"Project of the Year" Silver Award 

The Holding Hand Initiative

The purpose of the CE-Language Support team is to promote communication and cultural integration between people of different backgrounds speaking different languages.  Asians consist of more than 30% of Lexington’s population, and among the Asian population, the Chinese American population again accounts for the majority. Chinese American seniors or those who have just immigrated to the United States don’t have the ability to communicate their daily needs fluently and often feel like outsiders in their own community. We aim to help new Chinese immigrants living in Lexington to better integrate into the community while also encouraging local English-speaking people to learn more about the Chinese American community and understand the demands of the Chinese-speaking population. 

There was a demand for the project like this to facilitate the communication between the American Chinese community and the rest of the larger community. Addressing this need, we took the initiative to establish a youth volunteer team that hoped to work with other organizations and towns to improve communication between the two communities. 

"The Holding Hand Initiative'' project mainly engages in the following services: 

1) Commit to writing Chinese and English reports for CAAL and providing Chinese-English translations of its official accounts.

2) Provide language assistance to various departments and organizations of Lexington, nearby towns, and even non-local organizations.

3) Provide translation services for people with a language barrier, especially the elderly, including in-person oral translation services and text translation services.

4) Establish the Lex-Accompany program, which invites experienced students to serve as student mentors to provide information to students of new immigrant families.