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Volunteer Opportunities

We are constantly looking for volunteers, from high school students to seniors, to develop our organization and promote awareness in the Korean-American community. If you would like to share your life with others and contribute to the mission of “beautiful life, beautiful departure,” please contact the office.  

Office Assistant

Somang Society’s office is constantly busy. Volunteers are helpful with office operations such as filing, managing memberships, organizing the library and office, and mailing services.

Campaign and Event Volunteer

Every Somang Society event is in need of simple to professional help. These tasks include event site and parking guidance, Powerpoint production, animation and video production, and photography.

Somang Care Class

The struggle of the families of dementia patients are often disregarded, despite how family members spend their days with heartaches and body aches. In order to help ease their difficulties, Somang Society has created a program called Somang Care Classroom. A variety of care is required to aid people with Alzheimer’s disease, and volunteers help us do just that. Volunteers can help with activities including hand movements to improve cognitive function, body balance and stretching exercises to promote whole body recovery, thinking skills improvement activities, cognitive recall therapy, reading therapy, puzzle and dictation games, and peaceful gardening.

Somang Choir

As stated in its name, the Somang Choir shares hope through song and laughter, furthermore spreading happiness and healing. Individuals experiencing gloomy days have the opportunity to experience learning music and harmony. The Somang Choir does not merely entertain others with music; rather, the group is actively engaged in the mission of touching people’s hearts and planting hope. The Choir plays a precious role in spreading joy through song.

To request the Somang Choir to sing at your loved one’s memorial, click the “Download choir performance form” button, fill out the form and send it to the Somang Society office.  The form is in Korean.

To inquire about any of the programs above, contact the Somang Society office.  Our contact information is at the bottom ; of this page.

Community Education and Outreach

UCI Willed Body Program

In cooperation with the UCI Willed Body Program, we help those who wish to donate their bodies to the program through the application process. 

Research Collaboration & Program Grants

Even though Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are the fastest growing racial population in the United States, AAPI are one of the most underrepresented racial groups in healthcare access as well as medical research to better diagnose, treat, and prevent diseases.  As a community partner for higher education research institutions including UCI Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND), UCSF (Dr. Van Ta Park, PhD), University of Texas Arlington (Dr. Kathy Lee, PhD, MSW) and other nonprofit organizations including the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging (NAPCA),  Somang Society has been actively involved in community-based research to facilitate diversity and AAPI inclusion in medical research to accelerate discovery in an inclusive, representative, and equitable way.

Active Research

Please click on any of the research program below to see how you can be involved!

Project: Koreans Invested in Making Caregivers Health Important (KIMCHI) (2022-2024)

Project: UCI AHEAD Study Diversity Recruitment Project (2022-2023)

Project: Collaborative Approach For Asian American & Pacific Islanders Research & Education (CARE)

Registry for paving the way for the meaningful inclusion of AAPI in clinical and caregiving research across the lifespan (2020-2023)

Past Research

Project: Korean and Chinese Dementia Caregiving Community Survey (2020-21)

Project: Disseminating SPHERE Korean Research Findings to the Korean American Community (2020-2021)

Project: Diverse Elders Coalition’s Caregiving Community Survey-Korean Caregiver survey (2020)

  • Alzheimer’s OC’s Building Korean Family Caregiver Support (2018-2021)
  • Southern California Initiative to Support Special Populations Impacted by Alzheimer’s disease (2018-2021)
  • Project: Staff Capacity Development to Better Serve Korean American Older Adults (2021-2022)
  • Dementia Education and Support Program for Underserved Korean-American Family Caregivers with Limited English Proficiency (2018-2019)