Hello Everyone! The ALC staff and interns have been busily preparing for the Jade Ribbon reusable bag launch at 99 Ranch Market tomorrow! This environmentally-friendly bag is a great way to raise awareness about liver cancer and hepatitis B and build a sustainable community. The eco-friendly reusable shopping bag, along with educational materials on hepatitis B, will be available with every donation of two dollars or more to the Jade Ribbon Campaign to support hepatitis B education and outreach. The Jade Ribbon Campaign reusable bag will be at all ten Northern California 99 Ranch Market stores! If you want one and don't live in Northern California, let me know and I'll try and get them in SoCal and Washington 99 Ranch Markets! Email me at amyyu@stanford.edu or twitter me @missamyyu! Get Involved! - Join us! Press Conference Kick-Off Celebration
When: Friday, July 24th @ 3:00 PM
Where: Cupertino 99 Ranch Market on 10983 North Wolfe Rd Cupertino, CA 95014
Who: Everyone is invited to come and support the Jade Ribbon Campaign! Notables: First 100 people to spend $50 in groceries at 99 Ranch Market Cupertino will get a FREE bag! Come get your picture taken with Miss Asian America! - Show your support!
Put this image in your EV or FB (wherever you want!) to show your support of tomorrow's event! :) 
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Hello Everyone! Hope you all enjoyed your weekend. I had a pretty ALC event-packed weekend, and I’m just getting to sit down now to write about it! Here’s a recap of my weekend: Saturday
The day started off with heading to the Miss Asian America (MAA) press conference at Ana Mandara restaurant in Ghirardelli Square in SF. The MAA press conference was pretty fun. Had the chance to chat with the founder Rose more, and continue to build a relationship with her. It’s pretty amazing what she’s been able to build with this pageant and all the work she’s done in building the San Francisco Asian American community. I had a ball meeting the contestants and the escorts. Notable escorts were Jeff and Steven who took the time to chat with me, so big shout out to them! I also had the opportunity to meet and greet with reporters and other notables in the Asian community, so I was pretty excited about the event. The contestants appeared interested in the cause, and our jade ribbon pins looked very nice on their red dresses. It was very kind of Rose to say that they’ll be wearing the pins at all future events. I made several key media contacts during the press conference, and I'm looking forward to all the press that will be coming out the 99 Ranch Press Conference. Sunday
Today was another jam packed ALC day. We had two events go on simultaneously: Tim’s Korean education and screening event and Uyen’s Vietnamese Parishoners Festival. I really wish I was able to go to both, but alas, I headed out to the Korean event because there was a lot more logistical work involved with it. Overall, it was a pretty successful event in the sense that the parishoners really learned about the importance of hepatitis B and liver cancer in their community. In fact, after the education piece, people were getting their friends in the church who were unable to attend the education seminar to get tested. It was really neat to see people educate their friends about hepatitis B and why it was important that they all get screened. Education is so key to altering behaviour change. One thing that Tim and I need to do is hammer out logistics to help the education / research piece run more smoothly, and we had a good brainstorming session later in the afternoon. Hopefully the next screening (which will be much bigger) will run more smoothly on the registration end. The issue with working in an education AND screening event into a regular church Sunday is that people have other commitments (e.g. choir practice, etc) that prevent them from attending the seminar (which is really the point for us going out there) or the screening (which is secondary). We have only a finite period of time and we have to move things efficiently and quickly in light of lots of forms. N will be doing a similar venture with the Filipino community, and one suggesiton I had for her was considering the possibility of dividing the education and screening into two weekends so as to cut time down and give people the option of scheduling a specific time for their blood draw. But we will need to think about this more and consider it’s cost-effectiveness, too. In the past, when we did ethnic community education / screening events, we did them on Saturdays and the events were open to the public, so we didn’t have busy parishioners needing to stick to their regularly scheduled events – we WERE the event. But you learn something new each time, and it’s nice to be able to work with one church community at a time because they all get involved and that way, the message is promoted via friends, which inherently goes a lot farther than having someone like me stand on a soapbox. Another highlight today was going to the Milpitas Ranch 99 (yes, again) and seeing our posters up! I wasn’t expecting to see the posters hanging in the store, so it was definitely a delightful surprise!  