Asian Pacific Environmental Network If you live in the Bay Area and want to join our volunteer list just go to apen4ej.org/volunteer Share this form with your friends, family, and communities through this link Donate to the CCSJ victims and survivors fund. Donate to Little Saigon’s Peace Ambassador program
APANO Responds to Tragedy in Atlanta APANO unites Asians and Pacific Islanders to build power, develop leaders, and advance equity through organizing, advocacy, community development, and cultural work. We envision a just world where Asians and Pacific Islanders and communities who share our aspirations and struggles have the power, resources, and voice to determine our own futures, and where we work in solidarity to drive political, social, economic, and cultural change. Learn more at www.apano.org. How you can help: Donate.. All donations will go directly to support the victims and their families and to support crisis intervention across the Asian American community. Here are more ways to support efforts in Georgia.
AAU | Dismantling Anti-Blackness in the Asian Community “We must look further. We must dismantle our history of economic inequity and racism.” Visit this document for resources on dismantling Anti-Blackness in the Asian Community. Vist this document for the full statement, resources to learn more and action items. Sign the petition for Christian Hall Visit this doc for our full statement, resources to learn more, and action items: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ldXQTx5ZcaOt6gIUihfp1slNM1h5uunthlFWvjkmMN4/edit Posted by Asian Americans United on Thursday, March 4, 2021 Missed an event? Check out this website to be more involved in your local city!
SEARAC In-Language Voter Guides – 2020 Election September 22, 2020 is National Voter Registration Day, and SEARAC is excited to celebrate the occasion with the launch of our 2020 Presidential Election Voter Guide now available with written and audio translations in: Hmong, Khmer, Lao, Mien, and Vietnamese. (Note: We are still finalizing the Lao formatted voter guide, but the plain text version is currently available in Lao.) Asian Americans represent the fast-growing segment of the general electorate out of all major racial and ethnic groups in the United States. According to our friends at APIAVote, more than 11 million Asian Americans, or 5% of the country’s eligible voters, will be able to cast a vote in the upcoming election. Furthermore, once completing their voter registration, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have comparable turnout rates compared to other communities. Yet, one of the largest hurdles to our communities’ civic participation is voter registration. “According to the 2010 census, the Southeast Asian American community stands at 2.7 million strong, and we can translate our communities’ growing numbers into political strength by breaking down cultural barriers that stand in the way of civic engagement,” said Alyssa Tulabut, Senior Field Manager at SEARAC. “We have the power to hold our elected officials accountable and to bring in leadership who will show up for refugee and immigrant communities. It is our hope that with these written and audio translations of our voter guide, you, your loved ones, and your communities feel empowered to make an informed vote on Election Day, or before if you are voting early.” Written and audio translations are available by clicking below: Hmong Khmer Lao Mien Vietnamese
In Defense Of Black Life: Cambodian Community Conversation Southeast Asian Freedom Network invites you to join us for a panel and conversation about what it means to be Cambodian in this moment. Note: This event occurred on June 6, 2020. You can still watch the conversation on SEAFN’s Facebook page here. Now is the time for us to show up as survivors and to defend Black lives. We cannot remain neutral as Black people face genocide in this country. We must roll up our sleeves, hit the streets, and do our part until Black Lives Matter. Cambodians, we know what it means for our lives to be taken by armed agents of the state while no one pays attention, here and in our homeland. We know what it means to be forced to find peace with our trauma and to find justice on our own without solidarity from the outside world. We know it’s difficult to live with the contradictions of our experiences in this moment. We must challenge ourselves to defend Black lives.
