About Us

CISC is a nonprofit organization working to support immigrants and their families by creating opportunities for them to succeed while honoring their heritage.

View our Annual Report

Overview

Our team of bilingual staff provides linguistically and culturally appropriate information, referral, advocacy, social, and support services to immigrants who speak Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, Spanish, and many more languages. Our services include early childhood education, youth development, family support, senior and disabled adult services, health care access, and anti-hate/anti-bias programs. We provide these services at our offices in Seattle, Bellevue, Renton, and Redmond and numerous community-based sites.

Mission

We support immigrants and their families by creating opportunities for them to succeed while honoring their heritage.

Vision

A culturally-inclusive, supportive community where immigrants and their families thrive.

Core Values

Community

Serving immigrant communities is our passion. Each member of our team acts with integrity to maintain trust with the youth, families, and older adults in our care. Our knowledge of and roots in the community enable us to advocate for the well-being of the people we serve and help decision-makers assess the impact of their actions. We develop strong connections with organizations and funders to foster understanding and appreciation of the unique needs of immigrant communities.

Compassion

Each day at CISC, we are present for families, youth, and older adults and listen to understand their needs with concern and care. We share lived experiences or heritage with the communities we serve, which enables us to connect with their challenges as if they are our own. We respond with patience and yearning to help them feel safe and supported.

Empowerment

We bring out the strengths in individuals by providing information and services that improve their well-being so they can reach their full potential and achieve their personal goals. We enable each person to make informed decisions on their path to success. We cultivate each person’s strengths through skill building. We present opportunities to advocate for their needs and the community.

Equity

We recognize each person comes with different strengths and needs. To improve their wellbeing, we seek additional resources to develop programs centered around the cultural and linguistic needs of the people we serve. CISC has a history of advocating for social justice and we believe action is needed to undo racism and achieve racial equity.

Inclusion

Every person who comes to CISC will be treated with respect. Through collaboration, we strive to embrace the background and diversity of our staff and clients and also differences and similarities. We seek to better serve our clients and new groups of people by continually learning from our team and the community. To honor our heritage, we want every staff member and community we serve to be reflected and represented in the agency.

History

CISC was started in 1972 by a group of college and high school students who followed their passion to serve the community. They worked as part time volunteers in a tiny, donated space in Seattle’s Chinatown to help non-English speaking elderly in the community. With dedicated staff, we broadened our scope to fulfill community needs and added family and youth programs, such as ESL and naturalization classes, after-school activities, and a family center. Building on our strengths, we expanded our services to the Eastside and South King County and responded to the urgent needs of growing immigrant communities.

Philosophy

Our agency’s service philosophy is to use a holistic approach with bilingual/bicultural staff to provide developmentally appropriate services to individuals, families, and groups within our community. The focus is first on stabilizing, then strengthening our community members through strength-based skill building. The ultimate goal is for each client to reach their maximum potential as quickly as possible, and become self-sufficient, contributing members of the community.

Land Acknowledgment Statement

The Chinese Information and Service Center acknowledges we are on Coast Salish lands and waters. We are indebted to Indigenous peoples, past and present, who are the original caretakers of the land on which we serve our clients. As a social service agency primarily serving immigrant families, we continually benefit from the unceded land we occupy. With this perspective, our work to support immigrant communities must include the ongoing responsibility to learn about the land on which we live, work, and enjoy, and honor the generations of Indigenous stewardship of the past, present, and future. CISC strives to honor Indigenous stewardship through a commitment to self-reflection, education of our staff and clients, and strengthen relationships with Indigenous organizations and communities.

Equity Statement

CISC’s founding in 1972 by community volunteers is rooted in the principles of equity and inclusion. We are continuing their vision in our commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion and in our journey to become an anti-racist organization. We recognize each person comes with different strengths and needs to reach their full potential and goals. Our diverse and dedicated team of bilingual and bicultural staff, who share similar lived experiences of the immigrants we serve, develop programs and serve individuals and families by centering their unique needs and strengths. CISC has a history of advocating for social justice and we believe action is needed to undo systemic racism and achieve racial equity. To advance equity, we advocate for resources and policies to develop programs centered around the social, emotional, cognitive, physical, cultural, and linguistic needs of the people we serve for every person to have optimal health and well-being.

Leadership

Executive Director
Michael Itti

Clinical/Case Management Director
Hueiling Chan

Elderly Program Director
Stephen Lam

Finance Director
Lee Hu

Marketing And Fund Development Director
Frances Yuet

Operations Director
Kevin Chan