CCCSA 2015 Q1 Newsletter - Calgary Chinese Community Service

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Calgary Chinese Community Service Association
(CCCSA)
2015Newsletter
Newsletter
January 2015 issue
Issue 1
Address: #128, 2 Ave SW, Calgary, AB
Address:#128,
#128,2 2Ave
AveSW,
SW,Calgary,
Calgary,AB
AB Phone:
Phone:(403)
(403)265-8446
265-8446 www.cccsa.ca
www.cccsa.ca
Address:
Phone: (403)
265-8446
Our Annual Report 2013 - 2014
Calgary Chinese Community Service Association
卡城華人社區服務中心
Website: www.cccsa.ca
Dec 2014
Annual Report 2013-2014 by Tina Tian – Staff
Our 2013-2014 Annual report was finalized early November 2014 after being edited by our Executive Director and
our Board members. This year’s annual report updated our mission, vision and beliefs according to our new strategic
plan. Our new mission is to “create a vibrant and integrative community by bridging the Chinese community, other
ethnic communities, and mainstream society.”
On top of the general introduction of our services, we shared success stories from various departments. Also, we
added a new section called “photo stories” to present our events and activities. We proudly announce that we served
2763 clients at front desk, helped 5327 clients overall and our volunteers contributed over 12263 hours in 2014.
Board of Directors 2014-2015 by Sammi Tang - Board of Directors
The newly inaugurated Board of Directors of CCCSA will uphold its mission “To create a vibrant and integrative
community by bridging the Chinese community, other ethnic communities, and mainstream society.” and continue
to enhance the well-being of Calgarians. Members for the 2014/2015 Board include:
Co-Chairs: Mr. Princeton Lau and Dr. Donald Yung
Vice-Chair: Ms. Janet Yee
Secretary: Mr. Jim Wong
Treasurer: Ms. Prudence Mo
Directors of Fundraising: Mr. Richard Lee and Dr. Thomas Cheuk
Director of Communications: Ms. Sammi Tang
Director: Mrs. Fannie Au
Director: Mr. Richard Poon
Director: Mr. Norman Poon
“Connecting the Hearts of our Community”
is one of CCCSA’s beliefs
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Word is out that CCCSA needed money for their new location
by Jim Wong – Board of Directors
Over the last several months, it is a known fact that CCCSA needed money
to be able to move to their new location. We are very thankful to the
community and various organizations for responding so positively and
generously. Here a couple of key generous supporters. Undoubtedly, there
are others that we may have failed to acknowledge at this time and we
apologize, but will ensure that everyone is recognized appropriately when
we moved in to our new location.
Bank of Montreal’s (BMO) representative Ms. Angela Yiu came into CCCSA
office and presented a cheque to us. We were pleasantly surprised and
thank BMO for their generous donation. Angela has always been a great
supporter and advisor to CCCSA and we look forward to her continued
support to CCCSA and the Chinese community.
BMO’s Angela Yiu and our ED, Lily Kwok
TD Bank is very supportive of CCCSA and donated $2,500 to us. We
are grateful for that and thank them for their generous donation.
CCCSA’s Lily Kwok, David Tam and TD Bank
representative
Jan 2015
CCCSA (University of Calgary Chapter)
by Lily Kwok – Executive Director
A group of passionate Chinese students at University of Calgary started the
Calgary Chinese Community Service Association (U of C Chapter) in early 2015
with the purpose of gathering students who are interested in volunteering, to
give back to the community.
Ms. Elizabeth Chen, President of the CCCSA (U of C Chapter) said, ‘By linking to
CCCSA, we are also building capacity of students, we are more aware of various
services and opportunities.’ The first function CCCSA worked with the U of C
Chapter is an immigration seminar held on March 16. The seminar was named
‘The Journey from International Student to Permanent Resident’, talked about
express entry and the Alberta Nomination Program, which are both important
for all international students planning to stay and apply for citizenship.
The second function U of C Chapter organized was a bake sale held on March 19,
which will be a fundraiser for CCCSA. We are very fortunate to have a group of
dedicated students who are eager to work with us, and through their network,
CCCSA is able to have a presence at the University.
CCCSA (U of C Chapter) logo
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Immigration Clinic by Shan Wong - Staff
The immigration clinic is a new service introduced by
CCCSA. Starting in 2015, former board member Mr. S. W.
Lam, a regulated immigration consultant, offers a free
one-on-one consultation session to individuals who seek
advice on immigration.
This high demand clinic has an overwhelming response
with a long wait list, yet urgent cases are prioritized. To
date, more than 30 clients have had their questions
answered by Lam on issues ranging from express entry,
family sponsorship to work permit application.
This meaningful initiative came from Lam himself. “While
researching the immigration scenery in Calgary, I learnt
that the Calgary Legal Guidance has an immigration
advisory service in place. I want to do something similar
for the Chinese community,” said Lam, who can be found
every 2nd and 4th Wednesday afternoon, meeting with
clients at CCCSA.
