17. June 2009 by admin.

Shanghai during the summer months slow down tremendously. Many expats are traveling back home and/or traveling vacationing all over the globe. But a trend is beginning to set in that not everyone is leaving. I do hear of many people who are just hunkering down for the summer and just makng some local trips here and there. The new economic realities have thier affects on many different fronts.

At the center we have summer programming continuing to provide for the need of the people sicking around. Summer camps for kids, English and cooking for ayis, intensive Chinese classes, counselors are still meeting and more.  Stop in to connect during these months when it may feel like the whole world has left.

The Shanghai World Expo. 70,000,000 anticipated attendance of which 95% is thought to be Chinese attendees. With this being the largest Expo ever put on (Go China!)and with these huge numbers f Chines visitors, there will still be an estimated 500,000 monthly international visitors. This is where we feel CCS can serve. In recent months CCS has begun to formulate relationships and a plan to be involved in Shanghai’s debut to the world. And after visiting the Expo’s site last week I became very enthusiastic about what is being plan for this event. There are already over 300,000 volunteers registered to assist with the massive, 6 month event. But with all these thousands of volunteers there is still a gap that the internationals, living in Shanghai, can fill. At the Center we plan to serve as a liason for the international community to get connected into this event. We also plan to host weekly orientations to assist the many thousands of international visitors each month.

Get Connected with CCS!

Jamie Weidner, Exe. Director

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8. May 2009 by admin.

I am often asked the question “are people leaving Shanghai and going back home”. And we all thought that we were going to be seeing a mass exodus in the past months. But the reality is that there have been many people leaving but there also continues to be new people coming.

In all the economies all over the world, the one you do not want to jump out of s China’s growing economy. Right now China is playing such a vital role in the world economy and the major players all over the world know this.

So we are continuing to grow and thrive in Shanghai. At the Center we are pushing forward preparing for our best year ever in 2009 - 2010… Our new arrival program is having good registration as new people continue to arrive. This summer we have numerous interns, from all over the world, knocking on our door to come be trained and assist as we prepare for Expo and another year.

Shanghai is the place to be! Look us up today at the Community Center Shanghai!

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8. May 2009 by admin.

There is always something going on at the Community Center. Sometimes we do not even realize how many classes, events, seminars, social gatherings and actives are on going every day.

Today we are in Puxi with our 1st Annual Puxi Bazaar. Last year we held our first bazaar in Pudong and now we have expanded to both sides of the river. Next week will be our Pudong Bazaar with over 125 vendors. This is the place to shop to get all your presents ready for the summer.

A new program we have added is our no apologies program teaching our youth of today how to make the right decision about how to respond to todays peer pressures. We make no apology for offering this life saving no apologies training for youth. ha:)

And tomorrow we have our last Shanghai 123 (new arrivals orientation program) of the year…  Registration is up and we have decided to offer this program 9 times next year to keep up with the demand.

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29. April 2009 by admin.

On April 25th we celebrated our official opening of the new CCS Puxi Center. With excitment people responded to this fun and relaxing evening. With close to 100 in attendance the Puxi Center held the audience well.

The evening began with an opening word and the serving of finger foods partially sponosred by Vino Venue, while attendees mingled and made new friends. Then we had words from David Plekenpol (Chairman CCS), Jon Brantingham (Board Member CCS), Jeff Stubbs (Director of Schools SCIS) and myself. From there we proceeded to have a ribbon cutting celebrated at our entrance and ended the night with many fun raffle draws.

Hats off to our Puxi team of staff and volunteers. This team did a fabulous job of putting this evening together. It was a great evening and everyone in attendance seemed to be very pleased. We look forward to you coming a visiting us some time soon.

Puxi Center
No. 201, 5th Floor
Lane 3215 Hong Mei Road
(300 meters behind City Shop, off of Hong Song Dong Lu)
Hong Qiao, Puxi
虹梅路3215弄201号5楼 (虹松东路), 众心国际社区中心
Shanghai 201103
Phone: (021) 6406-4276

check out a few more pictures @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougwright/sets/72157617245858569/



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20. April 2009 by admin.

Last Friday we held our 1st Annual CCS Golf Tournament at Palm Beach. As I told the guys “we scheduled the event just to give us a reason not go to to work that day.” And one guy said that “any day on the golf course is a good day”. And what a great day it was for golf. The guys who played with us had a nice day and all seemed to have left with prizes and awards from the day. We were thinking that we should have a monthly Golf Tournament… ya right… wouldn’t that be nice!

Looking forward to next year already!

check out some pictures of the winners… http://picasaweb.google.com/communitycentershanghai

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27. March 2009 by admin.

