About Us
The Chinese-American Planning
Council, then known as the Chinatown Planning
Council, was founded in 1965 as a grassroots
community-based organization in response
to the tremendous influx of Chinese immigrants
after the change in immigration laws, and
in the midst of the Great Society movement.
Initially, CPC volunteers counseled families
referred by local schools, and provided
case management services to help immigrants
adjust to their new homes. Filling a void
in the community as the first social service
agency to serve Chinese-Americans in New
York, CPC began to expand its services based
on the needs expressed by those in the community.
In 1966, CPC launched its Head Start and
youth programs for pre-school and school-age
children. In 1970 it opened its first child
care center; in 1971, it began its seminal
youth program, Project Reach; and in 1972,
it opened the ever-popular Project Open
Door Senior Citizen Center. It helped construct
two uniquely conceived senior citizen residential
buildings, Everlasting Pine and Hong Ning.
In 1975, it launched its employment &
training services with the English Language
Center, which provided new immigrants with
badly needed job-readiness skills training
and workplace English instruction. The Chinese-American
Arts Council, a CPC subsidiary, was founded
in 1975.
By 1983, CPC was providing home care services
to senior citizens through its Home Attendant
Program, which continues to burgeon as the
population ages. The need of low English
proficient, homebound seniors for language
appropriate, culturally sensitive care prompted
the launch of CPC's Mature Workers program
to train home attendants, which also answered
the need of middle aged workers to find
low skill employment that didn't require
English fluency.
Since the late 1970s, as gentrification
of Chinatown pushed up rental costs, immigrants
began to move to Brooklyn and Queens, and
CPC followed suit, setting up Queens and
Brooklyn offices and changing its name and
vision from the Chinatown Planning Council
to the Chinese-American Planning Council.
The community continued to evolve in the
1990s, with the majority of undocumented
immigrants flowing in from China's Fujian
Province and facing challenges that are
unique, yet similar to the trajectory of
waves of earlier Chinese immigrants.
The tragedy of September 11th threw one-quarter
of Chinatown's workforce out of work. CPC
responded immediately by launching 9/11
relief services to help dislocated workers
get access to emergency assistance, serving
more clients than any other such program
in the community (3,180) due to CPC's reputation
and ability to refer clients in-house to
its other services. As the economic
slump continued in the year after 9/11,
CPC transitioned its 9/11 program to meeting
long-term employment and training needs
as well as ongoing case management needs,
training over 800 clients and placing over
50%, a remarkable feat given the economic
climate.
CPC has recently achieved accreditation
of its childcare centers and received three
licenses to open vocational and business
schools. A new program enables clients who
do not qualify for government assistance
to pay for their own employment workshops
and placement assistance. The Workforce
Development Division is enhancing its focus
on health care training programs in keeping
with client and market needs in the changing
economy, and has introduced a new Food Protection
program. In January 2005, CPC opened the
Help Center to a one-stop multi-social services
center to connect clients to services with
a focus on mental health, while the Brooklyn
Branch is conducting mental health outreach
among community seniors.
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