Feb 2015
Mr. Lam hard at work, solving immigration issues!
Ms. C, after seeing Lam for her family reunion question,
comments positively about the service, “I received
professional advice from the immigration clinic, and we
now have a clearer picture on the Canadian
immigration policy.”
Staff and Board Members gathering in 2015
by Fannie Au – Board of Directors
Jim Wong, our generous board member
Board, staff and volunteers having a good time!
“CCCSA EMPOWERS CURRENT
AND FUTURE GENERATIONS IN
THE CHINESE COMMUNITY BY
ACTING AS A BRIDGE TO
MAINSTREAM INSTITUTIONS
AND ORGANIZATIONS.”
The cake pops were cute and tasty!
The volunteers, staff and the board work as a Team to
fulfill our mission statement. Work Hard and play Hard.
The Board and the staff have regular gatherings to get to
know each other and to “Bond”.
As we all have deep Chinese heritage, we had a gathering
shortly before Chinese New Year to celebrate. We took
turn to introduce ourselves and share the reasons we
served at CCSA. We only had very limited “Air Time” as it
was hard to stay away from the delicious food prepared
by the “Wong’s Kitchen’. Meatballs, Chicken Wings, Salad
Rolls and Mango Pudding. Yummy, Yummy in my Tummy!
One common theme in our short speeches was we were
all passionate in building the “Bridge” and expanding our
services to different clients in the community.
TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN!
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Income tax clinic volunteer training by David Tam – Staff
Lots of keen volunteers learning the in’s and outs of taxes!
CCCSA partnered with the Center for New Comers
to organize the “First-time Tax Filing DIY” seminar
on Feb 7. This seminar introduced: who should file
taxes; how to file your taxes; how to claim
deductions, etc.
It was so popular among the public, that we
decided to hold another similar topic on Tuesday,
March 3rd 6:30-9:00 pm at CCCSA, to meet the
needs of the public, especially Mandarin speakers.
Anyone interested in future seminars can find more
information by calling us at (403) 265-8446.
Big thanks to George Lam, Ram Tseung and friends! by Princeton Lau – Co-chair of CCCSA
‘Lam’ and his adoring fans!
George Lam and several CCCSA board members
Ram Tseung, Lee Lai Ha, and Tommy Wong!
CCCSA board members with Ram Tseung and friends!
Chinese New Year is a time for celebration and festivity, to get everyone in the mood, famous Chinese stars like
George Lam, Ram Tseung, Lee Lai Ha, and Tommy Wong came to Calgary and put on wonderful performances!
On Saturday, February 21st, George Lam perform, he hasn’t been to Calgary in close to 30 years, so this was a
performance that you didn’t want to miss! He sang many of his classic hit songs and performed with many local young
talents. The crowd was very enthusiastic, almost overwhelming him when he mingled with them during his songs!
Then, on the following Thursday, February 26th, Tommy Wong were at the same venue performing to another
enthusiastic crowd! Ram, most recently in the TVB series, Come on Cousin, is usually known for his acting talents,
however, his songs that evening showed that he is multi-talented! Tommy is also known as an actor, but again wowed
the crowd with his humor and singing skills. Of course, the lovely Lee Lai Ha, who has been singing since she was 14
years
old, did2014
not disappoint!
Jul-Aug
CCCSA is so grateful to these stars, Grey Eagle Casino, Canada88 News, WowTV, Richard Poon, Polly Yip with her many
volunteers for helping us to fundraise towards our new location. On behalf of the board and staff, I am humbled by all
your generosity!
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Mar 2015
Little Library by Tina Tian - Staff
Summer Camp 2014 by Bonnie Dam - Staff
Building and decorating our libraries, as well as enthusiastic library users!
Welcome to our Little Library! With the help of volunteers, we made our "little library".
What is a little library anyways? We believe this movement was first started back in 2009, by Todd Bol of Wisconsin,
USA. He built a model of a schoolhouse as a tribute to his mother, a former teacher.
Now our two little libraries are located on 2nd Ave SW, in front of the Chinese Cultural Centre's east entrance. Like any
other little library, you are welcome to take any book you like; you can also drop off the books you want to share with
others. We hope our little library can help people to exchange the books and build a better community.
Community Facilities Enhancement Project Grant by Norman Poon – Board of Directors
Honourable Teresa Woo-Paw, Member of Legislative
Assembly for Calgary-Northern Hills, presented the
cheque to CCCSA.
CCCSA board members and Honourable Teresa Woo-Paw
Calgary Chinese Community Service Association is excited to
receive a very generous grant from Community Facility
Enhancement Program on Sunday, March 15th. The grant
will be used towards the construction of CCCSA’s new office,
which is slated to open in the fall of 2015.
The generous grant is given by Government of Alberta’s
Culture and Tourism Ministry. This program is used to
support local organizations’, such as CCCSA, capital projects.
