Morrison (Gayle) Files on Southeast Asian Refugees, 1969-2001

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Summary

Title:
Gayle Morrison files on Southeast Asian refugees
Dates:
1969-2001
Creators:
Morrison, Gayle
Abstract:
This collection contains materials acquired by Gayle Morrison during the time she served with the Lao Family Community, Inc., and the Governor's Task Force regarding issues of Southeast Asian refugees living both in the United States and in camps located in Southeast Asia. Materials relating to the Lao Family Community and the Governor's Task Force include correspondence and information on agencies at the local, state, and federal level. The agencies and services included in the collection deal with the issues and challenges Southeast Asian refugees face living in the United States and ways of helping the refugees adapt to their new home and surroundings.
Extent:
7.2 Linear Feet (9 boxes and 7 oversize folders) and 7 digitized images
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

Gayle Morrison Files on Southeast Asian Refugees. MS-SEA014. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. Date accessed.

For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains materials acquired by Gayle Morrison during the time she served with the Lao Family Community, Inc., and the Governor's Task Force regarding issues of Southeast Asian refugees living both in the United States and in camps located in Southeast Asia. Materials relating to the Lao Family Community and the Governor's Task Force include correspondence and information on agencies at the local, state, and federal level. The agencies and services included in the collection deal with the issues and challenges Southeast Asian refugees face living in the United States and ways of helping the refugees adapt to their new home and surroundings.

Each series is arranged alphabetically by topic. The materials in each file are arranged chronologically.

The collection is arranged into four series.

  • Series 1. Lao Family Community, Inc., 1977-1990. 1.5 linear ft.
  • Series 2. Orange County and California Agencies and Services, 1976-1998. 1.4 linear ft.
  • Series 3. Non-California state and national organizations, 1976-2000. 2.6 linear ft.
  • Series 4. Printed Ephemera, 1969-2001. 1 linear ft.

Biographical / historical:

Gayle Morrison has been active in several organizations working with Southeast Asians since the 1970s. She earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology from California State University in Fullerton, California, in 1972. She then went on to receive a Master of Arts degree in Educational Counseling and Psychology in 1976 from Chapman University in Orange, California. She began her involvement with Southeast Asian organizations by working in the Home Support Program in Orange County. This program sent counselors into the homes of Southeast Asians where they educated members of the household in areas such as health care.

Morrison was also a member of the Refugee Forum of Orange County from 1978 to 1991. The forum was a county wide, inter-agency group of professionals and interested individuals who met to facilitate refugee resettlement through group problem solving and information sharing. From November 1985 through June 1988, Morrison served as the chairperson of the Linkages Committee and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Refugee Forum.

Morrison was the Assistant Executive Director of the Lao Family Community, Inc. (LFC), located in Orange County, California, from December 1988 to June 1990. During that time she performed all grant writing for program expansion of new programs. Within this organization, she established and coordinated an English as a Second Language (ESL) program for preliterate and survival level adult refugee students. She also assisted the executive director in developing and providing services for refugees and was responsible for all personnel management. She served as the Executive Director of LFC from June 1990 through February 1991. During this time, Morrison was responsible for all agency planning and supervised and reviewed all agency programs. She also reviewed all fiscal records to determine the agency's solvency.

Morrison went on to serve as Personnel Administrator for the Lao-Hmong Security Agency in Garden Grove, California, from March 1991 to the present. This private business trains and employs Southeast Asians, especially former Hmong and Lao soldiers, as security guards for warehouse and industrial sites throughout California.

Morrison has also been a member of various statewide committees, including the Governor's Task Force Citizen Advisory Committee from 1979-1981. Several articles by Morrison have been published, as well as the book, Sky is Falling: An Oral History of the CIA's Evacuation of the Hmong from Laos, in 1999.

Morrison currently lives in Santa Ana, California, where she continues to serve as an expert consultant for several organizations involved with Southeast Asian refugees. She has recently received a one-year research fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the purpose of completing oral history research regarding the Hmong who were United States allies and remained in Laos after 1975. This activity is part of the Hmong Oral History Project, an independent project of Morrison's that has been ongoing since 1988.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Gayle Morrison, 1992-1997.
Processing information:

Processed by Julia Stringfellow, 2003. Processing was supported by a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant from the California State Library.

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Processed by Julia Stringfellow, 2003.
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2020-09-17 23:33:09 UTC .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research. Access to files covered by California personnel records legislation is restricted for 50 years from the latest date of the materials in those files. Access to medical records is restricted for 100 years from the latest date of the materials in those files. Restrictions are noted at the file level.

Terms of access:

Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Head of Special Collections and University Archives.

Preferred citation:

Gayle Morrison Files on Southeast Asian Refugees. MS-SEA014. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. Date accessed.

For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.

Location of this collection:
Southeast Asian Archive
The UCI Libraries, P.O. Box 19557
Irvine, CA 92623-9557, US
Contact:
(949) 824-3947
spcoll@uci.libanswers.com
Website