Mission and Accomplishments
Mission
The Chinese Progressive Association is a grassroots
community organization which works for full equality
and empowerment of the Chinese community in the Greater
Boston area and beyond. Our activities seek to improve
the living and working conditions of Chinese Americans
and to involve ordinary community members in making
decisions that affect our lives.
History
CPA was founded in 1977 out of a series of community
organizing campaigns around issues such as Chinese
parents' input into the Boston school desegregation
process and organizing for community control over
land development in Chinatown. Our membership is
made up predominantly of Chinese immigrants and the
Chinese-speaking; most are workers in low wage industries,
working families, or low-income elderly. CPA has
no single issue focus because we believe that people
have many concerns--jobs, education, freedom from
discrimination, a clean and safe living environment.
We have seen that once people achieve their rights
in one aspect of their lives, they will be more likely
to actively participate in solving other community
problems.
Major Accomplishments
1985: Launched campaign for justice
for police brutality victim Long Guang Huang, who
was awarded an $85,000 settlement by the City of
Boston.
1986: Organized 400 dislocated
garment workers to win the first Chinese bilingual
retraining programs in New England after an 18-month
campaign.
1994: Anchored community-wide struggle to preserve
Parcel C for community use rather than a parking garage, now the
Metropolitan and home of CPA's permanent home and community organizing
center.
1997: Won multilingual services for the unemployed
and the reopening of 15 local unemployment offices across the state.
1999: Enabled Chinatown residents to establish the
first community-wide resident association and to win long-term affordable
housing contracts at three HUD developments, saving 500 homes.
2001: Unified the dislocated Power-One electronics
workers to win $1 million in new job training programs.
2001: Convinced the City of Boston to provide multilingual
access to all public meetings and hearings through a simultaneous
interpretation system.
2003: Played a core role in launching the New Majority,
a coalition working to unite Boston's communities of color for social
and political change.
2004: Worked in six Chinatown-area
developments, totalling more than 500 units of housing,
to help tenants remain in their homes, reduce proposed
rent increases, and improve healthy living conditions
and quality of life.
2005: Helped give Chinatown
the highest increase in voter turnout of any Boston
neighborhood, and worked with both the US Department
of Justice and the City of Boston to secure bilingual
Chinese and Vietnamese ballots for Boston voters.
2005: Organized laid-off electronics
and rubber stamp manufacturing workers to win over
$400,000 in severance pay and seek increased job
training opportunities.
2006: Supported youth activists
to win City of Boston funding of a feasibility and
siting study to revive a Chinatown branch library. |