Overview
National CAPACD Supports Cross-Racial Allyship, Healing, and Solidarity Work in AA and NHPI Communities
The National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD) provided $500,000 dollars to 21 organizations through the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA and NHPI) Community Resilience Fund 2022-23 starting on May 1, 2022 for the period ending on April 30, 2023, specifically focused on Cross-Racial Allyship, Healing, and Solidarity.
Over the last two and half years, National CAPACD has responded to rising anti-Asian hate and violence and considered what role we must play in the racial reckoning to confront anti-Black racism in the United States. In doing so, we realized:
- Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA and NHPI) communities must work in solidarity with Black, Indigenous, and Latinx-led organizations and communities to change systems of inequity that are sustained by division;
- Many organizations face barriers to accessing unrestricted funds that can finance critical internal and external racial equity work.
In response, National CAPACD committed to support local community-based organizations with flexible funding and other resources through the AA and NHPI Community Resilience Fund 2022-23 for their racial healing and anti-racism work, and implementation of activities that build multi-racial coalitions and advance a progressive agenda for equitable and racially just community reinvestment.
To Lift All Boats: A Storytelling Evaluation of the Community Resilience Fund, 2022-23
National CAPACD has released To Lift All Boats: A Storytelling Evaluation of the Community Resilience Fund, 2022-23. Following the arc of a story, this report examines and highlights the practices and work of 21 grantee organizations in an executive summary and four related reports.
- Executive Summary
- Report #1: Origin Stories (Why?) – What compels these grantee organizations to take on this work? What values or principles guide their work?
- Report #2: Liberatory Practices and Innovations (How?) – What strategies have Community Resilience Fund grantees used to advance cross-racial solidarity, allyship, and healing? How did they prepare their organizations and communities to engage in this work? How much have they adapted to evolving external conditions?
- Report #3: Stories of Transformation (So what?) – What progress have Community Resilience Fund grantees seen on individual, organizational, and community levels?
- Report #4: Looking Forward (What’s next?) – What does the “next level” of this work look like? What are the upcoming opportunities, and what do they need to meet this moment?
Examples include the work of APANO (Portland, OR), which prioritized operationalizing BIPOC solidarity through internal staff political education work, support to Black-led organizations, and intentional coalition building; Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community (CBCAC) (Chicago, IL), which implemented a racial justice program for Chinese-speaking immigrant parents and elders; and CAAAV (New York, NY), which built a multiracial and intergenerational tenant coalition for the Two Bridges Community Plan.
These reports, which contain case studies and a glossary, weave together the practices of these diverse Community Resilience Fund grantees with their stories of commitment, challenges, victories, lessons, and new aspirations. These efforts illustrate the unique role AA and NHPI communities play in strengthening multiracial solidarity and point to possible new directions that we can work collectively on.
“There's been a huge battle for hearts and minds. There seems to be a confluence of right and ripe conditions… There's a depth of organizers and a depth of organizations that have been in the work at a certain maturity level, that have tried certain strategies for a certain amount of time that it's working. We are at a moment where we can make great strides forward, if we seize the moment.” - Nancy Nguyen, VietLead
Complete list of organizations supported through the Community Resilience Fund:
Asian Economic Development Association (AEDA), St. Paul, MN - Using creative placemaking efforts to build racial solidarity amongst Black and Asian communities
ARISE, Providence, RI - Advancing Southeast Asian youth and other youth of color leadership through political education and exchange program
Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW), Boston, MA - Supporting youth and young adults through political education workshops, abolition learning and action, multi-racial immigrant justice organizing
Asian Health Services, Oakland, CA - Facilitating the Black + Asian Racial Trauma Project, with a focus on trauma, healing, and connection to health outcomes
APANO, Portland, OR - Organizing BIPOC solidarity through political education work and coalition building
Asia Pacific Cultural Center, Tacoma, WA - Offering community education, housing, health services programs serving different ethnic communities
Athena's Warehouse, Atlanta, GA - Addressing social issues through multi-ethnic student leadership program incorporating volunteering, advocacy, and civic engagement
CAAAV, New York, NY - Organizing in a multiracial and intergenerational tenant coalition for the Two Bridges Community Plan
CAPI, Minneapolis, MN - Furthering anti-racist training education for multi-ethnic staff
Caribbean Equality Project, South Ozone Park, NY - Offering Food for Thought program to heal divisions between Asian Americans and Black Americans
Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community (CBCAC), Chicago, IL - Implementing racial justice program for cultural connection and relationship building
Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL), Minnesota - Developing cross-racial partnerships through Linking Leadership Partnership program
Empowering Pacific Islander Communities/ Black Pacific Alliance, National - Offering training, in-person gathering, and documentation of Anti-Blackness in the Pacific Islander community,
Friends of Little Saigon, Seattle, WA - Building coalitions with BIPOC allies around anti-displacement and advocacy
HANA Center, Chicago, IL - Providing internal training for Asian and Latinx undocumented organizing leaders
Ka ʻAha Lahui O ʻOlekona Hawaiian Civic Club of Oregon and SW Washington (KALOHCC), Hillsboro, OR - Implementing a healing justice program
Mekong NYC, Bronx, NY - Multi-racial organizing through Bronx Wide Coalition for the Bronx People's Platform
MinKwon Center for Community Action, Flushing, NY - Creating hate free zone, addressing anti-Asian and anti-Black racism
Southeast Asian Community Alliance (SEACA), Los Angeles, CA - Deepen work building cross-racial solidarity with the LA Community Action Network which organizes housed and unhoused residents in Skid Row, one of the last remaining majority Black communities in Los Angeles.
