Oakland Based Community Developer Receives San Francisco Foundation Leadership Award

Oct. 5, 2010 - PRLog -- The East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC) was recognized as a winner of the San Francisco Foundation’s prestigious 2010 Community Leadership Award.  EBALDC is the 2010 recipient of the John R. May Award, made for organizational initiatives in response to a significant contemporary problem.  EBALDC, three other awardees and seven Koshland Young Leader Awardees were honored during a ceremony held at the Herbst War Memorial in San Francisco on Tuesday evening, September 28th.

The San Francisco Foundation selected EBALDC for this esteemed award to acknowledge the organization’s work in “transforming neighborhoods by creating new economic opportunities for low-income communities through housing, economic development, and historic preservation programs.”  As the organizational awardee, EBALDC received $20,000.  The Award is especially meaningful coming from the San Francisco Foundation, which was the first foundation to award a grant to EBALDC, soon after it was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in 1975.

The additional individual honorees included Anna Halprin, a pioneering choreographer and dancer, Dr. Washington Burns, executive director of the Prescott-Joseph Center for Community Enhancement in West Oakland, and Sylvia Rosales-Fike, founder, president, and CEO of AnewAmerica Community Corporation. For more information about the SFF Community Leadership Award, visit http://www.sff.org/programs/awards-programs/community-lea....

EBALDC’s newly appointed executive director, Jeremy Liu, accepted the award and was joined in the audience by founding board members of EBALDC, Lynette Jung Lee, EBALDC’s recently retired executive director, staff, and supporters.  

Liu noted in his acceptance remarks, “I want to [share] a story about community activists in 1975 who banded together to create a multi-service center for Asian American and Pacific Islander families in Oakland's Chinatown.  These activists became EBALDC and their first investor was the San Francisco Foundation, which awarded them their first grant in the amount of $25,000…Talk about a good return on investment, no?”  The organization has grown to serve diverse populations representative of neighborhoods all over Oakland.  To date, EBALDC has developed 164 homes for sale, 1,406 homes for rent, and over 370,000 sq. ft. of commercial space housing over 70 nonprofit service providers and small businesses.

The award comes during EBALDC’s 35th anniversary year, which will culminate in an anniversary celebration and dinner on October 28th.  Visit us online: http://www.ebaldc.org/

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About EALDC
With 35 years of experience, EBALDC has grown from a small nonprofit immigrant and refugee services organization, with the vision of building a multi-service center for Asian American and Pacific Islander families in Oakland’s Chinatown, to become a leading community development corporation. Now serving populations reflective of one of the most diverse regions of the Bay Area, we build vibrant, healthy, and just neighborhoods through our programs that build, preserve, and maintain high quality affordable housing and community and retail facilities. We integrate services within our developments to increase economic opportunities for tenants and neighborhood residents. To date, EBALDC has developed 164 homes for sale, 1,406 homes for rent, and over 370,000 sq. ft. of commercial space housing over 70 nonprofit service providers and small businesses across Oakland and the East Bay. For more information, please visit www.ebaldc.org or call 510-287-5353.