PACE News! - Fall 2009

PACE’s Weatherization Program ison track to get more than $7 million infederal weatherization assistance pro-gram funding under the American Re-covery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,signed into law by President Obama onFebruary 17, 2009.The money, to be granted in per-

formance-based allotments over thenext two years, comes under the act’sEnergy Efficiency and Renewable En-ergy provisions. These contain $6.2 bil-lion for a national program to helpmake American homes healthier andmake them use less precious energy.It’s the largest programof its kind in thenation’s history, based on both the cur-rent dire need for jobs and the desire toreduce the nation’s dependency oncostly imported fuels.The Weatherization Program is

managed by PACE Assistant DirectorLin Vong, who says, “We want toprove to everyone that this programwill be a great success, and that thefunding, which is administered by theCalifornia Department of CommunityServices and Development, goes tothose most in need, and to as manyof these people as possible.”So, in addition toweatherizing, PACE

is doing something else here. It’sbegun an extended outreach programto bring awareness of the program toas many people as it can possiblyreach. The more people receive theseservices, the more energy will be con-served andmore good-paying jobs canbe created and retained.PACE has used its diverse resources

to bring as many people as possibleinto its weatherization program. Gor-don Beck and Thomas Brackeen wererecruited through GreenWorksLA, agreen job training program adminis-tered by PACE. They took classes inphotovoltaic technology at the EastL.A. Skills center and their transporta-tion to the classes, their books andother costs were paid for.“We want to reach out to local

elected officials and grass roots organ-izations to help spread the word. It’s aneighborhood-by-neighborhood out-reach. We have something very im-portant to offer, and it doesn’t cost thebeneficiaries anything,” says JonBishop, the program’s Outreach Coor-dinator. “Our goal is to reach the un-reachable, those most in need of thefree weatherization services.”Bishop adds, “Every dollar spent on

weatherization returns about $2.72 inbenefits and fuel savings over the lifeof a home.” The weatherization serv-ices include caulking, weather strip-ping, energy-efficient refrigerators,installing compact, energy-saving fluo-rescent light bulbs, checking gas appli-ances for health and safety issues andreplacing those that are defective anddangerous. When it comes to carbonmonoxide hazards from malfunction-ing appliances, the health and even thelives of the residents are at stake.Cynthia Llana, PACE’s Director of En-

ergy and Environmental Services, saysthat the new program, after rampingup for its first three months, is nowrunning at full capacity. “There’s a 60percent increase over the work we’vepreviously done.” Each dwelling unitmay be eligible for $3,000 or more instimulus improvements, depending oneligibility factors.The program will grant the first half

of $7.05million to PACE for its first yearof work (including the ramp up), end-ing in September 2010. If the first yearis successful, the balance of the fundswill be available to the end of Septem-

OnPACE

Volume VII • Issue 3 July - October 2009

My dear friends, I just recently returnedfrom a grueling travel schedule. At myage, let me tell you that it was exhaust-ing, yet very inspirational.The first part of my journey began with

a week-long session at Harvard Univer-sity’s Achieving Excellence in CommunityDevelopment program. Inundated withcomplex concepts and theories and bom-barded by presentations from incrediblyaccomplished individuals, my simpleHawaiian brain was taxed. I began tohave brain fatigue after the second day.Combined with sleep and rice deprava-tion, I pushed on because I know that,even after being in community develop-ment for forty years, it’s important tocontinue learning if we are indeed tomake the world a better place. A fa-mous man by the name of Martin LutherKing, Jr. said that not everyone can befamous but everyone can be great. Andyou are great if you are of service toother people. How much more can wedo? How much better can we spend ourtime than helping people get out of thestranglehold of poverty.The second part of my journey took me

to Washington, D.C., where I collaboratedwith other Asian and Pacific Islanderleaders from around the United States tocontinue our efforts to form a nationalvoice for the API community. It inspiresme so much to see the great work ofother organizations like PACE throughoutthe country. The biggest honor camewhen I was invited to the White House. Iwas five feet away from the President ofthe United States as he signed the execu-tive order for the reestablishment of theWhite House Initiative on Asian Ameri-can and Pacific Islander Affairs. This wastruly a remarkable experience. The Pres-ident understands that when every seg-ment of our society gets the attention thatit deserves, the American model will trulybe the best in the world.It was a grueling trip but it inspired me

to do better and to do more. Please joinus as we continue in the movement tomake the world a better place.

By Kerry DoiPresident andChief Executive Officer

Continues on Page 2

American Recovery andReinvestment Act SwellsPACE's Green Efforts

Thomas Brackeen (left) and Elvis Martinez are two of those who are finding new careers in Green Industries thanksto the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Page 2 July - October 2009

PACE is special people. Its hundreds of employeesinclude many with unusual and poignant back-grounds that have brought them to work at thisunique and far-reaching organization.Perhaps none of them, however, has a life story

more singular than that of the Business DevelopmentCenter director, Namoch Sokhom, who this year cel-ebrates his tenth anniversary at PACE.What he best remembers about his boyhood is how

he endured by helping others survive. From his tur-bulent homeland of Cambodia’s civil war and theKhmer Rouge to the refugee camps of his early exile,Sokhom had to learn a myriad of skills. For him andhis family, the major enemy was mass starvation.

