Category Archives: PSA

Mental Health and the Asian American community

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Mental Health and the Asian American community

Asian Americans are one of the fastest growing ethnic communities in the United States. While APAs tend to be healthier than whites and other ethnic groups, research suggests that APAs face many barriers when seeking mental health services in their communities, including stigma, lack of access to care, language challenges and lack of culturally and linguistically responsive providers. Cultural beliefs and values play an important role in how Asian Americans experience their mental health issues. The cultural adherence to avoidance of shame and stigma also remains a powerful influence on how APAs deal with mental illness—many individuals and families remain in denial or silence about their situation.

Asian American teenage girls have the highest rate of depressive symptoms of any racial, ethnic or gender group according to a report released by the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The report is based on a “listening session” with mental health experts from different Asian American communities held in Los Angeles in November 2010. Key issues in the report include barriers to mental health services and negative perceptions of mental health problems particular to APA communities. The report highlights statistics from the U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) and National Asian Women’s Health Organization (NAWHO) posing concern.

* Asian American girls have the highest rates of depressive symptoms of any racial/ethnic or gender group;
* Young Asian American women ages 15 to 24 die from suicide at a higher rate than other racial/ethnic groups;
* Suicide is the fifth leading cause of death among Asian Americans overall, compared to the ninth leading cause of death for white Americans;
* Older Asian American women have the highest suicide rate of all women over 65; and
* Among Southeast Asians, 71 percent meet criteria for major affective disorders such as depression—with 81 percent among Cambodians and 85 percent among Hmong

You can see the full report here.

Mental Health and the Asian American community

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Vote for Jubilee Project for YouTube DoGooder Award

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Vote for The Jubilee Project

The Jubilee Project released a fundraiser video in February called “Beautiful” and it was recently selected as one of 16 finalists out of 1,350 submissions for the YouTube DoGooder Non-Profit Video Awards Competition.

The winning video of each category (“Beautiful” is in the Thrifty video category with 3 other videos) will receive $2,500 and get the video featured on YouTube’s homepage. This is a great opportunity not just for The Jubilee Project but also for Becky’s Fund, the organization The Jubilee Project partnered with, to raise more awareness to tackle domestic and dating violence. The winners are chosen based on the number of votes received here and voting ends Friday 3/11 at midnight. The Jubilee Project would really love your help to vote for our video by indicating a thumbs up every day until Friday, which will determine the winners in the end. Just as importantly, please also help spread the word and announce this message to your audience.

“Beautiful” is a Valentine’s Day message dedicated to women and supports Becky’s Fund, a non-profit organization whose mission is to raise awareness and prevent dating and domestic violence. This organization was started by Becky Lee, who has fought to empower women and young girls and educate the community on domestic violence, which affects 1 in 3 women. Becky Lee was a second runner-up on Survivor: Cook Islands and used her winnings to start this organization. Learn more about them here.

Beautiful by Jubilee Project

Endangered Javan Rhino caught on tape

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Endangered Javan Rhino caught on tape

Deep in Indonesia’s Ujung Kulon National Park, motion-activated cameras have recorded two critically endangered Javan rhinoceroses with their calves. The footage is a huge boost to efforts to save this almost extinct species that is threatened by poaching, disease, and the possibility of a tsunami or volcanic eruption. Though the footage is “great news,” only 40 individuals remain—with none in captivity, conservationists say. This makes the Javan rhino possibly the rarest mammal on the planet.

Learn more about the species and donate directly to a WWF fund that will establish the conservation area and monitor the several individual rhinos that will populate it later this year. More info here.

Also endangered is the Japanese Giant Salamander

Endangered Javan Rhino caught on tape

Raw footage of Javan Rhino

More about Javan Rhino
The Javan rhino is a dusky grey colour and has a single horn, about 25 cm; the skin has a number of loose folds giving the appearance of armour plating. This species is very similar in appearance to the closely-related Indian rhinoceros, but is slightly smaller, with a much smaller head and the skin folds less apparent than in the Indian rhino. Recent evidence suggests that the horn may be absent or very small in females. The upper lip is pointed and can be used to grasp food and bring it to the mouth.

