Since 1983, the Korean Resource Center has worked to educate and empower the community. By actively providing services, we felt the community's challenges and needs and organized the community to bring the changes together.
Recently, the Korean Resource Center organized over a hundred Korean American senior citizens who suffer from the lack of proper health care, social services and language access. As a result of these efforts, Korean American seniors can now receive Medi-Cal letters in Korean, making information more accessible to our community.
We also have our young immigrant students who lost their dreams by finding out that they were not eligible to work legally. They come together at our center, share their hardships with one another, and work to restore their dreams and fight for their rights in this country.
The Korean Resource Center stands by our children who are building their identities as Korean Americans, youth who are struggling to be healthy community members, parents who are striving to find proper health care and better education for their children in the midst of the economic crisis, and the Korean Americans who try to keep our cultural heritage alive in a multi-cultural society. Together we move towards a better, stronger community.
We still face many challenges: the difficult economy, education and welfare budget cuts, and increasing attacks on immigrant rights. "Rooted in community, empowering the community"-- this is how we move forward with your continuous support and dedication to social justice. Thank you very much for your participation.
Zu Kim, Board President, Korean Resource Center
From January 2010 to April 2011 at KRC:
- 1,636 individuals received consultation and application assistance for Naturalization
- 905 families and children were enrolled in or assisted with public health benefits
- 5,482 seniors were assisted in enrolling in and renewing Medicare Part D plans
- 100 people received free health services at KRC’s annual Koreatown Health Day
- 130 low-income and uninsured patients received medical consultations through the KRC/UCLA Community Clinic
- 49 individuals received free legal consultations on tenant’s rights and bankruptcy
- 715 low-income families and individuals were assisted in income tax filing
- 9 families were assisted in preventing home foreclosures
- 782 Korean American households were mobilized to participate in the 2010 Census
- 450 Newspaper articles, radio stories and television news clips covered KRC’s work, reaching an audience of over 250,000 Korean Americans throughout Southern California.
Korean American Voter Empowerment
Since 1996, KRC has coordinated a multi-faceted program providing a seamless path for immigrants to full civic participation; from naturalization assistance & English and civics testing preparation to voter registration, education and mobilization. In addition to naturalizing 1,500 and registering over 18,000 voters to date, KRC has distributed over 140,000 voter education materials and assisted 16,900 voters through its Voter Hotline. KRC also mobilizes 3,000- 5,000 voters each election cycle.
Affordable Senior Housing Development
Since October 2005, KRC has partnered with the Little Tokyo Service Center CDC (LTSC) to construct a total of 67-units of affordable senior housing apartments at two separate sites in Koreatown, Los Angeles. KRC and LTSC have reached out to the residents, neighborhood associations, and policy makers to acquire city entitlements. As of today, KRC and LTSC have received $3.1 million in grants from the LA Community Redevelopment Agency to acquire the land and are currently seeking further government grants to begin the construction phase of the project.
Foreclosure Prevention Counseling
With many Korean Americans facing difficulty paying their mortgages, KRC started an education and consultation program in 2008 to prevent foreclosure. In 2010, KRC provided one-on-one consultations to 39 Korean American homeowners, sponsored five workshops providing information on foreclosure prevention, and hosted first-time homebuyer orientations for 119 families. Through KRC’s on-going committed work, KRC was pre-approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development as a certified Local Housing Counseling Agency in July 2010.