“We were luckyenough to avoid theCambodian massmurders,” he said.But as a child he sawmany thousands diewho, like Sokhom and his parents, had beendropped into the countryside, without food or eventraining to grow crops.“So we learned to plant and harvest, to fish, to trap

animals. We learned a lot in a very short time.” Thefamily survived on sparse rations of food likesweet potatoes and sugar cane. And then he, his

Namoch SokhomFrom Cambodia to

California (via Minnesota)

ber 2011. “But it’s on a first come, first served basis, prior-itizing vulnerable populations such as the elderly, the dis-abled and families with small children,” Bishop said.The people who hope the hardest for the program’s

success and continuation are probably the folks work-ing out there in the field, people with a broad range ofages and backgrounds, who are doing the weatheriza-tion work. Many of them lost good jobs in the pastyear’s recession. For them, PACE’s Energy and Envi-ronmental Services Department is a golden opportu-nity, not only to earn a decent living, but to gainqualifications and learn important new skills in thegrowing field of Green construction.

PACE’s Green Efforts

After decades of working forthe same Simi Valley furniturefirm, Thomas Brackeen foundhimself suddenly downsized out

of a job in his mid 60s. “I lost mymain revenue source,” he says,“so I couldn’t afford to retire.”Now, at 65, with three grown

children, three stepchildren andeight grandchildren, the CulverCity resident has found a newjob and a new career. He’s aPACE Weatherization Programfield worker. He works through-out the 13 Los Angeles Countycities served by PACE, makingthousands of low-income homeswarmer, more economical andeven safer for the people wholive in them.Brackeen first heard about

PACE through the East L.A. SkillCenter while attending Introduc-

tion to Solar Photovoltaic train-ing. He attended the PACEWestlake WorkSource Center’s“Positive Recruitment Fair” inJune andwas hired after his inter-view. He continues with his ad-vanced solar photovoltaictraining in the evenings after heleaves work at PACE.“I like the work,” says Brack-

een. “I’ve always been good withmy hands. And I’m getting evenbetter at 65, maybe because Ihave less to worry about nowa-days. It’s the immediate gratifi-cation, too. You don’t waitaround for something to do, youfix things immediately and thenmove on to another job.”

Thomas Brackeen

PACE’s Weatherization train-ing programs aren’t just for olderworkers. At 29, Elvis Martinez’spromising career in aviationtechnology was interruptedwhen he was laid off from his

airport mechanic’s job of work-ing on small-aircraft engines.He said he was desolated tofind that, for all his extensiveand expensive training in thisfield, he couldn’t find a similarniche anywhere.So he came to PACE to consult

with one of his old mentors in aweatherization training programhe’d attended as a teenager.The mentor had moved on, butPACE helped him anyway. Hewas told to draw on his weath-erization background and toapply for the new program’sopening as installer.He said the past few months’

working experience and hisclasses at the San BernardinoTraining Facility have pointed

his career in an entirely new di-rection. “I’m doing somethingthat’s environmentally friendlyand that makes me feel worth-while. I’m considering movingon into a career of working withGreen Energy production.Martinez says that his PACE

energy experience, combinedwith his aircraft technical ex-pertise, will help him advancefar. He looks forward to a careerworking with wind generatorturbines. “They have big pro-pellers just like airplanes, andthey have to be aerodynamic.”Like all the others in the PACE

program, when Elvis Maretinezseemed to be hitting a careerdead end, he found himself adoorway into the future.

Elvis Martinez

After a life of workingin the printing trade,Gordon Beck’s em-ployer moved out ofstate three years ago,leaving him behind. “Iretrained and went out-doors, working in con-struction. I liked that.

Even though I was usu-ally the oldest in thecrew — I’m 100 percentgray!” But then thebuilding trades took ahit in the recession.So he retrained again

at East L.A. Skill Center,this time taking solarphotovoltaic and ad-vanced solar technol-ogy courses. “What Ilike about this job is it’smore than just buildingthings. It’s saving en-ergy and heat, but it isalso about saving chil-dren’s health and some-times people’s lives.”And he expects to

move up in his newtrade. “I could become asolar installer. Or workon building green build-ings. It’s the future.”

Gordon Beck

PACH Business Development Center Director,Namoch Sokhom (above, left) as he is today and(above) as a bright young man in Cambodia.Continues on Page 5

Continued from Page 1

July - October 2009 Page 3

PACE News!

PACE News! is apublication of thePacific Asian

Consortium in Employment,a non-profit community service

organization servicing the greaterLos Angeles region.

�

The opinions expressed inPACE News! are those of theorganization and are notintended to reflect the

opinions of any of PACE'sfunders or clients.

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Comments and questions arewelcome. Please address them to:

PACE News!c/o Strategy Workshop, Inc.900 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 710

Los Angeles, CA [email protected]

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PACEBoard of Directors

ChairWarren Chang

Chagal Communications, Inc.

Vice Chair & TreasurerSandra Sakamoto

SecretaryJudge Jon M. Mayeda (Ret.)

The Superior Court

MemberNeil Yoneji

President & CEOKerry N. Doi

Vice President & COOYusa Chang

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PACE News! is produced byStrategy Workshop, Inc.