Customer reading Know HBV and big in-store poster I think one of my suggestions to 99 Ranch will be to ask if the cashiers can actively promote the bag (E.g. “Would you like to donate $2 to fight liver cancer and get a reusable bag?”) or at least put up an example so people can see useful the bag will be. But overall, I’m so impressed with how GENEROUS Ranch 99 has been. I was also very very excited to see an individual go up and grab a brochure (Know HBV) and read through it while he was walking out of the store (he’s pictured in the photograph I sneaked of him). One more person educated about hepatitis B! Tomorrow will be confirming press to come to the press conference on Friday at Cupertino. I’m also trying to sit down and work on YLC material since we need to get the handbook in NOW. Christine has been working hard and coming into the office on the weekends to get things done for the conference. I’m super excited, but there remains QUITE a bit of work to do. If you're able to come out the 99 Ranch Market / Jade Ribbon Campaign bag campaign, please do! It's 2:30 PM on Friday, July 24th at the Cupertino 99 Ranch Market. Yours,
Amy
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Hello Everyone! It's been quite a busy week at the Asian Liver Center with all the staff and interns busy with their respective projects. Went on a site visit with Tim to the Living Word Church in Milpitas, and had a productive meeting going over flow for the Korean education and screening event we will be holding this Sunday. Tim is conducting a research project to assess how we can better educate the Korean community about hepatitis B and what gaps in knowledge and resources exist. This will be the first of the 4-5 churches that we will be partnering with over the course of the summer. I look foward to the event and will update on how it went! Uyen will also be working on Sunday at a Parish Festival in San Jose, conducting her first festival event with great new volunteers. Everyone should wish her good luck! She's a vary capable educator, and I don't have any doubts her event will go smoothly and she will make a good impression on the Vietnamese community at the festival. On the way back from the Milpitas church site visit, Tim and I stopped by the 99 Ranch Market there, and were excited to see all the register folks wearing the "Join Us: Jade Ribbon Campaign" pins and the signs for the bags posted on the register poles. It was great site to see! 99 Ranch Market has been incredibly generous, and we look forward to next week's press conference kick-off at Cupertino (at 3 PM). We're asking all Jade Ribbon Campaign volunteers to roll out to this event to help support this effort. In fact, bring your family, too - the first 100 people to spend $50 or more in groceries will receive a free Jade Ribbon reusable bag (they're SUPER convenient for shopipng at 99 Ranch Market!). It's an action packed weekend with two other events: Shoa and Yi-Ren will be leading our low-cost screening and vaccination site in San Jose this Saturday and I will be attending the Miss Asian America press conference in San Francisco. Plus, there's quite a bit of work that Christine and I will be doing over the weekend to prepare for Youth Leadership Conference. I can't believe it's almost here - very exciting! We got some great news about securing a Web 2.0 scholar to come out and speak to the students. Nicole, who is spearheading our Filipino outreach, has been doing a fantastic job with connecting with the Filipino community in Daly City. She'll be meeting with one church this Sunday evening and will do a site visit for our August 16th Filipino education and screening event next week. It has been very exciting to hear about her accomplishments and see the great foundation she's creating for future Filipino outreach. Thank you for taking the time to read, and I hope that you will join us next Friday at Cupertino to celebrate healthy communities and healthy living! Feel free to shoot me an email (amyyu@stanford.edu) or message me if you're interested in helping out or want to know more about opportunities. Yours, Amy
