About the Community Development Department
As a community-based organization, capacity building of our local areas and its residents is necessary to promote change. Our social and economic empowerment programs aim to foster growth both individually and collectively.
To view the Community Development Department Achievements, please click here.
These include:
Individual Development Accounts
Our individual development accounts (IDA) program helps Vietnamese Americans make the right choices in their day-to-day life and in their long-term plan for economic independence.
Participants will:
- learn to tightly manage their personal finances, develop savings goals, accumulate asset through savings, and build their credit history, and
- acquire the basic financial literacy and get ready to effectively invest in their future, including home purchase and business development.
Immigration Service Centers
BPSOS' Service Center advocates for and assists in the filing of several immigration forms including:
Our service center staff members have been trained by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.
Tax Services
Launched in 2000, with funding from the Internal Revenue Service Low Income Tax Clinic (IRS/LITC) program, our tax services program includes tax preparation, tax education, and helping clients with tax disputes. These services encourage Vietnamese Americans fulfill their duties as taxpayers and help some take advantage of benefits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit. Since its start, our tax services have helped some 3,000 low- income families claim almost one million dollars in tax refunds and credits.
Community Organizing
Following a long-term strategy to build capacity for small Vietnamese communities, the Neighborhood Empowerment and Support through Teamwork (NEST) program organizes self-help groups who currently face numerous barriers to information and services. These groups include: those formerly placed in re-education camps, seniors, women and Amerasians.
Our NEST program operated in four locations (Camden, Atlanta, Louisville and Biloxi) has three main objectives: (1) Vietnamese refugees and immigrants will understand their needs, know where to get help and acquire basic life skill; (2) To provide support to group members in mental health, women's issues and youth related issues; and (3) To develop capacity to support the above activities and to sustain them beyond the funding period.
Financial Literacy Program
Our homeownership program helps connect Vietnamese Americans with one of the best investments they can make for their family in this country. In conjunction with organizations such as Freddie Mac, VHDA, and Vietnamese-American volunteers from the real estate industry, we offer series of workshop on the various steps of homeownership. We have also worked to increase awareness of tenants' rights among a number of Vietnamese clients in urban areas.
Our Road to Independence through Savings and Education (RISE), in partnership with other financial institutions, provides financial education to Vietnamese refugees and immigrants around the nation.
For educational materials on the importance of credit, steps to homeownership, and the homeownership benefits and responsibilities, click on Freddie Mac's CreditSmart Asian logo below.
Schedule of upcoming workshops:
Saturday, March 17th, 2007 (New Orleans, LA)
Friday, March 30th, 2007 (Adelphi, MD)
Sunday, April 22th, 2007 (Houston, TX)
Saturday, May 19th, 2007 (Falls Church, VA)
Saturday, June 9th, 2007 (New Orleans, LA)
Saturday, July 14th, 2007 (Atlanta, GA)
Sunday, August 19th, 2007 (Houston, TX)