You couldn’t break open Nancy Ro-driguez’ cookie jar if you tried. The12-ounce Pepperidge Farm cardboardcan is covered and sealed from top tobottom with tough, broad transparenttape. Except for the slot on top.That’s the slot into which Rodriguezregularly put the money that savedher financial life.“I kept it in my clothes closet, just so I

wouldn’t be tempted,” she recalls now.The cookie jar discipline was part of

a PACE program that focused on peo-ple like Rodriguez: those whose per-sonal financial problems left themwith bank debts that looked un-payable. Her problem was that shelost her checking account, leaving be-hind unpaid overdrafts that put a wallbetween her and banking privileges

that most of us take for granted. Shehad become, after two years of unem-ployment, one of those unfortunatesknown as the “Unbanked.”As Carol Wu, PACE’s Asset Building

Coordinator, puts it, “Nancy was putback in the cash economy.” Ro-driguez’ relief payments, which shecashed at a local check cashing store,were feeding herself and her four chil-dren with nothing going toward heroverdraft debts. She paid high fees toget her checks cashed, and of coursehad nowhere to invest or even bankher funds once she cashed herchecks.Then, when she got a job recently,

her employer told her about the Bankon L.A. program. Begun by the LosAngeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s

office in imitation of a successful pro-gram in San Francisco and othermajor cities, Bank on L.A. wants toget 10,000 unbanked Los Angeles res-idents back into what it calls “secondchance accounts.” PACE’s BDC (Busi-ness Development Center) is one offour leading local partners in the cityprogram.With a half-time office job, Ro-

driguez still gets relief payments forher family. But now she has a start-up account at her local branch ofUnion Bank of California. It’s a sav-ings account, and now she can makedeposits and withdrawals at any ofthe bank’s branches. Her new bankaccount is also a major step towardthe checking account she can regainonce she pays off her old debts, aswell as a means to pay those debts bydiligently saving. But even after thatpayoff, it will take five years for her topurge her past checking account

PACE’s Key Role in theBank on L.A. Program

Five women, winners in the annualWomen & Co. Equity Award, a Citi-Group, Inc. initiative, were honored atPACE’s second annual CelebratingWomen in Business event at theDorothy Chandler Pavilion. Morethan 200 women entrepreneurs anddozens of exhibitors attended.Don Kinsey, a vice president of

Comerica Bank, a longtime partner inPACE’s Women’s Business Center

(WBC), said small businesses, likethose awarded, “understand that thecommunity comes first. They are theengine that drives our economy.”Citibank vice president Vivienne

Lee agreed. “Women are taking anever bigger role in business. So nowmore than ever, they need the train-ing PACE gives them.”“It’s an important opportunity to net-

work, just to talk to one another. The

PACE (WBC) ismore than just an SBApro-gram,” said Jackie Jones, aWBCmanager.

DEBORAH STERNLa Guera Tamalera

Top prize winner Deborah Stern’s LaGuera Tamalera of Silver Lake makes ar-tisanal organic tamales with localingredients and no trans fats. Her men-tors are a family of tamaleros fromVeracruz, Mexicowho have beenmakingand selling tamales for generations.Stern learned about PACE Women’s

Business Center through Mama’s HotTamales Café and graduated from the en-trepreneurial training program in June2008. She got early great media cover-age for her fine products but then could-n’t meet the demand for them. Her$5,000 award helped to hire two employ-ees and rent a kitchen. Her new capacityhas since garnered five new wholesaleaccounts.

Women business enterpreneurs were recognized at PACE’ssecond annual Celebrating Women in Business reception.(From left), Jackie Jones, Rosanna Ruey, Deborah Stern, LurikoOzeki, Karen Marcus, Shannon Bizzy, (unidentified), Citibankvice president Vivienne Lee.

PACE Celebrates Women in Business

Continues on Page 6

Continues on Page 4

SHANNON BIZZYBizzy Bee’s Landscape Maintenance

Shannon Bizzy left her hometown ofMariposa in northern California with twogreat talents: a gorgeous singing voiceand a knack for making plants grow.The rural county seat of 1,300 people

didn’t provide room for all this bright po-tential. So, like so many others, shecame to Los Angeles. She took singinglessons, learned to play the bass, andthen faced a hard reality: L.A.’s clubscene was crowded with talented vocal-ists. But there were genuine opportuni-ties for her other skill: premiumlandscape maintenance.So, while she kept up her music by

night, she dug in the dirt by day, main-taining and improving the yards of LosAngeles.“I’d beenworkingwith landscaping for

years,” she recalls. “I was the rare kidwho liked to do yard work.” By the time

she got here, she’d worked on 18 golfcourses. She quickly got a jobwith a toplandscape architect but soon realizedthat she wanted to plant and grow herown business.So she came to PACE’s Women’s Busi-

ness Center to learn the basics. Her$3,000 award helped her buy new equip-ment and hire two more people. Hermonthly sales doubled, from $5,000 to$10,000. Meanwhile, her hard-rockin’band, PDP, can be heard Sunday nightsat Hollywood’s Knitting Factory.

