Transformation begins when someone feels seen, supported, and strong enough to move forward.
At the Chinese American Service League, that question drives everything we do. For us, transformation is our mission, a sustained process that unfolds when people can access resources, navigate systems, and build the stability needed to focus beyond immediate challenges.
This report shows what that looks like in practice through:
In FY2024, CASL served 7,196 individuals, from infants to centenarians. Most identified as Asian American, though both African American and Latino clients increased steadily since FY2022. More than half spoke limited or no English. One in three had arrived in the United States within the past 20 years.
Age Distribution
Language proficiency
African American + Latino
Where Our Clients Come From
Clients come from across the South Side. About a third live in Armour Square, which includes Chinatown. The rest come from neighborhoods like Bridgeport, Brighton Park, McKinley Park, and the Near South Side. Since 2019, Bridgeport has seen a 240% increase in residents turning to CASL for support.
Neighborhoods We Serve
Why Our Clients Come
The reasons vary. Some seek early education for their children, guidance on health coverage, or support to keep housing stable. Others need help navigating benefit systems. For more than half of our clients, language is the first barrier. CASL meets this challenge directly with services in multiple languages and staff trained to clarify next steps rather than assume needs.
Mei’s Transformation
[Note: This composite case shows how CASL Education and Health Services coordinate across life stages.]
Infancy: Mei’s mother was referred to CASL’s Family Outreach Program shortly after giving birth. A home visitor arrived speaking her language, focusing on infant milestones and postpartum health.
Age 5: Mei started at CASL’s Child Development Center, clinging to her mother at drop-off. A Chinese-speaking teacher stayed close until Mei was ready to take her hand and walk into class.
Age 10: When Mei began falling behind at school, a mentor in CASL’s after-school program helped her slow down, review steps, and see problems differently. With consistent support, she began turning in assignments and participating in class.
Age 16: Mei began missing school. A counselor from CASL’s Behavioral Health team met with her weekly, identifying patterns and setting short-term goals. Mei re-engaged and started preparing for college.
Age 18: Now Mei is in her first year at a local university, carrying with her years of support from that first home visit through every transition that followed.
Human Services: Transformation Begins With Stability
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Intro
Human Services is often where transformation begins at CASL. In FY2024, we supported 4,716 individuals seeking the stability that makes progress possible: secure housing, reliable income, legal documentation, and clear pathways through government systems.
Illinois Welcome Center
The Growing Need
The growing need for immigration support is clear in our data. Visits to CASL at the Illinois Welcome Center increased from 70 to 344 between FY2022 and FY2024. This fivefold growth reflects both changing immigration patterns and the critical need for early, culturally responsive support.
A Coordinated Routine
After immigrating from China in 2015, JiaBao and her younger brother enrolled in CASL’s after-school program. When JiaBao’s father later lost his job, he found support just down the hall in CASL’s Culinary Training Program. With a stable routine and peace of mind knowing his children were safe, JiaBao’s father was able to focus on his training. He ultimately secured a position as a professional cook. Today, JiaBao is in college, the first in her family to attend.
Education Services: Seeing Who You Can Become
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Education Services: Seeing Who You Can Become
CASL’s Education Services support learners from infancy through adulthood. We focus on consistency, language access, and routines that keep students grounded and engaged.
Education Services Programs Used
Educational Benchmark Data
In the Child Development Center, young children build the emotional and behavioral foundation for school. In FY2024, 92 percent reached age-appropriate emotional benchmarks before kindergarten. For context, just 58 percent of Illinois kindergarteners demonstrated social and emotional readiness in 2022–2023, according to the state’s Kindergarten Individual Development Survey (KIDS).
School-Aged and Teen Programs continue that support. In FY2024, 99 percent of School-Aged Program participants completed homework with support. That number reflects what’s possible when students have routines they can count on, mentors who show up, and a space where they know they belong.
Health Services: Transformation Deepens With Care
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Health Services: Transformation Deepens With Care
CASL’s Health Services span every life stage and need. Behavioral health counselors work directly in schools. Memory care programs preserve dignity while supporting families. In-home services help older adults age in place. All are offered in-language and coordinated across other supports.
