The Korean Resource Center was founded in 1983 with a mission to empower the Korean American and Asian American community through services, education, organizing and advocacy. KRC has three operating offices in Southern California: two in Los Angeles and one in Orange County. Every year, KRC serves more than 11,000 low income families through public health & social services, immigration legal services and housing counseling. KRC is an online hub for community members seeking information with its website attracting an average of 5,000 unique visits a month and its work has been widely covered, generating 400 media hits a year.
NAKASEC, Hana Center and KRC organized a continuous 22-day, 24-hours-every-day vigil in front of White House in 2017 to protect the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program, educated Congress on the urgency of passing the Dream Act in Washington DC and California with a focus in Orange County, and identified voters who support commercial property tax reform.
Activity Highlights in Chronological Order
2006: Waves of protest for humane immigration reform and against anti-immigrant bills swept the nation starting in Washington DC in March, and here in Southern California on March 25th, 26th, April 10th, and May 1st. Throughout the various marches, more than 2 million people participated, and figures such as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Archdiocese’s Cardinal Mahoney participated and created a momentum that lasted into history.
2009: An ambitious campaign to re-authorize and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the America’s Future Starts with Healthy Children campaign engaged thousands of community members and families. Organized through the Health Rights Organizing Project, activities ranged from petition deliveries to all major Presidential candidates to two national children’s art exhibits in Washington, D.C during the heart of the SCHIP policy debate this past January.
2010: For the 2010 elections, our civic engagement team implemented sophisticated and diverse approaches to building the Korean American power voters that we first began to reach in 1996. Our community made great sacrifices in its commitment to create opportunities for immigration reform, including putting forth its best effort in dozens of rallies, mobilizations, media events, and educational workshops.
2011: KRC organized over a hundred Korean American senior citizens who suffer from the lack of proper health care, social services and language access. As a result of these efforts, Korean American seniors can now receive Medi-Cal letters in Korean, making information more accessible to our community.
2012: KRC broke ground with unprecedented civic engagement organizing, helping the community apply to DACA. 20,051 Korean American voters were educated and mobilized to participate in the June Elections.
2015: KRC expanded into Orange County, opening up a new office in Buena Park where we have been building our base of seniors, parents, and youth. Over the past year, we have provided vital services to our community and engaged in exciting campaigns throughout Orange County, including putting district elections on the November 2016 ballot in Fullerton.
2016: After ten years of effort, KRC secured built two low-income senior apartments in Los Angeles Koreatown. KRC’s 100 volunteers secured 7,600 new voter registrations, sponsored the Early Voting Townhall with 200 senior voters, and made 180,000 calls throughout California encouraging Asian Americans to vote.