******************
Events
Training on Small
Business Loan Fund Best Practices
Economic Development Finance
Service
The Economic
Development Finance Service (EDFS) will be holding two training events for loan
fund professionals engaged in economic development lending, covering topics that
are especially important during these times of increased delinquencies and
federal oversight and unpredictable loan fund capitalization sources. Essential
Skills Training, September 11-13 in Minneapolis, includes two three-day classes
on how to manage a loan fund and how to make sound loan decisions. The EDFS
Annual Loan Fund "How To" Training Conference will be held in New Orleans
October 27-28 and will include sessions on such topics as handling problem
loans, federal program compliance, how to be a high performance loan fund,
generating income by managing another organization's fund, and analyzing
business plans. For more information please visit the website listed above.
******************
San José: Community Meeting to Form Justice Advocacy Coalition in Shooting of
Bich Cau Tran – August 21, 2003
As you know, Bich
Cau Thi Tran was tragically killed by the San Jose Police on
Sunday July 13, 2003 as they were investigating a toddler
wandering by himself outside of a duplex on
Taylor Street in
San Jose.
The family of
Bich Cau Thi Tran has asked me to convene a meeting with the purpose of forming
a broad coalition that will advocate for justice in the tragic shooting of Ms.
Tran.
Please attend
this important meeting on August 21, 2003 from
5:00 pm – 8:00 pm at
San Jose City
College 2100 Moorpark Ave., COMMUNITY ROOM, ADMISSIONS AND
RECORDS BUILDING,
San Jose, CA
95128. You can access the ADMISSIONS AND RECORDS BUILDING
at San Jose City College from Laswell Street which is located just east of
Bascom Ave.
From Moorpark Avenue, you need to turn right on Laswell which is difficult to
see because of the construction at the corner of Bascom and
Moorpark Ave.
From Laswell Street continue to the San Jose City College parking lot and park
in the Faculty section of the parking lot. The ADMISSIONS AND
RECORDS BUILDING
IS LOCATED ADJACENT TO THIS PARKING LOT.
If you have any
questions, please contact me at 408-287-9710 or
sccala@pacbell.net.
Sincerely,
Richard Konda,
Executive Director,
Asia Law
Alliance
******************
Funding
Opportunities
Company Giving to Humana
Communities
Humana Foundation
The Humana
Foundation provides support to nonprofit organizations in the communities in
which Humana has a presence. The Foundation's areas of interest include:
education, community development, arts and culture, health and human services,
and international projects. Applications are accepted from January 1 to
September 30, annually. For a list of communities and for application
guidelines, visit the above website.
******************
Human Rights Foundation's Priority
Mertz Gilmore Foundation
The Mertz
Gilmore Foundation's current funding areas open to application are:
international human rights; immigrant rights in the U.S.; lesbian and gay rights
in the U.S., Israel and Palestine; and dance in New York City. Additional focus
areas for the Foundation are energy conservation and New York City's human and
built environment; however, applications are not accepted in these areas. The
Foundation makes general operating, project, challenge, and capacity-building
grants, often over a multi-year period. Letters of inquiry are accepted at any
time. For program and application information, go to the website listed above.
******************
Giving Focus on Technology
Skill Building
Microsoft Unlimited Potential Program
Microsoft
Unlimited Potential (UP) is a global initiative that focuses on improving
lifelong learning for disadvantaged young people and adults by providing
technology skills through community technology and learning centers (CTLCs).
Microsoft seeks to remove the limits to individual potential around the world by
eliminating technology illiteracy. Eligible organizations include: nonprofit
501(c)(3) organizations in the U.S., and non-governmental organizations that
hold charitable status in their country; school-based organizations (nonprofit
or governmental organizations that provide services to the community during
non-school hours); and government funded and operated organizations. Go to the
website listed above for more information.
******************
Grants to Help Disadvantaged Kids
Rosie's For All Kids
Foundation
Rosie's For
All Kids Foundation awards grants to help support the intellectual, social, and
cultural development of disadvantaged children throughout the United States. The
Foundation's primary mission is to support center-based, licensed childcare and
preschool programs for children growing up in low-income urban neighborhoods. In
fiscal year 2002, nearly 80 percent of the total grant awards were made to
infant, toddler and preschool programs; 7 percent went toward education,
after-school, and literacy programs; and the balance was disbursed to
organizations providing emergency assistance, crisis intervention, cultural
development programs, and services for children with special needs. The
Foundation encourages organizations to focus on a specific program when
requesting assistance, and prefers geographic diversity in its grantmaking.
Letters of intent are accepted on a year-round, rolling basis. Visit the
Foundation's website for more information.
******************
Funds to Help Alleviate Hunger
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America: Domestic Hunger Program
The
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Domestic Hunger Program provides
assistance in the four categories of relief, development, education, and
organizing. This program emphasizes self-determination among recipients; global
resource sustainability; environmental stewardship; and community empowerment
through leadership training, apprenticeships, and local self-reliance. Projects
must provide long-term change and development. All political activities must be
nonpartisan. The Program prefers projects with a connection, formal or informal,
to Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, its synods, congregations, affiliated
organizations, or ministries. The application deadline is October 1, 2003. Visit
the website listed above for details.
