by charlie mathews
Source: HTR News
MANITOWOC — Chong Yang has a full-time job but would like one that pays more. Koua Xiong was laid off and just wants to find any work.
Cheng Yang, the Hmong Community Center's employment specialist, can try to help them but just on weekday mornings.
With fewer refugees coming to Manitowoc County a state grant was cut in half, slicing the center's 2010 budget from about $90,000 to $40,000.
Cheng Yang and Nyialong Yang, the center's director, each work half days. Two part-time employees were laid off and its after-school homework club at the center, 1517 Washington St., and Southbrook Apartments complex, no longer meets.
"The drastic cuts they are facing will require them to seek assistance where they haven't had to in the past, said Pat Dewane, a Manitowoc attorney and Hmong Community Center board member.
The center hasn't sought nor received funding from United Way Manitowoc County for more than five years. On Thursday, its executive director, Laurie Crawford, spoke with Nyialong Yang. She offered to meet with his board and discuss how the application process works for venture grant funding.
Nyialong Yang acknowledged that in the past five years the Lakeshore area has had a relatively small number of refugees from Thailand camps where Hmong were relocated after fleeing their native Laotian homes under persecution from Cambodia.
Hmong first immigrated to Manitowoc County in the mid-1970s and the Lakeshore Indochinese Mutual Assistance Association was formed in 1989. It evolved into the present Hmong Community Center, which bought its own downtown building on Washington Street in 2002.
"It's not like 30 years ago when there were 200 to 300 (Manitowoc County Hmong) families needing direct assistance," said Jay Xiong, president of the center's board and a database manager for Fresh Brands in Sheboygan.
He said he understands the reasoning behind the reduction in the center's grant from the state's Refugee Assistance Services Program.
The state's Web site states most new refugees are coming from Burma, Africa and the Middle East. The last of Thai refugee camps closed in 2009, halting virtually all Hmong migration to the United States."As a community, we can't depend anymore on the government to fund everything," Jay Xiong said. "We can't go on surviving as refugees forever. At some point, we have to survive ourselves.""Culturally, we are still different and there still is a need for services," said Jay Xiong, who served on the local United Way's board until work schedule conflicts prompted his resignation.
He said he respects the United Way's allocation process and the need to demonstrate what services his center or any other agency proposes to provide and why they are the appropriate ones to do so.
Translation services have always been important, Nyialong Yang said, for job seekers and families seeking utility payment assistance or medical care.
"We offer translation for people who need help in trying to qualify for the Food Share program or state programs like BadgerCare," said Nyialong Yang, who is married with three children. He came to the United States in 1980.
"It can be a matter of trust," Nyialong Yang said of the services the Hmong Community Center has provided for more than 20 years.
"For many Hmong their social skills are just not there, yet," Nyialong Yang said. "It is very difficult for them to ask, 'What kind of services do you provide?'"
The center has hosted classes preparing Hmong residents for examinations linked to becoming naturalized citizens.
It has hosted driver's education classes as well as English Language Learning sessions in cooperation with Lakeshore Technical College.
The center sponsors the annual Hmong Festival Celebration, soccer teams with the Manitowoc Goal-Getters program and helps coordinate the community garden.
Nyialong Yang said the center averages about 30 phone calls and 30 drop-in visitors daily seeking assistance at the center, open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Jay Xiong and Nyialong Yang said the center will need to raise funds from the Hmong community itself if it wants to live up to its mission — "Creating Opportunities for the Asian Community."
Nyialong Yang said it will be a major challenge. "Most Hmong work in low-paid jobs," he said, noting Manitowoc has few Hmong professionals who could be major donors to the center.
The recessionary economy doesn't help. Cheng Yang said he tried to help about 200 job seekers in 2009. Openings were scarce then and he and Nyialong Yang said the 2010 employment situation hasn't improved, especially for those who need to improve their English skills.
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