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Quick entry today about how much I love the ALC Family. Today I held a long-overdue training session, and the turn out was fantastic! Each time I run a training session, I am reminded about how much I enjoy connecting with people and just talking to them. It's that connection through outreach that I enjoy so much. I changed the training slides and format quite a bit from my previous slide set to make it more fun and interactive. I realized that what I need to be doing at these training sessions is to 1) give the facts to those attending, 2) give them an idea of the breadth of opportunities they have to contribute to the Jade Ribbon Campaign, and most importantly, 3) teach them how to promote awareness about hepatitis B. I was lacking the teaching people how to promote part in my previous trainings. In a way, what we are doing when we try to educate others about hepatitis B and liver cancer is bascially marketing and getting people to buy-in. As educators, we have to be able to gain someone's attention and then make them care to change their behavior. So, it was a lot of fun to do a mini public speaking discussion. It certainly brought out some laughs and got people comfortable. Hopefully, this will better equip our volunteers with how to approach people at our outreach events – it’s certainly a skill that I have had to cultivate over the years, and it’s an important skill to continue to work on. I was so impressed by everyone’s energy and ethusiasm after the training session and their inspiration to come out to various events – some even asked me about project ideas! Next training session will be in August, and I hope to see some of you there! (If you're interested, email the ALC Volunteer Coordinator at alcvolunteers@gmail.com). Thanks for reading! Amy
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Hi All, Putting on my corporate hepatitis B hat now: General Electric has done some fantastic work with hepatitis B in their China sector by offering free, voluntary HBV vaccination to all its employees. They give a good cost-effective analysis, so that's super exciting. The mention about hep B being transmitted by saliva is NOT true (only through blood contact!!!), but other than that, this is a really exciting step for the corporate world and their role in ensuring the health and protection of their employees. Full article here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/17210493/How-to-Reduce-Hepatitis-B-in-the-Workplace-JulAug-2009-CBR Short post today as I have some action items to finish up. Let me know if you'd like me to post on anything in particular! :) Thanks for reading,
Amy
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Hi Everyone! It's been great reading about the PESI program. :) I just wanted to give everyone a quick update from the corporate realm: Cisco is making great headway in terms of making sure that its affiliates in China do not discriminate against employees with hepatitis B. In fact, WebEx China, which was recently acquired by Cisco, did screen applicants for hepatitis B, but is now going to stop that pre-hiring screening. Way to go Cisco! Cisco is a model corporation. Really. Other exciting news: ALC will be heading to Google in SF this week and Google in San Bruno next week to educate more Googlers about hepatitis B. Also! Our Jade Ribbon Campaign flyer is in the 99 Ranch Market in-store ad :) Will update soon about YLC, Ranch 99 + Miss Asian America press conference, Vietnamese, Korean, and Filipino Outreach, and the exciting happenings at the ALC. We'll be having lots of events this weekend, so if you want to join in on the great work, let me know. We'll also be having a training session on Thursday, July 16th at the ALC for all interested people. Yours, Amy
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Quick post today. Hope people are excited to hear about how 99 Ranch Market is going to launch a Jade Ribbon Campaign reusable grocery bag. It's fantastic that they're taking a leadership role in creating sustainable AND healthy communities. The in-store flyer will be sporting the promoting ad starting TOMORROW. You can check it out here until then! Been working busily on getting the press release done along with the in-store posters and banner. Have to start contacting ethnic media starting Monday. We're hoping to have the continued support of World Journal, Sing Tao Radio and Newspaper, Viet Tribune, and KTSF. We're also inviting SBTN, Viet Daily, and the Korea Times. We hope to make this event really big, so if you're free on Friday, July 24th, come out to the Cupertino 99 Ranch at 3 PM!! Come support the Jade Ribbon Campaign!! And on side note: community ethnic outreach is going along really well. I'm really proud of my interns Tim, Nicole, and Uyen. They are doing a fantastic job in outreaching into the Korean, Filipino, and Vietnamese community. I'll blog more about their successes at a later time. Alright, until next time! P.S. Catch me on twitter @missamyyu!
