“Your vision of the future inspires us all to be better and to do better to change our world.” - Frances Hesselbein, Former CEO of Girl Scouts of America and President of Leader to Leader Institute
"We support BPSOS’s efforts to develop leaders who are dedicated to helping their communities at home and the disadvantaged in Vietnam." - East Meets West Foundation
“From disaster relief efforts in the Gulf Coast to leadership development at the national level, BPSOS is making a positive and long-lasting impact on our community." - Kim Delevett, Southwest Airlines
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 29, 2011
Press Contact: Nancy Nguyen, Branch Manager
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, 215-334-1500
(Philadelphia, 9/29/2011) Boat People SOS (BPSOS) Delaware Valley, an immigrant advocacy organization, hosted the inaugural Southeast Asian Family (SEAFAM) Conference: Bridging Research with Practice on September 22nd, 2011 at the Friends Center Corp. in Center City Philadelphia. As the first conference of its kind in Philadelphia, the event aimed to support and strengthen Southeast Asian immigrant services in the area.
Over eighty practitioners and researchers from across the country gathered to share information regarding the dynamics of the Southeast Asian immigrant family. Though panel discussions and keynote speech, SEAFAM provided an in-depth look into the many different barriers Southeast Asian families must overcome to remain a strong family unit and presented findings from the BPSOS Delaware Valley’s five year Healthy Marriage Demonstration Program funded by the Administration for Children and Families which additionally sponsored the conference.
Featured topics included access to healthcare, violence in the community, barriers to education, immigration issues, and conflict resolution among families to name a few.
Given the continuing growth of Southeast Asian immigrants in and around the city shown by Census 2010, we felt an urgent need to connect with providers, practitioners, advocates, and policy makers around the country and provide them with access to knowledge produced by researchers and scholars in the field in order to foster better communication between the two worlds of research and service,” said Michelle Nguyen, BPSOS-Delaware Valley project director.
Doua Thor, Executive Director of the Southeast Asian Resource Action Center of Washington D.C., who currently serves on the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, delivered the keynote speech.
“This conference was a significant first step to bring clarity and focus for those of us working with SEA communities in this city,” noted one participant.
The conference concluded with a closing speech by Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, Executive Director of BPSOS. Dr. Nguyen is known for his work in responding to the boat people crisis of 1989 and for his visionary leadership in building BPSOS into one of the largest Asian American community organizations.
The conference ended on a positive note, fostering further collaboration, solidarity and unification within the Southeast Asian community.
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Sponsor: Administration for Children and Families: Funding for this project was provided by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Grant 90FE0032. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author (s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.
Host: BPSOS, Inc. is a national Vietnamese American community organization with 15 offices located across the United States and four in Asia. BPSOS' mission is to empower, organize, and equip Vietnamese individuals and communities in their pursuit of liberty and dignity. The organization offers a web of programs in direct service, advocacy, community organizing, research, media, and leadership training to empower refugees and immigrants, develop active citizens, build communities, and grow leaders. For more information, visit www.bpsos.org.