The venerable Silicon Valley-based group Asian Americans for Community Involvement, AACI for short, is about to celebrate its 45th anniversary next year.
Founded by Palo Alto residents and long known for its broad range of programs for everyone from seniors to those with mental illness, the group now is the largest nongovernmental provider of services in Santa Clara County, operating out of two large centers. In 2014 it became a fully federally qualified health center serving low-income, low-access areas of the South Bay.
In 2015, the nonprofit began providing counseling services to Palo Alto Unified’s teens at the high schools and district office as well as parent-education workshops.
The organization also has a unique program: helping survivors of torture and imprisonment — the subject of a talk next Wednesday at Channing House in Palo Alto. At the Center for Survivors of Torture, trained counselors work with refugees who have undergone unimaginable physical or psychological torture, helping them recover their lives and deal with PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder.
The center delves into one of the major national debates of our time: What to think and do about the thousands of refugees fleeing oppressive regimes and violence, according to AACI staff members and founders Allan Seid and his wife, Mary, of Palo Alto.
Seid, a retired psychiatrist who in the early 1970s ran for the Palo Alto City Council and was active in community drug-use prevention, said he saw a growing Asian population more than 40 years ago that needed assistance in integrating into the traditional communities of the South Bay. And, he said, the community needed to find some way to provide programs that serve the broader population, regardless of race, ethnicity or national origin.
They founded AACI in 1973, and for some years made up its core staff, assisted by a dozen or so volunteers.
Over years of expanding operations, the group was headed by Palo Alto resident Michelle Lew as president and CEO. Lew last year left the organization for other work opportunities, and effective May 16 the group named a new president and CEO: Sarita Kohli, active with the group for 14 years and its acting director for the past 11 months.
“Her dedication and passion to providing health and wellness make her the ideal person to lead AACI into its next chapter,” AACI Board of Directors Chair Hanley Chew said.
Kohli’s background with AACI mirrors its expanding focus in recent years. She was hired by the group in 2003 as program coordinator for the Center for Survivors of Torture, then in 2005 became the director of mental health and community programs. She served as executive vice president from 2014 to 2016, spearheading program expansion, funding, and business strategy.
She was named to the California Board of Behavioral Sciences — which oversees all regulations, clinical licensing and consumer protections relating to behavioral therapists statewide. She has served on several countywide agencies, and in 2011 was honored as a “Woman of Influence” by the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
Today, the Center for Survivors of Torture is headed by a woman named Armina Husic, a survivor of the Bosnian atrocities and siege of Sarajevo in the early 1990s — the longest siege of a major city in the history of modern warfare.
Husic, then 30 with two small children, vividly recalls her escape from the widespread killings of civilians, including children. She chokes up when recounting the painful horror of the night of her escape.
She was with a group of people who fled on foot, taking virtually nothing with them in the middle of the night (when they wouldn’t be visible targets of Serbian gunners).
They got out of the city through a tunnel dug under the airport, headed for a steep mountain ringed with valleys that were under gunfire. Babies and children were crying from the cold, the heavy rain and exhaustion as the group climbed a steep mountain with bullets flying overhead.
Getting down the other side, they found mud-covered buses waiting to take them on slippery back roads to Croatia and a United Nation’s station, then to Greece and Italy. She eventually made it to the United States, where resettlement assistance was available under a program that gave refugees eight months to learn English, get a job and become self-sufficient. She succeeded and got a job but quit after a time to find some way to help others.
She landed at AACI 22 years ago. She said she couldn’t talk about the experience for the first 20 years but finally decided she had to tell her story to help people understand what refugees and escapees go through “by highlighting their human stories” and doing “whatever we can do to combat hate and discrimination.
“I felt it was my duty to be a voice for so many who are voiceless,” she said.
She helped build a community of refugees from all over the world: “We all suffered similar pain, and a community makes us stronger,” she said. “We all have the same kinds of needs, including the need to heal” from the physical and emotional strain of war, the fear and grief of leaving lifelong homes, even the guilt of surviving while others died.
