Harrison Seuga (left) and Kori Chen (right). Photo credit: Kori Chen.

I am very honored to have received one of the first Bay Area Inspire Awards, a one-time cash Award of up to $10,000, to be used for an innovative community-oriented project that will help advance social equity locally. The Awards are a collaboration between a small group of committed Bay Area residents and the Oakland-based Philanthropic Ventures Foundation.

With this Award, I plan to bridge my work with the Asian Prisoner Support Committee (APSC) and my day job working in the specialty coffee industry with the Oakland-based coffee roasting company, Red Bay Coffee. The goal is to develop and implement a training program for 4-6 formerly incarcerated Bay Area residents that will train them in business and job training skills related to the specialty coffee industry, but applicable to many other fields such as customer service, sales, operations, marketing, business strategy, and public speaking.

I want to thank John Fong from CAA and AACRE for notifying us about the Award; my APSC comrades Ben Wang, Kasi Chakravartula, Eddy Zheng, and Harrison Seuga for tirelessly working as some of the unsung heroes of the community; and finally to the growing number of Asian and Pacific Islander prisoners and former prisoners trying to improve their lives and the lives of others.

The Bay Area Inspire Awards are open to 18-30 year old residents of Alameda and San Francisco Counties working to better their communities. To read about this year’s awardees and learn more about the program, go to: http://www.bayareainspireawards.org/meet-our-2014-award-winners.html