Values, Empowerment, Resources, and Betterment (VERB) Project

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VERB improves leadership, operational and service capacity within grassroots partner organizations including Southeast Asian American MAAs and FBOs. Geographical target areas include North Carolina, Northern California, metropolitan Washington, DC, and Wisconsin. VERB provides training, technical assistance, and sub-grants to sixteen MAAs and FBOs. VERB receives major support from the Compassion Capital Fund within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

• Project Period
• Target Groups
• Goals
• Main Activities
• National Partners
• Funders
• Staff Involvement

Project Period:

Target Groups:

• Geographical target areas include North Carolina, Northern California¹, metropolitan Washington, DC, and Wisconsin.
• Two faith-based organizations (FBOs) and two mutual assistance associations (MAAs) managed primarily by and for Americans from Cambodia², Laos, and/or Vietnam ("Southeast Asian Americans") from each of the geographical target areas. Through a competitive process overseen by the national VERB Steering Committee, six new organizations will be chosen to join the project. These organizations will join the ten with which we are currently partnering. In total, there will be 16 sub-awardee organizations during fiscal year 2004.

Goals:

• Improve leadership, operational, and service capacity within grassroots partner FBOs/MAAs.
• Increase the ability of FBOs/MAAs to access resources, and the ability of funders to understand FBOs/MAAs.
• Improve ability of FBOs/MAAs to stimulate and structure civic engagement among community members.
• Increase and improve collaborative efforts among all partner organizations, and others.

Main Activities:

• Subgrants to partner FBOs and MAAs to support capacity-building activities. Annual funding available: $20,000/organization. At least half of each subgrant must be used for organizational or leadership development expenses such as fees for organizational development consultants, college courses, accounting software and training, etc.
  • FY 2005 Grassroots Partners
• Technical assistance provided to partner FBOs and MAAs by project staff members, after collaborative assessments of needs and assets.
• Training provided annually to all groups.
• Mentorships arranged between leaders of the MAAs/FBOs, and staff members of local funding institutions.
• Information-sharing with all groups (including non-project partners) through an e-mail listserv and a resource center on SEARAC's website (www.searac.org).
• Publication of policy/research report at the end of the project.

National Partners:

• Southeast Asian American organizations: Cambodian American National Council (CANC), Hmong National Development, Inc. (HND), Laotian American National Alliance (LANA), National Alliance of Vietnamese American Service Agencies (NAVASA), and Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC, fiscal agent and lead agency). (All Steering Committee members.)
• Faith-based refugee organizations: Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), and United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Migration and Refugee Services (MRS). (Both Steering Committee members.)
• Training organization: Mosaica. and National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD) (Both Steering Committee members.)
• Grantmakers' affinity group: Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AA/PIP). (Steering Committee member.)
• Research and policy analysis organization: Migration Policy Institute (MPI) (Steering Committee consulting partner.)

Funders:

• Major funding from the Compassion Capital Fund Demonstration Program (Office of Community Services [OCS], Administration for Children and Families [ACF], U.S. Department of Health and Human Services[DHHS])

Staff Involvement:

• Principal Investigator: Max Niedzwiecki (SEARAC Executive Director). Project Manager for Administration: Naomi Steinberg. Project Associate: Sophy Pich.
• Executive directors and/or other senior staff of all partner Southeast Asian American national organizations.
• Representatives from all other national partner organizations.
• Executive directors (or other senior representatives) from all partner FBOs and MAAs.

¹ For fiscal year 2004, SEARAC and its partners on the VERB Steering Committee are not accepting applications from organizations located in Northern California. Four of the current VERB sub-awardees are located in Northern California, and the project strives to achieve geographical diversity, so priority will be given to the other three project regions.

³ SEARAC and its partners on the VERB Steering Committee welcome applications from any Southeast Asian American MAA or FBO in the three project regions from which we are currently seeking applications. However, there are currently four Cambodian VERB sub-awardees with which we are partnering. Therefore, in our efforts to work with a diverse group of VERB sub-awardees that compliment the VERB sub-awardees with which we are already working, we particularly encourage Hmong, Lao, Montagnard, and Vietnamese organizations to apply.