The Philip Jaisohn Memorial Foundation

We have built trust and influence in our community by identifying challenges and addressing the needs of those we serve and are expanding our reach and efforts to uplift underserved communities through various initiatives. As a COVID-19 vaccine provider during the pandemic, we provided education, vaccines, PPE, and rapid test kits to underserved communities. During Montgomery County’s ARPA grant process in 2023, we encouraged and supported AAPI organizations to apply for funding, hosting informational sessions with the county and providing language support. Noticing gaps in services for the Vietnamese community, we partnered with the Vietnamese Association for the Aging in Philadelphia & Suburbs to help build leadership and capacity. This funding supported events and preventive health education programs, like wellness walks and seminars, to promote physical and mental well-being of their seniors. As a direct outcome of the AAPI Community Strengths and Needs Assessment, we are launching a Youth Leadership Institute this summer and developing youth mental health outreach programs. The Jaisohn Wellness Community Plaza will enable us to expand our services and support even more people soon. 

To advocate for the Asian American community in Montgomery County with a stronger voice, we formed the Asian American Coalition for Health and Human Services (AACHHS), which includes Indian, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, Bengali, Pakistani, and Nepali community organizations. AACHHS has been instrumental in guiding discussions on how our members can support the diverse Asian American communities. By analyzing the results of our two-year AAPI Needs Assessment, the group identified Children, Youth and Family Programs as its initial focus and established the Mental Health for Youth and Family Committee and the Leadership Development Committee. We are now working on disseminating our findings to local care providers. 

All older adults navigate challenges of aging while coping with their unique life experiences, but many low-income AAPI older adults face these challenges in isolation due to the lack of senior facilities that accommodate their needs with linguistic and cultural competence. Since establishing Jaisohn Wellness Center in 2021 with a vision of serving the AAPI seniors impacted by the pandemic, we have just been appointed as an AAPI serving Senior Community Center by the Montgomery County Office of Senior Services. Our project aims to further develop the senior center programs to expand our services for a more diverse group of Asian ethnic seniors in their respective comfortable locations.

Historically, access to the safety net system has not been equitable for the Asian American community due to language and cultural barriers, lack of knowledge, and disconnect among various APA ethnic communities. Much effort has been made in the last few years as we founded the Asian American Coalition to connect these communities and their leaders to build trust, respect, and working rapport to provide safety net support. This project aims to take that effort to the next level and build multilingual capacity to establish a central hub of services, information plus navigation capability to link the mainstream service providers and the Asian American ethnic communities with cultural sensitivity. 

This project will continue the community building conversations for betterment of the Asian American community and establish a human/social service center for the AA community to strengthen the safety net system. During the last 10 months, Asian American Coalition for COVID-19, worked together to educate and vaccinate the AA community experiencing vaccine disparity due to their many barriers. We will continue the team building to identify the leaders with the heart for community development and human services to better support the AA community and to seek appropriate mainstream partners in order to strengthen the Asian American Safety Net in Montgomery County.