KAREN MARCUSYou’re Not the Boss of Me

Just the name of Karen Marcus’ busi-ness, “Your Not the Boss of Me,” broughtlaughs from the audience.Marcus, who’d shown strong artistic

ability ever since her teens, decided atage 50 to finally center her life on hercreativity. She has been a part of thePACE Women’s Business Center for thepast three years and in that time she con-tinued to develop as an artist and a busi-

nesswoman. Shemarketed her greetingcards all over Los Angeles, and currentlythey are sold in hotels, airports, salons,floral shops and at local events. She didnot have any space to create and storeher cards, but thanks to her $3,000 grantshe now has an office. You’ll soon beable to see her work on her website.

LURIKO OZEKIIyashi Wellness

Luriko Ozeki is the founder of IyashiWellness, a West L.A. Chinese medicineand holistic wellness clinic. Ozeki is agraduate of Yo San University of Tradi-tional Chinese Medicine and honed herpain reduction skills at the well regardedVenice Family Clinic.She is an advocate of an individual’s

capacity for self-healing and is commit-ted to ensuring the optimal well-being ofher patients by helping them realize theirspecific health goals. She came to PACElast year to sharpen up her business. Sheplans to use her $1,000 award to en-hance hermarketing so thatmore people

can learn about and experience the ben-efits of preventive medicine and holistichealing. “I want all my clients to becalmer,” she says.

ROSANNA RUEYe-Recycling Stewards

Rossana Ruey’s e-Recycling Stewards,Inc wants to save the world, or at leastpreserve the earth from the gatheringmounds of e-waste.She first came to PACEWomen’s Busi-

ness Center intent on starting a differentbusiness but after conducting extensivemarket research, she decided on e-recy-cling given her experiences and her pas-sion. e-Recycling Stewards collects endof life, out of date, obsolete and beyondeconomic repair electronic waste for re-use and recycling. “I want to make iteasy for customers to be socially respon-sible,” she says. A self-described “serialentrepreneur”, she’ll use her $500 awardto create her own e-waste recyclingwebsite and a corporate identity.


Mike Eng, the Democratic 49th DistrictAssemblyman who represents most ofthe southwestern San Gabriel Valley,loves to tell the story of how one of hisChinese immigrant ancestors did notstrike it rich in the NewWorld.“[My grandfather] worked many years

in San Francisco as a house boy for theblue jeans tycoon Levi Strauss,” Eng said,adding that his forebear had helped toraise the Strauss family. The patriarchwas so pleased that, when the childrenwere grown, he awarded his servantwithan exclusive Levi Strauss franchise. Thefranchise happened to be in Honolulu.“It wasn’t until he moved to Hawaii to

start his business that he realized thatpeople just don’t wear blue jeans inHawaii,” Eng recalled, speaking to the JulyPACE Breakfast Club meeting in Rose-

mead. The family dream of Hawaiianwealth and success faded and blew away.So his grandmother and grandfather

ended up working hard for low wages inHawaiian garment factories. His parentshad to struggle too, and didn’t haveenough time for child care. “I was an at-risk child,” he says. “I grew up in neigh-borhoodswhere if youweren’t six feet talland didn’t weigh 300 pounds, you gotbeat up regularly.”He could easily have gone wrong,

he said. What saved him, he now re-calls, was the Kiwanis InternationalHigh School Key Club. “I joined theKey Club and became a do-gooder,”he says. The club still directs teenstoward community involvement andleadership skills.Those Key Club lessons stuck. He

went on to attend the University ofHawaii, where he earned both Bach-elors and Masters degrees. He paidhis tuition by working full time in ahospital emergency room. He says itwas there that he encountered the re-alities of America’s unequal health

care system, meeting desperately illpeople coming through the emer-gency room who were seeing a doc-tor for the first time in their lives.

Assemblyman Mike Eng, speaking at a recent gathering of the PACE Breakfast Club.

Women in Business

Continues on Page 7


PACEBreakfast ClubAssemblyman Mike Eng Speaks to PACE


sisters and parents were amongthose who escaped as refugees afterthe Khmer Rouge fled the Vietnameseinvaders in the late 1970s.The family spent two years in

refugee camps in Indonesia and Thai-land. Sokhom, barely in his teens,managed to learn basic English onhis own. It wasn’t easy. Sokhom re-calls, “Learning English was forbid-den in the camp. There were no textbooks.” He learned by listening infurtively, sitting outside near a win-dow or behind a blackboard, to a pri-vate English class. He took his classnotes on old empty cigarette packs –the only available paper.It was these notes he used, six

months later when the teacher leftthe camp, to teach “English as a Sec-ond Language” (ESL) to his fellow in-ternees – his first teachingexperience. Meanwhile his parentssought refugee placement in France,Canada, Australia and, finally, theUnited States. They tried for NewYork and they tried for California. In-stead, these natives of subtropicalCambodia wound up settling inMinnesota.The year-round climate may have

been cold, but the Minnesota recep-tion was warm. A strong religion-based refugee outreach effort“particularly among the Catholics andthe Lutherans,” brought his family tothat state. Suddenly, he went from arefugee camp to St. Paul’s HighlandPark High School. He helped his par-ents, who worked as hotel employ-ees, adjust to American culture. Hestill recalls and admires his parents’independence. They banned TV andstrongly encouraged Sokhom and histhree sisters’ education. Then theyproudly insisted that all four childrengraduate from college. Now, three ofthe four have Master’s degrees, andanother is working on her Ph.D.“My father said education can’t be

