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Articles, information and additional online resources. |
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Voices from the Trenches
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Gianna Tran, assistant director of the East Bay Asian Youth Center, works with at-risk, predominantly Asian and Pacific Islander youth in Oakland and Berkeley. As a teenager, she immigrated to the United States from Vietnam. |
Tran on the importance of culturally sensitive prevention programs:
"We need to invest more in prevention. When kids reach the juvenile justice system, it's often too late. It's hard to turn the wheel at that stage in their life. At EBAYC, we recruit middle school-aged children who are at risk for school failure and provide culturally competent programming to them. A lot of the problems of youth have to do with their parents. The young people, they have their common youth culture, but for the most part, [immigrant] parents still hold onto their birth country's languages and values. Cultural and linguistic skill is really important in prevention work.
"A lot of what we see youth dealing with is the isolation of the mainstream. Youth are looking for a sense of love, although it is destructive love. I see their parents aren't home due to the economic realities, and parents working two jobs. That's why programs like ours are so important -- programs provide youth with an extended family, a safe place to go to find role models."
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