Community Corner

Local Community Group Seeking Donations

Filipino Advocates for Justice has helped develop community leaders since the '80s, but their programs may soon be at risk.

Heather Boyer isn’t sure what her life would be like without .

Boyer, 27, joined the local community group’s youth program when she was 13 and credits it for her personal growth and development.

“It gave me a basis and foundation of helping and empowering others,” said Boyer, who holds a degree from San Francisco State University and is currently going to school to become a yoga instructor. “I don’t know what kind of person I’d be if I hadn’t found this space. It’s continually a family for me and a source of love.”

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Boyer, who went through FAJ’s Pilipino Youth Coalition program and later worked as an advisor, is one of the more than 1,000 Union City youth who have grown with FAJ over the years. But if the center doesn’t receive a grant in March, the agency may not be able to provide more youth with critical services.

FAJ is currently asking for a three-year $250,000 grant from Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services to continue operating in Union City and expand its youth services into Fremont and Newark.

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“If we get the grant, we can greatly expand our services. If we don’t, we’ll have to consider shutting down our Union City operation,” said Christopher Cara, youth services director for FAJ.

The agency is primarily funded by the county, which has provided approximately $60,000 a year for the last 15 years, Cara said. That funding is supplemented by grants from the City of Union City and the Kaiser Permanente Community Benefit program, he said.

To help relieve some its financial stress, the organization is holding a donation drive to help raise funds to support its programming. The donation drive is being held in conjunction with the agency’s “” campaign

“Many Filipinos are the 99-percent and, as such, are suffering from unemployment, underemployment, not being insured [and] cuts to schools,” Cara said. “In times like these there’s more need; there are less resources in the community. Ironically, we have less resources to meet the community’s needs.”

Established in Oakland in 1973 to empower the Filipino community, the agency branched to Union City where it opened its youth center in the mid-80s. While the Oakland center handles many of FAJ’s services such as immigration counseling, and civic engagement, the Union City office focuses on youth services. 

The Union City center offers various youth programs, including a school-based prevention group, a community organizing group and a health education group. The local organization was also integral in pushing for Measure UU and helping advance the city’s Youth Violence Prevention and Intervention Program.

But many of FAJ’s services have been drastically reduced, Cara said. Budgetary restraints have also caused the agency to charge small fees for its immigration workshops and cut staff — Cara is the only paid staff member in the Union City office after two employees were let go earlier this year.

If the office were forced to close, Union City would lose a vital resource that has influenced many of those who have come through its doors, Cara said.

“We build leaders all the time. They go on to be staff members, educators and community organizers,” Cara said.

Jerico Abanico, 23, joined FAJ as a youth intern in 2006. He said the organization instilled in him a sense of social awareness and action, setting him on a path of community leadership.

“I got a glimpse of who I am and the type of person I could become. I had people investing in me, in my thoughts and opinions. I never had that before,” he said. “It really focused on my potential and gave me an opportunity to become who I am.”

Abanico, who ran an ambitious , now serves on the City of Union City’s Human Relations Commission and works at the Chabot College employment center.

“If it wasn’t for the agency, I’d be lost. I wouldn’t have that community sense,” he said.

To donate to Filipino Advocates for Justice, click here. For more information on the organization, visit www.filipinos4justice.org.


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