Behavioral Health Services Programs Used
Clients Receiving In-home or Adult Day Services
Many of CASL’s Home Care Aides are family members caring for loved ones. In FY24, we launched our Caregiver Support Program to provide tools, relief, and guidance in the language and culture they trust. When government funding was cut, donor support kept our Alzheimer’s Project going strong. It continues to expand access to memory care and family support. CASL’s Behavioral Health team serves people at every stage of life. From children to caregivers, we offer personalized, culturally competent care that improves outcomes.
A Crisis We Cannot Ignore
Suicide is now the leading cause of death for Asian American youth aged 15-24¹. The rates have doubled since 1999, yet fewer than 9% of Asian Americans seek mental health services². CASL’s behavioral health teams work in schools and community spaces, meeting young people where they are with counselors who share their language and culture.
The Care Was Never the Problem
A son had been caring for his elderly father for years while juggling work and family life. During a conversation with a CASL caseworker, he learned he could become a certified Home Care Assistant for his father with training, pay, and support. Now they remain under the same roof as partners in care, supported by a system that respects the role he was already playing.
Impact & Advocacy: Transformation Extends Beyond the Individual
Some challenges emerge across communities as patterns, including gaps in language access, housing, mental health care, and education. CASL’s Impact & Advocacy team works with partners across Chicago and beyond to identify these patterns through data, community insight, and lived experience.
Much of this work happens through Change InSight³, a national data initiative co-led by CASL. In 2024, reports highlighted the Chin community—one of the largest recent immigrant groups from Myanmar—as one of the most at-risk Asian American groups in the Midwest.
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Why Change InSight Is Important
It is absolutely vital that we continue to have data like this for elected officials, for funders, to make the case for the resources that are needed in our community, and that we are not monolithic. We are very different, even within ethnic groups.
Nicole Lee
Alderwoman
The Infrastructure Behind Transformation
CASL’s ability to deliver services depends on people, systems, and funding working together every day. In FY2024, CASL operated on a $27.6 million budget.
Revenue Breakdown:
41% Earned Income
33% Government Support
21% Individual and Institutional Donors
4% Non Operational Income
1% Special Events
Of the $25.7M spent:
89% went directly to programs
7% to fundraising
4% to management and operations
Left to right, front to back, Chayla Chung, Annie Reyes, Karina Kidder, Rachael Wright, Mohmoud Anagreh, Nick Bernard
CASL Is Transforming Too: New Community Hub
A transformative redevelopment project is taking shape at 3000 South Pitney Court, a 5.3-acre riverfront site just southwest of Chinatown. Supported by the Sue Ling Gin Foundation, this second community hub will expand CASL’s capacity to meet growing regional demand.
In FY2024, two-thirds of our clients lived outside of Armour Square. The new campus reflects that shift, bringing in-language services closer to the neighborhoods where demand is growing fastest.
The site will include:
Green space and public gathering areas along the riverfront
Early childhood education, older adult care, and workforce training
Programs shaped by local input and grounded in CASL’s established model
Faces of CASL
You Make Transformation Possible
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Transformation
This report began with a question: What does it take to transform a life?
It takes time, consistent support, coordination, and a shared vision for what’s next. Everything in this report reflects that long-term approach.
A youth preparing for college. A parent rejoining the workforce. A son finally getting the help he needs to care for his aging father. A community coming together to make its needs heard.
Outcomes like these are possible when the right systems are in place—and when people like you show up with compassion and commitment.
Today, families continue to face growing and evolving needs. A mother in Bridgeport is at risk of eviction. A teenager seeks a counselor who speaks their language. A son struggles to afford care for his elderly father.
These stories reflect not only individual challenges—but the collective strength of our community, and the urgency to expand and adapt our work as the world changes around us.
Your investment today continues the transformation. The same support that changed Mei’s life, ready for the next child. The same system that helped a son care for his father, ready for the next family.
