The Cultural Society of Filipino Americans is offering a free community event that is designed to help immigrant parents connect with their teenage children. A clinical psychiatrist who has devoted his energies to these specialized immigrant issues, will be present to present and to answer your questions for teenagers, young adults, parents and grand parents

Bridging the Cultural and Generational Gap II: “Why Don’t You Speak My Language?” will be held on Saturday. Sept. 29. 2007 in the Parish Community of St. Joseph, 8701 - 36th Avenue North, New Hope, MN 55427.

The day will begin with a 7:30 Registration/Breakfast, and latecomers not to worry, the speakers don’t begin until 9:30 a.m. The workshop sessions begin at 10:00 and followed by lunch, and a 1:00 session. The afternoon will conclude with a 3:30 p.m. closing and ice cream social.

Bridging the Gap is a series of workshops designed to foster an open dialogue between the Filipino youth and adults, to deal with cultural and generational issues within the community.

Some of the discussion topics include: Growing up in a bi-racial family; Cultural differences between American born Filipino Americans and recent Filipino immigrants; Maintaining your cultural identity; Breaking down the Filipino stereotypes; Living with traditional Filipino parents, and; Differences between American and Filipino culture.

The goal of the workshops are to help immigrant youth and their parents can make the adjustments and improve the interpersonal communication and cultural understanding.

The special guest speaker, Dr. E.J.R. David, who recently received his Doctorial degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. His research on “The Colonial Mentality Project,” have become his foundation for addressing the psychological experiences of Filipino Americans and their mental health.

As the son of immigrants who was raised in Alaska, Dr. David experienced the marginalization between of the community within the greater ethnic community, as well as the American raised youth from their immigrant parents. He soon recognized that the consequential outcomes are tragic and avoidable.

David works with families to maintain their Filipino culture in a multi ethnic setting, which he says is a major challenge for the present community. A number of Filipino families face difficulties in meeting individual needs for both cultures.

The tension between the dominant mainstream culture and the traditional culture has led to an increasing number of conflicts between multicultural and bicultural youth.

Dr. David will facilitate discussion in the hopes of engaging the process of overcoming the inequalities between various cultural generation groups. His other goals are to promote competence in educational, social, psychological and spiritual development of the youth.

The ultimate outcome is to reveal the positive values of respect, care, and love towards one another, the root of Filipino cultural mores and traditions, and necessary for family members to get beyond their differences. Only then can they build understanding of and bridge the gap between the generations.

The workshops will teach how to develop constructive and meaningful family conferences and team building sessions.

Please register in advance to help with the planning by calling Mar Alojando 651-578-8431 or register online from www.csfamn.org.

Find out more about the Colonial Mentality Project at www.colonialmentality.com.

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