Asian Heritage Issue Page 10 n THE ASIAN REPORTER May 2, 2016 AHSC to open new facility by 35th anniversary By Julie Stegeman The Asian Reporter Asian Health & Service Center Timeline he Asian Health & Service Center (AHSC) is working toward moving to a new permanent home. The organization, founded in 1983 as the Chinese Social Service Center, serves as a bridge between Asian and American cultures while working to reduce healthcare inequity and improve healthcare quality for all Asians. Over the years, the organization has expanded and moved twice to larger locations in southeast Portland and also added sites in Beaverton and downtown Portland. While the main focus of the nonprofit organization is health, the group also operates the Yu Miao Chinese Immersion Preschool and an addiction treatment program, coordinates programs for senior citizens, holds talks and clinics, and provides classes and workshops high- lighting a diverse range of Asian art and culture topics. AHSC, whose annual budget exceeds $2 million, employs 42 multilingual and bicultural workers from China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the United States. In 2014, the organiza- tion provided benefit services to more than 5,000 community members through 46,000 service encounters. The center’s current location, a rented 12,000-square- foot, two-story building located at 3430 S.E. Powell Boulevard, is increasingly inadequate to support current projects and much-needed program growth. With nearly three-quarters of Oregon’s rapidly expanding Asian population living in the Portland metropolitan area, AHSC T 1983 AHSC is founded as the Chinese Social Service Center in the basement of the Chinese Presbyterian Church in southeast Portland 1996 The organization becomes the Chinese Service Center 1999 The center moves to a 3,000-square-foot building on S.E. 35th Place; the Yu Miao Chinese Immersion Preschool opens 2001 AHSC opens an office in Beaverton and also partners with the National College of Natural Medicine to open the Chinese Medicine Clinic in Portland. 2002 The center expands to cover 9,000 square feet of the building and changes its name to the Asian Health & Service Center 2007 The Yu Miao Chinese Immersion Preschool further expands and becomes Oregon’s first certified Chinese immersion preschool and daycare program in Oregon. NEW FACILITY NEEDED. The Asian Health & Service Center (AHSC) is working toward moving to a new permanent home. The organization, founded in 1983 as the Chinese Social Service Center, originally occupied 600 square feet in the basement of the Chinese Presbyterian Church in southeast Portland (top photo). In 1999, AHSC moved to a 3,000-square-foot building on S.E. 35th Place (bottom photo); in 2002, the center took up 9,000 total square feet within the same building. (Photos courtesy of the Asian Health & Service Center) anticipates that demands for service will The new 30,500-square-foot facility will increase over the foreseeable future. be located in the Lents neighborhood of AHSC predicts over the next 10 years that Portland, near the Lents Town Center/ Portland’s Asian population will increase Foster Road MAX station as well as a bus Continued on page 15 by 47 percent. 2008 AHSC moves to its current 12,000-square-foot building at 3430 S.E. Powell Boulevard 2009 AHSC adds a senior Asian lunch program 2014 The center opens another site in downtown Portland asian – pacific american heritage month May 1-31 featuring performances every weekend from local cultural organizations representing the cultures of China, Japan, Cambodia, Taiwan, India, Thailand, ,QGRQHVLDDQG+DZDLLWKH3DFLoF,VODQGV Presente d by www.lansugarden.org / asianheritagemonth with additio nal suppo rt by The Collins Foundation Walter Clay Hill & Family Foundation The Jackson Foundation +HUEHUW$7HPSOHWRQ Foundation 5RVH(7XFNHU Charitable Trust 86%DQN Foundation Advertise your business, service, or recruitment advertisement in The Asian Reporter! For information, call (503) 283-4440 or e-mail .