Love Language Remake

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Love Language Remake

The original Love Language by Jubilee Project has spawned a viral remake. YouTube revealed the search traffic for “love language” is up on the site. Some students decided to shoot their own version of the story for a school project. Within a one day, the remake has already reached half the views of the original. If you haven’t seen it, take a look at the touching story.

If you’re curious what Jubilee Project thinks about the remake, take a look at their comment.

Love Language Remake

Encouraging Asian American Students to Become Teachers

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Encouraging Asian American Students to Become Teachers

Join the White House Initiative and the Department of Education TEACH Campaign in a Roundtable Discussion between Educators, Artists and Youth on Thursday at 4pm PT (7pm ET). Singer-songwriter and teacher Clara Chung and musician David Choi will join President’s Advisory Commissioner Sefa Aina to encourage dozens of students to pursue careers in the classroom in Granada Hills, California. (Previously, Clara did a White House Gig.) The event, put on by the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, is part of a national campaign by the Department of Education to recruit highly qualified and more diverse teachers. Only 1 percent of teachers across the country are Asian American or Pacific Islander.

DATE: Thursday, February 17, 2011
TIME: 4 p.m. PT (7 p.m. ET)
PLACE: Granada Hills Charter High School, 10535 Zelzah Ave., Granada Hills, California
If you can’t be there in person, the discussion will be streaming online too.

The event is a very important issue in our community as the Obama Administration is calling on youth to become teachers. In his state of the union address, he says:

To every young person listening tonight who’s contemplating their career choice: If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation; if you want to make a difference in the life of a child — become a teacher. Your country needs you.

In addition, the online community can ask questions before or during the event by tweeting with the hashtag #aapiteach – and they’ll ask as many of them possible during the q+a section of the discussion.

Video for Encouraging Asian American Students to Become Teachers featuring:
Clara Chung, singer-songwriter + teacher
David Choi, Singer-songwriter
Taryn Benarroch, Director, TEACH campaign
Sefa Aina, Commissioner, President’s Advisory Commission
Eddie Lee, Youth Outreach Coordinator, White House Initiative on AAPI’s

Beautiful by Jubilee Project

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Beautiful by Jubilee Project

The Jubilee Project releases its February fundraiser video, called “Beautiful.” The video is a Valentine’s Day message dedicated to women and will support Becky’s Fund, a non-profit organization whose mission is to raise awareness and prevent dating and domestic violence. This organization was started by Becky Lee, who has fought to empower women and young girls and educate the community on domestic violence, which affects 1 in 3 women. Becky Lee was a second runner-up on Survivor: Cook Islands and used her winnings to start this organization. You can help Becky’s Fund by becoming a sponsor, or by simply watching the video.

Beautiful by Jubilee Project

This is how the fundraiser works. If you would like to support the cause financially, you can sign up to become a sponsor of the video, called “Beautiful.” Each sponsor will pledge to donate 1 penny (or more) for each view the video receives in the month of February. So if the video ultimately receives 1500 views by the end of the month, each donor will donate $15. If the video receives 3000 views, each donor will donate $30, and so forth. The sponsor can also choose to cap the amount they donate, but we ask that they make this clear when they first sign up to become a sponsor. You can sign up to sponsor the video by emailing project.jubilee@gmail.com and including “Beautiful Video Sponsor” in the subject line. You can sign up to become a sponsor up until the close of the fundraiser, which is the last day of February.

Furthermore, you can support the fundraiser and cause by helping spread the “Beautiful” video throughout the month of February. Remember that each sponsor will sign up to donate at least 1 penny per view. So each time the video is viewed, a certain amount of money will be raised (ie. if we have 12 sponsors, 12 cents will be raised for each view). Thus, you can help raise money simply by watching the video and sending the video to as many friends and contacts online. At the end of the month, The Jubilee Project will tally the views and ask each sponsor to donate the appropriated amount directly to Becky’s Fund, a non-profit organization whose mission is to raise awareness and take action against domestic violence. As such, all proceeds will go directly to Becky’s Fund. Learn more about them here.

Becky Lee talking about Becky’s Fund