Presented by CAWA YOUTH

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11TH
8 AM – 5:30 PM

After months of planning with our CAWA Youth Council, we did our Immersion Trip to Chinatown with a busload of students and parents from Naperville to learn and explore the history and culture of a community where we often only associated it to be a place to eat and shop.

We visited the Chinese American Museum, and listened to the oral history of many immigrants- their challenges and successes. We heard a presentation from Dr. Hong Liu from the Midwest Asian Health Association (MAHA) about medical and mental health services for immigrants, youth, and the elderly. We heard from Grace Chan from Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community (CBCAC) about their fight for representation through voter registration and their fight to win the historic majority Asian ward and the first Chinese American Alderwoman to represent Chinatown. We visited the Chinese American Service League(CASL), the oldest and the largest community service organization in Chinatown to see the chef training program as well as the youth program. It was a full day with nonstop activities including a roundtable session led by our youth leaders where our suburban youth and several Chinatown youth explored issues important to them.