As summer comes to a close, let's re-engage our communities in time for election season.
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August 2024
Dear AAPIPers,
We hope you’ve been having a great summer! As the season comes to a close, many of us are returning home from vacations, clocking back in, and seeking new ways to engage our communities in time for election season this fall. Memes, concerts, and local organizing work are all great ways to connect with your community and inspire them to take action, and, restarting in September, AAPIP is offering another opportunity for connection: our Affinity Spaces.
AAPIP started hosting Affinity Spaces back in May with the goal of cultivating a stronger sense of community within the diasporas of the AAPIP network. Our Southeast Asian, AMEMSA, LGBTQIA+, New Gen (Gen Z, Millennial, Zillennial), and Filipino Affinity Spaces are meeting again in September, so if you’re a current member of the AAPIP network, identify with one of our affinity groups, and are seeking community connection, now is the time to let us know you’d like to join! Meeting details and more information for both newcomers and previous attendees can be found below.
In community,
AAPIP
AAPIP Programs
Join an AAPIP Affinity Space!
Since formally launching Affinity Spaces earlier this year in May, we have received an overwhelmingly positive response. As a new program, we appreciate your excitement in helping us to continue shaping Affinity Spaces into brave, safe community gatherings, aligned around identity and affinity, that resonate with the lived experiences we each carry while navigating philanthropy.
These Affinity Spaces serve as a unique benefit for current members in the AAPIP network. Together, we hope to curate these groups as a member-led initiative, and welcome folks' leadership, vision, and facilitation to foster a stronger affinity community overall. As we keep building, we'd love for you to share your ideas, hopes, and suggestions and truly co-design with us!
For those new to the member network or if you have colleagues interested in becoming members to join Affinity Spaces, our Member Engagement Manager Samanta Ratsavong (samanta@aapip.org) will be happy to connect for any questions.
See below for the next scheduled meetings for our current Affinity Spaces and share your interest to join us in September and in the coming months!
Once you share your interest, the AAPIP team will connect with you with calendar and zoom information.
Community Circle
We Got Us: Cultivating Hope Through Cross-Racial Solidarity
Thursday, September 12th
3 - 4:15 PM ET / 12 - 1:15 PM PT
Join New Breath Foundation’s webinar to learn about public safety solutions that don't rely on incarceration. NBF’s grantees are striving to build a more just system through cross-racial collaboration, learning, and healing. The event will be emceed by Marc Philpart, Executive Director of California Black Freedom Fund, and co-sponsored by The California Endowment, Heising-Simons, and W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The We Got Us Fund (WGUF) is a collective fund at New Breath Foundation, a community-led public foundation funding AANHPI grassroots organizations serving communities impacted by incarceration, deportation, and other systems of violence.
Racial Equity Advancement and Defense Initiative (READI) Resource Bank
AAPIP is a proud member of the READI coalition. In 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) banned the use of race as a determining factor in higher education admissions, emboldening right wing groups to attack racial equity policies and practices in the public, corporate, philanthropic, nonprofit, and other sectors. READI recognizes that SCOTUS’ decision is part of the centuries-long series of attacks on attempts to build the multi-racial, multi-ethnic democracy that we all deserve, and works to promote, expand, and defend race-explicit grantmaking and programming. Through the READI Resource Bank linked below, you can access tools to support nonprofits engaged in race-explicit grantmaking or programming.
AAPI Women Lead's 6th Annual ImReady Conference: “Building New Worlds”
September 21, 2024
Oakland Asian Cultural Center
388 9th St Ste 290, Oakland, CA 94607
You're invited to AAPI Women Lead's sixth annual ImReady Conference, “Building New Worlds.” Since 2018, AAPI Women Lead has brought together hundreds of Asian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander women, girls, non-binary, gender expansive communities and our co-conspirators/allies every single year for ImReady conferences. “Building New Worlds,” will bring together artists, educators, activists, organizers, and community members who are interested in not only new worlds, but new ways of being. Speakers, agendas, and more to be announced in the coming weeks—learn more about the conference here, and stay tuned for updates by following AAPI Women Lead on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
AAPI Women Lead is also looking for volunteers to be part of this year's conference. As a community-based organization, volunteers have always been an integral part of ImReady. All volunteers will have free access to the conference. Please apply at the link found here.
CAA's Report on Gun Violence Disinformation in Chinese-Language Platforms
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, gun ownership has increased among Asian Americans, a group that has had historically low levels of gun ownership and high support for gun control measures. At the same time, disinformation about gun violence circulates mostly unchecked on Chinese language social media. CAA's report “The Lies That Put Our Lives At Risk: The Alarming Spread of Gun Violence Disinformation in the Chinese-Speaking Community” covers a 23-month period, from January 2022 to December 2023, enumerating what the main disinformation narratives are in Chinese-language social media and where they spread.
Sikh Coalition’s Latest Report on Transnational Repression Against the Sikh Community
The Sikh Coalition’s latest report "So Many Targets: Contextualizing Modern Indian Transnational Repression Against the Sikh Community" includes an overview of events—both historical and since 2023—driving Indian transnational repression against the Sikh diaspora. It then explores multiple different kinds of transnational repression against U.S.-based Sikhs, sourced from both direct interviews conducted by the Sikh Coalition with numerous individuals and gurdwaras as well as publicly available sources. The report concludes with a link to the Sikh Coalition’s constantly updated list of updated policy recommendations for what the White House, federal agencies, and Congress can do to better protect U.S.-based Sikhs.
Congratulations to Mariko Silver, current President & CEO of The Henry Luce Foundation, on her upcoming position of President & CEO of the Lincoln Center! She is set to depart from The Henry Luce Foundation and begin her new role at the Lincoln Center on September 15th. Read more about her accomplishments at The Henry Luce Foundation here.
AAPIP is in deep appreciation for the ongoing support from our 400+ member network who join us in supporting AANHPI people in philanthropy and working to increase the scale and impact of philanthropic resources aimed at advancing the inclusion, health, and wellbeing of AANHPI communities in the pursuit of a more just and equitable society.
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