Week 2: Health and Human Services, Day 2

Today we continued our work with the Health and Human Services sector with a visit to the West Valley Community Services. There I met a familiar face, my own auntie and Executive Director Naomi Nakano-Matsumoto. Right when we walked in the door, I was overwhelmed by how busy the organization was at 10 in the morning. Auntie Naomi talked to us about how West Valley was a “basic needs” organization and the different services they offer. I learned that they focus their service on those homeless who just need help getting back on track for a little while, such as after a divorce or layoff, rather than those who have formed more of a permanent social living environment on the streets. They help these people out with more of one-time incidents, like a car accident that prevents a person from getting to work. WVCS would then investigate to make sure the situation is legitimate and help them out by paying the car company rather than the individual.

Another thing that West Valley has is their affordable housing program. They own several apartments connected to the building and a few transitional townhomes and homes around the area. All of these homes are sold at BMR, or below market rate, so that those who might not otherwise be able to afford a house can find a home. While new contractors begin to build more housing around the area they are also required sell a certain percent of their houses at BMR, otherwise they will have to pay a fine. This requirement helps make sure that there is affordable housing available and West Valley does its best to house those who are stable and ready to own a home.

They also partner with Second Harvest Food Bank and work with local grocery stores providing a wide variety of food stored to be given out to those in need. Many of the grocery stores have an “all or nothing” policy, meaning that the agency must take all the food they give or nothing at all. So although West Valley strives to provide a healthy and nutritious environment because of the correlation between poverty and obesity, they do in fact have a lot of unhealthy junk food on hand. One thing in particular that I found interesting was that they let people come in and shop through their food pantry. Each shelf and bin was labeled with a number representing how many items they were allowed to take depending on their family size. It showed that West Valley takes pride in letting individuals choose depending on the needs of their families and in not wasting food, as much would be just thrown out if the food was just bagged and sent out.

West Valley Community Services is run by mostly the hundreds of volunteers that come out and help each day. It is also another organization that is not an ethnic-based service center. Auntie Naomi has long resume of different organizations that she’s worked for and boards that she’s served on (including being named Women of Year last year). Most of the organizations that she worked for were Asian American focused, unlike West Valley Community Services. One thing that she said that was missing here was the “Cultural Competency.” Although they do have various multi-lingual speakers working, there is definitely that difference in culture when it comes to working with and bringing this altogether. Sometimes people may not know what the politically correct term to use, especially when dealing with race and ethnicity. Working with difference ages, genders, and races has forced her to learn how to break down these barriers in order for their organization to work together successfully.

The question for this week is: What are the social services issues facing Nikkei in our community? After visiting the different organizations this week that serve both the wider community and those that are ethnically based, we can see how there is a great need for financial and community support to keep these services running. People may assume that Japanese-American in our community are not poor and therefore are not in need of these services, however Auntie Naomi said that there is a number of Nikkei that come into WVCS everyday, in a wide range of ages, men and women. To answer the question, I’m not quite sure yet what social services issues, if any, face the Nikkei community but I know that organizations such as Yu-Ai-Kai, SVCN, AACI, and West Valley are definitely all vital to serving the Japanese-American community and need to be supported.

Week 2: Health and Human Services, Day 1

The second week of our Nikkei Community Internship started off with a tour of the Yu-Ai-Kai facility by Wes. He introduced us to all the people in within the organization that make it so successful. We met some of the seniors and volunteers in the senior day program, visited the nutrition center, and learned about the various activities and programs that Yu-Ai-Kai has to offer. He also took us to the new Akiyama Wellness Center down the street that should be opening next month. Although it is still under construction, the center will soon be able to serve the needs of not only the seniors, but the larger community as well.

Next we went to visit Amanda Baker and Tom Kinoshita at the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits. There, they work with nonprofit organizations and make sure that they are not cut of their critical government funding. SVCN is not an ethnic-based group, but rather they exist to serve the entire community. Both Amanda and Tom talked a little about how it is different to work at the executive level of such a company, especially being a minority. Amanda also spoke on how for her, it was difficult at first to walk into a meeting and to find herself the only woman, person of color, and young person to be there. There is a growing need for diversity in many board of directors situations, and the only way to change this, is to step out of the comfort zone like Amanda did, in order to continue to have a lasting impact on the community.

After the visit to SVCN we went to see Tamon at AACI, or Asian Americans for Community Involvement, where we were to be staying for the remainder of the week. After lunch with Tamon and the two other interns, he gave us an extensive tour of AACI’s facilities as well as told us about the different programs that AACI offers. I was amazed at how large of an organization this was and the number of the programs that AACI has. Some of these include their Senior Services Center, which is a lot like Yu-Ai-Kai, their HIV/AIDS program, one of the few remaining places available for testing after work hours, the Youth Development Program, their Domestic Violence program, Mental Health Services, Alcohol and Drug Programs, a Center for Survivors of Torture, and Primary Health Care Services. Because AACI does cater to mainly Asian-Americans, they have multi-lingual individuals to help break down the language barrier and ensure that those in need are receiving the services and help that is available to them. After seeing what AACI has to offer, I realized how important it is to have services like these available to the Asian-American Community.

