HELPING LINK
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Mission Statement
Helping Link supports the Seattle/King County-area Vietnamese refugee/immigrant community with social service navigation assistance, advocacy, and free opportunities to acquire language, technology, and citizenship. From our new community center in Renton, we work to support our inter-generational families, nurture our communities, and foster cultural resilience. Our vision is a thriving and powerful community in the present-day U.S. that is also grounded in its Vietnamese culture and heritage.
About This Cause
Although we turn no one away, Helping Link/Một Dấu Nối serves primarily Vietnamese immigrants and refugees of all ages in the Seattle/King County area, most of whom live on incomes that fall below the federal poverty line. We support them with assistance navigating the social service system, empowering them to take over their own journeys in this area. We fill a gap for social service providers who do not have the language skill set or cultural knowledge to communicate effectively with Vietnamese immigrants and refugees. We also provide free educational programs with opportunities for our clients to learn conversational English, technology skills, and to pursue U.S. citizenship to that they can vote and be civically engaged in their communities. Our educational activities and social services navigation directly serve about 1300 people per year. We also sponsor gatherings and cultural activities and are working to reestablish a thriving community center at our new Renton H.U.B. (Hope – Unity – Belonging). Due to gentrification in the Chinatown-International District/Little Saigon neighborhood in Seattle, in 2022 we lost the lease at our longtime home when the property was sold to a developer. Thankfully, in 2024 we were able to find a new home farther south in King County, where an increasing number of the Vietnamese refugee/immigrant community are located. With unsettled years of COVID and displacement behind us, we are working with renewed energy both to reestablish Helping Link/Một Dấu Nối as a stabilizing institution and to revamp our programs and services for a changing community in uncertain times. Members of the Seattle/King County Vietnamese refugee/immigrant community have participated in the operations of Helping Link/Một Dấu Nối since its founding, from the Board of Directors to other volunteer teams, ensuring that the needs of the community are always front and center. Our paid staff Executive Director (full-time) and an Executive Assistant (half-time) are Vietnamese American. Three of our five Board members are from South Asian refugee/immigrant families, two of them Vietnamese. Helping Link/Một Dấu Nối relies on about 25 weekly volunteers to facilitate its activities, including instructing or coaching, managing databases and communications, and fundraising. Many of our volunteers are youth and young adults from the Vietnamese refugee/immigrant community, and we place them in roles that help them develop job, language, and leadership skills that further enrich their lives. Helping Link/Một Dấu Nối is also a significant advocate for the Vietnamese American community in the Seattle/King County area. We have strong relationships with Vietnamese temples and churches; Vietnamese language newspapers; the City of Seattle, City of Renton, and King County; area public library systems; and non-profit partners. Many of our clients are referred by these partners. In addition, we communicate independently with legislators and collaborate with the Coalition of AAPI Executive Directors and other AAPI organizations to provide a united front on important issues, including response to increased incidents of hate against Asian Americans. Helping Link/Một Dấu Nối is a trusted community resource, here to do what it takes to help people with the issues they face.