Boat People SOS - Delaware Valley

Boat People SOS (BPSOS) is a national Vietnamese American community organization with the mission to empower, organize, and equip Vietnamese individuals and communities in their pursuit of liberty and dignity.

BPSOS-Delaware Valley works to promote a vision where Vietnamese American and immigrant individuals and families live in thriving, connected, communities which are free from violence. To borrow from Maya Angelou, we seek not merely to survive, but to thrive. We commit to this work through developing projects under four key areas that strengthen families and our community as a whole:

• Asian Youth Empowerment Program (AYEP): Philadelphia and South Jersey offices offer various programs during the school year and summer season focused on high-school aged youth and young youth (elementary and middle school aged) including, Anti-School Violence Initiative, afterschool tutorial, our Summer Youth Career Exploration Program and numerous short-term community service opportunities for Southeast Asian youth.
• Citizenship Initiative in Vietnamese Immigrant Communities (CIVIC): Our new CIVIC program seeks to support eligible Vietnamese community members, and other legal permanent residents, through the citizenship process so that they will recieve the benfits of citizenship including increased acess to educational and employment opportunities, engage to a greater degree both politically and socially, will be less at risk for deportation, and will be able to reunify with family members. Our CIVIC program offers community members citizenship classes, ESL for citizenship, N-400 application service, and support through the citizenship process. We also provide low-income families and individuals with immigration and family reunification needs with translation and application assistance.
• Health Awareness & Promotion Program (HAPP): We believe that you and your family should be able to access decent, affordable healthcare and health information. However, we know that it’s not always easy for Vietnamese-Americans to access health information and services. To bridge that gap, our Health Awareness & Promotion (HAPP) Program has taken on the challenge of informing and empowering you to take health prevention into your own hands and become health advocates in the community. With the support of local Susan G. Komen for the Cure affiliates, health clinics and practitioners, we are specifically working to tackle the issue of breast cancer, cervical cancer among Vietnamese women by reducing barriers to breast care.