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i. HAMAA Serving Our Hmong People in the Greater Twin Cities Metro Area

HAMAA serves principally the City of Minneapolis/Hennepin County area, which houses nearly 25,000 Hmong. However, the mission and goals of the organization require that the doors are open to all Hmong, including any from the St. Paul area in particular who are seeking MFIP-related services or work placement assistance and any incoming new residents regardless of final location. HAMAA has also served our local Near Northside for years as an employment center, now coming on-line with job search and support capabilities with the County of Hennepin. The Agency has never turned away any person regardless of language or heritage seeking employment, youth or city (crime, services, etc.) assistance. We simply hold the humble belief that we are best prepared for assisting our Hmong and try our best in all other cases.

Our HAMAA Agency, as an employment and youth center traditionally, has served approximately 400 family clients and youth on an on-going basis and perhaps twice that number as casual walk-ins and one time visits annually through 2000. As time has passed we have grown close to our youth in regular attendance and value our calls and visits from those families and adults who have received parenting, job skills or employment services. As might be expected, this closeness and the ever-present demands of families takes a toll on our staff members.

Yet one nagging problem affecting our Hmong Minneapolis Community for years has been the lack of a recognized Community ombudsman or advocate who could explain the needs of the Community in clear terms and help affect a significant, timely and decisive change in the status quo positive to the develop of our people. Long lacking a vocal representative, and viewing the disappointing loss of the Near Northside Community due to the recent Hollman Consent Decree, our people bean to search for a new and more effective voice with City Hall. HAMAA was asked to take up that role in the summer of 1999 and to serve as the Hmong Minneapolis Community Center.

As the Agency began to enlarge its program offerings for Community Center service, activity expanded exponentially, with meetings called at local armories and schools that filled the halls with 200 or 300 people at a time. By late 2001, it was estimated that nearly 2,500 Hmong Community members had participated in some manner as parents-youth teams, members in search of active policing and reestablishment of the Community Patrol, and founders of the Community Center to name a few.

ii. We Live in Our Community

Our HAMAA organization – Staff, Board and Community Members – live and work together by and large in the inner city of Minneapolis and the parallel Hmong-centric area of University/Frogtown in St. Paul.

Our facility is located in the traditional heart of the Minneapolis Hmong Community in Near Northside Minneapolis. Immediate (five minutes) to the majority of our Hmong and within a 15 minute drive of a large number of Hmong families who have settled in more distant parts of town due to the housing crisis, we can provide direct services in culturally appropriate language and settings at scheduled dates and under emergency conditions.

iii. Our Board of Directors Knows Our Community and Sets and Monitors Policy

The primary fiscal duty and long-range planning duties fall on the 12 members of the Board of Directors that serve biannually. Membership includes diverse representation from the Greater Minnesota community, various social service agencies, professional and official individuals, Asian owners of small businesses, and other Hmong community leaders.

The Board is comprised of at least 80 percent Hmong/Lao heritage that also provide all Officer positions candidates. The Board members are by and large young Hmong-Americans who are learning their role and responsibility as Board members and Directors in a hands-on environment. Board meetings that would typically require one hour in a standard corporate meeting require three hours of intense “instructional action” through advisors. All actions and votes, however, are strictly moved, conducted, debated and executed by the Board members themselves.

The Board sets policy and provides Community oversight of HAMAA. Board Meetings are conducted on a monthly basis, always meeting on the third Thursday, from 7:00 to 9:00 PM. This consistency in schedule and time is a determined factor in making available to our Community members any and very opportunity on a regular basis to raise issues and concerns of personal and/or Community interest. For instance, the reporting of observed fire hazards of materials in abandoned yards, the need to secure boarded property before it is returned to use to avoid unauthorized and dangerous occupation, the call for traffic signs to impede vehicles near children’s crossings fall under such meetings. Through the meetings the HAMAA Staff is advised and enabled to act effectively to resolve the issue.

Complaints of either a city or Community nature may be brought forward before a Community representative body capable of providing rapid response to known issues while providing proper, thorough and timely research and analysis into those issues or concerns for which information is initially limited. Examples include direction of issues to Public Health, Mental Health or protective custody agencies, alerts to law enforcement agencies for “gang”-related or other criminal activity within the Community, and evaluations and mediations for family members or between families in such issues as generation conflict and marriage contracts.

Whether American law or Hmong cultural traditions are involved, it is the value of a formed body in place to review and act on the circumstances in a timely manner that builds upon the belief and support of the Community that a problem can be resolved.