Past Community Projects

The New Majority: Uniting Boston's Communities of Color

The New Majority initiative has brought together leaders from the communities of color in Boston to identify a common agenda and develop strategies to implement that agenda. Visit The New Majority page for more details.

Technical Assistance Project

The Institute began a technical assistance project to support community based organizations. Our pilot work in this area is with the Cambodian Community of Massachusetts in Lynn, which is a multi-service agency, serving Cambodian Americans on the North Shore. With CCM, the Institute undertook three responsibilities: developing a core set of proposals; organizational planning; and identifying possible long term resources to support their work.

Technology Initiative

The Institute piloted an initiative to evaluate possible uses of technology to improve community communications and information distribution. There were two interrelated projects, a multilingual web site that functions as a community bulletin board and a telephony meeting assistant.

Berkeley Street Community Garden Project

The Institute is collaborating with the Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC) in its efforts to improve and preserve the Berkeley Street Community Garden on Tremont Street in Boston's South End. The Institute is assisting ACDC in producing a booklet which will serve as a tool to publicize and educate the public about the efforts to maintain the garden as a community resource.

NSRC Fund Southeast Asian Student Scholarship Program

Each year, the Nisei Student Relocation Commemorative Fund selects a region in the country from which talented, low-income Southeast Asian American high school seniors are selected to receive scholarships. In 2000, Massachusetts was chosen as the designated region and the IAAS was recruited to coordinate the effort. With the help of a local awards committee, the IAAS conducted broad outreach, selected 30 oustanding youth (out of 150 applicants) to receive scholarships, and hosted an awards ceremony at UMass Boston.

Asian American Executive Directors Support Network

Executive directors of Asian American community-based organizations are facing great challenges including cutbacks in government funding and increased anti-immigrant and anti-refugee sentiments. The Institute's support network offers these individuals the opportunity to discuss areas of critical need, to develop strategies to address them, and to share information and resources. When participants indicated a need to develop closer linkages with potential funders, the Institute arranged meetings with Grants Management Associates, the Riley Foundation, United Way of Massachusetts Bay, and Associated Grantmakers of Massachusetts.

Vietnamese American Community Forum

Working closely with a committee or about twenty Vietnamese American community leaders, the IAAS organized a community forum on health, human services, political participation and community development. Over 200 members of the Vietnamese American community assembled at UMass Boston to discuss needs and concerns affecting their community.

Center for Community Economic Development

Through the Center for Community Economic Development (CCED), IAAS worked with a number of Boston Chinatown community organizations by compiling neighborhood data and conducting geographic information classes to members of CCED's Chinatown organizational partners.

Conference on Asian Americans in Public Higher Education in Massachusettts

The IAAS organized the first conference addressesing the status of Asian Americans in Public Higher Education in Massachusetts. Nearly 200 administrators, faculty, staff, and students from the state's 29 public universities, state colleges, and community colleges convened at UMass Boston. The goals of the conference were to assess the status of Asian Americans in public higher education in Massachusetts; identify concerns and issues; and facilitate the establishment of a network of Asian Americans with related issues.

Coalition Of Asian Pacific American Youth (CAPAY)

CAPAY has become a national model for fostering youth service and leadership activities among Asian American high school youth. It has developed the leadership abilities of hundreds of youth locally. The Institute sponsored CAPAY during its first five years until it was institutionalized under the Asian American Studies Program.