Dear Supporters:

The Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center is the D.C. region's only pan-Asian direct legal services provider, ensuring the civil and legal rights of low-income, limited-English proficient Asian Pacific Americans through direct services, education, and advocacy.

On Wendesday, May 19, we will hold our 12th Anniversary Celebration reception to spend time with our friends and celebrate some of our notable accomplishments.

Recent Achievements of APALRC:

•    Amicus Brief Filing in Maryland Court of Appeals to clarify the legal contours of limited-English proficiency and advocate for availability of interpreters at every stage of legal proceedings, including depositions, to ensure “full-participation” as mandated by Maryland law.
•    Asian Immigrant Youth Assistance Project launched to protect the rights of Asian immigrant youth, who have been abused, abandoned, or victims of human trafficking, through various immigration relief.
•    Language Access Complaint Filing against a DC law enforcement agency and a victorious ruling by the Office of Human Rights, who found the law enforcement agency—that held a Korean-speaking immigrant in custody without providing any explanation in Korean and who was released after four days without any charge—to be noncompliant with the D.C. Language Access Act of 2004.
•    Pro Bono Attorney Trainings concerning the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) self-petition filings in the context of Asian victims of domestic violence.
•    Legal Interpreter Trainings of qualified bilingual community members with the assistance of a court-certified, Language Access Coordinator of the Office of the County Executive in Fairfax County. APALRC currently has a roster of 70-plus qualified legal interpreters.
•    Law Student Volunteer Trainings to recruit and train bilingual law student volunteers to resource the Legal Helpline under supervision of APALRC attorneys.

                   (APALRC Community Outreach and Legal Workshops)

Through our partnerships with regional, legal, and community-based organizations, in 2009 alone, APALRC provided direct legal representation or referrals to over 450 low-income, limited-English proficient Asian Pacific Americans with legal matters involving language access, family law, immigration law, employment law, consumer rights, public benefits, and landlord-tenant law in more than 20 different Asian languages and dialects, including Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Urdu, Thai, and Vietnamese.

The 12th Anniversary Celebration is the APALRC’s primary fundraising event for 2010.   We will rely primarily on our sponsors and individual supporters to meet our fundraising goal of $50,000, and we would greatly appreciate it if you could support the APALRC’s efforts to ensure access to justice for low-income, limited-English proficient Asian Americans in the D.C. metropolitan region.

                 (APALRC 11th Anniversary Celebration Event in 2009)

Please join us and show support for your community. We hope to see you there!

Sincerely,
                               
Mytrang Nguyen, Esq.           Jenny R. Yang, Esq.                     Myron Dean Quon, Esq.       
APALRC Board Chair          APALRC Board Vice-Chair          APALRC Executive Director