Sign Up for JACL’s Project: Community!
The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) and the Rising Stars program sponsored by the Nikkei Federation announce the launch of the first annual Project: Community! program.
The purpose of Project: Community! is to develop and empower the youth’s voice in Little Tokyo. Through a series of interactive sessions participants will gain an understanding of identity as well as the importance of preservation of the Japanese American community.
Each session will gather facilitators and speakers from various parts of the community to conduct interactive workshops focused on specific topics ranging from identity, to the power of place, to grassroots organizing on a youth level.
The program will gather 15 high school students every Tuesday evening starting June 24, 2008 through August 12, 2008. Parents will also be encouraged to attend a parents’ session that will enable them to explain the various topics of the program with their kids.
APPLY NOW! Applications are available online at www.jaclpsw.org and will be accepted through April 11, 2008.
JACL Hosts the Spring Collegiate Leadership Training
Project: Campus Leadership! is a collegiate leadership development program targeted for AAPI organizations across Southern California college campuses. The program is split into two separate trainings focused to educate students in collegiate organizations leadership development and management skills.
This second half of this two part program will focus on the management aspects of collegiate organizations and will include organizational lifecycles, goal setting, event planning, event management, as well as a special workshop on political advocacy. Some active members within the community have also been invited to help facilitate workshops in the training.
The training will take place on Saturday, April 12th, 2008 at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center (JACCC). There are roughly 30 participants registered to attend from Cal State Long Beach, UC Riverside, UCLA, UC San Diego, and USC.
For more information regarding Project: Campus Leadership! please email programs@jaclpsw.org
PSW Heroes from Redress: 20 Years of a Living Legacy
We are celebrating an event from twenty years ago, when the Civil Liberties Act was signed into law. Help us recognize our local heroes who had this dream long before it became a reality. For many years, they put themselves in new and sometimes uncomfortable situations to convince the United States government to formally apologize and pay restitution to the World War II Japanese American internees.
Instead of being the quiet Americans, they became the advocates for generations of Americans who rarely spoke of the injustices done to them. They were leaders in the JACL’s efforts as one of the organizations that played a key role in righting this violation of civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution.
Let's celebrate our past successes as we look toward the future.
The Pacific Southwest District will hold its Annual Awards Dinner on Saturday, September 13, 2008 at The Grand: Long Beach Event Center.
Tickets are $100 for individuals and $1000 per table of 10. Sponsorship packages and Advertisement Space is available. For questions please email psw@jacl.org.
Win Big $$’s with the JACL District Drawing!
The first drawing for our Annual Drawing Program is just a few weeks away! Five lucky winners will be selected at our May PSW Board Meeting to win $100 each. With only a small $40 donation, not only will you be a part of developing new Flagship Youth Programs that are outreaching to high school and college students, but you will also be helping your chapter. Youth Programs are the future of our district and this organization, but it won’t be possible without proper financial support.
For a drawing application form, please visit our website at:
www.jaclpsw.org/forms/2008annualgivingticketform.doc
With your help we can reach our goal of 500 donations. Every time you buy a ticket consider the following:
1) $5 from each donation is going back to the supporting chapter.
2) In May, June, July, August and September we will draw five $100 dollar winners (5 x 5 = 25 winners)
*all names stay in the drawing, so the earlier you buy, the better
3) On September 13, 2008 we will announce our Grand Prize Winner!
*if we meet our goal of 500 donations, the grand prize will be $5000
4) You are supporting youth programs and insuring the future of the organization!
Let’s Help our PSW Chapters
The Chapter Focus Committee held its most recent meeting via conference call on March 26. The focus topic for this meeting was “How to recruit younger Chapter board members.” The committee also discussed the possibility of assisting one or two PSW Chapters that may welcome strategies to help rejuvenate their Chapter. Finally, the committee looked at a workshop/program concept for the committee to hold later this year.
The Chapter Focus Committee meets monthly to help develop any interested PSW Chapters. Each meeting will concentrate on one topic and new topics are always open for discussion. Everyone is welcome to participate on this committee. For information about the Chapter Focus Committee, contact Ted Namba at Caseyfolks@aol.com , (623) 572-9913 (home) or (602) 571-0247 (cellular).
Get Out the Vote!
PSW is excited to announce the formation of a brand new committee, The Get Out the Vote Committee. The committee was formed with the hope to educate and politicize the JA community on issues in politics that effect the API community. What a timely time with the upcoming 2008 Presidential Elections!
The vision of the get out the committee is to utilize JACL to create awareness amongst the community on political and social issues that concern all minority groups.
More specifically, this will accomplished through:
- Education/Awareness: to the community, and PSW membership
- Assistance/Networking: to other GOTV organizations/coalitions on the district and chapter level.
- Call to Action: through the community on priority issues
The first meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 29, 2008 at 7pm here at the PSW Office. Please email Kelly Mayeda if you have questions or would like more information at Kelly.mayeda@gmail.com
Please Write a Letter on Behalf of the Japanese Latin American Redress Campaign
We are asking chapter board members to please assist in the campaign for Japanese Latin American Redress by writing a short letter to your local congressman. Here’s our current status:
- Congressmen know about the bill but are unwilling to sign because they believe it might be a special interest bill
- Other Congressmen are claiming that they are hearing nothing from the constituency.
Therefore, just a short personal letter from you to you House Representative could make the difference! Please make sure to include the bill number HR 662. Here is the house website: