About Us

Program Director

Minerva Chin, Executive Director
Minerva Chin is one of the founding members of A Place for Kids and served as the Board’s Chair for many years. During the mid ‘70’s and ‘80’s, under her guidance and leadership, the then student collective, Asian Children's Underground was renamed and institutionalized into a licensed, 501c3 non-profit full day preschool, after-school and full day summer program. She is a community activist, an educator, a child of immigrant parents and the mother of two grown children, Minerva's goal is to provide educational and enrichment opportunities for immigrant children to realize their bilingualism, bi-culturalism and to discover their own identities in our diverse world. Minerva was a Head Start teacher for six years and was a public school teacher for over 30 years in Chinatown. She received her B.S. in Elementary Education from City College and her M.S. in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street College.

Board of Directors

Frank Lang, Board Chair
Frank Lang is the Director of Housing for St. Nicholas NPC, a 34 year old Brooklyn based community organization. Mr. Lang has been a leader in housing and community development in NYC for more than 15 years. Mr. Lang has been a supporter of A Place for Kids (APFK) for more than a decade, starting as he headed up housing activities for a local group in Chinatown. Mr. Lang joined the Board of APFK in 2003 looking to deepen the impact he could have to improve the lives of the immigrants living in Lower Manhattan. With a school age child at home, he understands the importance of a supportive learning environment for a child’s future growth. While he has created hundreds of units of housing in the area for low income residents, APFK is another way for him to reach the broader range of residents struggling in NYC.

Janet Lo, Board Member
Janet Lo began her career as an educator in 1999 when she first started teaching at P.S./M.S. 34. Being in the classroom for 18 years, then earning her M.S. in School Administration, she gladly took on the leadership role offered to her as the school's Assistant Principal in 2018. Her deep concern for quality after-school programing led her to seek out A Place for Kids (APFK) to provide after-school care to her school population. Due to her effects, A Place for Kids @ PS 34 was established in the spring of 2016 to provide the much needed services of after-school care and to assist children in homework help and academic enrichment. Janet is a member of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance. She joined the Board of Directors of APFK because she believes in giving back to the community and providing support to our immigrant and low-income youth.

Janet's family immigrated from Hong Kong to New York's Lower East Side where she spent her childhood.

Sokie Lee, Board Member
Born in Hong Kong, Sokie Lee emigrated to the United States with her family more than 50 years ago. Sokie intimately knows the struggles of immigrants in America. Growing up Chinese in the Bronx, she was the recipient of many racial taunts. Both her parents worked long hours in the garment industry to support the family in a new country. Education and perseverance were core values they instilled in their children.

Sokie attended Bronx High School of Science, City College of New York, and Pratt Institute, where she got her BFA in Communication Design. Currently, Sokie works full time as Senior Graphic Designer at Scholastic Children’s Education Group. Additionally, Sokie teaches Qigong at the 92Y, Carnegie East House, and James Lenox House.

Through the years, Sokie has volunteered and supported numerous groups and causes: Asian Women United, New York Downtown Boathouse, Best Friends Animals Society, Shape Up NYC, New York Coalition for Asian American Mental Health. Sokie supports the mission of APFK to provide academic and enrichment opportunities to low-income immigrant children.

Robert Yiu, Board Member
Mr. Yiu is an Asian American with over 25 years of experience working in the Banking industry. He was the Chief Lending Officer at an Asian community bank. He was in charge of the residential and commercial divisions focused on lending within the Asian communities. He began his lending career with a New York City regional bank providing community development loans for the construction of affordable housing. Mr. Yiu is a former Bank Examiner and former United States Marine.

Mr. Yiu was raised in the New York Chinatown area as a child of immigrant parents where he attended Murray Bergtraum High School and Baruch College. Mr. Yiu’s wife, Julia Chan is a former A Place for Kid’s board member. He joined the Board of Directors because he believes in its mission of supporting the next generation of low-income immigrant children.

Emily Rios, Board Member
Emily Rios is the current Managing Director for Community Services at Asian Americans for Equality. At AAFE, she will be responsible for multilingual community programs in Chinatown and the Lower East Side (Manhattan) and Flushing and Jackson Heights (Queens) that serve 20,000 New Yorkers annually. Prior to joining AAFE, Emily was the Division Director of Early Childhood and Family Services at Brooklyn Community Services, where she managed a network of daycare, early childhood education and family development centers.

Emily joined the Board of A Place for Kids in June 2024 and is excited to work closely with Executive Director, Minerva Chin and other A Place for Kids Board members to support and strengthen essential education and childcare needs in the Chinatown and Lower East Side.

Rios is the daughter of Chinese immigrants who worked in the laundry and garment industries. Her family resided for may year in Chinatown before moving to Queens. Emily attended NYC public schools and holds degrees from Columbia University School of Social Work and Bank Street College of Education. She is a licensed social worker with a background in family therapy and early childhood special needs.

Susan Lee, Board Member
Susan Lee is a management consultant in the nonprofit sector and has dedicated her career to serving those in need. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Run for Chinatown and Sara D. Roosevelt Park Alliance, where she is the co-founder and co-President. She also founded the organization called Alliance for Community Preservation and Better. Susan was the founding board member of Nomi Network. She also supports various organizations through her volunteer work; such as Human Rights Watch, Safe Horizon, Covenant House International, MercyFirst, Heart of Dinner and Asian American for Equality Food Pantry.

Susan has been a volunteer for A Place for Kids since spring 2022. During the school year, she offers assistance with APFK students’ homework and in the summer, she is a chaperone for their weekly field trips. Susan is also the unofficial photographer for the program. Susan is excited to join APFK’s Board of Directors because she sees first-hand what a culturally rich program can do to a child’s growth and confidence.

She immigrated from Hong Kong with her family when she was six years old. Her view of New York has largely been shaped by her experiences growing up in the Lower East Side. Susan is a product of the New York City public schools. She graduated Brooklyn Technical High School and went on to earn her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Barnard College, Columbia University. She graduated with a Master in Public Administration from the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University.