burnt, it can’t be taken away fromyou,” Sokhom recalls, who now hastwo children of his own.Many Americans complain about

their high school years, but notSokhom. “After four years in theCambodian Killing Fields and twoyears in camps, it was a really bigtreat,” he recalls. More than that, hefelt at home in his new environment.“None of us ever thought of our

family as poor, or disadvantaged orunderprivileged. I soon found that

there were plenty of students there inSt. Paul who were in far worse cir-cumstances than I,” he recalled.One major advantage Sokhom had

over many of his fellow students washis attitude toward his teach-ers. “In Cambodia, we had anextreme respect for our teach-ers, just as we did for our par-ents. We actually saw ourteachers as second parents,”he recalls. “They bring us thegift of knowledge.”So he pitched in to help his

instructors. By the time hewas a senior, he was an ESLteaching assistant and a stu-dent representative with thelocal school district’s policycommittee.He says helping others

helped him to be a better stu-dent. “When you pitch in andhelp others, you don’t havemuch time to complain.”It was almost by accident

that he ended up at Min-nesota’s St. Olaf College, aLutheran private institution

that one of his favorite high schoolteachers strongly recommended. Hevisited it and liked what he saw.Maybe, as an immigrant to the U.S., ithelped that St. Olaf was itself founded

by immigrants in 1873 and annuallycelebrates its immigrant heritage.“They gave me early acceptance,”

he says. “It’s the only college I actu-

Namoch Sokhom

Namoch Sokhom's story is one of optimism, generosity and an unabiding dedication to helping people. From hischildhood in Cambodia, through relocation to Minnesota, return to Cambodia and, for the last ten years at PACE,Namoch has worked for a better world. Above, he is shown with his immediate family as they prepare to leave theirrefugee camp in Thailand.

Namoch and classmates at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, where one of his responsi-bilities was as resident assistant in a men's dormitory.

Continues on Page 8



If you were onPACE’s electronicmessaging systemand/or were a fan ofPACE on Facebook,you probably al-ready received threeexciting announce-ments from us.PACE’s 4th An-

nual Asian Careerand Business Fairtook place onWednesday, Octo-ber 28, once again

at the Pasadena Conference Center. This fairfeatureed 50+ exhibitors and was attended byover 1,000 job seekers and entrepreneurs. Ithas been featured in the L.A. Times, local eth-nic media, Facebook, Jobing.com, TV18 andother sources.PACE is now a U.S. Small Business Adminis-

tration (SBA) designed Microenterprise LendingIntermediary! With an initial injection of$750,000 in lending capital from the SBA andmatches from local banks, we expect to assistlocal area small businesses with their capitalneeds in a very tight credit market.PACE just received a federal grant from Wash-

ington, D.C. to establish and operate “Green-Biz sPACE”. It is a business incubator that willhouse up to 10 small, Green start-up or ex-panding businesses. In addition to space, com-mon use areas, and equipment, GreenBizsPACE will provide tenants with networking op-portunities, business counseling, mentoring,and access to contracting and marketing op-portunities.Of course you can read in more detail about

these three exciting announcements in thenext issue of PACE News! But if you sign up tobe on our electronic messaging system or be-come a fan of PACE on Facebook, you wouldhave known about them already… plus otherperiodic announcements of events or impact ofour work.However, we will make the following pledges:We will not share your e-mail address with

anyone else except for PACE use only.We will not irritate you with too frequent e-

mail blasts on trivial information. We will bevery selective with our messages.If you are interested to be placed on our e-

mail list, please contact Alvaro Bermudez [email protected]. If you already have aFacebook account, you can log on towww.pacela.org to sign up as a fan of PACE.

PACEFrontlineBy Yusa Chang

Vice President & Chief Operating Officer In this difficult recession econ-omy, with so many men andwomen struggling to get jobs,PACE continues to perform ex-ceptionally in the basic task ofmoving people from the welfarerolls into gainful employment.Now, with new federal stimulusmoney backing it, the PACEWork Opportunity program ismore vital than ever.“Our bottom line is to help a

CALWORKS client land a posi-tion of self sufficiency. In thiswe already have a 75 percentsuccess rate,” said Albert Sy,chief of the Work Opportunityprogram. PACE placed at least250 people under this programthis year—up from just 30 be-fore the stimulus act.CALWORKS is the work-ori-

ented California benefits pro-gram that replaced straightwelfare payments in 1996.Now, cash welfare aid is lim-ited to 60 months total in anadult lifetime; the intentionbeing to bring unemployedand indigent people into theworkforce and to wean themoff this public dependency. Andthat’s where PACE comes in:finding jobs. “This stimulus fund-ing suddenly gives our job pro-gram a huge shot in the arm,”says Sy.Sonia Burgos, a mother of one

who’d been on assistance sinceshe lost a warehouse job over twoyears ago, early this year got into

PACE’ Transitional Subsidized Em-ployment program. This meansthat her wages are partly paid bygovernment money. Now she’s aPACE program assistant, and ineight months has learned the insand out of how best to serve peo-ple trying (as she did recently) to

get off of welfare assistance andinto a job.She recalls PACE’s employment

orientation opened her eyes: “Theytaught us how to dress, how towrite a resume, to do an interview,and how to behave on the job. Itwas all very useful.” As a mother

with a partner living with her athome, she’s entitled to up to 35hours a week of work. She knowsshe’s acquiring valuable experi-ence toward a more permanentcareer, one that will, she hopes,enable her to finish the two-yeardegree she began years ago at

