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Voices Unheard: Uncovering the Mental Health Impact of COVID-19 on Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander and Southeast Asian American Youth; floral painted background.

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 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:

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.