Wishing You the Very Best for the 2020 Holidays and 2021!
2020 has been a year of resilience and growth.
Together, we have experienced a global pandemic, which turned our collective lives upside down.
Despite the challenges we have faced, CMP shuffled our staff resources, pivoted our programs, and found new ways to deliver services. Our staff stayed with our clients like a guiding light inside an imposing storm. CMP has indeed achieved much with strong initiative and through your support!
CMP wants to thank our members, partners, staff, volunteers, and friends, the beating heart of the community.
Cai, Yun Xin (6 years old), the winner of Younger Children Group (age 4-6)
In November, the 2020 CMP Chinese School Kids Drawing Contest was successfully concluded. CMP Chinese School team overcame the fire to our home, where we used to exhibit the winning pieces, and the pandemic, when we were forced to conduct the contest online. In the end, the contest drew 301 entries from within as well as outside of New York City, including submissions from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Out of the 300+ entries, our panel of judges picked 84 winners, and here comes the Art Book!
A few events, activities and achievements from our programs we would like to highlight:
Career Development
On November 20th, December 4th and December 11th (a 3 week window period), CMP collaborated with McKinsey & Company to provide mock interviews and constructive feedback to our job seekers, which reflects NYC in ethnic diversity. Fifty percent or more are college graduates actively seeking employment. Each session was 30 minutes -- a 20 minute interview, followed by a 10 minute feedback from the interviewer to the interviewee.
On December 2nd: The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) Business Partner Recruiter, Jose Mercado shared an overview of their Agency, Diversity and various initiatives that DOHMH participates in to 67 of our job seeking participants. Additionally, their goal in the webinar was to share details of their amazing career opportunities, our benefit offerings and how to apply. DOHMH pride themselves in their dedicated workforce. Their 6,000-plus team members bring an extraordinary array of languages, cultures and experiences to bear on the work of public health.
On December 16th: The Allure Group Recruitment Coordinator, Cynthia Deng shared with our 33 job seeking participants about what and how it is like to work at Allure Group as they are seeking great candidates to fill openings at their 6 centers: Hamilton Park Center, Crown Heights Center, Bedford Center, Harlem Center, King David Center and Linden Center. The Allure Group centers provide high quality healthcare to its residents. Their greatest strengths are the hard work and dedication of their interdisciplinary clinical and support staff. Caring for people in their time of need is what they do best and is truly rewarding.
On December 23rd: CyraCom Operations Recruiter - Andrew Nguyen introduced to 31 of our job seeking participants about the everyday life of a bilingual interpreter within their company and what it is like to work with them.
Andrew highlighted the following:
— What it means to be bilingual or multilingual and why we shouldn’t waste that talent/skill;
— Hiring process with CyraCom;
— Training Programs;
— Work Environment after training;
— Ability to gain knowledge in various industries such as medical, financial, legal, hospitality, insurance, etc.;
— Opportunities for advancement;
— A strong foundation for a career in the language industry.
CMP Mobile JOBS - Service to the Korean community.
In partnership with Asian American Federation and Korean American Family Counseling Services, on Thursday, Dec. 17thfrom 2:00 – 3:30PM, Jae Kim, Mobile JOBS coordinator provided a virtual workshop. Basic Principles and resume format and Purpose of the resume etc. were discussed in a cultural/language appropriate way. For 1 hour and 30 minutes, interactive, engaging participants received a comprehensive overview of everything resume and more. On behalf of CMP Mobile JOBS, we provided gifts for some of the participants as we were aware of the needs of those attended. We send our sincere thanks to Asian American Federation for coordinating the event and KAFCS and their students for a wonderful event.
Employability Asset Building
NBCU and Fox Public Speaking Skills Workshop with CMP Students on Wednesday, 10/14/2020
On Wednesday, October 14, 2020, 22 of our T&E (formerly OSY) program participants and 38 of our Adult Literacy program students joined 20 professionals from media giants NBCU and Fox for a virtual workshop on public speaking skills. Named Fearless Pubic Speaking, the workshop was hosted by UBC Universal to help CMP new immigrant students to learn American customs and hone their language skills. Wearing Halloween costumes and talking with working professionals via Zoom was definitely a unique and fun-filled experience for our language learners. We are grateful to Tracy Kwan, Jessica Yu, and their colleagues for organizing the event and volunteering their time after work hours to provide our students with this valuable opportunity to socialize, learn the English language and America culture.
T&E Graduation on Friday, October 23, 2020
After 12 weeks’ intensive classroom training, which run Monday through Friday, 9 am to 12 pm & 1pm to 4 pm every day, the T&E (OSY) program successfully completed its training component for its first cohort of 22 participants on Friday, October 23, 2020. Among the 22 participants, 16 will be starting a paid-internship and earning up to $2,625 per person beginning in December 2020. More importantly, with the program’s assistance, 21 of the 22 program participants will be entering college beginning Spring semester 2021.
ALP Graduation on Friday, November 13, 2020
With more than 40 students in each of the two classes, the ALP program managed to pull off another cycle of remote learning in the pandemic. Beginning August 10, the program enrolled many new students while welcoming back a large number of returning students, helped a total of over 80 language learners from all walks of life not only to improve their language proficiency but also to pick up digital skills for the new, online learning environment. ESL instructors Peter Gu, Shelley Zhang, and Joan Fang have quickly adapted their teaching styles and materials to meet the many technology and logistic challenges that remote learning presents, successfully retained old students for and attracted new students to the program, resulting in a surprisingly large number of enrollees and an impressively high attendance rate.
FAFSA Workshop for T&E (OSY) Participants on Thursday, Nov 19, 2020
As a part of the program's college readiness assistance service, the T&E hosted an online FAFSA workshop at 8:00 in the evening to help program alumni apply for financial aid for their college education. The event attracted more than 100 alumni, considerably exceeding our anticipation of the number of attendees.
Entrepreneurial Assistance
Work for Yourself@50+ Webinar
In collaborating with AARP Foundation, CMP hosted the Work for Yourself@50+ webinar on November 18th to help older adults with limited resources explore self-employment options and gain entrepreneurship skills. All participants in this informative and educational workshop learned the fundamental skills of starting a business and the government programs and community resources that they can utilize to support their self-employment goals.
Small Business Bootcamp
CMP has successfully completed the Small Business Bootcamp on December 12th. This 10-week online program helped aspiring entrepreneurs developed the foundation skills and strategies necessary to start and run a small business. They also received guidance and assistance from instructors and business counselors for developing their business plans. While graduates from the program embark on their business ventures, CMP will continue supporting them in achieving their entrepreneurship goals.