Two Decades of API Social Work

By Janlee Wong, MSW

Twenty years ago Asian Pacific Islander (API) social workers came up to me at a NASW state conference in SF, and expressed pride that an API social worker could be heading up the state chapter of NASW.

Up to that point the most well-known NASW API social workers were largely from SoCal and they weren’t that well known. The late George Nishinaka was best known among them. More about him later.

These social workers, working in San Francisco Chinatown, were Nancy Lim Yee, Janice Wong and Dr. Susan Sung. They said API social workers should organize. I told them, you could start an Asian Pacific Islander Social Work Council (APISWC) that NASW would provide financial support and technical assistance. Sure enough they started to organize and found a ready audience.

The purpose of a council is professional support and recognition. The APISW Council has been one of the best, providing two decades of professional education workshops with a special focus on working with API communities. The Council has provided regular meetings with networking and professional camaraderie but just as important, good food. One of their top members, the late Coleman Wong, was not only their excellent communications secretary, but an Asian food connoisseur. What a great combination to have in a social worker.

Photo: Left to right — APISWC co-founders Dr. Susan Sung, Nancy Lim Yee, Janice Wong

Along the way, it’s been supported by stellar social workers including Dr. Rita Takahashi and Dr. Susan Sung. Its superstar social worker Diana Ming Chan will forever be remembered for her tremendous gift of social work in every school in the San Francisco Unified School District and Sai Ling Chan Sew, who rose to head Children’s Mental Health for San Francisco.

My own social work roots started here in San Francisco, at SFSU, organizing a small cluster of API MSW students including Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Pilipino. I got to go to MSW school with an Asian Pacific Islander mental health scholarship, a program that was the result the advocacy of an API social worker organizer, George Nishinaka.

Now, in the best form of giving back but also paying it forward, the APISWC has continued that support of API social work students with its own Diana Ming Chan Bilingual Social Worker Scholarship program.

Thank you APISWC for 20 years of service to API social workers and the API community.