Tenant Worker Center Spotlight: “Even if I’m new… I have something to contribute.”
Yumei’s Reflections
Yumei Lu immigrated to the United States last year with her husband and child, and moved to the southeast part of San Francisco. Since then, she has grown as a leader with CPA this past year.
At the beginning of the year, being new to the country, she was looking for opportunities to get involved in her community. CPA SRO organizer Ah Yu invited her to join our restorative justice training in the Spring. During one session, a participant commented that Yumei must be unfamiliar with the session topic, since she is a newer immigrant.
Yumei reflected at that moment and thought to herself —
“Well, even though I’m new, I believe I know something and have something to contribute in the conversations.”
After this session, she was inspired to join more CPA events in District 11 of San Francisco, where she lives, and take on new roles – organizing member meetings, and sharing the importance of elections to her community this past election season during outreach and over the phone, one courageous conversation at a time. She brought that back to her parents – who had never voted before – and shared the importance of voting. This encouraged them to vote this past election.
Tenant Worker Center leaders celebrated a year of growth, hard work, and reaching out to their community across San Francisco!
About Chinese Progressive Association: Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) is a nonprofit that educates, organizes and empowers the low-income and working class immigrant Chinese community in San Francisco to demand better living and working conditions and justice for all people. CPA has been organizing with workers in San Francisco’s Chinese immigrant community since the 1970s.
About Tenant Worker Center: CPA’s Tenant Worker Center programs include wage theft case support, hospitality job training program, community education and outreach, grassroots leadership development and policy advocacy.
