Online MAA Directory This online search engine allows users to select by program area, state, and ethnic representation, and may be updated periodically with new entries. New MAA Directory and Search Engine Acknowledgements Voices from the Community Definitions Methodology Survey Findings National MAAs Survey Form 2004 Print Edition A print edition of this Directory was published in October, 2004 (PDF available). To order, please download and fill out an order form and mail it with your payment.

Definitions: Mutual Assistance Associations (MAAs) and Religious Organizations Providing Social Services

Mutual Assistance Associations (MAAs)

Mutual assistance associations, or MAAs, are grassroots, community-based organizations managed primarily by and for members of particular resettled refugee groups.¹ MAAs usually focus on relatively small-scale geographical areas such as cities and counties, although national organizations managed primarily by and for resettled refugees—such as the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC)—often refer to themselves as "national MAAs."²

Many Southeast Asian American organizations are informal in the sense that they do not have official nonprofit status. Others are focused narrowly on particular clans or professional groups, such as veterans or teachers. SEARAC's data do not include informal or more narrowly focused groups, although they are extremely important institutions, since they are less likely to have the infrastructure necessary to build institutional relationships with the users of SEARAC's materials—including formal MAAs, public agencies, foundations, scholars, etc.

All of the MAAs described in the Directory have the following characteristics:

• They hold 501(c)3, nonprofit status, or are filing for that status;
• They are primarily managed by and for Americans of Cambodian, Laotian, or Vietnamese origin, or have their history in those communities and continue to represent Southeast Asian Americans (although they might reach out to other communities as well); and
• They focus on providing social services to a broad range of community members, rather than only to members of particular families or professional groups.

Religious Organizations that Provide Social Services

Religious organizations that provide social services (often referred to as faith-based organizations, or FBOs) are institutions such as Buddhist temples, Christian churches, Jewish synagogues, Moslem mosques, and the like, that serve as centers for religious activities. Many of these groups also provide social services to their communities, and some of them separate their social services from their explicitly religious practices.

Historically, religious organizations have been immensely important as providers of social and educational services, as well as spiritual functions, to Southeast Asian communities. When they first arrived in the U.S., many Southeast Asian refugee groups dedicated a surprisingly high proportion of their limited resources to establishing temples and churches, and many of their temples and churches remain enthusiastically supported and at the center of community life.

This Directory includes data pertaining only to religious organizations with the following characteristics:

• They are managed primarily by and for Americans of Cambodian, Laotian, or Vietnamese origin; and
• They keep at least some of their social services distinct from their services that are specifically religious in nature (e.g., prayer), in part so they can make use of funding from government, foundation, and corporate sources.

This online edition of the Directory also includes a sizeable number of such religious organizations, which were added because more sources of government, foundation, and corporate funding are open to supporting them than ever before. At the leading edge of this trend, SEARAC and partners are, as of this writing, implementing the first national, federally funded project to specifically focus on enhancing the social service capacity of Southeast Asian American religious organizations, as well as MAAs, or indeed the religious organizations of any refugee group. This project, named VERB (or Values, Empowerment, Resources, and Betterment) can be visited at http://www.searac.org/verb.html.

Southeast Asian Americans

For the purposes of this publication, Southeast Asian Americans are people in the United States whose heritage stems from Cambodia, Laos, or Vietnam. Southeast Asian Americans now number approximately two million, and most of them either arrived in the U.S. as refugees or are the children of refugees. They include people from the following ethnic and language groups from the three countries:³

Cambodia:

• Khmer, or "Cambodian"
• Cham, a Moslem minority group
• Khmer Loeu, or Highland Khmer

Laos:

• Hmong, or Mong⁴
• Lao, otherwise referred to as Lao Loum or Lowland Lao
• Iu Mien, or Mien
• Khmu
• Taidam

Vietnam:

• Vietnamese
• Montagnards, or Highlanders of several different ethnic groups
• Khmer Kampuchea Krom, or ethnic Khmer

Certain ethnic Chinese also have heritage in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

1 The term MAA originated in the refugee field, and is still used mostly by organizations representing and serving resettled refugees in the U.S. However, in some parts of the country a broader range of grassroots organizations have begun using the term as well.

2 For a listing of some Southeast Asian American national MAAs, see section D, below.

3 For data on Southeast Asian Americans, see: Niedzwiecki, Max and TC Duong. 2004. Southeast Asian American Statistical Profile. Washington, DC: Southeast Asia Resource Action Center. Accessible at http://www.searac.org/seastatprofilemay04.pdf. Paper copies can be ordered from SEARAC by contacting 202/667-4690 or searac@searac.org.

4 SEARAC follows the convention of the U.S. Census Bureau in referring to this group as "Hmong." SEARAC also follows the Census Bureau in referring to all people with roots in Laos as "Laotian," except for the Hmong, who are disaggregated separately because of their large population size.