18.5% of the Asian-American population in New York lived under the poverty line. About one-fourth of Asian children in New York City live in poverty while 1 in 3 Asian seniors live in extreme poverty. Most working-age Asians are among the working poor and more apt to work full time (40 or more hours a week) than the city’s low-income population overall. Asian-American poverty in is a serious, growing issue.
There is a strong correlation between poor households and being linguistically isolated. Nearly one half of all poor Chinese immigrant households do not speak English, and this statistic grows to over 70% for impoverished seniors. Often, the lack of English proficiency not only precludes Chinese immigrants from finding jobs, but also from applying for social assistance programs.
Our founders once struggled to adapt to living in the United States, much like new immigrants are now, it was only thanks to the kindness of more established immigrants that they were able to get up and pursue their American Dream. At GCCA, our vision is to implement sustainable programs for immigrants that will improve access to the American Dream, now and for future generations. To meet this goal our programming breaks down into three major groups:
