White House Author

Rev. Norman Fong is the Executive Director of San Francisco’s Chinatown Community Development Center (Chinatown CDC). Founded in 1977, Chinatown CDC is an award winning community development corporation with a comprehensive program of community organizing, neighborhood planning, affordable housing development, property management and resident services. The organization has developed or rehabilitated over 2,300 units of affordable housing over the past three decades. Throughout his tenure at Chinatown CDC, Norman has emphasized the importance of resident engagement and developing grassroots leadership to promote improved quality of life, quality housing, and safe communities. Recognizing a need for youth programming, Norman created a youth-led-and-run Adopt-an-Alleyway program to improve the conditions in Chinatown through neighborhood and alleyway clean-ups and a Chinatown Alleyway Tours program (CATs) to engage youth in leading tours providing a glimpse into the “real Chinatown.” These efforts led to the development of additional youth programs (i.e. YSRO) that serve seniors and residents of Single Room Occupancy Hotels with emergency and disaster preparedness training.