Separating Fact From Fiction
At the Benevolent Association
Not long after the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) evicted the Asian American Civic Association from its office at 90 Tyler St. in November, the organization created the Chinese Community Center of New England - an organization that - on paper at least - had a striking resemblance to the social service agency it had just forced onto the street.
Following the eviction, an elaborate brochure was designed and published to highlight the wide array of services the fledgling organization would be offering to the Chinese community. These services included just about all of the services that AACA has been providing in the Chinese community for the last 25 years. In an article published in the Boston Globe after the eviction, CCBA's officers suggested that CCBA was now providing the kind of job training, and translation and immigration services AACA had been providing for years.
But a closer inspection of the programs being offered at CCBA shows that the Chinese Community Center of New England has no professional staff and few of the programs suggested in the brochure. While CCBA treasurer Poy Ho said he was providing many of the various services outlined in the brochure, it turns out that CCBA is essentially operating many of the same programs it had been offering before AACA was evicted from the building.
The brochure, for example, lists a Chinese Community Educational Center, which includes English as a Second Language classes, a job training program, and a United States Citizenship Naturalization Class. The brochure suggests that these programs will be provided by CCBA and Quincy Community College. Ho, however, was unable to clarify the status of the purported program with Quincy Community College that was listed in the brochure. "It's still up in the air," he said.
The brochure also lists a Chinese Community Service Center, which includes a New Immigrant Service Department, Elderly Service Department, Translation and Interpretation Service Center, Job Search and Job Referral Service Center, Legal Service Department, Personal Income Tax Service Department, Real Estate Tax Abatement Department, and General Service Department. But, like the Educational Center, these services either don't exist or exist in a rudimentary form and are being provided in many cases by people with little or no professional training.
While Ho said a woman has been providing computer classes for $8 an hour on weekends, he said that CCBA does not have a computer room. He suggested that the woman was apparently using several computers in the CCBA office to teach a small number of students.
Ho said he was providing an English class for about 12 students three mornings a week for a $25 fee and that a woman was also teaching two evening English classes for a charge of $80 for three months.
The administrator of one educational program in the Chinese community said professional English as a Second Language programs require an effective curriculum, assessment of student needs, an effective teaching philosophy, and professional teachers with experience and training. The kinds of programs currently being offered at CCBA would not reach those standards.
In describing the other services, Ho said local college students have been coming to CCBA every year to help people fill out their tax forms, while people who need legal help are referred to Greater Boston Legal Services. The job-search program advertised in the brochure largely refers to a bulletin board where job notices are placed. Ho said he and a woman provide help for elders seeking information about SSI, Food Stamps, and other elder issues. Ho also said he has been providing some of the translation and interpretation services listed in the brochure and is available to help people who need help with various immigration problems. When a man came to CCBA with concerns that he wouldn't be able to receive his Green Card because he had changed his address, Ho wrote a letter for him to take to the immigration office.
"You have to understand, we're just beginning," Ho said. "Rome wasn't built in a day....That's a huge program there, but we get started."
The same brochure also lists a Chinese Community Development Council, which includes a Planning Council, an Economic Council, a Development Council, and a Political Action Council, but Ho said those programs were also still "up in the air."
Among the few programs that appear to be described accurately in the brochure are the annual Chinese festival events organized by CCBA and an after-school program for elementary-school-aged children that has been held at 90 Tyler St. since last year. That program was originally held at the Castle Square housing complex before it was forced to shut down for operating without a license. The program's organizer, Harry Kwan, also became involved in a number of disagreements with the complex's tenants' organization.
Ho, meanwhile, contends that the Chinese Community Center brochure isn't inaccurate and that CCBA eventually intends to create more professional programs if sources of funding can be found. "I wouldn't say it's an exaggeration," he said of the programs listed in the brochure. "Further down the line that's what our goals are."
"Down the line if we get some kind of funding we will hire some professional people," he said.
Since CCBA evicted AACA from 90 Tyler St., CCBA has moved its office and the office of the Chinese Community Center of New England into space formerly occupied by AACA's multi-service center. The Old Quincy School Building at 90 Tyler St. was given to CCBA for $1 in the early 1980s in the belief that AACA would use the site for its social services and educational programs. AACA, meanwhile, is continuing to operate its programs out of offices at 65 Harrison Avenue, 105 Chauncy St., and other sites in the area.
- Robert O'Malley