Our mission at the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging (NAPCA) is to preserve and promote the dignity, well-being, and quality of life of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) as they age. We achieve this mission by ensuring that AAPI elders have the programs and services they need wherever they live in the U.S and by building the capacity of mainstream service providers to be culturally competent and linguistically appropriate.

In 2017, we made internal changes to strengthen our organization and to realign ourselves with our strategic goals, including national leadership, advocacy, expertise, and accurate information and data.

Through organization-wide retreats earlier this year, senior management and staff worked collaboratively to define and establish the core values that would guide us in the important work we do. Those values are:

Equipped with our new set of core values, the NAPCA team was able create the possibility that AAPI older adults live a life of dignity and well-being. Some of our accomplishments include:

• Developing resources and programming to prevent AAPI elder abuse and neglect
• Connecting over 1,000 mature workers with employment and training
• Shining the spotlight on dementia among AAPI families
• Helping AAPI older adults save money on prescription drug costs
• Increasing our organization’s budget by 25% from the previous year
• Leading multiple civic engagement activities and refining our processes to be repeatable and rapid
• Unveiling a new website with a fresh and modern look and feel and expanded resources

We invite you to visit our redesigned website at www.NAPCA.org and to view our complete 2017 Annual Report, available mid-January.

We would not have been able to accomplish all the above without the dedication of our 32 talented staff in five states. Earlier this month as we paused to reflect and celebrate our impact, several NAPCA employees were recognized for going above and beyond in their commitment to excellence in serving the AAPI community. We thank them for exemplifying our core values and making a positive impact!

To the AAPI community we have served for the past 38 years, we renew our commitment to you and your family and stand firmly to continue to promote your dignity, well-being and quality of life. From our family to yours, Happy Holidays!

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Diverse Elders Coalition.