It has been a long road, but we have finally settled down in our new facility in Puxi. I was at the Center yesterday meeting thinking about how much I like the new Center. It has a really good feel to it.

Also CCS welcome SCIS as our new Hongqiao center foundng partner… we are anticipating great things as we build our services in Hongqiao…

Our classes and counseling are very active and last week’s Sh123 was a great success… it is exciting days in the Puxi Center.

ACE and Spelling Bee were both awesome… !

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4. February 2009 by admin.

February 2009 Blog

Chinese New Year has been exciting and quite noisy. I am personally happy for life to begin rolling again as we start our Spring classes and activities here at the center. Have you been able to pick up the new CCS guide yet? If not, you must! Within the guide you will find a variety of new classes and activities being offered at CCS.

Our classes and tours are making much progress as we develop past just being a New Arrival center into a continuing education program. It is our goal to provide programming for the whole family for the entire duration of your stay in Shanghai. Every day we are working on developing new classes and teachers and tours and activities that will meet the needs of our community.

One new area is our Welcome Center. Please help me welcome to the CCS team, Elena Garcia Elena Garcia, who is heading up the Pudong Welcome Center. The Pudong Welcome Center has opened, with one soon to follow in Puxi. In our Welcome Center, you can find information, relax, check emails (soon) or grab a warm cup of coffee. Please stop by today and say hello!

Some more exciting news is that we will have a library opening up soon. This library will contain in the area of 1000 titles to start, with more coming. The library will be open every Wednesday, with the goal of adding more days as workers come forward to assist with the administration. The library will be located on the ground floor of our Pudong Center.

On the horizon is the Grand Opening of our new Puxi Center, Spelling Bee, ACE, which is Interkom’s Arts Charity Extravaganza, Golf Tournament, Bazaar and much more.  As always, there is a lot going on at the Community Center.

We are currently looking to fill volunteer roles in Marketing, Partner Care, IT Department, Welcome Center, Library and Family Care. Just call one of our Centers and speak with a Volunteer Coordinator.  I look forward to seeing you at one of our Centers!

James Weidner

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19. January 2009 by admin.

I can hardly believe that another year has flown by!  2008 was a year of transition at the Center.  2009 will be a year of depth, development and focus.  One of our goals is to further develop our Classes and Tours into a two- and four-year Enrichment Program.  We are the one stop shop for new arrivals in Shanghai and now we also want to be the place for those who have been here a while.  Adding to this excitement, our new Puxi Center will soon be ready.  It is a thrill to provide so many services to the International Community.  I wish all of our patrons a very Happy New Year and we look forward to seeing you in 2009!

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8. December 2008 by admin.

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8. December 2008 by admin.

Dear Friends,

Thank you to all of our Friends, Partners and Sponsors who participated in An Elegant Evening for CCS. We had a challenge on our hands, with the economic climate being what it is, but CCS staff did a marvelous job and pulled off a great event. With its success we have already begun to plan what that event will look like next year. Check out the link on our website to see pictures and a video tribute of the event. Now we dig in and continue planning for the New Year!

December is such a fun month! Lights, gifts and love all reminding me of what a wonderful Savior we celebrate this time of year. It always amazes me how people all over the globe begin to smile more and become a little more generous. The Spirit of Christmas is wonderful! I truly wish all of you the happiest and joyous Christmas Season.

I am also very excited about what I see happening with CCS as we move into 2009. All of our programming is in place for a very productive year. Everything will be beautifully illustrated in our new full-size, full-color Community Center Class, Tour and Events Guide. Be sure to pick one up from your nearby outlet. Featuring CCS classes, editorials, picture calendar and more, this publication, to me, represents the strides we are making to better serve the Community.

Interkom is preparing to celebrate the holidays with its annual dance-this year’s theme is “Dazzling Escape”. This formal evening for high schoolers will be held on December 13 at the Parkyard Hotel from 8pm to 11pm. There are still openings for volunteers to assist with the many facets of this fun evening.

Our Community Outreach initiatives are also in full swing. The Giving Tree program is well under way. With over 6,000 gifts of love scheduled to be distributed, it is another demonstration of how CCS bridges the cultural gap. On December 2, I was able to join Concordia International School, their Girl Scouts, students and teachers in distributing a few hundred gifts of love to one of the dozen schools that Giving Tree will serve this year. We have also partnered with the Rotary Club to distribute “winter kits” in the earthquake affected region of Sichuan Province. To date we have distributed close to 200 winter kits with another 400 planned for this month.

As you can see there is a lot happening at the Community Center Shanghai. It is our privilege to be able to serve you!

Joy to the World,

James Weidner
Executive Director
Community Center Shanghai

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