Long Beach City College.Her colleague, Jessica Ruiz,

has three children. She had asimilar experience that put heron assistance. “But the simplefact is,” she said, “That you get alot more money when you areemployed than when you are onassistance.” Right now, she’sworking as Sy’s personal assis-tant at PACE. Ultimately, she’dlike to go to college too. She’salready got a career goal. “I’dlike to join the LAPD and be-come a homicide detective. Ilike to figure things out.”Both Burgos and Ruiz, after

completing their training, arenow working full-time at PACE.They are among the 20 peoplein the program PACE hired.The new stimulus-funded

program is an expansion of the13-year-old welfare-to-workprogram. But the new program

(the American Recovery and Rein-vestment Act of 2009) also offersgovernment-subsidized pay of $10an hour, up from $8. Los AngelesCounty Supervisor Don Knabe an-nounced earlier this year that as

Work Opportunity ProgramSteps Up to the Plate

Albert Sy heads PACE's Work Opportunityprogram.

problems from her bank records.Wu said, “The problem is that so

many people don’t understandbanks and are afraid of them.Both banks and the people whouse them need to build mutualtrust. Bank on L.A. is one goodway to do that.” It’s estimated thatat least 15 percent of all Americanhouseholds are “Unbanked.” Inminority populations, the propor-tion is much higher.

Founded in March of this year,Bank on L.A. has alreadylaunched 2,000 new “rebanking”accounts, Wu says. The PACEBDC likes to offer the program topeople involved in its RemedialFinancial Education Programs. Inaddition to Union Bank of Cali-fornia, PACE’s partners in Bankon L.A. include Bank of America,CitiBank and Wells Fargo (whichnow includes Wachovia). Wu fur-ther credits HSBC Bank, whichbegan its own asset-building pro-gram three years ago even beforeBank on L.A. started, becoming

the local pioneer of the asset-building rebanking concept.Wu points out that the banks can

also benefit from the program in abig way. More bank clients in low-income areas could inspire banksto open more branches to draw indepositors. It’s estimated thatabout $10 billion annually passesthrough the check cashing andpayday loan shops that serve thefiscal needs of the people whodon’t get to use banks.That’s potentially a huge and

profitable new customer base forthe bankers.

PACE’s Key Role

Continues on Page 8



We usually think of PACE’s Head StartEarly Childhood Education as being fo-cused on the very young. After all,PACE does provide its basic pre-schoollearning for over 1,600 pre-Kinder-garten children in its program.But PACE Early Educa-

tion also provides servicesfor adults, including par-enting and literacy classesfor pupils’ mothers and fa-thers, along with compre-hensive services for thewhole family.Now there’s another ed-

ucational force emergingamong Head Start parents.It’s the force that empow-ers them. This is the PACEHead Start Policy Commit-tee, a regional body com-prised of representativesfrom each of the 25 centers throughoutthe county operated by PACE.“It started out as simple parental in-

volvement,” recalls PACE Early Child-hood Education Director RachellePastor. “Now it has evolved into a trueparents’ policy group. We’re teaching

them all how to speak out.” More im-portantly, this regional volunteer panelnow has staff hiring and firing powers;it helps PACE with the budget and planscurricula; it even plans field trips. A 4-person Executive Committee elected

from the larger bodyoversees the 50-mem-ber panel and alsomeets separately, help-ing to steer the entireorganization.Angel Santiago, 44, a

Santa Monica hotelworker, sits on the Ex-ecutive Committee. Hehas two children, a girlin middle school and aboy who is just goingfrom Head Start intoKindergarten. Santiagowas on the larger com-

mittee for a year before he was electedto the executive panel. “The experiencehas made me a better parent,” he says.“And it has given me a basic under-standing of how the system works.”Rosa Amaya, on the other hand, is

relatively new to the executive leader-

ship program. Her two children havebeen in Head Start for just two years, soshe is in her second year with the par-ents’ group. And she’s still in her firstyear on the Executive Committee.“We’re giving our children the basic

understanding they’ll need in school,”she says. “But we’re also gaining someunderstanding our-selves. We learn howto work together andhow to help our chil-dren learn at home.”Amaya added, “I

started to work on thePACE Head Start Exec-utive Committee be-cause I wanted to beable to help my chil-dren learn better, notjust now, but whenthey are going on toprimary school. Andeven beyond that.”The committee provides a venue in

which parents can not only get to knowone another and work together to bet-ter preschool education, but to learnhow to stand up and become effectivecommunity members. “It gives them achance to articulate,” Pastor says. “Atfirst the members tend to sit quietly.”But eventually, they stand up and saysomething. Then they start to getdeeply involved in the process of help-ing run the organization. A member ofthe committee sometimes gets so in-volved that he or she stays on three orfour years, even after their child has

gone onto Kindergarten. This estab-lishes continuity and experience in thebody.Each of the 25 PACE Head Start cen-

ters has its own local parent commit-tee, and each committee elects itsrepresentatives to the regional PolicyCommittee. The candidates first get

training in the rules oforder and other workingaspects of the commit-tee’s functions, a trainingthat’s reinforced beforeeach meeting. There’salso an annual trainingevent. The second event,held last March at thedowntown Center forHealth Communities, at-tracted 500 Policy Com-mittee members.“The empowerment

learning goes beyond thepre-school experience,”

