CCCSA – Calgary Chinese Community Service Association
卡城華人社區服務中心
1406 Centre Street N.E.
Calgary, Alberta, T2E 2R9, Canada.
403.265.8446
cccsa.ca
Calgary Chinese Community Service Association (CCCSA) was established in 1978 by some passionate Chinese university students. They had an ambitious idea to establish an organization that help the Chinese community access mainstream services and integrate with society through education, facilitation and advocacy. The notion came into fruition in 1978 and since then, CCCSA has evolved and expanded with rapid growth and increasing momentum in recent years.
At the initial stage, CCCSA was financially supported by donations and fundraising. In 1993 and 1994, CCCSA started to receive funding from UW and FCSS, City of Calgary respectively and they remain the major funders. Many of CCCSA’s accomplishments have been achieved under limited resources in terms of human, finance, and materials. The Agency continued to be responsive and provided necessary support to the marginalized. We received the Solicitor General Crime Prevention Award in 2005 and 2010 for the Chinatown Safety Project. Recently, we were recognized as Heroes of the flood during the 2013 Calgary flood.
CCCSA’s mission is to create a vibrant and integrative society by bridging the Chinese, other ethnic communities and the mainstream.
CCCSA has 3 main programs: Integration and Civic Engagement; Children and Youth; and Health program. Under integration and civic engagement, we have information & referral; Stepping Stones which is a literacy program using bilingual facilitation model; community women’s and Mandarin support group; new immigrant circle; legal clinics; educational workshops; parenting classes and radio program. Under Children and Youth program, there are after school homework club; Calgary afterschool; summer camps/ spring camps; Botvin life skills training; career scene investigation; and social knot. Under health program, we have Breast health/cancer prevention project. In the past year, we have served 2321 clients through front desk service. Our Chinatown safety project benefited 2076 people.
Within the past 35 years, CCCSA kept on helping immigrants to alleviate from isolation; dealing with the barriers many immigrants are facing; building social capital in the form of ethnic community networks and friendship ties and address poverty issues. We keep on restructuring of the programs; conducting or supporting research on issues affecting Chinese members, working on partnership and do advocacy work on multiculturalism.
