Housing & Opportunity: Community Development Working across Sectors
Friday May 16, 2014
New York University’s Kimmel Center
Eisner & Lubin Auditorium, 4th Floor
60 Washington Square South, New York City
The aim of the 7th Annual Asian American Community Development Conference is to spur a dialogue with leaders from community development, government, advocacy, philanthropy and the private sector about groundbreaking work to preserve and enhance our neighborhoods, to catalyze economic opportunity for immigrant New Yorkers, and to build power and influence for our communities.
This Conference will be an opportunity to reflect on how the community development movement has taken root in Asian American and immigrant communities in New York, and across the country. While we first began as preservers and developers of affordable housing in local communities, the Conference will explore how our sector has expanded in terms of breadth and deepened its impact to take on critical community issues: asset-building, entrepreneurship, economic development, education, workforce development, healthcare access, civic engagement, and public policy.
9:00 AM – 9:10 AM Conference Opening & Welcome Eisner & Lubin Auditorium, 4th Fl
Christopher Kui, Executive Director of Asian Americans for Equality
Wendy Takahisa, Board President of Asian Americans for Equality
Arlene Peralta, Associate Director of Government and Community Affairs at NYU
9:10 AM – 9:30 AM Morning Keynote Address Eisner & Lubin Auditorium, 4th Fl
Holly Leicht
Regional Administrator, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
9:30 AM – 10:45 AM Morning Plenary Panel
Confronting Poverty in the City
Despite strides made by community development practitioners, community organizers and policy-makers to build up and preserve our neighborhoods, concentrated poverty persists in too many of our communities. Recent studies demonstrate that nationally there are now 2 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders living in poverty since the great recession of 2008, and Asian American New Yorkers now have this highest rate of poverty at 29%. Additionally, our communities continue to struggle to achieve in education, health, housing stability, and economic mobility. An expert panel of speakers will define and conceptualize how we understand poverty in the Asian American community, and will discuss innovative strategies to address poverty in this city and nationally, including promising models for economic development, asset-building, human capital development, and the role of philanthropy.
Josh Ishimatsu, National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development
Christine D’Onofrio, New York City Center for Economic Opportunity
Veyom Bahl, Robin Hood Foundation
John Olson, Goldman Sachs
Moderator: Annetta Seecharran, United Neighborhood Houses
10:45 AM – 11:00 AM Morning Break
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM Workshop Session I.
A. Housing Counseling Today: Recovery, Settlements, Regulatory Reform
Room 805, 8th Fl
Panelists will discuss recent housing settlements in New York State and across the country and the impacts of regulatory reform through the Dodd-Frank bill on housing counseling with a focus on homeowners of color, moderate-income households, and immigrant homebuyers. The panel will address the shifting role of credit in the market, fair lending, and the challenges which persist for immigrant home-buyers.
Ken Inadomi, New York Mortgage Coalition
Christine Peale, Center for New York City Neighborhoods
Mamta Gurung, Chhaya CDC
Mark Willis, New York University Furman Center
Moderator: Peter Gee, Pratt Area Community Council
B. Measuring Outcomes in Community Development: Big Data and On the Ground
Room 805, 8th Fl
Outcomes measurement was intended as a planning tool to tell the story of our work and the impact of community development. However there has been recognition that, as a sector, community development is not intentional in evaluating its outcomes and this approach is used by funders and others to tell their story or measure what they do. What data tools are available at a local level, and how to we leverage national and state wide data? Panelists will discuss outcomes measurement in terms organizational capacity, the challenges of data on Asian American communities and the need for data disaggregation.
Gretchen Maneval, THINK Brooklyn
Greg Jost Lobo, University Neighborhood Housing Program
Howard Shih, Asian American Federation
Kim Latimer-Nelligan, Low-Income Investment Fund
Moderator: Barika Williams, Association for Neighborhood Housing and Development
C. Supporting Immigrant Student Success in and Outside of the Classroom
Room 406, 4th Fl
Education has always been recognized as an essential strategy to build human capital and to lift individuals and families out of poverty. Education is also a dynamic field with constant changes in policy, curriculum and student services. This expert panel will discuss guiding the experience of immigrant students from early education through post-secondary success, with a focus on reforms happening within the classroom as well as in supportive structures in the community.
