Congrats to our Health Ambassadors

In an effort to improve the health conditions of our local Cambodian and Latino residents and the overall well-being of our community, The Cambodian Family has hosted the first Community Health Ambassador training series to equip our local residents with the knowledge and tools to become strong health advocates for themselves, their families and their community.

The trainings commenced in July 2013 and ended in August 2013. For six weeks, the series covered six critical health issues commonly identified in our community and leadership skills ranging from Cardiovascular Diseases, Diabetes, Mental Health, the Affordable Care Act and Covered California to Health Navigation and Community Advocacy skills to build the capacities of our thirty volunteer Community Ambassadors to engage in their community to address healthcare issues within their families and neighborhood.

The trainings were conducted in English, Khmer, and Spanish with culturally and linguistically sensitive materials and demonstrations that are relevant to our diverse participants. Our Ambassadors also had an opportunity to receive health screenings during their training.

The program concluded with a graduation ceremony. At the ceremony, Community Health Ambassadors and their families were congratulated by The Cambodian Family’s Executive Director, Sundaram Rama, the Orange County Health Care Agency’s Program Supervisor, Joseph G. Vargas, and The Cambodian Family’s Health Program Director, Mike Murtaugh, for their effort and interest in being strong advocates for the promotion of the health of their family and community. Successful participants were awarded with the Certificate of Completion from The Cambodian Family and the Orange County Health Care Agency as well as the State of California Senate’s Certificate of Recognition from the Office of State Senator Lou Correa.

The event was also covered by a local Cambodian TV channel called Khmer TV. The Cambodian Family would like to acknowledge CalOptima, AltaMed, Vietnamese American Cancer Foundation, OCAPICA, Santa Ana Building a Healthy Community, the Office of State Senator Lou Correa, the Orange County Health Care Agency, and other community partners for their immense support, contribution and collaboration for this program. We look forward to working with our community partners for the opportunity to host our 2nd Community Health Ambassador Training.

This training is made possible through the support of the Federal Office of Minority Health and the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, which promotes The Heart Truth®, a national women’s heart disease educational program. Funding for The Heart Truth is provided by individuals and corporations, including Diet Coke, Belk Department Stores, and Swarovski. (The Heart Truth is a registered trademark of HHS.)

For further information about this program, please contact Vattana Peong, Health Program Coordinator at 714-571-1966 ext. 115 or vattanap@cambodianfamily.org.

 

Cambodia Town Film Festival

We are very excited for the first annual Cambodia Town Film Festival (CTFF) September 14th-15th 2013. CTFF is a three-day film forum that will introduce new studio and independent features, documentaries, foreign features, short films, animated shorts, trailers, music videos and re-released classics. The programs will include a variety of special events and panel discussions featuring directors, producers, writers and actors.

CTFF will provide a creative forum for emerging filmmakers working with Cambodian themes or submitted by a filmmaker of Cambodian descent. CTFF offers the opportunity for students, early-career filmmakers, and seasoned filmmakers to showcase their talent to a diverse viewing audience interested in and curious about the Cambodian experience. Just as importantly, CTFF will also offer opportunities for viewers to engage with and meet the talented artists, thinkers and storytellers illuminating Cambodian culture today.

The Cambodian Family Dancers will be guest performing on Sunday, September 15 after the Half the Sky – Somaly Mam screening at 7:45pm.

ctffshorts

Jam with Cam Fam Open Mic Nite

The Cambodian Family Plan Ahead Youth Program hosts a youth-led Open Mic Nite entitled “Jam with Cam Fam.”

One of the goals of The Cambodian Family Plan Ahead Youth Program’s high school group is to host a safe space for youth where they can creatively and openly express themselves, whether it be with their voice, bodies, or other instruments.

Click here for pictures from Heng It Up Photography.

We also want to spotlight Santa Ana/OC locals and provide them with a venue to share their talents and inspire others to do the same. Our featured spotlight artists were: Hatefas Yop, Ambivalent, and Khristina Kun.

Hatefas Yop

Hatefas Yop

Hatefas Yop

Hatefas Yop is a Cambodian Family alumnus finishing her last year of college at Irvine Valley College. She uses writing as a way to find herself. Hatefas believes that self expression is important and that everyone should express themselves. “Everyone has a story to tell and many want to hear it,” she says. Hatefas Yop performed her first spoken word piece at The Cambodian Family’s High School Conference in 2009. She is small in size, but her voice is loud and clear.

Ambivalent

Ambivalent - Frank, Dean, Andrew, and Angel

Ambivalent – Frank, Dean, Andrew, and Angel

We are Ambivalent, a small band from Santa Ana, California. Our band members are Francisco Fregoso, Dean Badillo, Andrew Ocampo, and Angel Hernandez. We formed in 2010, slowly through our time playing music together. We individually found our passion for music through the creative class at The Cambodian Family’s Plan Ahead Youth Program. We started in the classroom and eventually moved to our parent’s livingroom. Now we perform at different events at our high school and events such as Common Ground and Summer Sensations.Our reason for playing music is simple: we like to play music. We play anything we like which can extend from alternative to ska punk to indie rock. For booking, contact us at (714)-984-9175.

Khristina Kun

Khristina Kun

Khristina Kun

My name is Khristina Kun, I am 20-years-old. I am an alum of the Plan Ahead Youth Program and a student at Cal State Fullerton. When I was young, I was not allowed to go out much so something I would do was sing! I remember annoying my little sisters everyday with my singing. I thought I was the greatest! Even when I was off tune and my pitch was all over the place, I just continued ‘singing’ because it was something I really enjoyed. The people who supported me the most in my singing was my friends that I met at The Cambodian Family. The staffs at the program encouraged me to perform in front of my friends and family and their encouragement and kind words pushed me to continue singing in front of a crowd. Khristina is the first person in her family to graduate high school and go to college. She is also a very talented Cambodian dancer and is actively involved in the Cambodian Student Association and Alpha Phi Omega. Read more about her experience at our program here.

More about our Youth Leadership Group:

Flyer

The high school group meets once a week to learn a variety of leadership skills such as: team building, collaboration, community empowerment, and public speaking.The group is part of the Santa Ana Building Healthy Communities (SABHC) Initiative. SABHC is a ten-year placed-based initiative in which The California Endowment invests millions of dollars to improve underprivileged communities. The Open Mic Night is a great opportunity for the community to come together and celebrate the talents we have in our community.

Doors Open at 5:45 PM
Performances Begin at 6:00 PM
Contact: Linda Sok @ (714)-571-1966 EXT. 118
Lindas@cambodianfamily.org
www.cambodianfamily.org

Check out pictures from our first Open Mic Nite last year!

Mental Health Forum: Stop Stigma

Cambodian Mental Health Community Forum

You are invited to come together with other leaders from the Cambodian community to discuss stigma and discrimination around mental health challenges that could impact you and your family.

  • Share your experiences, successes and challenges in engaging with trusted specialist and community leaders
  • Explore what can be done to reduce stigma and discrimination around mental illness in our community
  • Ask questions.

Attendance is free. We only ask you to bring your willingness to participate and your desire to create positive change for our community. Refreshments will be served. Community forum will be conducted primarily in Khmer.

 

Free Health Screenings

The Cambodian Family is offering free health screenings to the community. Screenings and services are available for youth and adult. Please check out the flyer for more information.


 

Community Health Ambassador!

Become a Community Health Ambassador! With years of experience working with the Cambodian and Latino community in Santa Ana, we are hosting a series of training to encourage our residents to become health advocates in their community.

Residents will get training on health topics, the ACA, and strategies on how to become a better advocate in their community. For more information, contact Vattana Peong at vattanap@cambodianfamily.org or at 714-571-1966 ext. 105.

Community Health Ambassador Training Summer 2013

Celebrating our Staff

Over the past two decades, The California Wellness Foundation has awarded its California Peace Prize to honor the work of community peacemakers from across the state. Their drive, commitment and vision have yielded solutions proving that violence against youth is not inevitable, but preventable. The Foundation is proud to celebrate the work of these 60 heroes who have shown
us ways to save lives using a public health approach.

Of these 60, two of the only Cambodian American recognized are siblings Chea Sok Lim (awarded in 1997) and Phalen Sok Lim (Awarded in 2009) for their long term commitment and outstanding work in our Plan Ahead Youth Program at The Cambodian Family. We thank them for their work and recognize their success, with a combined effort of over 30+ years with the agency.

http://www.calwellness.org/pdf_docs/20yr-peace-prize-poster_letter.pdf

Healthy Heart = Healthy You!

Healthy Heart Habits

Congrats Class of 2013!

This mural welcomed our students for close to thirty years at our old building on Wakeham. It encourages our youth to make positive choices for themselves.

For over 32 years, The Cambodian Family has helped thousands of Orange County’s most vulnerable members of society achieve greater health, knowledge, success, and happiness. Our success is largely due to the partnerships we have with our funders, other community organizations, volunteers, and staff members that have dedicated many years of their lives to the mission of our agency. Over the years, we have successfully managed more than $25 million of public and private funding and have established deep roots in our community.

Our agency and its leadership have received numerous awards for service to the community at the local and national level. Some notable accomplishments include being honored with the DOJ’s Gould-Wysinger Award for outstanding work in preventing delinquency, recognition as a model program in two federal publications, and more recently, having our current youth program director win the 2009 CA Peace Prize.

The Cambodian Family believes that obtaining higher education is the key for the members of our community to develop the knowledge, skills, and desires for creating health and well-being in their lives. It is the motto for our agency and for everyone that walks through our doors.

The mission in our Plan Ahead Youth Program is to help youth develop their vision for the future and to attain the skills to turn their vision into reality. For over two decades, we’ve made a positive impact on the Cambodian community in Santa Ana, both directly and indirectly.

Based on the 2000 Census, only 33% of Cambodians aged 25 and older in Santa Ana continued their education after high school. In the 2010 Census, we see a huge increase to 56%.

In the late 1980s and 1990s, Cambodian high school drop out rates were high, resulting in many of them dropping out of school, joining gangs, or getting pregnant. We attribute this to many different factors including but not limited to: lack of role model, language barriers, and lack of support. Our agency decided to take a proactive role in getting Cambodian youth off the street and engaged in positive activities such as tutoring, mentoring, cultural classes, and higher education awareness.

By promoting higher education and setting high expectations for our youth, we encourage a mentality of “can-do” rather than “can’t do.” For over twenty years, our Youth Program has actively mentored and encouraged hundreds of youth to stay in school and finish high school. With the commitment and care from our dedicated staff, our students are now aiming higher. A high school diploma is no longer the end goal but the beginning of their higher education.

With this amazing feat, we are proud to share and congratulate an alumni of The Cambodian Family Youth Program and our dedicated volunteers who have gone on to achieve their college degrees and take the next step in creating a positive impact in their community.