Asian Community Alliance (ACA)
Educates, empowers and inspires Asian populations in need, delivering high quality, compassionate, and culturally sensitive services across Greater Cincinnati.
Yen Hsieh
Yen Hsieh
27-year tenure at P&G in R&D between Global Snacks at WHTC and IAMS in Lewisberg, OH
Yen Hsieh has chaired the ACA board for the past three years. Under her active leadership, ACA has increased funding 8-fold and has applied consumer research techniques to program development. Yen led many global R&D projects and collaborated with various R&D centers in Asia and Europe. She earned 17 patents for her innovative ideas and is Founder & President of FlavorDrive, a culinary consulting company. Fellow Alums Tessa Xuan, Jennifer Nagrath & Angie Pang join Yen in their support of ACA. Tessa is a current Board member, Jennifer is a volunteer advisor to the Board, and Angie Pang is a former Board member.
ACA was first conceived in 2000 to help close the gap between social services and programs that existed and the Asian populations that needed them. ACA is unique in that they do not just serve one Asian community, but rather provide programs and services to the greater Asian / Asian American community including Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Bhutanese, Nepalese and others in need. Key ACA programs to date have impacted over 7,000 Asian Americans including computer skills classes; family, mentoring & sponsoring programs; after-school tutoring; youth leadership training programs and more.
To learn more about Asian Community Alliance (ACA), click here to visit their website.
Through ACA’s work with the Bhutanese immigrant and refugee community of Cincinnati and a P&G Alumni Foundation grant in 2014, ACA was able to provide essential skills training and computer workshops as part of its Digital Literacy Project. Since then, over 150 new immigrants/refugees have been trained, alongside investments in a computer lab, taped lectures, instruction books, teaching materials, wi-fi and more.
This year’s P&G Alumni Foundation grant of $15,000 also supports the Digital Literacy program reaching even more unemployed and under-employed Bhutanese refugees, Vietnamese nail salon workers, restaurant workers, and other South Asian immigrants / refugees. With specific plans in place to expand their 8-week training programs, ACA will provide computer skills and internet based English language training to train 65 individuals, include mentoring by P&G employees and alums, and serve another 20 immigrants in a “How to Start Your Own Business” training presented and mentored by P&G retirees and current employees.
“Empowering a Marginalized Population”
Many Bhutanese refugees struggle with language barriers, cultural norms and religious differences. Men and women particularly aged 30-55 are sidelined due to lack of education in their own country and are forced to resettle in the U.S. due to war and persecution. ACA is committed to helping these immigrants and refugees gain economic independence which in turn helps strengthen families.
Offering support during a complex and challenging time, ACA economically empowers these vulnerable individuals with the proper training and skills in computer technology to improve their lives and become financially independent.
“These computer classes provided by ACA have improved my computer skills and are helping me with my current job.” Krishna, a Bhutanese community member.