South-East Asia Center

A respected group of Southeast Asian elders concerned with the welfare of their refugee brethren founded a self-help service center in 1979. Since then South-East Asia Center has provided transition services for over 15,000 immigrants and limited- English speakers of numerous ethnicities in the Chicago area.

With a building donated by the volunteer executive director, refugees and neighbors joined to build a school and service center. By hand they dug a foundation, carried 15,000 used bricks purchased from a building torn down two blocks away, and used six tons of sand bags discarded from suburban floods as back fill. Today through the same community spirit and creativity SEAC runs 13 groundbreaking programs in 12 sites with a staff of over 40 and over 100 volunteers.