Comunity Education and Support

Department of Community Education and Support provides assistance to our community members with:

Immigration Services

KACS has assisted nearly 500 Koreans at varying stages of the immigration and citizenship process with various services. KACS has been participating in the New Americans Initiative which is an unprecedented state program, administered by the Illinois Coalition for Immigration helping more than 340,000 legal permanent residents become U.S. citizens. Some of the free services range from citizenship preparation to application assistance, civics classes, and legal screenings.

Housing Resource Center

We advocate for affordable housing and a suitable living environment for low to moderate income households. Information and referrals are provided through workshops and presentations presented in Korean, Spanish, and English.

Financial Education Program

The goal of financial literacy program is to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services in assisting Korean and Latino immigrants and other residents of Albany Park to access various financial information.

Employment Counseling and Placement Services program

This program at KACS has been providing a wide variety of employment services to help clients seek out jobs in English, Spanish, and Korean. KACS has placed over 10,000 job seekers in gainful employment since 1972. Job fairs are held twice a year, attracting dozens of employers. Job Search Resources and Training opportunities are also available to assist clients in the search for employment.

Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC) Program

This program is a far-reaching community campaign to educate taxpayers who speak English as a second language (ESL) by utilizing various economic, social and cultural networks and resources.

Computer skills trainings

KACS’ Community Technology Center (CTC) serves over about 1,500 low-income and immigrant populations that face numerous barriers to computer access and require substantial technology training a year. Public access to the CTC is free of charge including printing, internet access, and technical support from the CTC staff. In view of the technology training, KACS has enhanced our programs with the Internet and Computing Core Certification (IC3) since January of 2009 – which is crucial but lacking in our target community. IC3 is a very first certification course to enable low-income and/or immigrant populations to receive the necessary computer training for their better marketability. Over 400 people have taken computer classes toward IC3 certification test, 14 out of 20 who challenged got IC3 certified as of May, 2009. KACS has supported Benchmark and Mentor, online training tools for students to identify digital literacy levels and develop effective self-paced training along with free classes taught in English. KACS has two high-tech computer labs, connected to the Internet and printers.

ESL/Civics classes

KACS offers a couple of different language classes including English, Korean and Spanish. The mission of ESL/Civics/Citizenship classes is to reduce barriers for predominantly immigrants and low income families with limited English proficiency to achieve equal opportunity and further improve their quality of life. Our citizenship classes provide immigrants not only languages skills but also practical information and confidence which they need to navigate U.S. society and eventually improve the quality of their lives. Currently we offer four levels of ESL/Civics classes: basic (level I and level II) and intermediate (level III and level IV). The curriculum at all levels combines practical English language skills with content about U.S. institutions, rights, and civics, such as: becoming a citizen, finding a job, communicating on the job, finding housing, understanding the school system, using transportation, accessing health care, understanding U.S. government, basic U.S. history, and others. Also, we are launching a writing class for advanced students with an instructor who is a professional journalist. This fiscal year, we served 374 people for ESL program, 52 for citizenship class.

Youth Art & Technology programs

KACS has developed our Summer Youth Art Camp & Work programs with digital literacy programs, utilizing two computer labs. KACS Summer Youth Art & Technology programs directly addressed the digital divide and the No Child Left Behind legislation by providing not only basic computer literacy but also working knowledge of computer, graphic/web design that appeal to future employers. The summer youth art & technology programs were carried out in different tracks by age and gender; Girls Get Digital for girls 14 to 18 years of age, KACS Gets Digital for youth aged 10 to 18. Each group has a different goal to break out digital literacy such as getting familiar with software inclding MS PowerPoint, MS Publisher, Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe Premier, Adobe Flash.

Cultural Arts

We provide Root East, Root West, multi-disciplinary arts and cultural programming targeting the underserved population in arts including the Korean American community in the Chicago metropolitan area. Programming includes workshops in various visual arts, performances, and exhibitions of contemporary and traditional art forms in multiple media, summer youth art camp, language classes such as Korean and Spanish. KACS views arts as a vital component of a vibrant, healthy community and culture through languages as tools to empower and enrich cultural competency. We reach out to the community through over 70 workshops and classes for underserved population throughout a year. The Christmas tree decoration at the Museum of Science and Industry by our senior craft class is one of Root East, Root West's annual project.

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