Asian Health & Service Center CEO Holden Leung hands out red envelopes at a Lunar New Year celebration. A growing partnership between AHSC and PSU's School of Social Work aims to address critical behavioral health workforce shortages. (Photos courtesy of AHSC)
On a recent morning, the Asian Health & Service Center in Portland's Lents neighborhood filled up with regulars. Every Tuesday, the Cantonese Community Group draws more than 100 Cantonese-speaking seniors for exercise, a health presentation and lunch. That day, the topic was lung cancer risks and screenings. The event can become an all-day affair for those who join in on the ping-pong fun in the afternoon.
Since its founding in 1983, the Asian Health & Service Center (AHSC) has delivered culturally and linguistically responsive care to the region's fast-growing Asian communities.
How to build and sustain the workforce needed to meet the community's growing needs is a central challenge for CEO Holden Leung. That's where an expanding partnership with Portland State University's School of Social Work comes in.
For decades, AHSC has served as a practicum site, giving PSU social work students supervised hands-on training in a community-based organization. But to help grow their capacity to serve their Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean and Vietnamese-speaking communities with more bilingual, bicultural clinicians, that relationship has evolved into a two-way pipeline.
Through a new initiative backed by the Heatherington Foundation, AHSC staff accepted into PSU's master of social work program can receive tuition assistance and stipends, provided they continue to work in AHSC's behavioral health program after graduation. The first staff member to take advantage of the support graduated in June, and a second is starting this fall.
"There's a lot of appreciation that we have these resources," said Dan Valliere, associate director of AHSC. "People who maybe wouldn't have thought too much about it because they didn't want to take on debt or for some other reason, now it's easier to consider pursuing an MSW."
These kinds of partnerships — collaborating with private foundations and higher education to expand culturally specific workforce pathways — are among the recommendations laid out in the state Behavioral Health Talent Council's final report aimed at tackling Oregon's behavioral health workforce crisis.
Junghee Lee, interim dean of the School of Social Work and a member of AHSC's board of directors, says the model is promising and hopes it's the start of more to come.
"There's incredible demand from the community and the needs are there, but 'We don't have resources' or 'We don't have capacity' cannot be the answer anymore," Lee said. "We need to explore much more creative ways to support these populations and nurture and educate the next generation of social workers."
Overcoming the Obstacles
Part of that creative exploration includes addressing a critical bottleneck in training new practitioners: supervision and student support.
To earn a MSW, students must complete 900 hours of field practicum under the supervision of a MSW professional with at least two years of post-degree experience. But qualified supervisors are in short supply. Social service agencies stretched thin by shifting funding priorities and burnout don't always have the capacity to host students.
PSU also competes for placements with online programs whose students live in Oregon. In some cases, those programs offer stipends directly to community agencies to secure practicum spots — a practice PSU is unable to match.
At the same time, unpaid practicums create significant financial barriers for students already juggling work and family responsibilities with school. Lee is looking to clone the AHSC model by partnering with community foundations to better support practicum education.
"When our students are well-trained and educated with as few student loans as possible, they can be a lot more productive community partners," Lee said. "Agencies get our graduates and fulfill the community's needs. That is what I want to achieve from replicating the Asian Health & Service Center model with other community foundations and our field team for our students."
As more of PSU's graduates find and stay in jobs with community social agencies, those very students can then become practicum instructors to the next generation of social work students.
From Student to Clinician
Building that supervisor pool takes time, but new graduates like Tom Yu represent a critical first step. Yu works at AHSC as a qualified mental health professional — a promotion he earned after graduating with his MSW in June.
Tom Yu, a qualified mental health professional at AHSC, graduated with his master's in social work from PSU in June 2026.
After earning his bachelor's in social work from PSU, Yu joined AHSC in 2024, wanting to save money and gain experience before committing to an MSW. As the agency's first tuition-assistance recipient, he completed PSU's one-year advanced standing program while fulfilling his practicum hours on site at AHSC in Lents.
Previously a mental health associate focused on case management and skill training, Yu now handles more clinical responsibilities.
"I'm slowly adding my experience and knowledge from PSU," he said. "Before the MSW, I was using my own logic to try to understand why a client was doing something. But now, I have theories and frameworks I learned to help me guide clients in sharing more of their thoughts and feelings."
One of his classes also allowed his cohort to bring their practicum experiences into the classroom and learn from one another's case studies and approaches.
Yu is now on the path to becoming a licensed clinical social worker — a credential that can take at least two years post MSW — but in the meantime, he's focused on making an impact where he is.
"I really enjoy working with the clients and seeing their success," he said. "It's been really good and challenging for me to keep going in my career and to be able to provide more services for this community."