Transcripts For KNTV Asian Pacific America With Robert Handa 20170507

Including immigrants, with so many serious legal issues, such as Domestic Violence and immigration policies. While many heroes get welldeserved recognition during Asian Pacific heritage month, with me right now is angelica cortez, founder of the l. E. A. D. Filipino program, who has mobilized the community in many important ways, not only to get more people involved in public affairs, but is also dedicated to empowering filipinas. And also with us is Deputy District Attorney johnny gogo, who not only tries to help families keep their youngsters from ending up in the wrong end of the legal system, but tries to assist the younger api generation to become prosecutors and judges as president of the Northern California region of the national Asian Pacific islander prosecutors association. I want to see that Business Card later, okay . Welcome to the show, both of you. To give an idea, first of all in terms of the prioritieswell, first of all, i want to find out how you feel about getting, you know, sort of this recognition. I know nobody, you know, you guys dont do this for the recognition, so that makes it all the more admirable. What was your thoughts about getting this kind of recognition from the community . Johnny gogo well, i was very honored when i received the information, and thrilled to hear about the award. Obviously, celebrating apas during the month of may is outstanding. And ive seen, and youve obviously had on this show, a number of apa, api leaders. And so, to be on your show for the month of may for the heritage month is really an honor for me. Robert yeah, angelica, making your tv debut, thank you. Angelica cortez thank you. Robert and of course, does the recognition, you know, at least also help too . cause it puts a little spotlight on some of the activities youre doing. Angelica yeah, i mean, to start, from my reaction, i was shocked completely. Thank you to aaci and the staff, and of course to nbc for honoring and recognizing local api leaders in our community. For me, totally flattered, such an honor. I recall a couple of years back, and even recently watching other movers and shakers in our local api community being featured on your show, so never in a million years did i think i would be up here with you. Robert well, thank you very much for being here to do that. Give me an idea in terms of the Filipino Program and in terms of empowering filipinas. How is that going . Where are you right now with that . Angelica yeah, so we, just this past march, we hosted our inaugural fly pinays leadership summit. And pinay is a term im sure youre familiar, used interchangeably to describe a filipina. So, we hosted over 100 collegelevel filipinas from every college you can think of in this region, including community colleges, and we paired them with filipina professionals, all around the dialogue of our cultural embrace, shared experiences, related insights, and professional careers, and leadership across our communities. And i also want to note that l. E. A. D. Filipino is alsowe run programs for filipinos and filipinas, although this march, we did have our first fly pinays initiative that we hope to continue. Robert and we do like to because the pinays kind of progress has been so significant recently. Its great to kind of see programs kind of geared to them too. Johnny, give me an idea. She was talking a little bit about that sort of, you know, being able to pair people up with professionals and stuff, and how important that is, not just try and encourage people to go into some certain professions, but also to see others already doing it. Whats the progress in terms of getting more, you know, asianamerican and Pacific Islander youngsters into that side of the law . Johnny so, much like the work that angelica does, our organization, the national Asian Pacific islander prosecutors association, was founded in 2010 for that purpose of making sure that we reached out to the next generation, if you will, of api leaders, and specifically trying to get them interested in becoming lawyers to represent our community. But also, ultimately, its the lawyers who become judges. And in order to have the api judges, you need to have a good pipeline of api lawyers that are either prosecuting in the community, or working with our public defenders office, or in the civil arena. And so, our organization reaches out to high school students, college students, obviously law school students, and tryand we try to encourage them more specifically to look at careers as prosecutors, but careers in the law as well. And i think weve been successful over the last 4 years. Weve had scholarship banquets, two of them. Our first two were up here in the bay area. We had our third scholarship banquet down in the los angeles area. And this year, were planning to have our fourth scholarship banquet down in the san diego area. And so, even though were a relatively young organization, and the people in the organization is relatively young, you can see that were starting to spread our influence, at least throughout the state of california, and then hopefully well be able to move out to our chapters in chicago, and new york. And watch out, seattle, were coming seattles way too. Robert its great to see the organization spreading out so much. Congratulations on all of your achievements, as well as for your individual recognition, thanks for being here. Angelica yeah, thank you. Robert all right, well, when we come back, more Asian Pacific heritage month honorees in the fields of Health Services and Human Trafficking, so stay with us. Robert and we are proud to