No. 45 | March 1, 2025 - May 31, 2025 | |
THE JAISOHN CENTER (Philip Jaisohn Memorial Foundation) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting Asian Americans within the Greater Philadelphia Region.
Dr. Philip Jaisohn was a pioneer in Asian American activism as an advocate for Korean independence and a volunteer physician for the U.S. Military. In honor of his legacy, the Jaisohn Center strives to champion Asian-American causes and strengthen communities through a wide range of health and human services.
We’re excited to keep you updated on our Center’s mission to elevate Asian American communities and foster unity amongst all communities. Check out this newsletter to see what work we’ve accomplished with the help of your continued support.
Thank you for joining our cause!
| | JAISOHN DEPARTMENT UPDATES | | |
The Jaisohn Medical Center hosted a group colonoscopy and endoscopy event at U.S. Digestive in East Norriton, PA where patients successfully underwent colonoscopies and upper endoscopies. We took the opportunity to reinforce the importance of follow-up and ongoing preventive care through patient education.
The patients expressed a high level of satisfaction and appreciation for the coordinated care they received, highlighting the event as a positive step toward quality preventive healthcare and a healthier lifestyle.
To learn more about the Jaisohn Medical Center, please call our Philadelphia office at (215)224-2000 or our Lansdale office at (215) 997-2101.
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Jaisohn Home Health Care has successfully completed the ACHC (Accreditation Commission for Health Care) accreditation process this spring and has been approved for another three years.
As part of our community service efforts, Jaisohn Home Health Care continues to provide free health classes at the Jaisohn Wellness Center every Monday on topics such as vertigo/vestibular exercises, arm and leg exercises, balance training, and nerve gliding exercises. The JHHC team also provided health screenings at the International Spring Festival and AAPI Community Fair checking blood sugar level, cholesterol level, blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature and O2 saturation.
To seek career opportunities or learn more about Jaisohn Home Health Care, please call (215) 866-0103.
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Mr. Heng Kuoch first reached out to Jaisohn Home Care after receiving a referral from his service coordinator. When we visited his house, it was overrun with ants and cockroaches and the sink overflowed with unwashed dishes. Mr. Kuoch was living alone in a small apartment without any family struggling with lung problems and chronic diabetes, and often forgetting to eat. Today, Mr. Kuoch receives 35 hours a week of home care services from an aide who speaks his language and understands his culture and he also receives meals delivered daily.
Mr. Kuoch warmly tells us, “Jaisohn Home Care, you know how to serve people like me even though we are culturally different.”
Joseph Lee, Director of Jaisohn Home Care, states that “We don’t just serve clients with services, but with sincere care. It’s not just about food or medicine. It’s about connection, compassion, and dignity. When someone says ‘Can you help me?’ we say ‘Yes we can, and you’re not alone anymore.’”
To learn more about Jaisohn Home Care, please call (215) 224-2137.
| | Jaisohn Wellness Center - Senior Community Center | |
In May, the Jaisohn Wellness Center hosted a special soap making class where the participants learned to make eco-friendly kitchen detergent, facial soap, and shampoo to use. To celebrate Mother’s Day, the knitting class made knitted flower brooches and gifted them to all the senior members. The Jaisohn Wellness Center is continuously seeking unique classes where our seniors are not only learning new skills but also rediscovering joy, creativity, and meaningful engagement in their daily lives to improve brain health.
To learn more about the Jaisohn Wellness Center and how to participate, contact (267) 638-9500.
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Jaisohn Mental Health and Social Services
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Thanks to the Community Connections Office we were able to contact the Partnership TMA (Transportation Management Association) of Montgomery County who helped us set up a meeting with TransNet. Our seniors expressed difficulties with accessing this service due to their language barriers. TransNet has now assigned a dedicated language line and produced a two-page publication explaining how to use the service to better serve our immigrant community. This support is making a real difference, especially for Asian seniors with language barriers. Special thanks goes out to TransNet.
| | Jaisohn’s 50th Anniversary Recognition in Harrisburg | | |
The PA State Senate and House of Representatives presented a resolution and citation, respectively, to our organization in Harrisburg to recognize our services to the immigrant and local communities for the last 50 years as we celebrate our 50th anniversary this year.