******************
News
Informational Statistics on Vietnamese and Korean American Families
http://www.csus.edu/indiv/b/bayleyb/FACS150/VietnameseandKoreanAmericanFamilies.pdf
******************
August 19, 2003
Woman Sought in String
of Losses to Pickpocket
Police say busy markets, department stores and shopping centers are her hunting
grounds.
By Mai Tran
Orange County (Los
Angeles Times) - She's considered a classic, a throwback to a time when
pickpockets were a common crime menace.
"She's good," said Westminster Police Lt. Bill Lewis. "Wherever she learned her
trade, she learned it well."
The pickpocket,
captured on surveillance video and arrested at least twice, is blamed for dozens
of thefts, bumping into female shoppers at such places as the shopping malls in
Little Saigon, deftly lifting wallets from open purses.
The woman, police said, has helped hike the statistics for a crime that attracts
attention only around the shopping days after Thanksgiving or before Christmas.
Identified by police as Xuan Thi Tran, 50, she is suspected of preying on women
at busy markets, department stores and shopping centers in Costa Mesa, Fountain
Valley and Westminster.
Police said the string of thefts is unusual because professional pickpockets are
rare in
Orange
County, long ago overtaken in crime statistics by burglars and robbers.
The Los Angeles Police Department's pickpocket unit, formed three years ago, was
disbanded in April.
"It's not as troubling in the West Coast. It's more of an East Coast thing,"
Lewis said. "We don't have the pedestrian society out here like
New York
or Chicago."
Local victims have been targeted at Target and WalMart, and, more recently, at
ABC and Vinh Phat, Vietnamese supermarkets in Westminster.
She strikes at no particular time and has victimized shoppers on all days of the
week.
Police said victims often don't know their wallets have been taken until they
step to the cash register. She has taken more than $10,000 from dozens of
women's wallets, police said.
"She's targeting females so that personal space isn't an issue when she bumps
into them," Lewis said. "It's not as uncomfortable as if it was a man bumping
into a woman."
Tran has been caught on tape, bumping into women, politely saying "Excuse me"
and then casually leaving the store.
Police theorize that some victims never report the crime, assuming they've
simply misplaced their wallet.
Tran has lived in
Orange
County, but has changed addresses often. Police said they've been searching for
her for four months.
Tran was booked by
Costa Mesa
police in November when they said she tried to cash a check stolen from a wallet
at South Coast Plaza.
She also is being investigated by Fountain Valley police on suspicion of writing
a bad check in July. She has two $50,000 arrest warrants from Westminster and
Costa Mesa after she failed to appear in court on theft charges.
******************
Tips
Getting
Started on Better Grant-Seeking Strategy
This
worksheet from the latest Adopting Technology series will help you consider ways
to write better grant proposals.
http://www.techsoup.org/worksheetpage.cfm?worksheetid=123
******************
Successful Funding of Your Technology Needs
In the overview
to this month's Adopting Technology series, learn strategies for increasing your
funding success.
http://techsoup.org/articlepage.cfm?ArticleId=499
******************
Jobs
BOARD VACANCIES:
San Jose wants to fill openings on nine advisory
commissions or boards.
For details, call the city clerk's office at
(408) 277-4424. Applications will be accepted until
5 p.m. Aug. 29.
Information also is available at
www.ci.san-jose.ca.us/cty_clk/vacancy.htm.
******************
Advocacy Director,
Asia Division, Human Rights Watch
F/T
Position Available:
Advocacy Director, Asia Division
(Washington, D.C.)
Founded in 1978, Human Rights Watch monitors and promotes human rights in some
70 countries worldwide. It is known for its in-depth investigations, its
incisive and timely reporting, its innovative and high-profile advocacy
campaigns, and its success in changing the human rights policies of abusive
governments and forces as well as influential governments and international
institutions. The Asia Division covers Afghanistan to the Pacific.
Description: The Advocacy
Director will be based in Washington, D.C., and will work with Asia Division and
thematic (women’s rights, children’s rights, international justice, refugees,
etc.) staff to design and implement strategies to promote and protect human
rights in Asia. Principal advocacy targets include abusive governments,
institutions, or actors, and influential governments and international actors
such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the
European Union, and others. The Advocacy Director will meet regularly with
policymakers, present the research and recommendations of the Asia Division in
public fora, monitor legislative and policy developments, write opinion pieces
for publication, speak on behalf of the division to the press and general
public, and work with human rights organizations in Asia and elsewhere.
Compensation:
HRW seeks exceptional candidates and offers competitive compensation, along with
excellent benefits. Human Rights Watch will pay reasonable relocation expenses
and will assist employees in obtaining necessary U.S. work authorization; non-US
citizens are encouraged to apply.
******************
About NCVA
Founded in 1986, the National Congress of Vietnamese Americans is a
501(c)(3) nonprofit,
community advocacy organization working to advance the cause of
Vietnamese Americans in a plural but united America – e pluribus unum
– by participating actively and fully as civic minded citizens engaged in the
areas of education, culture and civil liberties.
Visit us at
www.ncvaonline.org.
