The Boston Foundation recognized community leaders of the year in their recent annual report.

The Boston Foundation writes, “Ben Hires became the new CEO of Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC) on June 1, one week after George Floyd was murdered and the Black Lives Matter protests began in earnest. He had volunteered at the Center years earlier, helping students apply to college. Yanyi Weng says she “grew up” at the Center. Today, she is a hospice worker and a mental health counselor—with a focus on serving Asian immigrants.”

Ben reflects on joining BCNC in June: “Any organization that supports and serves communities of color or works with immigrants, like BCNC does, is inherently a social justice organization, it’s inherently an organization that is working toward equity and inclusion. So, I reflected on all of that led to BCNC’s first statement on racism.”

Yanyi looks forward to the next 10 years: “I want to see more money going into mental wellness for people of color. For people in the younger generation it’s hard for them to communicate with their parents, so there are a lot of communication barriers. Asian Americans have a lot of mental struggles over xenophobia and racism especially, but they don’t have the space to share that. So, it’s very important for the community to have that space.”

Read the full interviews in the report here.