have two more honorees of Asian Pacific heritage month. Here with me now is edwin tan of aaci, who is here to sing the praises of honoree sherry hirota, ceo for asian Health Services in oakland, known as a fierce advocate for the health needs of the community, who also runs a Nonprofit Health clinic, but with that schedule could not be with us today. And one who could join us is brian wo, the cofounder of the bay area antitrafficking coalition. And he does his work at all levels, including training countless airline and airport workers, restaurant and Hotel Employees to look for signs of Human Trafficking. And he also produced the Largest Community summit at levi stadium. Welcome to the show. Edwin, thanks for being here to talk about sherry. Tell us a little bit about her work and why she should be recognized. Edwin tan i think you guys got it right when you guys called her a fierce advocate. Even though shes a ceo of a Major Community Health Center with multiple clinics, at her heart shes an advocate for the community. Her clinic serves well over 27,000 majority monolingual immigrant asian community, who cant even understand sometimes what the doctors are saying or even understand our healthcare system. So, they bridge that gap by providing those services. And the majority of these are lowincome, so they may not have necessarily normal access to healthcare. And so, now they can. But at her roots, shes there to stand up for the community, stand up for asian issues for the immigrant community. Recently, she launched a task force with the California Primary Care Association on immigration. Thats our association for all the Community Health centers within our state. And understand that National Rhetoric around immigrants and refugees these days, she knew that it was something that the Health Centers had to tackle. And so, from that to understanding the Health Situations of our nail salon workers or cosmetology workers, which the majority are oftentimes immigrant asians that may not have the language or the wherewithal to understand sometimes what the type of toxic environments they might be in, she stands up for them. Robert yes, and were really happy to give her that kind of recognition. Brian, you know, i know you dont do it for the recognition, but still nice to get it, isnt it . Brian wo its really quite an honor, understanding the manythe numerous api leaders around the bay area who are doing incredible things, so its great to be honored among them. And its great to take the opportunity to talk about what we do to bring awareness to the issue of Human Trafficking. Robert i know we were chatting before, in strangely similar circumstances, about how broad Human Trafficking is. Ive done a lot of stories on it, and im always surprised that it covers so many different aspects, huh . Brian Human Trafficking is a broad issue, and it happens in many phases throughout every neighborhood in the bay area, from all forms of labor trafficking to sex trafficking. And a big part of what we want to do is not only bring awareness to it, but to rally all the people who are fighting against it to collaborate better, and to Work Together so that we can really maximize our impact, and also grow the awareness of people who might see it, especially on a daily basis. Robert how about in terms of for the asianamerican and Pacific Islander communities, a particularly unique problem for them . Brian yeah, we have so many of these enclaves around the bay area that not only are immigrants vulnerable, but the people who live here have many atrisk factors that we want to make sure not only are they educated about the issue, but also that were doing things to prevent theprevent it from happening so theyre less at risk. Robert where is the Program Going . Where do you want to see it go in the future . Brian i think there is still a lot to be done as far as awareness and training on that end, and i think were just hoping to see more of people coming together to share resources, and make sure were not duplicating efforts so that we can regionally have a response thats really collective and unified. Robert how about for people who want to help, how do they help . Brian i think everybody can be involved in awareness. And i think we look at responding to Human Trafficking through the eyes of prevention, intervention, and aftercare. And we really believe theres a place at the table for every individual that come to do something. And so, from volunteering, to donating, to actually stepping in and working with the organizations that are doing the groundwork, there are a lot of opportunities. Robert all right, well, congratulations on all the achievements of your organizations. And congratulations, tell sherry we said congratulations. Edwin thank you. Robert well, coming up, the ywca Silicon Valley and its partnership with aaci, Asian Americans for community involvement. Thats next. Work in the community already, but now its partnering with aaci, Asian Americans for community involvement, and that is quite a combination. Here to talk about this partnership is the ceo of ywca Silicon Valley, tanis crosby, who has been credited with transforming the ywca into an innovative, highimpact community force. And joining us is melissa luke, a Senior Program manager at aaci. Welcome to the show. Give us an idea in terms of from each side of the organization, what this partnership means, first of all from the ywca side. Tanis crosby absolutely, ywca Silicon Valley, our mission is to eliminate racism and empower women. We often work at the intersection of race, gender, and violence. Its really important that we ensure that our services are