AAAJ-ATL | Growing Asian American Voter Power and Pushback Published by Asian Americans Advancing Justice- Atlanta (AAAJ-Atlanta) and written by its Director of Policy Advocacy, Jennifer Lee, this report discusses the growth of AAPI communities in Georgia and the corresponding increase in turnout as well as the impact of Senate Bill 202, which was passed by the Georgia legislature after the 2020 amendment. Senate Bill 202 has created notable provisions which have created barriers and burdens to absentee voting. Among the findings shared in the report: Georgia’s AAPI population grew by 48 percent in ten years. Between 2018 and 2022, turnout rates among AAPI voters increased by seven percentage points. SB 202 created new restrictions on absentee voting that disproportionately harms AAPI voters, who were more than twice as likely as white voters to vote by mail. SB 202 reduced the time to request an absentee ballot and eliminated absentee ballot dropbox locations where most AAPI voters live. Asian-Americans experienced the steepest decline in absentee voting rates and are more than twice as likely than white voters to have their absentee ballots rejected. Read the report below, which includes an analysis on Georgia’s growing AAPI population, the specific impacts of SB 202 on AAPI communities, and AAAJ-Atlanta’s policy recommendations. AAAJ-Atlanta_AAPIVotingReport_final_PR_JL_Edited_Finalv4
NCAAT | Mental Health Resources As a part of North Carolina Asian American Together‘s intern program, their summer intern Ollie created this resource guide because they had previously been unable to find mental health, AANHPI, and other resources geared specifically towards queer and trans BIPOC. Resources, ranging from organizations focusing on mental health to therapist directories to mental health websites and tools, are separated into the following categories: QTBIPOC (Queer POC and/or LGBTQIA+ resources) AANHPI Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Southeast Asian South Asian Visit the Resource Guide at this link.
UTOPIA WA | Indigenous Food Sovereignty On October 16, 2023, UTOPIA Washington hosted a Talanoa webinar connecting Pacific Islander culture, international food sovereignty, climate change, and trade agreements. This work is integral to UTOPIA’s mission of weaving ecosystems of care, including running a community food pantry and cultivating farmland to grow organic, culturally appropriate produce.
CAA | Breaking Barriers to the Ballot Box: Expanding Language Access for CA Voters “Breaking Barriers to the Ballot Box: Expanding Language Access for California Voters” was co-authored by Chinese for Affirmative Action with other members of the California Language Access Workgroup. The first of its kind, this report provides a roadmap to ensure that all voters, regardless of their English language proficiency, can vote fairly and equally. It explores four key aspects: the voting experience, federal and state laws, the importance of in-language materials, and data limitations for identifying populations in California who use non-English languages. Breaking-Barriers-to-the-Ballot-Box-2023-with-Appendix
CAA | Immigrant Voting and the Movement for Inclusion in San Francisco “Immigrant Voting and the Movement for Inclusion in San Francisco” was released by Chinese for Affirmative Action in partnership with the Immigrant Parent Voting Collaborative. This report provides an overview of the fight to win immigrant voting legislation in San Francisco, a law also known as “noncitizen voting,” and the effects noncitizen voting has had on immigrant empowerment. The report shares how the program affected immigrants in San Francisco, the barriers they face in exercising their voting rights, and best practices community organizers have used to try to overcome those barriers. Read the report below, and access the executive summary as well as report appendices in multiple languages including Amharic, Arabic, Cantonese, English, Mandarin, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese on their website. 23-CAA-ImmigrationVotingReport-F2
LA Times | Writings on The Chicano Moratorium On Aug. 29, 1970, more than 20,000 demonstrators marched through East Los Angeles for the National Chicano Moratorium Against the Vietnam War. But the protest for peace devolved into conflict between demonstrators and sheriff’s deputies. By day’s end, hundreds were arrested and trailblazing Latino journalist Ruben Salazar was dead. To commemorate the march’s 50th anniversary, the LA Times has launched a website to house stories and articles which give context to the movement and its still reverberating effects. Click here for more details.
CAA | Documentary on Advancing Education Equity in San Francisco’s Chinatown Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) has a long and storied history of advancing education equity for low-income, working class, and immigrant students. CAA is now announcing their new short documentary Block by Block: The Struggle to Bring Community College to San Francisco Chinatown. This documentary constitutes the first activity of the CAA Oral History Project in collaboration with UC Berkeley Asian American Research Center and Ethnic Studies Library. Read more about it here. In-person public and private showings of Block by Block are currently being scheduled and if you’d like updates as they are available, or to consider hosting a screening, please fill out this form. Watch the trailer below.
SEARAC and EPIC | Report on COVID-19’s Impact on NHPI/SAA Youth Mental Health This report was written in collaboration with researches from Illinois and Maryland whose work focuses on racially marginalized groups and the Asian American Pacific Islander Coalition Helping Achieve Racial and Gender Equality (AAPI CHARGE), which includes AAPI Civic Engagement Fund grantees Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC) and Khmer Girls in Action. Voices Unheard highlights the experiences of more than 200 respondents and focuses on Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) and Southeast Asian American (SEAA) youth. The report touches on the pandemic’s effect on mental wellness, the importance of culturally appropriate mental health support, and Southeast Asia Resource Action Center’s (SEARAC) recommendations to reduce barriers to mental healthcare in California. In addition, EPIC and SEARAC also launched fact sheets highlighting mental health research on Southeast Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander youth. These are available in eight languages including English, Hmong, Khmer, Lao, Mien, Samoan, Tongan, and Vietnamese. SEARAC-Voice-Unheard-2023-InteractiveDownload
LTSC | Podcast and Conversations on Mental Health Changing Tides, a program of Little Tokyo Service Center, focuses on opening up the conversation around mental health, especially within the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. Guests on the podcasts are from a variety of professions, backgrounds, and experiences. Over 40 episodes touch on topics such as LGBTQIA+ experiences, adoption, anxiety, eating disorders, sobriety, AAPI therapists, and family. Listen to the podcast at this link, and visit Changing Tides’ Helplines page for resources if you or a loved one is struggling with mental illness/seeking resources.
NPQ | Reflections on Building Resilient Organizations In 2022, Maurice Mitchell published “Building Resilient Organizations: Toward Joy and Durable Power in a Time of Crisis.” At that same time, a multiracial, multigenerational group of over 25 coaches, consultants, and capacity builders had started meeting in response to their shared sense that internal conflicts at progressive organizations were undermining social justice; part of their work included rigorous discussion of Mitchell’s article. In this NonProfit Quarterly article “Paving a Better Way: What’s Driving Progressive Organizations Apart and How to Win by Coming Together,” members of this meeting share their reflections, in the hope that these can help organizations, staff, and leaders apply these lessons to their own context. Other coaches, consultants, and capacity builders are also invited to sharpen their collective analysis, skillfulness, and accountability in working with organizations.