Elgin Lao organization making effort to get out community vote
ELGIN — The Lao community here and throughout the Chicago area will be making a concerted effort to have its voices heard in the next general election.
To that end, the Lao American Organization of Elgin has formed a partnership with the Asian American Institute to help Lao American voters have the resources and knowledge to participate in the democratic process. It’s part of a broader effort called Pan-Asian Voter Empowerment.
“We are extremely excited to have the opportunity to partner up with the Asian American Institute and share in their commitment to develop and strengthen our community,” said Alan Thavisouk, LAOE board member and director for its civic engagement program.
“We look forward to helping our community become active participants in the 2012 elections by providing a platform to raise awareness of our community through supporting the legislative process. This is a monumental initiative for the Lao American Organization of Elgin and will serve as a springboard to future programs, ensuring the advancement and growth of our community,”
According to Thavisouk, the AAI will provide training for the LAOE board and material for educating and encouraging Lao Americans to vote and participate in the elections. LAOE will translate the material to Lao and hopes to set up election education workshops, issues platform workshops, and candidate town hall debates.
Thavisouk said about 10,000 Laotian-Americans reside in Elgin and surrounding communities and that about 1,000 belong to LAOE, which was formed in 1996.
“LAOE will be creating its own internal census to get a more accurate demographic assessment and count of Laotians,” he said.
“There is not much known about the community. Part of LAOE’s 2012 strategic goal is to raise the awareness of the community. We are a blue-collar community. A great percentage of adults work in the local factories as laborers. Overall, the population is middle-income and low education.”
According to Thavisouk, the older generations of Laos in the Elgin area are mostly immigrants and refugees. Many arrived in the United States in the late 1970s and early 1980s after the Communist overthrow of the Lao Monarchy.
“We were sponsored by churches and ended up in the area due to the sponsors,” Thavisouk said. “We were fortunate enough to have strong community leaders in the beginning to support new refugees and immigrants. Due to these leaders, more and more Laotians moved to area to benefit from the community bond.”
Thavisouk is a sales manager for Cars.com and lives in Carol Stream. His father and other family members have lived in Elgin for more than 30 years.
“I have been raised to be a community leader through my parents,” he said. “Both are social workers and leaders of the community.”