Diana Yi, Asian Americans for Equality
Lois Lee, Chinese-American Planning Council
Asad Naqvi, South Asian Youth in Action
Shweta Ratra, Flushing International High School
Kim Sykes, New York Immigration Coalition
Moderator: Vanessa Leung, Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies
12:30 PM – 1:00 PM Midday Break
1:00 PM – 1:45 PM Luncheon Keynote Address Eisner & Lubin Auditorium, 4th Fl
Special Remarks from Honorable Melissa Mark-Viverito
Speaker, New York City Council
Keynote Address by Vicki Been
Commissioner, New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development
1:45 PM – 3:00 PM Luncheon Plenary Panel Eisner & Lubin Auditorium, 4th Fl
Housing & Opportunity: Community Development Working across Sectors
Asian American communities are the fastest growing population in the country and in New York City, while at the same time our communities have moved beyond traditional ethnic enclaves, and the cultural and physical sites these gateway neighborhoods represent. In turn, community-based organizations, community development corporations and government resources serving Asian Americans have had to work in new ways and in different contexts, such as suburban and regional. Community development corporations in particular have led the way in terms of working across sectors: housing and community facilities development, economic development, asset-building, and human capital development. At the same time long-term challenges persist including the availability of and investment in public facilities, linguistically and culturally competent services, and the need to build civic engagement in the Asian American community. This plenary panel will tackle the ways in which CDCs in major U.S. cities are expanding beyond housing to create more opportunity: working regionally, innovating through economic development, and growing “to-scale.” This panel will feature leading community development practitioners from New York City, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, and Seattle.
Christopher Kui, Asian Americans for Equality
Seema Agnani, Chhaya CDC
Remy de la Peza, Little Tokyo Service Center
Ener Chiu, East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation
Roy Chan, Chinatown CDC
Quang Nguyen, SCIDpda
Moderator: Josh Ishimatsu, National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development
3:00 PM – 3:30 PM Afternoon Break
3:30 PM – 5:00 PM Workshop Session II.
D. Developing the Next Generation in Community Development Room 805, 8th Fl
As community development organizations across the nation enter their fifth and fourth decades of service, many face a crisis of leadership. How do we think about creating a pipeline of community development professionals who have roots in and a commitment to the communities we serve, but also build the professional and technical expertise needed to lead this work? This panel will address how organizations think about training and talent recruitment strategies as well as succession planning; the specific leadership needs of CDCs serving communities of color; leaders from beyond community development joining the sector; and the shift that many experience from being community organizers to administrators and decision-makers.
Frances Kunreuther, Building Movement Project
Keith Getter, NeighborWorks America
John Chin, Hunter College
Gordon Chin, National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development
Moderator: Thomas Yu, Asian Americans for Equality
E. Models for Collaboration towards Collective Impact Room 808, 8th Fl
In the wake of crisis moments such as the 2008 housing market crash, recovery after Superstorm Sandy and government austerity, community organizing and political advocacy have resulted in cross-sector coalitions, and have facilitated the rapid deployment of existing resources. As the community development field experiences depleting resources for traditional “bricks and mortar” development to build housing and community facilities, it is ever more crucial to work beyond silos and coordinate capacity across sectors. This panel will highlight partnerships and collaborations at that generate collective impact—those collaboration which are sustainable over time.
Hally Chu, Manhattan Borough President’s Office
Susannah Dyen, ALIGN
David Dowell, El Dorado Architects
Marissa Martin, Coalition for Asian American Children and Families
Moderator: Ernesto Vigoreaux, Asian Americans for Equality
F. Addressing Health Disparities through Housing and Community Development
Room 406, 4th Fl
Community development and community health share common goals to improve quality of life and human capital in low-income communities and communities of color. This panel will explore community development as a platform to provide preventative care and healthcare access, integrated services through supportive housing, active public space, promoting access to healthy food, and community building as a strategy to address social determinants of health.
Kaja Kuhl, You Are the City
Flora Ferng, Asian Americans for Equality
Ryan Natividad, Coalition for Asian American Children and Families
David Burney, Center for Active Design
Moderator: Noilyn Abesamis-Mendoza, Coalition for Asian American Children and Families
5:00 PM – 5:30 PM Networking Break
5:30 PM – 6:30 PM Pioneer Spirit Award Ceremony & Reception
Global Center-Grand Hall, 5th Fl
Nisha Agarwal
Commissioner, Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs
Maria Torres-Springer
Commissioner, New York City Department of Small Business Services
Asian Americans for Equality Youth Leaders
Flushing High School and Flushing International High School