Pastor said. “We hope it will carry overinto primary school PTA involvement.It also gives the parents greater confi-dence in asserting themselves in gain-ing better health care, or in buying ahouse. In the context of neighborhoodorganizations, it even empowers par-ents to deal with city and political offi-cials – to get a pedestrian cross walk ora stop sign put up on your corner, forinstance.”Pastor hopes it is this experience that

will eventually help PACE parents be-come valuable citizens and communitymembers.

PACEHead Start ParentsLearning Self-Empowerment

Rosa Amaya

Angel Santiago

“I’m now a major supporter of health care reform,”he says.He came to Los Angeles to attend UCLA Law

School. There he met his wife-to-be, Judy Chu (nowCalifornia’s first Asian American Congresswoman).She persuaded her young lawyer fiancé to stay inL.A. – and not “go back to those Islands.” He hasnever regretted the decision.Now Eng sits in his wife’s former Assembly seat, but

he’s long had an independent career of his own, first asa poverty lawyer (that means “when the lawyer makesless money than his clients do,” he joked), then as amainstream attorney with his own firm. His parallelpolitical career saw him elected as a city councilman inMonterey Park, where he later served as mayor.He recalls that he and his wife moved to Monterey

Park when it was still a majority white community,and where ethnic discord resulted in nationallynoted discrimination against Asians. “There werestill those people who complained about what lan-guage your store sign was in,” he recalled. He re-calls fighting prejudice personally.

Perhaps most symbolic of the city’s progress to-ward a peaceful era of tolerance was the $18 millionMonterey Park Bruggemeyer Public Library expan-sion for which Eng, as a three-term city LibraryTrustee, oversaw the fundraising campaign thatraised half the project’s cost. The assemblyman isstill proud of the new library, which reopened in2006. It is now twice the size of its predecessor andalso serves as a significant regional center for theeducation for U.S. citizenship applicants.Speaking to PACE just after the tentative resolution

of the state’s severely prolonged budget process, Engsingled out Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s campaignpledge to eliminate the car license tax in 2003 as akey element of California’s financial problems. “Elim-ination of the vehicle license fee put a $4.5 billion holein our budget every year since then,” he said. He alsocited the national mortgage crisis, which he said wascaused by increasing regulatory laxity under the lastBush administration, as another major factor in thestate’s problems. He compared the huge amount ofpaperwork and references he had to produce for hisown first home purchase mortgage with the extremelaxity of the housing-boom mortgage lending of thepast four years. “No documents, no phone calls. Bro-kers were making their millions on many thousands

of house sales to people who just couldn’t afford themortgage payments.” Then last year, things fell apart.“What started in Washington, D.C. spread all over thecountry and then the world,” Eng said. “And to Cali-fornia in particular.”Eng, who chairs the state Assembly Transportation

Committee, indicated that Sacramento’s Democratsare holding strong for some new taxes to protect cru-cial services that might have been passed had thegovernor supported them. He cited the oil severancetax common in all the other oil-producing states,which California’s Republicans continue to fight.“This tax alone could bring in $1.2 billion a year.” Engcontended that since oil is a global commodity, theseverance tax would have no effect on this state’spump prices. A similar amount would have come intax revenues had the state passed a $1.50 per packcigarette tax hike. These proposals are still viable, hesaid. He also expressed hope that there would be anew state constitutional convention and that initia-tives will make next year’s ballot.He even ventured some optimism about the state’s

long-term future. “We in the government share yourpain. But our doors are always open. And we knowthat California will someday become again the GoldenState for us and for our children.”

Assemblyman Mike EngContinued from Page 4


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much as $160 million in stimulus funds would be avail-able to L.A. County alone. These funds are intended tocreate 10,000 temporary jobs until September of nextyear. (The program may also be extended anotheryear). Federal funds will pay 80 per cent of the em-ployee wages for one year and the employers pay therest. At the end of the subsidized period, program offi-cials hope that their new employers will hire many ofthe workers permanently.Knabe’s spokesman, Dave Sommers, noted, “It’s a very

successful program. We’ve already filled 6,000 of the jobs.”He explained that because the wages are so heavily subsi-dized, the program gives recession-hit employers a chanceto expand their work forces at low cost to them. Even Star-bucks has hired some of the program applicants, he said.The employers benefit by being able to expand their busi-nesses with the new hires.Knabe himself, at a March press conference, compli-

mented PACE for not only training but hiring transitioningworkers in the program.Sy notes that the new funding is particularly welcome in

this region, where the unemployment rate has gone past10.5 percent. He says, “In order to fulfill our obligations, wehave to work really hard to get people jobs.” He gives a lotof credit for PACE’s success to Jenny Chen, the PACEWork-Source Center’s resident genius of job searching, who hasbeenmatching unemployed people with jobs for 25 years—five of those years at PACE.The workers hired through the program usually take

positions offered by PACE’s partners, which include thecounty. These include maintenance chores, clerical workand other functions in public, private and nonprofitworkplaces.

