Executive Summary

Korean Community Center of the East Bay (KCCEB) was established in 1977 after the 1965 Immigration Act abolishing US national-origins quotas, opening doors for Asian immigrants. KCCEB supports individuals and families to improve their lives, addressing the *ecosystem* affecting immigrants/refugees at the individual, community and systemic level. Nearly one in every 10 Bay Area persons has challenges speaking English. Annually, we assist 10,000 of these persons, including seniors, low-wage earners, undocumented persons and survivors of violence to obtain essential food, access to health care, housing referrals, immigration assistance and mental health support. KCCEB supported a significant drop in Asians’ uninsured rate from 33% (2013) to 7% (2022) in the Bay Area, through healthcare education and enrollment assistance. During COVID-19, we created an infrastructure to deliver 136,700 Asian meals to 550 homebound seniors, partnering with 9 local immigrant restaurants generating $1.7 million in revenue for these businesses' survival. KCCEB is building a pipeline of bilingual/bicultural mental health professionals to work in community mental health settings, having trained 17 graduate students to date. Our COVID-19 needs assessment of 10 linguistically diverse communities highlighting language inequities. Our recommendations were incorporated into Alameda County Public Health Department’s COVID-19 Strategic Plan and utilized to expand funding for language translation and interpretation at the state level. KCCEB’s leaders are immigrants/refugees; 80% of our staff are bilingual with lived experiences similar to our communities. With the community's voices and stories, we work together to create a better future.

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