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Some good progress made today at the ALC! The to-do list grows exponentially, but there’s always work to be done at a non-profit. And yes, this is a subtle hint that we’re always looking for dedicated and motivated volunteers like YOU. :) In fact, I have a neat story about a future volunteer named R. here. He saw one of our Jade Ribbon Youth Council (JRYC)’s Peter and the Wolf adaptation story-time events at a library and became interested in helping raising awareness about hep B. (How inspiring – this is outreach’s success in effect. Great job, JRYC 2008-2009!!) R. dropped by the office today to discuss how he was interested in the getting involved in the community. He’ll be coming to our training session next week – stay tuned for the date; will be posting tomorrow. ALC volunteers are the best! And another shout out to the JRYC: one of my academic year interns Sylvia is currently working with the Hmong in Oregon to adapt the Peter and the Wolf adaptation to introduce hepatitis B testing and vaccination to the Hmong in Oregon. I’m looking forward to hearing about how this project goes. Ethnic community outreach is going along steadily. Vietnamese outreach is coming along, and I’m excited about the great work that U. is doing. She’s getting into the Viet community in ways that I haven’t been able to: speaking with Vietnamese church deacons, Vietnamese temple leaders, and finding contacts for the Vietnamese mobile home community. She’s getting her feet wet with Vietnamese hep B outreach at a fair on Sunday, July 19th. She needs volunteers, so let us know if you’re free! Korean and Filipino outreach is coming along as well. N. learned that for the Filipino churches, it’s good to speak with the archbishop of the church to get better buy-in and make sure that things are okay to do. The new cultural things I am learning is always really enlightening, and I hope will make me a good doctor one day. Two Korean church screenings are coming up on the 19th and 26th, so join us if you’re interested. And last update, and perhaps the most pressing one from my end: Jade Ribbon Campaign reusable grocery bag at 99 Ranch Market. Today marked a day of good progress for the press conference on July 24th at the Cupertino store. If you’re like me, when you go shopping at the Asian grocery stores, I always find myself with a ton of groceries and not enough bag space in my other reusable bags. This bag can fit my bok choy, napa, my tub of lychee jelly snacks, bags of dumplings, and a pint of soy milk. Oh, and several of those delicious, but oh-so-bad-for-you, coconut butter cookies. And if you’re not using it for groceries, it’s great for laundry. :p But back to the press conference, we’ve confirmed Queen Louisa from Miss Asian America and hopefully her court can come for the festivities. The 99 Ranch Market in-store ads will be boasting the bags ($2 donation only!) starting this Friday, so make sure you pick one up! Plus, the register folks will be wearing our new “Join Us: Jade Ribbon Campaign” buttons (it looks like “Join In! Join Us”) I’ll start posting pictures of all these exciting things soon, so stay tuned. Remember, this is just a small, small snapshot of what goes on at the center, and I hope that you’ll join us in eradicating hepatitis B and liver cancer. Remember, YOU, too can save lives. So, join in and join us in raising awareness about hepatitis B!
