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Brief History of HAMAA

Since the founding of HAMAA, there have been three primary phases in the development of our agency:

1)       The baseline organization was founded on the principal that the incoming Hmong Refugees in the 1980s had arrived with scant preparation and were simply overwhelmed by the demands of the Americanized Western system.  Facing daily pressures to gain English, find housing, enter the children in schools and locate suitable initial jobs sapped even the hardiest of souls.  The failure of the system to provide adequate policing and security, especially through educated Hmong-speaking officers, demanded immediate attention.  This resulted in the formation of the “Refugees in Community Action” (RICA) Program with funding from the Year of the City. 

Activity was  principally  focused on  the  aforementioned  policing  by  Hmong   auxiliaries  attached  to  the  Minneapolis   Police  Department  and  operating through  HAMAA.   Block Captains  were organized for “Safe Neighborhoods”  and  reporting  of morally or legally improper behavior became a regular event in  support  of  cleaning  up  the  Hmong Community areas of South and Near Northside Minneapolis.  In 1993, the Council of Hmong Elders was  formed  with the  primary  role  of adjudicating  Hmong  Community  culture-based  conflicts, such as traditional marriage  rules  and   etiquette,   family   relations   and   spouse  abuse,  and especially the  exploding  number  of  cases of  parent-youth  cultural  conflict.  Parallel  to  those  responsibilities  went    the  role as  provider of qualified specialists for the court system. 

2)       In 1995, HAMAA entered “Phase II” as the organization shifted focus from a functioning, if financially strapped, patrol and neighborhood system to tackle the even greater problems of preparation for jobs and employment.  Commencing its duties with a contract with the City of Minneapolis for Job Training, the program expanded over several years following to represent the single largest City employment contract for the underprivileged and those desperately challenged in education.  The 60 per cent unemployment figures for the Hmong Community demanded unqualified, specialist approaches.  As the “Contract on America” wound through the Congress, leading to the “Welfare to Work” Initiative of 1996, the HAMAA Family Empowerment Network Employment Program took on new meaning as family members who had never worked and spoke virtually no English were required to find work or an official relief through a qualified agency. 

The newly working families, often required by financial circumstance to place both husband and wife in jobs found no relief in their concern for the safeguarding of the youngsters after school.  HAMAA, as did several other Hmong Agencies, opened the doors to host after school programs for the young, ages 6-18 years.   Little more than sandboxes at first, the centers became more adept with time in developing appropriate school type, tutored or untutored activities.  Parents were also offered Citizenship Classes through a joint effort with the University of Minnesota Extension Service as an immediate bulwark against denial of aid benefits as non-citizens.

3)       By late 1998, it was apparent to all the Hmong in Minneapolis that while they had recognition as a group, that identity held sway only in the City of St. Paul.  Largely forgotten in Minneapolis were the 1/3 of the Hmong Twin Cities population.  Advocacy for their rights, the needs in housing, the concern for health care and youth after school programs as well as anti-truancy and anti- “youth gang” efforts took precedence.  The old staff were played out in many cases and could not see their way to making yet another leap up.

“Phase III” commenced in earnest in February, 1999, with the arrival of the new Executive Director.  Listening intently to the concerns of the Hmong Community in Minneapolis, a decision was made to reform the Board of Directors with well-educated, dedicated young Hmong-Americans who would be given the opportunity to turn both their education and their experiences in the two systems into reshaping the Hmong Minneapolis Community for the new Millennium. 

The Staff and funding support for the employment Program was strengthened and preparations were made for full support across the board of all employment options from individual training and placement to specialized MFIP support for those desperately in need of English and education before and even during initial work training.  The Youth Program was revamped with the help of several major foundations in establishing separate programs for the youth (6-12 years), the teens (13-21 years) and the most worrisome element, the “runaways” who are increasingly turning to “gang” activity.  In all of these “client specific cases,” in-depth evaluation formats and personal activity/development folders were set in motion to capture not only the cost of the program but especially the direct outcomes of value to the individuals.  Youth were to be carefully shepherded to safe education and lifestyles as adults were given one-on-one focus meetings to select the best career-pursuit employment in their area of interest.

Additional programs, for Hmong economic development of businesses and the local Hmong Community as a whole, housing locator and acquisition educational programs, and basic educational activity centers were placed into the starting blocks for immediate future development.  The older programs, including both Council of Hmong Elders and the RICA Program were re-energized, with the latter gaining the new name of “Minneapolis Community Patrol.”  Those involved in drugs, tobacco and/or gambling addictive lifestyles were placed on notice that the programs would be fully charged to intercept and intervene on behalf of the Hmong Community in accordance with law and morality statutes.  In all cases, the rejuvenating effort for HAMAA was centered on the concept that no one part could be isolated or neglected – all parts had to be brought together in harmony, no matter how difficult the task.