Community Spotlight: Korean Community Center of the East Bay (KCCEB)
Welcome back to KACF-SF’s Community Spotlight blog series! In this blog post, we will be featuring the Korean Community Center of the East Bay, also known as KCCEB.
KCCEB was first established in 1977 by five community activists from UC Berkeley with its main goal being to help provide services to recently immigrated Koreans. Not to be misled by its name, the KCCEB provides services for diverse Asian populations throughout the Bay Area, with staff fluent in various languages. As community needs evolved and the Bay Area’s immigrant population became more diversified, KCCEB has also updated their services, with their mission being to empower immigrants in the Bay Area through access to education, services, resources, and advocacy.
KCCEB staff and Jikimee seniors at the Oakland Chinatown Lunar New Year parade (photo credit: Juhee Hong).
Some of the programs KCCEB runs include the Jikimee Senior Leadership Program, which focuses on leadership in mental health advocacy among Korean seniors (who are oftentimes monolingual - 73% of Korean seniors in the Bay Area are not proficient in English), as well as Senior Street Smarts, which is an 8-week course dedicated to advising seniors on safety and feeling a sense of community when in public.
A couple of weekends ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit KCCEB’s office in San Leandro and sit in on one of their mental health workshops, run by Cynthia Tom, a prominent artist who shares her stories and uses art and non-Western techniques to promote spaces for individuals to connect with and heal themselves. Due to the sensitive nature of mental health, I was unable to sit in for a portion of the workshop, but that really showed to me how seriously KCCEB took mental health and how delicately they handled the process of mental healing. When I was able to watch the workshop, I was pleasantly surprised with the inviting and comfortable environment Tom had created for the workshop attendees, where they were sharing many personal stories and experiences that had affected their lives and mental health. Attached below are some pictures of the process of the workshop I was allowed to share, which include some of the art the workshop participants created, and some of Cynthia Tom’s storytelling.
I also was able to speak with a couple KCCEB staff members in my time at the center, including Minha Yoon, Manager of Philanthropy and Communications, and Art Choi, Program Manager. We talked about our experiences with being Korean American as they shared Asian snacks with me from their staff kitchen, reminiscent of the section in every Korean grandma’s house where they keep a stash of candy and snacks to give to their grandchildren. They told me more about the organization, the various programs they run and services they provide, and even gave me advice on ways I could continue my career or my studies.
KCCEB also provides counseling services for Asian youth in various languages, gives social and health support for limited-English speaking Chinese and Korean populations, supports immigrant-owned businesses, and provides hot meals to homebound and low-income senior citizens, among some of the many community projects they take up. The KCCEB serves as a pillar of support for not only Koreans in the East Bay, but anyone in need across the Bay Area.