COVID-19 Response Read about VietLead’s COVID-19 Response and their resources/assistance As the Covid-19 pandemic swept the U.S. in early March, and Philadelphia and South Jersey became hot spots, VietLead realized our working-class, Southeast Asian immigrant communities were getting sick from coronavirus while bearing the brunt of the shutdown. Many community members lost their jobs, and those who continued to work faced dangerous conditions and lack of information about their rights as workers. In three months, with the help of paid canvassers and volunteers, VietLead called over 5,000 clients in Philadelphia and 800 in South Jersey, reaching elders, families with limited resources, people with disabilities, and workers who contracted Covid-19 on the job. We tackled: FOOD INSECURITY By providing information on food distribution as well as food to families of our youth who face insecurity; connecting residents with OurChive 215’s and volunteers-run food drives By working to develop a comprehensive food response which will include delivering food packages from our farms and purchased food to isolated elders, isolated families, and many of our community members who are COVID-19 positive having worked in a local factory. ECONOMIC INSECURITY AND TRANSLATION By providing over-the-phone, bilingual assistance completing unemployment claims, small business fund applications, and the Census; By providing language support at Camden City and Cooper Hospital’s testing site; HEALTH SUPPORT By helping clients in medical emergencies By helping them apply for Medicaid in PA, NJ Charity Care in NJ, and healthcare.gov for a life-change when newly unemployed In addition, supported by a tight network of partners, Health Team has held 4 Vietnamese-language community webinars on a wide range of topics: How to apply to the Philadelphia Small Business Fund with Councilwoman Helen Gym’s Office and the Philadelphia Department of Commerce on Wednesday, April 3rd, 2020. 25 Vietnamese businesses attended the webinar on zoom 10 applications were submitted with VietLead’s assistance How to Apply to Unemployment and New Benefits due to Covid-19 Webinar in partnership with Julia Simon-Mishel of Philadelphia Legal Assistance on Wednesday, April 8th, 2020. 27 Vietnamese individuals attended the Zoom call and 400 more have watched our Facebook live video since Workers’ Right Webinar in partnership with Community Legal Services in Philadelphia and CATA in New Jersey on May 8, 2020 20 workers and community members from Philly and New Jersey attended the webinar COVID-19 in Philadelphia & Camden Webinar in partnership with Dr. Ruth Abaya from the Philadelphia Health Department, and My Anh Nguyen, R.N. from Cooper Hospital on Thursday, April 16th, 2020 This webinar had over 40 people in attendance, and over 1000 views on Facebook in just the four days. Reopening Guidelines for Nail Salons and Restaurants in Philly and New Jersey Webinar in partnership with Ting Wang from Philadelphia Office of Commerce and Dr. Tran Huynh from Dornsife School of Public Health. We have a dozen workers and business owners attending the meeting. Many more sent in questions and concerns about safety guidelines’ violations that were answered on the webinar. These webinars have been followed by our three-person Health staff patiently supporting with and/or helping submit 223 applications, such as unemployment and weekly claims, health insurance access like NJ Family Care, Emergency Medical Assistance or Medicaid, as well as support with the 2020Census and federal and state small business applications, like Paycheck Protection Program. Besides check-in call and food drop-off, we also created Viber groups for community members in New Jersey and Philly to share information about food distribution, aid programs, rental assistance and community webinars. The economic and health crisis of our lifetime has exposed years-long rifts in how the federal and local government view and support essential workers and communities of color. VietLead’s multi-pronged approach to building long-term infrastructure for self-determination helps us respond quickly to skyrocketed requests for immediate assistance while strengthening our communities’ mutual aid muscles in moments of crises.
Vietnamese Terms for Addressing Anti-Blackness A PDF guide with Vietnamese terms for addressing anti-Blackness. Words and phrases that are translated into Vietnamese include ally, racial discrimination, anti-racism, POC, oppression, systemic racism, protester, racial conflict, racial equity, empathy, unity, justice, equality, and community. View the entire PDF here
Viet History Resources A PDF with resources on Vietnamese history with recommendations of reading and teaching materials, journals, plays, films, and others. View the guide here
The Southeast Asian Anti-Racism Toolkit View the entire toolkit here As Southeast Asians, we stand with Black Lives Matter and reject white supremacy, Anti-Blackness, and racist US state violence–police, prisons, military, cages at the border–against Black and Brown people. This SOUTHEAST ASIAN ANTIRACISM TOOLKIT is designed to help our community take on the work and hard conversations needed to heal anti-Blackness and racism. We benefit from and owe a huge debt — past and ongoing — to Black people fighting for change. Healing these systems is also urgent work if we want the Southeast Asian community to thrive in this country. This is a crowdsourced, living document, viewable by all with trusted, tightly curated content to ensure content aligns with values and the expertise of Southeast Asian leaders fighting for racial justice. Made for and by everyday people who love our people deeply and care about social justice.
SEARAC Statement on the Death of George Floyd “Today, we stand with communities and families across the country to condemn the death of George Floyd, who was killed in Minneapolis on Monday after a violent police encounter. His horrific death was every bit preventable, and every bit enabled by a deeply rooted system of racial inequity, oppression, and discrimination here in the United States.” “We encourage you to learn meaningful ways to show solidarity using some of the resources below.” “As refugees and descendents of refugees, as survivors of war and genocide, our communities also know the devastating impacts of police force. It is incumbant on us as Southeast Asian Americans to show up for the Black community. We must acknowledge that our own paths to equity are a direct product of their historic civil rights wins and struggles, that they continue to build, as well as to endure, to this day. We must name the systems that have benefitted from having communities of color pitted against one another, and we must boldly resist them.” Read SEARAC’s full statement here: https://www.searac.org/press-room/searac-statement-on-the-death-of-george-floyd/