“Most of the people who go in these jobs keep them atleast a year,” said Sy. After that year of employment ina PACE transitional position, many of those in the pro-gram are able to move up to long-term employment else-where, trading welfare dependency for job independenceand new careers. These people are real success storiesof PACE’s new partnership Work Opportunity program,Sy says.

Work Opportunity

ally applied to.” Not surprisingly, he did wellthere too. But Sokhom’s college campus careerwas busier and more serious than that of moststudents in the late 1980s.Instead of the usual social fraternity, he joined

Alpha Phi Omega, a national organization ded-icated to leadership and service. “We’d visit theelderly, we’d plant trees. We ran our own printshop that served the whole campus.” A French-language student of outstanding abilities, he be-came a French Department teaching assistant;he also held an educational leadership post asresident assistant in an international male stu-dent’s dorm. This job got him crossways withseveral football players after he made them pourout all their beer in the course of a particularlyraucous party. In angry revenge, the bereftdrinkers tossed his hall rug out of the window.“It was a tough job,” he recalls of his time spentriding hard on his St. Olaf classmates.After graduation, Sokhom got his MBA in fi-

nance and banking at Thunderbird School ofGlobal Management in Glendale, Arizona, aschool strong on international relations. Hisfirst real-world full time job was as an account-ing manager with Knight Ridder’s St. Paul Pio-neer Press newspaper. But in 1995, he took abig, emotionally charged step and returned tothe tormented land of his birth: Cambodia.“It was very moving,” he says now. “I still re-

member how I felt when the plane began to de-scend and I first saw that landscape again afterso many years.” He faced one of the toughestchallenges of his entire career: working as aneconomist at the International Monetary Fund(IMF) implementing facilities to stabilize the ex-change rate. He also volunteered to teach over300 employees of the fledgling Cambodian gov-ernment about American accounting principles,business practices and English business termi-nologies. The purpose was to help make Cam-bodia eligible to join the Association of SouthEast Asian Nations (known as ASEAN).Looking back now, he says, “It was a lot like

what we do here today with the PACE BusinessDevelopment Center. Only instead of givingcourses to aspiring startup business peoplefrom all around Los Angeles, I was teachingthis nation’s top economic officials.” He wasalso, in effect, helping to bring his native landback to life.Among the problems Sokhom faced in his job

was not just teaching his “students”, but to doso in the absence of textbooks. Few books hadsurvived the vicious Khmer Rouge reign. Atfirst, he tried to get English business texts trans-lated into the Khmer language. Eventually,though, his governmental students learnedenough English business terms and conceptsthat they preferred to be taught in English.Sokhom says his main objective in his native

land was to help implement the IMF’s concept

of sound monetary policy. In this capacity, hehelped bring about a $120 million loan to theNational Bank of Cambodia. The establishmentof that independent central bank, along with astable currency and the privatization of nation-alized industries, was a key IMF mandate. “TheIMF’s only mission is to maintain financial sta-bility,” he said. In Cambodia, its work had atleast a qualified success. But after the 1997 coup(never so termed by the IMF, who wanted to shieldtheir accomplishments) by Cambodia’s ruling coali-tion partner Hun Sen, Sokhom andmany of his col-leagues felt it was time to leave the country. Hethen came to Los Angeles, where he served twoyears as a senior accountant and finance analystwith the American Heart Association before com-ing to PACE in 1999.PACE was then looking for someone who

spoke Khmer. But Sokhom brought much morethan that. And at PACE, he found his currentcareer goal: helping economically challengedpeople of all backgrounds put their finances ona firm basis, particularly by starting businessesof their own.As director of PACE’s BDC, Sokhom again

found himself teaching the same basic economicprinciples of modern commerce that he’d taughtto Cambodia’s bureaucrats. But this time, hewas reaching out to an enormous variety of peo-ple in the Los Angeles area, people of all eth-nicities and educational backgrounds. Whatthey had in common was a driving interest inmoving ahead by building a successful businessfor themselves and their families.Now, with a staff of 14 and five interns,

Sokhom’s Business Development Center is amodel of its kind. It’s a nonprofit organization,but it is dedicated to nurturing and advancingthe profit making businesses that bring jobs andrevenues to lower income communities. Theprogram uses a combination of classes, consul-tations and coaching to teach and help studentsimplement the basics of business plans, bankaccounts, and credit.“It really all sits on good credit,” Sokhom

says. “Credit is the key foundation. And youneed a working relationship with your bank,too.” He notes that for businesspeople in par-ticular, home ownership is a helpful major step.It also provides a stable fiscal resource for theentrepreneur and his or her all-important creditrating.Sokhom admits it’s a bit of a paradox that a

major non-profit like PACE has become so im-portant in bringing so many people into the bigtent of entrepreneurship, and has nurtured somany successes.“But actually,” he says, “we are trying to create

more than just profit. Even if businesses aren’toverwhelming successes, they bring jobs intocommunities and they generate services andrevenues. They help neighborhoods grow andprosper. That’s why we are all so passionateabout what we do here.”

Namoch SokhomContinued from Page 5Continued from Page 6

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PACE News! - Fall 2009