United Territories of Pacific Islanders Alliance (UTOPIA), Kent, WA - Providing internal education and anti-racist training
VietLead, Philadelphia, PA and Camden, NJ - Strengthening political education for leaders of the Community Defense Team, in collaboration with other BIPOC groups
These funds build on the success of our 2020-2021 fund, which focused on supporting an inclusive economic recovery and providing immediate COVID-19 relief to AA and NHPI communities. Our 2020-2021 fund provided general operating support to 41 AA and NHPI community-based organizations across the country. Learn more about the 2020-2021 fund here.
Stories of the Work in Local Communities:
Leialoha Kaula Ka ʻAha Lahui O ʻOlekona Hawaiian Civic Club of Oregon and SW Washington - Bringing Culturally-Informed Healing to Rural Communities
Coming from a community where cultural activities were the focus and health wasnʻt the priority, Leialoha Kaula Ka ʻAha Lahui O ʻOlekona Hawaiian Civic Club of Oregon and SW Washington (KALO HCC) has used culture as lens for health and healing. Emphasizing rural communities, KALO HCC has built a home base to host programs and gatherings in a place that is culturally focused addressing community healing and self-care to address the impacts of colonialism, imperialism, and separation from their homelands and support all BIPOC communities throughout Oregon and Washington. Through their programs, they are teaching community members to combat that racial wall that keeps them from seeking health resources, like COVID-19 vaccinations, and bring them into a place where they are comforted and connected in community. KALO HCC tells their community, “Half the battle of healing is knowing they are not alone.”
Seven Pacific Islander Health practitioners, professionals, and providers accompany KALOʻs MOHALA Youth Council in a talk story at the 1st Annual Unity Expo around the need for Pacific Islanders in academia and health.
Asian Health Services - Building Bridges Between Asian and Black Communities
In response to growing concern around crime and hate incidents, Asian Health Services (AHS) is addressing issues of crime, race, and healing by building multi-racial alliances rooted in a community health lens. AHS and West Oakland Health Council, primarily serving African Americans, have embarked on a racial trauma community-focused research project to understand perceptions and attitudes around violence in both the Asian and Black communities in Oakland. Through in-language focus groups and key informant interviews with monolingual seniors, youth, and others as well as Black community leaders and residents, these two health centers seek to develop strategies to promote racial healing and solidarity. This cross-cultural and multidisciplinary team will continue to develop research and materials to conduct bridge-building and deepen empathy between the Asian and Black communities.
In honor of Black History Month and Lunar New Year, Asian Health Services held a Community Healing event featuring Asian and Black artists, food and resource tables, and COVID-19 testing and vaccinations, which was attended by hundreds of community members of all ages.
Stay tuned for more stories of the work being done by organizations supported through the Community Resilience Fund.
Funder Acknowledgement
National CAPACD is appreciative to the supporters of this fund: Democracy Fund, Northwest Area Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. National CAPACD continues to fundraise for this work to demonstrate our commitment to seed long-term racial justice strategies and solidarity practices in AA and NHPI communities and neighborhoods as spaces of healing and resilience, refuge and support, and restoration and inspiration.