We were joined by Head Consul Jae Yong Lee, Consul Bumgeun Cho, and two other staff members from the ROK Philadelphia Office. This trip was coordinated by the Offices of Senator Patty Kim, Senator Tim Kearney, Rep. Jennifer O'Mara, and AAPI Legislative Caucus Executive Director Jojo Dalwadi. We appreciate the support we have from these public officials as their partnership is critical in serving our community effectively.
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Community Leader Visits to the
Jaisohn Community Wellness Plaza
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We are excited to have various leaders visiting Jaisohn Community Wellness Plaza to learn about our future plans for serving the community!
Among our visitors were: Ambassador Euy Whan Kim, NY Consul General of Republic of Korea, and his team, Consul Dong Gyu Lee and Director of Education Attache Changwon Park; Dr. Sung-yoon Jung, senior researcher of the Korea Institute for Unification, and Dr. Min-sung Kim, unification policy researcher; Neil Makhija, Montgomery County Commissioner Chair; Jamila Winder, Montgomery County Commissioner Vice Chair; State Representative Liz Hanbidge and her District Office Director Kevin Carson; Montgomery County Office of Housing and Community Development Administrator Kayleigh Silver and Team; Montgomery County Office of Aging Services Administrator Jennifer Haeussler-Barnhart and Advisory Council team; Asian American Coalition Youth and Family Mental Health team; Christine Coyne, candidate for the North Penn School District Board.
| | Dr. Jaisohn on Display: Museum of the American Revolution | Dr. Philip Jaisohn's travel luggage and the video "1919 Independence March from Little Theatre to Independence Hall" will be a part of the Museum of the American Revolution's special exhibition, "Declaration's Journey: 250 Years of America's Founding Document" to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence! Be sure to visit the Museum of the American Revolution as well as the Jaisohn Memorial House to learn all about Dr. Jaisohn’s extraordinary life, contributions to the cause of Korea’s independence, and his pioneering advocacy efforts. | | Philadelphia Corporation for Aging (PCA) Senior Fair | | The Jaisohn Senior Volunteer group participated in the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging (PCA) Senior Fair to represent the Korean American community. We thank PCA’s Wanda Mitchell and Sung-young Yun for their services and the Jaisohn Senior Volunteer team for their dedication. | | KAGRO Philadelphia Scholarship Award | The 2025 Korean American Grocers Association (KAGRO) PA Chapter Scholarship Ceremony was held at the Philadelphia Jaisohn Center. KAGRO presented $1,000 scholarships to ten promising graduating high school students including three Jaisohn Youth Drum group students (Abigail Yeaeun Cho, Katherine Lafferty and Eunis Haein Lee) and two African American students (Ramlah Hagos and Ezekiel Poulson), coordinated by the Jaisohn Center. We sincerely appreciate what KAGRO is doing for our community's young generation. Congratulations to all ten scholarship awardees! | | On May 7th, the Jaisohn Wellness Center launched its pilot senior golf tournament. The outing was organized to bring seniors together for social interaction and physical activity. The program had a successful outcome with over half of the participants being new to our senior services. We thank the volunteers who planned the golf tournament to make this outing an enjoyable experience for our seniors. | | “Silence of Snow” to Be Permanently Displayed at the Department of Aging | | One of the members of the Jaisohn Wellness Center, who has faithfully attended the watercolor class for the past year, has been honored with a rare opportunity: her painting, titled “Silence of Snow,” will be permanently displayed at the Pennsylvania Department of Aging’s office in Harrisburg. We are proud of the artist and our program for this achievement and truly honored to see her work celebrated in a space that values the dignity and talent of older adults. Congratulations! | | JAISOHN MEMORIAL HOUSE AND VISITS | | We were delighted to host 90 seniors from the Grace Adult Day Care Center and 50 seniors and young adults from Northern Virginia at the Philip Jaisohn Memorial House. In the future, we hope to host more intergenerational tours for young Korean Americans to foster pride in their Korean American history. | | |
Thirty high school students from Korea, sponsored by the Incheon City Department of Education as part of an exchange program with the New York City (NYC) Department of Education, made a visit to the Memorial House. NYC’s department will send thirty exchange students to Incheon in return.
Korean Minister of Patriots and Veterans Affairs’ senior team members visited both the “Little Theatre of Philadelphia” (today’s Plays and Players Theatre) and the Philip Jaisohn Memorial House.
Members of the Unification Policy Research Office, including Dr. Sung-yoon Jung, Dr. Min-sung Kim, Dr. Seung-joon Baek, and Dr. Kyung-seok Ha, also visited the Philip Jaisohn Memorial House and the Jaisohn Community Wellness Plaza.
