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,
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Presente d by
www.lansugarden.org / asianheritagemonth
with additio nal
suppo rt by
The Collins
Foundation
Walter Clay Hill &
Family Foundation
The Jackson
Foundation
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Foundation
5RVH(7XFNHU
Charitable Trust
86%DQN
Foundation
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