The Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC) has opened a 4,600-square-foot office in downtown Quincy, MA to serve its growing Asian American population, reports the Boston Globe.
BCNC is a nonprofit based in Boston’s Chinatown, and has been serving new immigrant families there since 1969 with services like English language classes, youth leadership development, and college application counseling. But in the past decade the center has seen increasing numbers of Quincy residents utilizing their services.
“With all these people spending so much time taking the train from Quincy into Boston for our services, it seemed like the thing to do was to make those services available in their community,” said BCNC Executive Director Giles Li.
“We opened at a relatively small site in 2014 to get on the ground, but the response has been so overwhelming we ended up needing the larger space.”
Quincy’s Asian population was just 5,577 in 1990, but has grown to a current population of 27,428, or 29 percent of the city’s overall 94,580 population, according to census data reported by The Patriot Ledger and the Boston Globe.
“When there is such a large influx and rapid growth… it can overwhelm available resources,” Li said. “It’s the mission of institutions and organizations like us to try to connect with the community and make sure people don’t slip through the cracks.”
BCNC isn’t the only nonprofit in Quincy serving the Asian population. Li said that they differentiate themselves by focusing on serving families. The center provides parenting classes, and has licensed social workers on staff to help families navigate difficult issues as well as translators to help families communicate with teachers and school administrators when needed.
“I think it will be great for the center to have more room to help the … immigrants they serve,” Timothy Cahill, president and executive director of the Quincy Chamber of Commerce, said to MSN. And they’re right next to the [Quincy Center Red Line station] and surrounded by a host of restaurants and other places.”
Quincy city officials see BCNC’s presence as a positive influence for the city. Mayor Thomas Koch said he’s grateful for the diversity the growing Asian population has brought to Quincy, according to the Patriot Ledger. He said it’s thanks to nonprofits like BCNC that members of the Asian community are becoming connected to their community by stepping into leadership roles throughout the city.
“It’s all of our community and it takes volunteers and committed citizens to keep our quality of life where it is,” he said.
City Councilor-at-large Nina Liang said that organizations like BCNC “allow immigrants to take those first steps in entrenching themselves in our community and really becoming a part of it.”
While the majority of people BCNC serves are Chinese, the center is open to all, Li said, noting Quincy’s sizeable Albanian, Haitian and Middle Eastern immigrant populations.
“We want the future of Quincy to be as inclusive as possible and we partner with people who live here so that we can be responsive to their needs and help them to participate and thrive in their community,” Li said.
By providing these resources, Li hopes Quincy residents are empowered with the tools they need to create the best community possible.
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