Wild times...

I've been extremely busy at the Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC). I don't even know what my last field report consisted of but that was a while ago and many things have changed since.

First for an update on my energy efficiency program, since I finally finished making an invoice for Citizens Energy Corporation (our sponsoring partner). Our organization's responsibilities included taking in applications for those interested in the program, reviewing the applications to make sure they meet the requirements, running workshops teaching the Chinatown community about energy efficiency and then giving each household that participated 20 light bulbs. Overall, the program has raised over $22,000. The final count on applications was 1124.

There have been many, many bumps in the road. I'm sure Katrina knows how the Chinese ladies in the neighborhood act, it's overwhelming and sometimes they can be rude. I've had to deal with yelling old Chinese ladies that push and shove, they refuse to listen to me sometimes because I cannot speak Chinese, so they ignore me. It's been a battle man! There are also those couple of old ladies that I've had great conversations with, it's nice to get to know the community through the various workshops we have had.

We have run 60 workshops, I have two volunteers that are very dedicated to the program, they come in every workshop and present it to the participants. This program has helped learn and grow in so many ways. I didn't have much support when it came to running the program, so things got really crazy because I am so inexperienced in being strategic and managing a program. I am so glad to have been able to have the chance to work on something that has helped me grow so much professionally.

Second, the youth. They have been awesome we accepted a new bunch of youth this past January. We are in the process of putting them through their initial 10-week training. The old youth are now putting together a CD that they want to release at their event in April called Breaking the Barriers. We received a grant to put on the second annual Breaking the Barriers event, it's basically an open mic event that youth can participate in to get their voices out. The old youth are also still holding the radio show down every Saturday, and although walking tours have minimal during the winter it should pick up again this spring and summer when the weather gets better.

I was actually warned by the previous youth programs manager that the youth would eventually take over my life, and it's slowing becoming true. The youth are awesome, sometimes when I get really frustrated and wonder what I'm doing it just really takes one youth to make me realize that this is all worth it.

Third, social media. I have started to activate some social media accounts for ACDC. I've created many many social media sites for both A-VOYCE and ACDC already, but now I'm starting to indulge myself in it. I've been to a couple of seminars about social media and HOW to use it. We're starting to do many new and cool things here.

Lastly, LOVETA IN LOS ANGELES. Loveta was a riot in L.A. We were at the CTCNet conference in November. It was sort of a crappy conference but Loveta kept me entertained most of the time. I had fun.

Until next time,

Vimala