Additionally, the Philip Jaisohn Memorial House hosted 84 high school students from MinSaGo, one of the top high schools in Korea, as a part of their annual vision trip. Their school founder encouraged the visit to the Jaisohn Memorial House to ensure students learn about Dr. Philip Jaisohn, his ideals, and his work.
| | Over 200 participants came together to celebrate the 106th anniversary of the First Korean Congress, which Dr. Philip Jaisohn convened. We began with a lecture series at the University of Pennsylvania, cosponsored by the James Joo-Jin Kim Center for Korean Studies and the Philip Jaisohn Memorial Foundation, and then marched from the Plays and Players Theatre to Independence Mall following the same route used in 1919. It was meaningful to commemorate our Asian American history with our youth, adults and seniors. | |
International Spring Festival - Multi-Ethnic Intergenerational Wellness Walk
| | The Jaisohn Center once again led a Wellness Walk at the annual International Spring Festival. Members of our staff provided health screenings and kids activities while the Jaisohn Youth Drum Team and NJ Korean Dance Troupe led by Director Sunyoung Park gave a memorable performance. Special thanks to students from Gwynedd Mercy University who helped with the Wellness Walk as part of their school project. | | |
The Bucks-Mont Collaborative and the Jaisohn Center, on behalf of the Asian American Coalition partner communities, hosted an AAPI Community Fair at the Jaisohn Community Wellness Plaza. The event was organized in direct response to the Montgomery County supported AAPI Community Strengths and Needs Assessment Study with the primary goal of strengthening connections between AAPI residents and key service organizations, improving access and responsiveness to better meet community needs.
More than 25 service providers participated, including the offices of Senator Maria Collett and Representative Elizabeth Hanbidge, along with key partners such as the Montgomery County Office of Children and Youth, Access Services, Keystone Opportunity Center, and Jefferson Health. The fair also featured cultural performances and presentations from Asian American Coalition partners. The Community Fair marks a key step in deepening engagement and improving resource navigation for AAPI residents, while demonstrating the power of partnership among community organizations, county agencies, and elected officials.
| | AAPI Coalition and Leadership Meetings | | |
This spring, the AAPI Coalition and Jaisohn Center continued their bi-monthly leadership meetings at the Jaisohn Community Wellness Plaza, bringing together engaged community leaders from eight ethnic communities to strengthen partnerships and advance shared goals. The April meeting welcomed 26 attendees.
Committees formed earlier in the year—the Mental Health for Youth and Family Committee and the Youth and Young Leadership Development Committee—reported early progress and identified opportunities for community engagement and program development.
There was also sharing of updates on the AAPI Community Strengths & Needs Assessment and plans for its rollout, including the recent AAPI Community Fair, connecting our community with major service providers. The leadership meetings also feature Partner Spotlights, where leaders highlight the important work they are doing in the community, as well as opportunities to share announcements, events, and resources that support community engagement.
| | Memorial House Korean Language and Culture School | | The Philip Jaisohn Memorial House in Media, PA hosted its first Korean language and culture class for youth and adults. Young learners got to partake in cultural activities and language classes while a course in flower arranging attracted local adults. The Memorial House is also preparing for another Korean movie night series this summer. Keep an eye on our website or follow us at instagram.com/jaisohnhouse/ for more details! If you are interested in either our youth or adult programs, please contact Hyewon Kim at (610) 627-9768. | | 2025 Internships and Scholarships | | |
We are now accepting applications for the 2025 Jaisohn Student Internship and Scholarship Program. The Philip Jaisohn Memorial Foundation (PJMF) is pleased to offer internships and scholarships for college and graduate students who demonstrate academic excellence, leadership, and service to their schools and communities.
Visit our website https://jaisohn.org/scholarships/ for more information.
| | We’re excited to share that the Jaisohn Center is now on Facebook! This new platform will help us stay connected and highlight the work we’re doing to serve and support Asian American communities across the Greater Philadelphia Region. We invite you to follow us at facebook.com/jaisohncenters and to like and share our posts to help spread the word. Your support helps us reach more people and build stronger, healthier communities. | | The Philip Jaisohn Memorial Foundation is pleased to announce that we received an award from the Pennsylvania Department of Aging’s Senior Community Center Grant Program to support the Jaisohn Wellness Center’s programs and new equipment. | | The Jaisohn Center's work would not be possible without the generosity of our partners: | | | | |
