JACS PR 2/07

JACS Announces Funding Opportunities for 2007

The Japanese American Community Services of Southern California, Inc. (JACS) announces that applications for the 2007 annual grants funding cycle are available on their website.

JACS has been quietly providing seed money to a broad range of community and social service groups serving the Nikkei and Asian Pacific Islander communities for 45 years. “This has changed in the past five years. We have really formalized our grants programs and sharpened our focus areas. In 2006, JACS provided funding to seven different organizations. We hope to continue this trend in 2007,” said Dean Matsubayashi, President.

“We are interested in supporting projects and organizations who are doing good work in the Asian Pacific Islander community. Last year, we supported Visual Communications’ Save Our Stories project to preserve 200 videotapes from Little Tokyo’s Redevelopment era. We also provided funding to the Southeast Asian Community Alliance’s Youth Leadership Project provide multi-ethnic organizing in the Cambodian, Lao, Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese community,” said Jenni Kuida, 2nd Vice President of JACS.

The origins of JACS can be traced back to Shonien, a Los Angeles-based children’s home and day nursery for Japanese immigrants in the early 1900s. After World War II and the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans, the Shonien redirected its focus to provide family and community social services. The Shonien home was sold and proceeds placed in a trust fund in 1961, and the Shonien became the Japanese American Community Services of Southern California, Inc.

The application deadline is March 31, 2007. Awards will be announced June 1, 2007. Applications, funding criteria and submission instructions can be obtained from the website at http://www.jacsfund.org.