By Cherie M. Querol Moreno/Philippine News Today
Above: Former San Francisco commissioner Greg Chew speaks to reporters after being attacked outside his home in the city’s SOMA neighborhood in August.
Older Asian American – Pacific Islander adults in San Mateo County soon will have escorts to protect them from hate crimes. And cheers to the San Mateo County Commission on Aging for recognizing the current rise of anti-AAPI crimes as a community-wide rather than an isolated issue by inviting a respected service organization to address resources to stop hate and help heal survivors.
Indeed, it takes the entire community to rise and protect its vulnerable members. Hence state Sen. Dave Min’s SB111 and Assembly Member Phil Ting’s AB2, bills awaiting Governor Newsom’s signature that would engage public transit and businesses in creating safe environments for all customers amid the unabated crisis.
In nearly three years since the pandemic struck and became politicized to scapegoat people of a certain background, Chinese and their larger Asian American and Pacific Islander kin have suffered random attacks on the streets of this country. While assailants have inflicted race-motivated offenses against AAPIs in general, many of those targeted have been the most vulnerable – individuals who are older and perhaps less conscious of their surroundings and risks to their safety.
Long before the world calamity, Self-Help for the Elderly (SHE), the nonprofit organization founded in 1966 in San Francisco, has provided escort services to clients for their everyday appointments. Folks have the company of volunteers to go to a bank, store, vaccination site, laundromat or activity center. Service may be one-on-one or for a group. That service will be available to clients in San Mateo, SHE social services director Emily Chum said at the Sept. 12 meeting of the San Mateo County Commission on Aging.
The escort program is among the programs provided by the organization that also serves the counties of Alameda, Santa Clara and Contra Costa. Case management, caregiver support services, abuse prevention and intervention, emergency short-term in-home support, pathways to citizenship and naturalization are among related programs.
With the surge in AAPI hate crimes that have taken the lives of AAPI 60 years and older – a man in front of his house in San Francisco and another man walking down the street in Oakland, where a popular female dentist was shot and killed recently – escort services have received vigorous interest from older adult service providers and advocates.
The practice is not new, of course. In the late 1960s, many Filipino American students from what would be San Francisco State University walked alongside the “manong,” their term of respect for pioneer Filipino immigrants living in the inner city. Escorting the earlier generation was a way of reconnecting with the youths’ roots as well as safeguarding elders’ routine jaunts.
Chum said the San Mateo County escort program is still in the works, seeking a coordinator and interviewing potential volunteers.
Social worker Maria Orleman, care coordinator with Daly City Partnership’s Healthy Aging Response Team, lauded the prospect of the program especially in her area.
“It’s a good service for Daly City,” she said at the meeting. Older adults 65 and older comprise around 1 of some 110,000 residents of the county’s northernmost city with Filipinos the most populous sector of color. Filipinos and Chinese dominate the population of color in San Mateo County.
Philippine News Today Executive Editor Cherie M. Querol Moreno is in her 4th term as Commissioner with the San Mateo County Commission on Aging.
This resource is supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to CA vs Hate.
