Major Accomplishments

Civic Engagement and Advocacy

  • Helping Chinese students at Kelly High School, which serves nearly 400 Chinese immigrants and American-born Chinese youth, advocate for more Chinese-speaking faculty and staff

  • 2010 Census awareness efforts that resulted in a 10% increase in the mail-in response rate

  • Successful legislative advocacy including redistricting and the passage of the Voting Rights Act of Illinois 2011 (or Chinatown Bill), which created opportunity for our first Asian American elected to serve in the Illinois General Assembly in 2016.

  • Successful voter registration campaigns that topped all other immigrant communities and increased the number of Asian American voters in the Greater Chinatown neighborhood by 400%.

 

Community Planning

  • Successful advocacy and monitoring of major infrastructure improvements in the community, for example, the CTA red line train entrance at Cermak.

  • Over 1,000 letters were written and 400 turned out for a town hall meeting at which elected officials pledged support for a library and field house. We successfully advocated for a new Chinatown Branch Library of Chicago Public Library, the first creative modern design for CPL, and also carried the function of a community center.

 

Historical Timeline

2018 —

CBCAC created the Parent Mentor Program, which provides immigrant parents support in navigating the public school systems so they are empowered to advocate for their children with teachers and administrators. This gives opportunities for parents to better understand the classroom and for teachers to better understand the community they serve. In 2019, Project: VISION continued the program which still exists today. 

 
 

— 2017

 

Amidst growing concerns, CBCAC created an Anti-Displacement map and research report to highlight various social change campaigns led by community organizations in the area. To make the information accessible, a walking tour was conducted to allow community members to learn about the report. Check out the report here.

CBCAC engaged community members in thinking about how Chinatown's walkability impacts their health and wellbeing. With participation from high school youth, seniors, ESL students, and the general public, CBCAC conducted a series of walkability audits and charrettes on safety, walking, and bicycling. We identified key elements that affected walkability and recommended strategies to improve connectivity, accessibility, and safety for all road users. See the report here.

 

2016 —

 

Origins youth created a final report about Chinatown’s situation and presented it to community organizations and members. Origins collected information about Chinatown’s history, culture, public services, and more to create a better understanding of Chinatown’s current situation. Learn more here.

CBCAC led the creation of the beautiful, mixed media Centennial Mural. The mural’s north side of the wall represents the past 100 years and the south side of the wall represents the future and its next 100 years. The community came together to paint the mural together and got to see their own family members represented. 

 

— 2015

 

The 31st Street Bus Line, a major bus route our Chinatown area community uses, was stopped in 1997 due to low ridership. Since then, community residents, organizations, and CBCAC have worked together to fight for its reinstatement and finally got it back in 2015. 

2013 —

In April, CBCAC launched the Chinatown Vision Plan project. During the summer and fall, CBCAC collected input from over 1,000 community members on the Chinatown Vision Plan. Learn more about it here.

In October, the Ping Tom Park field house was dedicated.

 

— 2011

For many years, the greater Chinatown community has been divided in numerous legislative districts. Working closely with State Sen. Kwame Raoul and Asian American Institute, CBCAC was instrumental in the passage of the Illinois Voting Act of 2011. The legislation protects racial and language minority communities who are too small to be protected by the Federal Voting Right Act. During the ensuing redistricting process, 95% of the Chinese living in the greater Chinatown area were included in Illinois State Senate District #1 and Illinois House of Representative District #2.

 

CBCAC also helped Chinese students at Kelly High School, which serves nearly 400 Chinese immigrants and American-born Chinese youth to advocate for more Chinese-speaking faculty and staff. CBCAC helped recruit and train the first Chinese parent to be elected to Kelly’s Local School Council (LSC) in 2011.                                              

2010 —

Through ICIRR’s NADP, CBCAC registered over 1,000 new voters in the greater Chinatown community. Additionally, through CBCAC’s 2010 Census awareness efforts, the community saw a 10% increase in the mail-in response rate.

— 2008

CBCAC registered 1600 new voters through a partnership with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights’ (ICIRR) “New Americans Democracy Project” (NADP). CBCAC registered the most new voters among the project’s 20 partnering organizations.

2007 —

The coalition expanded to include eight major service organizations in Chicago and changed its name to “Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community” (CBCAC) to more accurately reflect the geographical diversity of its member organizations.

— 2004

CBC joined with ICIRR to push the “New Citizen Voting Action Project 2004” and successfully registered more than 600 new voters. A list of new voters was handed to the Congressman in order to show the growing political power among the Chinese community.

2001 —

We formally became CBC (Coalition for a Better Chinatown) in order to advocate for a single legislative district at the city, county, state and congressional levels for the Chinese Community. We consisted of four major service organizations (CASL, Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, Chinese American Civic Council and Pui Tak Center).

 

— 2000

We initiated a voter engagement project called the “Asian American Vote 2000”. This was the very first time there was a voter registration drive to empower the community and advance its political rights.

 

1998 —

Before we were formally named, we started as five different organizations in Chicago’s Chinatown (Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, CASL, Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, Chinese Christian Union Church, Pui Tak Center) who came together to work on the community concern of the overly aggressive marketing and ubiquitous presence of casino buses blocking all thoroughfares in the community. By bringing the case to the Mayor and meeting with the Alderman, CBC was able to reach agreement on regulated pick-up and marketing of the various casinos.