Chinatown: Organizations CPC

GCCA - CCBA - YMCA - CPC

The Chinese-American Planning Council

The Chinese-American Planning Council was founded in 1965 as the first organization to provide social services to residents of Chinatown. Today, the CPC is the largest organization serving Chinese-Americans in the United States. Its scope is mostly local and includes a few political ties with government officials on the city and state levels. The Chinese-American Planning Council’s mission is the “economic self-sufficiency and integration of Chinese-Americans…into the American mainstream.” In this case, integration is defined as the ability to successfully function in American society, while maintaining the integrity of Chinese heritage and culture. In order to teach behavior that will allow them to adapt to life here in the United States, the CPC conducts English classes as well as interview-technique courses. Chinese culture is reinforced through banquets and festivals which involve traditional Chinese dance, while their clients retain traditional cooking, music, and language within their homes.

The events of September 11th, and resulting collapse of many of the area's restaurants and garment factories, sent economic shockwaves through the community of Chinatown. The Chinese-American Planning Council took many initiatives to address the related concerns of residents of the area, helping some seven-thousand individuals. Two-thousand received 9/11 Relief, while twelve-hundred were recipients of 9/11 Case Management (1,200). Other were given access to Family Resource Center services (100), Adult Literacy (300), Employment Assistance (800), the Help Center’s services (2,500), and other workforce programs (100). The CPC also provided mental health assessments to those effected by the attacks, as well as “comprehensive needs assessments.” It also referred clients to other outside organizations that could provide them with additional services. These services included children and family services, entitlements and benefits, workforce development, mental health treatment, among others. At the same time, the CPC’s Help Center, partnered with the Asian American Federation of New York, trained staff serving senior-citizens to identify symptoms of mental illness and distress. (CPC Annual Report 2007)

In 2007, the Chinese-American Planning Council closed its Help Center, effectively ending its 9/11-focused programs after six years of service. However, despite the formal end of its Center, the CPC plans to use the client information database compiled by the Help Center as an agency-wide system for tracking and addressing the needs of Chinatown's residents.

CPC Walkathon

CPC services the youth

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