Laotians: Service for Refugees

30 years ago, Laotian refugees began immigrating to the United States after the Vietnam War devastated their native country of Laos. Close to 250,000 Laotians resettled in the United States between 1975 and 2000. Today, roughly 10,000 Laotians reside in the Richmond/San Pablo area of Contra Costa County, comprising the largest community of Laotians in Northern California.

As recent immigrants and refugees, barriers such as culture, language and economics have prevented the community from accessing critical social and legal services. Laotian families lost immigrant status because of failure to file forms. Women and children remained in violent relationships because families were unaware of assistance provided to survivors of domestic violence.

This past year, API Legal Outreach launched a project to expand services to the Laotian community in Contra Costa. Through a two-year fellowship funded by Equal Justice Works and the Bill Brockett Foundation, API Legal Outreach began outreach to the Laotian community. API Legal Outreach has since conducted community education workshops on elder abuse to Laotian seniors and know-your-rights workshops to Laotian youth. API Legal Outreach also conducts an immigration clinic twice a month in Richmond at the United Laotian Community Development Inc. office where individuals can consult with an attorney in their native language of Lao. Through this collaborative, API Legal Outreach has provided access to legal services for the Laotian community by bringing services to them in a culturally competent and linguistically sensitive manner.

API Legal Outreach has also provided more comprehensive legal representation for domestic violence restraining orders, family law matters and immigration law, including naturalization, family petitions and removal defense. API Legal Outreach has also provided technical assistance to community-based Laotian organization. Since this project's inception, API Legal Outreach has helped two Laotian organizations develop their bylaws, file articles of incorporation and file for tax exempt status. One of these organizations has been recognized as a tax exempt organization by the IRS and by the California Tax Franchise Board.