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Vida Lin, founder and president of the Asian Community Development Council (ACDC), has received the Neighborhood Builders: Racial Equality Award from Bank of America. Lin was one of the five leaders across the nation to be recognized with this award for her work addressing systemic inequalities and social disparities impacting communities of color in Nevada.
Lin is a second-generation Chinese American who has served the Las Vegas AAPI community for the past 26 years. She is the founder and president of the Asian Community Development Council (ACDC), the first and only nonprofit community development corporation in Nevada established to educate, connect and empower the AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) community by providing vital resources. Among her many efforts, Lin developed Nevada’s first Asian food pantry, providing culturally appropriate food that meets the dietary needs of the AAPI community to help tackle food insecurity. She also helped organize COVID-19 and flu pop-up vaccination clinics serving individuals with limited English proficiency.
In 2021 and under Vida Lin’s leadership, ACDC:
- Distributed food to 3,352 AAPI families and 8,881 individuals in need through their culturally-sensitive food distribution program
- Organized a holiday drive-up food distribution and passed out over 919 boxes of food for families in one day - Health navigators enrolled 495 clients in Qualified Health Plans through Nevada Health Link
- Administered 1,828 COVID-19 vaccines, hosting a total of 38 vaccine clinics
“In 2020 during the height of the pandemic, ACDC was tasked to provide more direct services to our community. We opened a culturally-sensitive food pantry, registered more than 35,000 people to vote and enrolled more than 1,300 in affordable health insurance plans. We facilitated more than 2,300 vaccine shots and have helped 700 clients with free citizenship assistance. This is just the beginning. With Bank of America’s help, we can step in to provide more vital resources for our community. We are taking every step to ensure that language should never be a barrier, meeting our community right where they are. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity!” said Lin.
This award comes with $200,000 in flexible funding from Bank of America that Lin will direct to ACDC to continue improving the general well-being and education of the AAPI community through culturally-sensitive food distributions, vaccine clinics and the Healthy Asian Pacific Islanders (HAPI) Medical Center, which is anticipated to launch this year and will provide equal access to quality healthcare regardless of socioeconomic status or language barriers.
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