culturally responsive. You had guests on your show that spoke about the urgent issues of topics like Human Trafficking. We provide Crisis Response to Human Trafficking survivors, survivors of sexual assault, and survivors of Domestic Violence. Its really important that our services are culturally responsive, particularly for the api community. And thats why were so proud of the way in which we partner really effectively and in multiple ways with organizations, and in particular, aaci. Robert well, having profiled and spotlighted aaci so many times, it sounds pretty similar in terms of goals already. How about for aaci in terms of partnering with the ywca . Melissa luke definitely, you know, i think for us, we realize that these issues for aaci of Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking are issues that are so hidden and often so misunderstood. We really need to do everything we can to develop a support network for survivors and for the community to be able to raise that awareness. And, you know, this is not work that we can do alone, and were so happy to do it in collaboration with the ywca. Robert i know as one of the things that we spotlighted early on with aaci when they were on our show, in terms of Domestic Violence, because culturally speaking, it is a difficult issue to tackle. So, the partnership with ywca you say, you feel, will make it a lot easier. Melissa definitely, you know, i think that there is, unfortunately, so much stigma and so much shame around these issues in any community, and particularly for the asian community. I think when you tie that into, you know, fears around immigration, especially in the current climate, for people who are limited english speaking, recently arrived and immigrants who dont know the systems in this country, and i think, you know, just folks face so many additional barriers, not wanting to air their dirty laundry. And so, you know, these are all really strong reasons for people to not be able to seek support, and we really need to do everything we can as a community to erase those barriers so that everyone can get the help they need. Robert in fact, ywca really has sort of evolved into this kind of an organization. And the things that it tackles now, it gives a lot of credibility in the community, i think, to have ywca attached to it, isnt it . Tanis i think so, and its this kind of responsiveness where we can Work Together and innovate, and provide new services that emerge because of community need. For example, when there was a recent study that identified that there was a relatively low reporting of Domestic Violence in the api community, aaci took the lead. Aaci was responsive, and we worked together to form Family Justice Centers in our community with the das office as a key lead. So, we were delighted to work with aaci, and aaci is delivering Incredible Services at the san jose family justice center. And the ywca hosts the north county family justice center, and our Partners Community Solutions Deliver the service in south county, so its those kinds of services that innovate, in partnership with the da, with aaci, the ywca Community Solutions to respond to survivors needs in culturally diverse communities. Robert yeah, i think the key word is partnership, right . I mean, were starting to see more and more agencies kind of joining forces. Given the Political Climate right now and the way, you know, in junction, we were talking about earlier in terms of trying to stop and how it threatens funding, et cetera, how are youhow are the groups, you know, kind of poised to take on what might be an onslaught on your services . Tanis what a good question. Number one, weve expanded to ensure that we, number one, have culturally responsive staff. Number two, that were expanding our services. In the recent past, weve become biaaccredited, which means that we can deliver Legal Services for survivors of violence who need secure immigration status, so you can turn to the ywca and maitri to provide those kinds of services. And we work really closely with aaci around referrals. And so, im really proud that were creating a partnership, a Safety Network to be responsive, because the demand is increasing, and the services are complex, and the fear is growing. So we need to be ready to provide that service. And we also need to speak on behalf and with our survivors to push back on policies that actually exacerbate fear. That is unacceptable. And so, as an organization and as a community, we advocate for the right policies that will create the conditions for safety and justice. Robert do these partnerships help protect agencies from maybe funding that they might get from the federal government, or does it sort of also put maybe more groups in the crosshairs of a government or something that wants to take funding away . Melissa you know, i personally think it helps to do all of the joint advocacy that we can and to have that strong voice, especially around these issues that i think are so often kept in the dark and so misunderstood. And i think that the fight is worth it, and that everything we can do in coalition to ensure that survivors and all immigrant members of our community can feel safe is absolutely worth it. Robert what would you like to see then happen next with this partnership . Whats the first kind of tangible thing that well see happen from this . Tanis well, im excited with our new program called Silicon Valley safe chat, safechatsv. Com. This is an incredible text chat Online Service so that survivors dont need to pick up the callpick up the phone and call to speak to a confidential advocate. They can text, they can chat online. And this