Celebrating Lunar New Year with a Spotlight on the Asian Community Development Council

In 2021, Sands established its multi-year partnership with the Asian Community Development Council (ACDC) through a Sands Cares donation to the organization’s Language Link capital campaign. The funding was the largest contribution to the campaign at the time and kick-started ACDC’s effort to create a language bank that would facilitate access to critical social services for the Filipino, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Thai communities in Southern Nevada.

The Sands Cares funding also kick-started impact in other areas.

ACDC’s Language Link became a gateway to accelerating goals in all of ACDC’s focus areas, as well as initiated a relationship with Sands that has grown to also include support for the Healthy Asians and Pacific Islanders Medical Center for the past three years and the organization’s College Readiness Bootcamp in 2024.

“Language Link is the backbone of all of our services because through our language specialists we can connect our community members to vital services and benefits,” Vida Lin, president and founder of ACDC, said. “Through Language Link, we can provide our clients with culturally sensitive food, assist them in accessing health benefits, and help accelerate voter registration and citizenship. These services address immediate needs while also building greater self-sufficiency.”

Last year, the Language Link facilitated ACDC’s efforts to distribute food to 11,100 individuals and 7,440 families, help 93 clients obtain Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and more than 150 clients with their citizenship applications, enroll nearly 1,300 clients in qualified health plans, and register more than 3,700 voters state-wide.

Beyond the numbers, Language Link is the mechanism through which ACDC can change lives. For example, a single mother of two young daughters faced significant financial challenges and had stopped receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. She was reluctant to seek help, but one of ACDC’s Mongolian-speaking case coordinators reached out to her on social media, provided reassurance in her preferred language and reconnected her with food assistance benefits.

“Because of Language Link, we were able to fulfill this young mother’s needs and remove a harmful stigma around asking for help,” Lin said.

Language Link also provides patient referrals and enables service delivery at the Healthy Asians and Pacific Islanders Medical Center, which Sands has funded since its opening in 2022. The HAPI Medical Center delivers culturally sensitive primary health care for underserved, uninsured and underinsured AANHPI community members in the Las Vegas Valley. Most importantly, the center removes the language barriers many Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander people face in obtaining medical care.

In 2024 the Healthy Asians and Pacific Islanders Medical Center administered nearly 500 routine immunizations and hosted or co-hosted 40 vaccine clinics at various locations. In addition, ACDC provided financial scholarships to cover medical costs for some patients.

“We had a patient who is an asylee from the Philippines and had encountered significant challenges in finding affordable health insurance to cover care for his diabetes and high blood pressure,” Lin said. “We arranged an appointment with a Tagalog-speaking staff member to discuss the financial scholarship. Not only were we able to meet his medical requirements, but our staff member facilitated his enrollment in a qualified and affordable health insurance plan. He was very relieved that he finally received assistance to address his medical needs.”

With Sands’ focus on education, workforce development and empowering underrepresented students to advance, the company expanded its support to include ACDC’s College Readiness Bootcamp in 2024.

The program helped more than 400 local students and family members better understand how to prepare for and access higher education with guidance on standardized tests, financial aid and scholarships, college life skills, and career opportunities in fields such as technology, culinary arts and health. Sands Cares funding also supported ACDC’s GraduAsian ceremony, which celebrates the achievements of AANHPI graduates from Nevada universities.

“We’ve made strong progress in our service goals, and our support from Sands Cares was a big driver of these accomplishments,” Lin said. “Sands’ contributions have allowed us to establish resources that contribute to systemic, long-lasting change for our community, advancing our community members toward stronger, better futures.”

Sands’ partnership with ACDC aligns with the company’s priorities on community partner advancement, hardship relief, education, and diversity, equity and inclusion. To learn more about Sands Cares initiatives, read the company’s latest ESG Report: https://www.sands.com/resources/reports/