Park, 1333 Decoto Road, Union City from 10am-3pm. 

Burmese Ethnic Food Fair, Traditional Dance & Talent Show, Cultural Exhibition & Games, Respect for Community Elders, Beauty Pageant and Water Play Activities

Nhit thit mingalar mhar pyaw shwin par say. May the new year bring you much joy!

 CHAA invites you to the Ger Youth Center Bi Mongol School Celebration & Fundraiser Sunday, May 4th, 2014 at the Kofman Auditorium, 2200 Central Avenue, Alameda from 2:30-6:00pm. Come enjoy traditional Mongolian Dance performances!