was an example of strong partnership, again, coming forward with service innovation. And im really looking forward to what happens next now that weve piloted the program. Robert very nice. Okay, thank you very much. Congratulations on everything that youre doing. Obviously you know im a big fan, so. Well, after this break, we bring on the Asian Law Alliance, and have they got a lot on their plate. You probably know someone who could use their help, so come on back. Are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool . Try zyrtec® its starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®. The Asian Law Alliance helps out the community in many ways, from highprofile public issues to the individual overwhelmed by the system. With me right now is beatrice ann pangilinan, a staff attorney for the Asian Law Alliance, who manages their Immigration Program and Legal Services in the areas of naturalization. Welcome. Maybe a lot of people have heard of Asian Law Alliance, give us a little brief history, though, and tell us where youre at right now. Beatrice pangilinan so, Asian Law Alliance is a nonprofit Legal Services organization. Weve been serving not just the asian community, but the larger immigrant community and lowincome communities here in the south bay since 1977. So, were actually celebrating our 40th year this year. And we focus on different areas of law, which include housing, public benefits, immigration, and Domestic Violence. Robert ive followed Richard Konda and the staff there in terms of handling so many big issues, not caring whether theyre popular or not in terms of what the issue is, but immigration particularly right now in the forefront of what you do, right, and kind of needs to be. Where are we right now in terms of we see all the legal fighting going on, and how many different aspects of the community it affects, where are we right now in terms of immigration and for immigrants . Beatrice well, it seems to change every week. So, you know, youve all heard about the travel ban and, you know, the effect on sanctuary cities. And really, theres just been a general fear in the communities that we serve. A lot of our clients have been calling, like wondering whats going to happen to their status. So, when the administration changed, we actually reached out to all of our immigration clients, we sent them letters just to let them know what we knew at that point, and to let them know, like, what services we can still offer them. So, so far, there have been no drastic changes in the immigration law, but there is definitely a big question of how big the enforcement is going to be. So, its really been talked about in the community, but at the same time, its also been great because so many people want to be involved. Weve had these Big Community events, big workshops, and weve had a Record Number of volunteers, which is really, i think, what keeps us going, knowing that this community is together and want to work with immigrants. Robert and i think its the work of Asian Law Alliance and groups like yours that are making people more courageous, more immigrants stepping out, talking about the situation theyre in so people understand that its not about statistics, its about people behind these numbers. Is that helping that theyre becoming more public . Is that helping you in terms of being able to fight the legal fight . Beatrice for sure, like all of these stories about the people directly involved, i think thats what gets, you know, people to participate because, you know, maybe im not an immigrant, but theres something in their story that resonates with me. Robert yes, like breaking up families. Thats something that people can kind of see beyond the issue. Beatrice right, breaking up families, or maybe we didnt immigrate to a new country, but weve experienced moving to a different city, like being an outsider, like starting over, doing something difficult for your family. Robert despite the scary Political Climate, do you still have culturally people reluctant to come forward or to seek help . And what do you want to make sure that they understand . Beatrice for sure, especially in the api community, being undocumented, being without papers is just not talked about. And its something that we really need to bring out, like bring out their stories, you know . Weve even had experiences of clients, you know, agreeing to do a story or do an interview, and then backing out at the last minute because they dont want to out themselves or embarrass their families. So, its still something that we really need to work on, especially in the api community. Robert all right, well, good luck because i know its a tough job that you guys do, but youre doing a great job on it, thank you. Beatrice thank you. Robert all right, well, you can find out more about our guests, and their programs, and their awards at our website, nbcbayarea. Com. And we are also on facebook and twitter, so check us out there. Wed love to get your feedback. And please join us again next week and every week here on Asian Pacific america. Thanks for watching. Cc by aberdeen captioning 18006886621 abercap. Com the president , can you believe it . Our friends in the senate are eager to get to work. Billy was born with a heart disease. Sean won the Kentucky Derby good morning and welcome to sunday today on this first sunday in may, im willie geist. A lot to get to is this morning, including president Trumps Health care bill that passed the house this week and voting under way right now in the pivotal french election. Plus, the latest on the tragic death of the olympian, his body was found on saturday at Olympic Training Center in