The long day was concluded with our attendance of the Asian Pacific Islander Justice Coalition Meeting located at the Issei Memorial Building. Upon arrival I assumed that the meeting was going to end up like every other meeting…long and boring. However, this API meeting was actually quite interesting. We had guest Judge Ladoris Cordell, the new Independent Police Auditor for the city of San Jose, come and speak to us during the first half of the meeting. She spoke about all that she has accomplished in her first 30 days of work, including being able to meet with all 1000 police officers in the city, which is pretty impressive!! I personally learned a lot from her short visit because I’m not too familiar with what Independent Auditors do in their line of work. Another interesting thing she spoke to us about was her filming of the new television show, “Make the Call,” that she was running to right after the meeting. This show focuses on the fact that in East Palo Alto, 50% of all homicides go unreported because people are too afraid to pick up the phone and make the call. This hit particularly close to home (literally and figuratively), as living and growing up in Los Altos, where Palo Alto is a neighboring city. Another interesting issue brought up in the meeting was the Arizona Immigration Law. Nick Kuwada from the Asian Law Alliance actually traveled with a group down to Arizona and discussed what he experienced. Just for “reasonable suspicion” you can be asked to show identification and proof of residence. And of course this reasonable suspicion is what leads to racial profiling. We seem to be backtracking historically in the human rights department…if racial profiling is something that is growing stronger, what should we be expecting next?

Week 1: History and Character of San Jose’s Japantown

Tuesday, June 22^nd was our first official day of work here in San Jose Japantown. It started off with a short orientation at the Yu-Ai-Kai Senior Center where we met the NCI team of San Jose. It was the first time that Sami and I really got to see what the next eight weeks of our summer would entail. We learned that each week we were given a topic, which coincides with the people we would be meeting with, and the organizations we would be working with throughout each week. The topic for the first week was the History and Character of Japantown. We were given a wonderful and detailed walking tour by Leslie Masunaga who volunteers at the Japanese American Museum of San Jose giving tours on a regular basis. She gave us background to the different landmarks such as the Nikkei Lantern, the Issei Stone, and the several historic benches placed throughout the town. It was amazing to see how the landmarks and buildings each have a special story attached to them, giving San Jose Japantown its personality and historical significance.

We also had the chance to sit down and speak with Aggie Idemoto who volunteers at the Japanese American Museum of San Jose (JAMsj) as well. Mrs. Idemoto spoke to us about the museum and how it was founded in 1987 in order to preserve and share some of the history, art and culture of Japanese-Americans. It focuses mainly on the agriculture and farmlands of the greater bay area, the World War II experiences, and the resettlement struggles after the war. Although the museum is currently under construction, she said that it should be completed and ready to open at the end of summer.

On Thursday we drove up to San Francisco to attend the roundtable discussion for the National Asian American Pacific Islanders Historic Preservation Forum, which was to take place on the weekend. Let by Alan Nishio and Jill Shiraki, we sat through presentations on various historical Japanese-American sites throughout California, such as the Gilroy Hot Springs and the Castroville Schoolhouse of Monterey Bay. Along with the other interns from San Francisco, we listened to what the leaders of the different organizations had to say about preserving certain sites and also participated in the discussion to show a young adult perspective.

Throughout the week we spent a good amount of time working with Leon Kimura, president of the San Jose chapter of the JACL. With headquarters in the Issei Memorial Building, Leon has been working on the big centennial celebration marking the 100^th anniversary of the Issei Memorial Building that is to take place in October. To prepare for this, we helped him with the research of the building’s history and went through pictures to make a slideshow portraying important events happening with the building over the past century. It was interesting to learn how the building, which was once a hospital, is now home to organizations such as JACL, San Jose Taiko, and CATs. We also helped out with the Children’s Day festivities, which took place at the Issei Memorial Building on Friday. Children from Lotus Preschool and Suzume no Gakko came to enjoy the arts and crafts, games, and delicious food. There were also special appearances by Shorty Fatz custom bikes who offered coloring pages for the kids and State of Grace Tattoo who provided face paint tattoos that were extremely popular with the kids. This past week I learned the saying “kodomo no tameni,” meaning “for the children’s sake.” It is because of events like these that bring the San Jose Japantown community and keep it strong for the future.

Opening Retreat: June 20-21, 2010

My Nikkei Community Internship experience started off with a trip down to Los Angeles for the opening retreat of this summer internship program. The 11 Norcal interns flew together to meet up with the 8 others from Southern California. After a few introductions and icebreakers we participated in a scavenger hunt of Little Tokyo. Through this activity we had the opportunity to get to know our way around Little Tokyo and a chance to bond with our fellow team members. I was able to learn about the various art pieces and memorials built through the area and I also had the chance to try natto for the first time –an experience I must say will never happen again. After the scavenger hunt we learned about the Nikkei Declaration and met Chris Aihara, the executive director of the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC), who spoke a little bit about her organization and the community. We also had the opportunity to meet with Debbie Ching, a nonprofit professor for the Master’s program at CSU Northridge. Mrs. Ching led us in an Organization Life Cycle workshop and left us with some helpful information in the areas of networking and communication. The day ended with a lecture on the various acronyms and organizations throughout the different Japantown communities, followed by the alumni dinner where we were able to meet previous participants and talk to them about their experiences.

The next morning we were given a talk by Alan Nishio, the current president of the Board of the Little Tokyo Service Center Community Development Corporation. Mr. Nishio used his sense of humor as he spoke to us on the Japanese-American Community in its past, present, and future stages as he continues to be a greatly involved member and leader. Following his talk we had the NCI Opening Reception where we put Mrs. Ching’s networking skills to good use. Several important community members as well as NCI alumni attended and we had the chance to talk with and learn about how each are involved in the Japanese-American Community. This luncheon concluded the Opening Retreat of the Nikkei Community Internship, giving us interns a lot to look forward to over the next 8 weeks.