Lily Kwok, Executive Director of CCCSA, and Princeton Lau,
Co-Chair of CCCSA’s Board of Directors, were very excited by
the news and are very grateful. Princeton said, “Thanks to
this grant, we are able to even better serve the community!”
CCCSA’s new location will cost over $1 million, and we
are currently fundraising additional money to cover
the renovation cost.
With the new building, CCCSA will be able to enhance
the services it is already delivering to Calgarians, such
as After School Program, Youth Leadership Training,
Employment
Connection,
Translation
and
Interpretation, Stepping Stones to ESL, Income Tax
Preparation Program, Volunteer Program, and Legal
Clinic.
Over 90% of CCCSA’s programs and services are
delivered through the hard work and dedication of
over 600 community volunteers.
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Bake Sale
by Fiona Yan – CCCSA U of C Chapter – VP Communications
Our bake sale was held March 19, and we sold cupcakes and cake-pops. The idea
came up in February when we were looking for events to recruit more members. We
had a trifold and it had the mission statement, reasons why more people should join
CCCSA, and basically who we are. Although we did not profit a lot, we did manage to
cover club costs! We hope that next year it will be an even bigger success!
Bake Sale’s poster
Volunteering at Tim Hortons Children’s Foundation Camp
by Jim Wong – Board of Directors
In March, we received a call from the Power group, which is a group of retirees from several utility companies that
they needed help to clean out the Tim Hortons Children’s Foundation Camp (THCF).
The cleanup consists of two bunkhouses that can hold up to 90 people. They had one day to do the clean up because
the youths will be leaving on Saturday (March 21st) and the new people coming in for a fundraising event the day
after. We responded by offering 12 of our best volunteers to help out.
THCF is interesting organization because it is fully funded by Tim Hortons. The Foundation has seven camps across
the country and Kananaskis is the best one of them all. They provides free camp experiences to economically
disadvantaged youths. Their programs are designed to help the youths become more responsible, caring and
motivated individuals. It is a great experience especially for immigrant children. They put through about 20,000
youths a year. More information can be found at www.thcf.com. We believe that the numerous youths (about 90)
in our after school program that can benefit from this experience.
We had a great time at the camp! It was fun and involved a lot of hard rewarding work. At the end of the day we
were totally exhausted but we completed the work, thanks to all the volunteers that helped out. Since we partnered
with the Power group we XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
like to call the day’s work was done by Chinese Power We look forward to opportunities
to work with the Power group and Time Horton Children’s Foundation.
MostChildren’s
creative art ofFoundation
the year by Dr.Camp,
Lu and please contact me at [email protected]
If anyone is interested in Tim Horton
his team
Dreams can come true at camp!
Most creative art of the year by Dr. Lu and
his team
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Spring Camp in 2015 by Keith Ong - Staff
So….this is how Spaceman sleeps!
Team building game: Let’s stand up together!
A total of 17 children, aged 9 to 14, participated in this year’s spring camp, which took place between 23 rd March and
27th March.
The objective of our spring camp is to allow children to learn about various science experiments and to understand
what is happening around them. The children participated in the “Egg Drop Challenge”, where they have to discuss
and design a structure that would be able to catch a falling egg from a height of 10ft without breaking it, a
chromatography experiment, where the children experience the wonderful separation of dyes, making play dough
with flour, making food in a mug, and coke and mentos experiment, etcetera.
The campers were also presented with a tobacco prevention seminar, detailing the harmful effects of tobacco and how
it can affect the human body. Among the hands-on activities, the children took part in various ice breaking, team
bonding activities and got closer to each other through the week.
In addition, 2 field trips were conducted on Wednesday and Thursday. First, the kids visited the Telus Spark Science
Centre, where they had a really good time viewing the science exhibits and were treated to a “Night Sky” talk in the
Dome theatre. Then on Thursday, they visited the Spaceport at the Calgary International Airport where they learned
about constellations, aerodynamics and how life is like in outer space. The children were given a task to make their
own rocket and a case study on building a machine that is able to travel in cold snowy conditions.
At the end of the day, everyone was rewarded with an ice cream. It was indeed encouraging for me as a coordinator
to see children who were quiet and alone at the beginning, foster bonds with each other and work as a team at the
end of the 5 days. I am sure everyone is looking forward to the spring camp in 2016!
CCCSA’s new office update by Jim Wong – Board of Directors
On the subject of CCCSA’s New Location. Work is continuing at our
new location on 14th Street N.E. and Centre Street. We are now
applying for an occupancy permit and hope to have it approved by
June. Meanwhile, a lot of preparation work is in progress to plan, get
renovation quotes, etc. This is a big project for CCCSA and will be
challenging! We will require a lot of volunteers to help with the actual
move expected in August. If you are able and willing to help, please
let us know, it will be greatly appreciated.
– End –
CCCSA’s new office construction site