The program does psychological evaluations of refugees for lawyers, judges and officials involved in granting asylum to the refugees — who usually have no proof of their stories. The “forensic evaluations” they have provided have resulted in a near 100 percent approval of the asylum requests, she said.
“I now consider myself an American, and I love this country and want this country to succeed,” she said.
Husic will be speaking at a public presentation at Channing House on June 7, starting at 7 p.m. Information is available by calling 650-327-0950.
Former Weekly Editor Jay Thorwaldson can be emailed at jaythor@well.com. He also writes periodic blogs at PaloAltoOnline.com.
Thanks to all involved in AACI’s lifesaving services, not just for Asians but for people of all backgrounds. Our community is a better place because of community organizations like AACI.
Does she support legal or illegal immigration? She came over legally.
I think it’s great for her to share her experiences too, as Americans have no idea how good they have it here.
By definition, Asian-Americans are legal American residents. Asian-Americans have been living in California since before California was part of the USA, but covfefe Americans are still questioning right to be part of American society. Every Asian-American Palo Alto resident that I know has had at least one “get out of my country” encounter with a covfefe stranger on the street or at work. Support groups like this one help to address issues that would otherwise be covered up by the mainstream media.
I am a little confused about this group. Is the idea to help get these people more integrated into American society or is it an exclusive club to keep them isolated from non-Asians?
I can see how some newer, elderly, people might want to learn about how they may fit into the community, but giving them somewhere exclusively for them may in fact give them their own community where they don’t have to experience anything than their own culture.
@resident: I am a Chinese American whose grandparents immigrated legally. My parents were born here, I was born here. I grew up in Palo Alto beginning in the 70s in elementary school and my family experienced NO racism whatsoever in Palo Alto (yes, neighboring cities had some racism). Never, never. At Paly, the Asians were only a handful students per grade level of Chinese or Japanese descent. My boyfriend was Caucasian, my friends were Caucasian, and all the Caucasians treated me no differently. All the Asians assimilated amongst the Caucasians.
The incidents you are speaking of must be due to the major influx of Asians in Palo Alto. Back then, we were completely assimilated, while now, stereotypes have surfaced. There is a difference between being Asian born here and being simply Asian-American. Perhaps you could help some of them assimilate to the American culture for more acceptance. Frankly, I find it rude when they are all speaking Chinese and others cannot understand. Just as Americans are taught to avoid whispering because it’s rude, it’s rude to speak another language in front of others who cannot understand.
@Resident: AACI provides culturally accessible health and human services, not only for Asian Americans but for all (as stated on their website). The org does not provide services that help folks integrate into American society or to create an exclusive club. They are there to offer services where needs are not already met.
Resident, Maybe you could also tell them to not crowd us in lines and to say “Excuse me” when they bump someone. China is so crowded that it’s a different way of living than here.
And no honking! Palo Altans do not honk unless there is an impending accident. Other cities like Belmont and San Jose have honking drivers but Palo Altans do not honk.
The proper term for Americans of Asian descent is “Asian-American”.
An Asian immigrant who has not attained citizenship is NOT an Asian-American. The proper term is “Asian National”.
These terms are NOT interchangeable, since their definitions are not the same.
Personally, I reallyREALLY wish that someone could educate Asian Nationals living in the US to have better etiquette and manners.
Cutting in lines at grocery stores and banks, as aforementioned, is a very rude thing to do. So is talking in a very loud voice indoors while having a conversation. Being confrontational and combative is never a good thing to do when in a new country, either– I suspect it is what is making Americans of all races uncomfortable around many Asian Nationals.
I truly hope the ACCI can teach Asian Nationals about common courtesy and decent manners.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Learn about the Romans before leaving home.
There are also some public health issues– they may be allowable in China– that are simply unclean: spitting on the sidewalk and unclogging one’s nose without benefit of a tissue.