Korean Churches for Community Development (KCCD) has launched its Job Opportunities & Business Success Initiative (API JOBS), which is funded with a grant from the city of Los Angeles Underserved RFP for Workforce Development. The initiative is the first of its kind to serve the Asian Pacific Islander (API) community with vocational training, employment, career pathway, community and social services.

Korean Churches for Community Development recently held a press conference to announce a new job-creation program. Pictured are Mark Masaoka (left), policy director for AP3CON; Los Angeles Community College Board trustee Mike Eng; Betty Hun, policy director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles; and Jan Perry, general manager of the Los Angeles Economic and Workforce Development Department and a former Los Angeles City Councilwoman. (photo courtesy of KCCD)

“We are pleased to announce this exciting and historic initiative and we are grateful to the city of Los Angeles and to all our partners for making this day possible,” KCCD president and CEO Hyepin Im said. “The API community is the second largest minority population in Los Angeles County and yet our communities continue to be underserved. In the city of Los Angeles, the API community represents 10 percent of those who are unemployed, but only 6 percent are accessing services available in the City’s Worksource Centers. As a result, a group of API organizations came together to advocate [for] identifying ways to serve the API population. A two-year effort, this is an initiative that has been a long time coming.”

KCCD will work with Workforce Connections Inc. and Jan Tokumaru, from the California Labor Federation Workforce and Economic Development Program, to implement the Initiative.

“The API community faces significant language barriers and at the same time have high rates of small business ownership. As an example, in Los Angeles County, Koreans have the highest rate of language barrier at 60 percent,” Im said. “Due to such barriers, it prevents the community, both job seekers and employers, from accessing resources and services available to the broader community.”

KCCD will hold orientations on API JOBS program. For information, call (213)985-1500, or visit kccd.org.