Consulate-General of the People’s Republic of China in Chicago
David Cotton
Arnold H. Craine
John and Alice Czyzycki
Daspin & Aument LLP
Elaine Duckler
Evergreen Real Estate Group
F.H. Paschen, S.N. Nielsen & Associates LLC
Fogelson Family Foundation
Craig K. Freedman
Paul Pai and Christine Ghee
Hawthorne Strategy Group
Dennis J. Howe
De Huang
HWM Moy Foundation
Insight Hospital & Medical Center Chicago
Joseph Kye
Maureen L. Lai
Denise Lam
Jed Lam
Angela Lee
Lee Moy Family Foundation
Karen Li
Maria Chung Lin
Ann Lui
Tu Luu
Wan Yu Ma
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Provisio Partners
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Lee Yee Family Foundation
Yuan-qing Yu
Linda Yu
$500 – $999
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Pauline Chow
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Full Circle Property Management
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Paula A. Galbraith Esq., CPA
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Jones Lang LaSalle
Ron Mark and Anita Jung Mark
Lai Kwok
Todd Lanscioni
Anita Lau
Daniel Liao
Susie Lin
Jennifer Litwin
Norris Liu
Victoria Liu
Barbara Lumpkin
Eric Mah
Sandeep Nain
William Ni
Mark Noffke
Northern Trust Company
Kevin Park
Elizabeth A. Parker
Susan Patel
Tamara Reed Tran
Sterling Respass
Jacques Sandberg
Anne I. Shaw
Jeffrey Sriver
Edward Tao
Darryl Tom
Preston M. Torbert
Lucy Tung
UI Health | UIC
Will Woods
Susan Wright Kornhaber
Irene Zhanglin & James Yeung
Wai Yung Mak
$100 - $499
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AbbVie Inc.
Syed Ahmed
Thomas Anderson
Nick Andriacchi
Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services, Inc.
Wei-Min Au
Bank of America Corp.
Leonard Berrun
Adam Birnbaum
Kevin and Eve Bradshaw
Chris Burke
Mark Calaguas
Amalya H. Campbell
Francesco Capillupo
Veronica Cardenas
David E. Carpenter
Peter J Chan
Grace Chan McKibben
Lucy Chang Evans
George Chao
Ellen Chen
Annie Chen
Phillip Chen
Swee Cheng
Daniel Cheong
John Ke Chiang
Mark Chiang
May Young Chin
Chinese American Civic Council
Tat Chiu
Caroline Chou
Brandon H. Chung
Melissa Colombo
Jessica Q. Covert
Michelle Cronin
Maggie Deng
Discover Financial Services
Daniel M. Doyle
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Global Welcome Clothing
Google
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JP Morgan Chase Foundation
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Si Qin
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Salesforce
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Gail Smith
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Taipei Economic & Cultural Office in Chicago (TECO)
Mo-Yin Tam
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United Airlines
United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania
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Tribute Gift Listings
In Honor of Arthur Wong
Arnold H. Craine
In Honor of Bonnie J. Fong
Amalya H. Campbell
In Honor of Bruce Lee
Anthony Woodby
In Honor of Chaoran Jin
Todd Lanscioni
In Honor of David Cotton
Mr. & Mrs. Norman Bobins,
The Robert Thomas Bobins Foundation
In Memory of Dr. and Mrs. Chung Kuo Liao
Thomas E. Liao
In Memory of Elian Wong
Wei-Min Au
In Memory of Harry and Una Moy
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In Honor of Hor Hor Moy
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In Memory of Jackson Chang
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Theja Lanka
De Ma
In Honor of Jered G. Pruitt
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In Memory of Ming Djang and Chung Kuo Liao
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Gail Smith
In Memory of Shuet Fong Lee
Bing Mui
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William W. Li
In Honor of Stephen and Mayline Yee
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In Honor of Woon-Wah Siu
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Thank you
Thank you to all CASL supporters. We apologize for any inadvertent errors or omissions and will make every effort to correct them. Please notify donate@casl.org with any corrections.