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Today was a pretty busy day. Had intern meeting in the morning where our current summer 2009 interns updated each other on what their progress is in their respective projects. It is really fantastic to see them grow throughout the summer and to hear about their achievements. I am really enjoying this summer’s intern projects because I think they will all get a lot out of this summer. Our summer interns range from undergraduates to PhD students to MPH students to medical school students. And you know what? They’re all collaborating to effect positive impact on a large scale. It’s really heartening to think that what they will be accomplishing this summer will help to set the foundation of a future high school student’s future or the training of nurses in the Philippines. Furthermore, we’ve incorporated a research journal club to the intern program so that students can learn how to truly evaluate the outreach in which they are engaging. I’m getting really excited to see the Filipino, Korean, and Vietnamese outreach events coming toward the end of July and into August. Make sure to join the ALC volunteers (email alcvolunteers@gmail.com) if you’re interested in getting some experience in the ethnic communities. I’ve been working on the Ranch 99, Miss Asia America, and Jade Ribbon Campaign press conference (July 24th) off the ground with the posters, buttons, and logistical things. It is very exciting to think that we’ll be able to bring these various leaders in the community together to promote healthy food, healthy living, and healthy communities. I can’t wait to see YOU out there carrying a Jade Ribbon Campaign reusable bag to save lives and save the earth. The interns will also be at the press conference, this being one of their first outreach experiences. Make sure to let your friends know about the kickoff so you can come out and support the fight against hepatitis B. On another note, you’ll be seeing the ALC at the Google Wellness Fairs in San Francisco and San Bruno. These are such GREAT events that Google Benefits offers their employees, and I am very grateful that we’ve been asked to attend at these satellites after the successful Mountain View fairs. They had some great chocolate pudding made out of avocados that day! Youth Leadership Conference is definitely gearing up – it’s less than a month away! Christine (the Youth Leadership Conference intern) and I spent the holiday weekend looking more into the social media world and how we can make this year’s team challenge very exciting and applicable to all our students. Plus, this year we’ll be including a resume workshop and a public speaking class to prepare our students for college and future careers. I’m really looking forward to all the students who will be flooding the campus on August 5th. I hope they’re as excited as I am! If you have any neat outreach ideas or want to talk about volunteer opportunities, please feel free to email me. :)
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Hello All! Just a mini update on the world of the ALC Outreach Coordinator's projects. We're doing quite a bit at the center, and I think it'd be great to start logging what exciting things are coming up. If you're interested in joining in on any projects, shoot me an email or message me. 1) National Youth Leadership Forum: I went to Berkeley today to speak to conference participants about the work I do at the ALC. These high school students were really excited to hear about the good they can do through public health, and were really receptive to learning more about hepatitis B and what they can do at their home. One girl even asked if she send brochures to the clinic back home where there's a large Hmong population! We'll need to get that Hmong translation up and running soon. Remember - all our educational materials are FREE of charge and can be shipped anywhere. 2) Preparing for Jade Ribbon Campaign ReUsable Bag Kick Off (Friday, July 24th): We're starting to gear up for the press conference / kick-off of the Jade Ribbon Campaign Reusable bag. Make sure you check out the Ranch 99 ad this upcoming Friday! And what's great is that this collaboration between Ranch 99, Miss Asia America, and the ALC really demonstrates the solidarity and commitment these groups have to promoting the health of the Asian community. I'm really looking forward to this event! More details to come. 3) Googlers Unite: We've been invited to attend two more Goolge Wellness Fairs to educate Googlers about hepatitis B and raise awareness. it's great that Google has been very supportive of our efforts, and we look forward to launching a larger awareness campaign soon. 4) Cisco Leads the Way: We launched our first education awareness campaign with Cisco, and had great success. They're doing such a great job that HR is looking into making sure that there is no discrimination in China satellites! 5) Low-cost Vaccination and Screenings in San Jose: We'll be having our next vaccination and screening event on July 18, 2009 at the AACI location (2400 Moorpark Avenue, San Jose, CA). Volunteers are always needed, and if you want to have some experience with cultural competency, let me know. :) Lots more to come: Korean Church Screenings, Miss Asia America Pageant, and our Youth Leadership Conference are all around the corner!! Until next time, Amy
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In my new capacity at the Asian Liver Center, I'll be working with multinational organizations to incorporate hepatitis B awareness education into the corporate wellness culture and to eradicate any form of workplace discrimination against employees with hep B. Make sure to check out my blog as I post new updates from the ALC about our work (we recently were at Cisco and Google) and for news about workplace hepatitis B discrimination. Here's one story that was recently published about a graduate student suing a firm for pre-hiring hep B testing and not hiring him because he had hep B: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-07/01/content_8342606.htm Until next time, Amy
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