The Vietnamese American Cultural and Social Council (VACSC) was founded in 1982 as a non-profit organization with the purpose of promoting the social and cultural advancements of the Vietnamese American community, as well as helping Vietnamese Americans integrate into the mainstream while maintaining their Vietnamese cultural heritage. It also focuses on assisting and defending the elderly, youth and poor in the Vietnamese American community.
To realize these goals, VACSC has a number of programs that focus on all aspects of the Vietnamese American community.
Tuoi Hac Senior Project: This program offers a wide range of services that fill the needs of low-income Vietnamese American elders who have a limited ability to speak English. Through the following programs, seniors can achieve a better quality of life and become contributing members to the community: outreach, information and referral, social and recreational activities, cultural orientation, ESL classes, Senior Nutrition Program, citizenship classes.
Operation Save Our Children: As in many communities, the Vietnamese American community has also become concerned about the state of their youth. Because of increasing intergenerational conflicts between parents and their children, youth have begun to feel alienated from their families which has made them more vulnerable to gangs that provide emotional and moral support, self-esteem and a sense of belonging that youth do not feel they are getting at home. This program aims at raising community awareness of the importance of juvenile delinquency prevention; promotes mutual understanding and communication among the generations of family members; promotes effective parent-school communication and partnership; helps juveniles solve root problems of deliquency such as identity crisis, family pressure, familial communication problems, lack of parental supervision and racial conflicts. It also educates children on the dangers of drugs, crime and gangs; develops recreational activites as an alternative to deliquency and provides mediation and counseling.
Youth Club: The youth club is one of the positive activities that Vietnamese American Youth can participate in. This program provides physical and health education; promotes leadership among youth to increase self-esteem and motivation; provides youth information and referral including drug and alcohol information; provides counseling on an on-going basis.
The Intergeneration Program: This program helps family members bridge the generational gap that often leads each of them feeling alienated from one another. This programs emphasis is on cultural orientation and social adaptation and focuses primarily on the elders who are many times the most harshly affected and find the most difficult time adapting. With the support, care and understanding of the whole family the transition can become much easier. This program educates elders about the American culture, educational system and teenager psychological and behavioral patterns; organizes intergenerational recreational activities; develops workshops on intergenerational issues for elders, adults and youth; educates youth about Vietnamese traditional culture; encourages isolated elders, adults and teenagers without immediate family to help each other through careful matching.
Santa Clara Good Neighbors Project: This project was created to promote mutual understanding, friendship and respect between the Vietnamese American community and other ethnic communities. This project faciliates cultural exchanges through social contacts, lectures, seminars, workshops, exhibitions, publications and artistic presentations; promotes community leaders' interests and participation through local human resource agencies, education and publicity networks; cooperates with the Santa Clara County Human Relations Commission, San Jose Human Relations Commission and local school districts in the prevention and mediation in racial conflicts.
Civic Forum Project: This project promotes understanding of and participation in the democratic electoral process. This is a non-paritisan program and is open to people of all ethnic backgrounds. To implement this project a Civic Forum Advisory Committee was created from interested members of various ethnic communities and representatives of local, state and federal offices. To increase the paticipation of Vietnamese Americans in the voting process, the Civic Forum Project also provides information to voters before the election to allow them time to understand the issues and know the candidates. This information is shared through community meetings with elected officials and candidates; public policy meetings to discuss local, state and national issues; and published articles, ads and video-tapes of public service messages in both Vietnamese and English.
Erin Kimura