Community Network
NAKASEC
KoreAm Journal September 2007
Youth Power
Camp Pride for Korean Adoptees
Celebrating a Visionary
Participants of the Summer Youth Empowerment program mobilize the community in support of the DREAM Act.
In July, NAKASEC and its affiliates kicked off their Summer Youth Empowerment Programs (SYEP) in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. The programs are designed to help junior high and high school students develop leadership and organizational skills and learn about the issues impacting the Korean American community. Other highlights include SAT/ACT preparation, computer-building training and peer-led workshops on immigration. Already putting into practice what they learned in the classroom, participants from the three cities went out into their communities to collect postcards in support of the DREAM Act. Participants are also taking part in the Digital Korean American Immigrant Experience Project. They've conducted interviews with community members using digital equipment and questions designed by the NAKASEC-affiliate youth groups FYSH, MIST and ORAnGE. These interviews will be featured online as part of community workshops and as an advocacy tool.
Camp Pride For Korean Adoptees
Camp Pride participants learn about Korean culture.
KRCC hosted the high school divi-sion of Camp Pride, an annual Korean cultural camp for adoptees. KRCC led five days of classes on topics such as Korean music, lan-guage and cooking for 22 Korean adoptees. Camp participants visited Chicago's Koreatown, making stops at restaurants, grocery stores, a nursing home and a Korean church.
Celebrating A Visionary
On June 26, Yoon Han Bong, a former political asylum refugee who founded the Korean Resource Center, Young Koreans United (YKU) and the Korean Alliance for Peace and Justice, passed away at age 58. A visionary and critical political thinker, YKU spawned the formation of grass¬roots community-based organizations throughout the country, including the Korean American Resource & Cultural Center in Chicago, YKASEC ¬Empowering the Korean American Community in New York City and the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC). As people in Korea mark the end of the ritual 49 days of mourning, NAKASEC and its affiliates held events to celebrate his life and legacy.
Quick Updates
• Beginning on July 28, YKASEC Youth Group MIST contributed to the ongoing grassroots voter empowerment campaign with a successful voter registration drive. For one month, YKASEC youth went to the Brooklyn Courthouse four times a week to assist 1,054 new citizens become new voters.
• On July 18, 100 participants from YKASEC's youth group MIST and the NYIC Youth Leadership Council rallied outside the offices of Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) to urge the passage of the DREAM Act. The youth gave petitions to the senators, urging them to take leadership on passing the DREAM Act this year.
• Demand for naturalization applica-tion assistance was high during the last weeks of July, as immigrants rushed to file their citizenship appli-cations before the July 30 fee increase. The cost to become a U.S. citizen (filing the naturalization appli¬cation and fingerprinting) increased from $400 to $675. Eligible individu¬als applying for legal permanent resi¬dent status will now have to pay $1,010, a 156-percent increase from $395. In July, YKASEC and KRC assisted in 122 applications.
• Nominated as one of the "Great Performers of Illinois," II Kwa Nori performed at Millennium Park in downtown Chicago on Aug. 11. The group showed off its mastery of Korean traditional percussion music with three other drumming troupes.
The National Korean American Service & Education Consortium, Inc. (NAKASEC) seeks to empower the Korean American community through education and advocacy. NAKASEC was founded in 1994 by five Korean American community organizations located across the U.S. NAKASEC's program areas include: education, civil rights and immigrant rights advocacy, civic participation, research, leadership, coalition-building and culture. NAKASEC programs focus on serving those with less resources and access, such as women, youth seniors, low-income residents and recent immigrants.