Asian Americans United

Programs: See schedule o summer program 2017 asian americans united's ("aau") longest running program, our 6-week aau summer program, developed the leadership of a diverse group of 26 asian american high school youth from across philadelphia and provided a safe, affordable summer enrichment program for 50 children. The children enrolled were recruited from the greater chinatown & philadelphia asian immigrant communities & from the charter school aau co-founded, the folk arts- cultural treasures charter school ("facts") that serves a multiracial/multi-ethnic community of 490 students & their families. By training youth to teach children, we provided children with literacy-based multicultural education & developed youths' academic, leadership, & personal skills. Chinese youth organizing project chinese immigrant students who are still developing their english proficiency feel the stress of functioning in an english language environment during their school days. Aau's chinese youth organizing project ("cyop") sought to provide a point of entry & a safe space for these youth to express themselves, build their leadership, gain support in addressing challenges they face, and work together to seek solutions to problems they identified. In 2017 cyop served over 65 predominantly recent chinese immigrant youth through weekly school year workshops and 26 youth through an intensive 6 week summer bilingual chinese youth leadership program. Chinatown get out the vote begun in 2014, aau's chinatown vote project engages 40 adult and youth volunteers annually. In 2017, volunteers worked to register eligible voters, conducted training and information sessions, informed and answered questions about polling places and voting processes, produced a bilingual voter registration postcard, manned a bilingual chinese / english voter hotline, engaged in a social media campaign, and touched over thousands of voters through their phone callings, mailings, and targeted door knocking to ensure that community members participated in the electoral process. Lotus roots community defense initiative aau, cambodian association of greater philadelphia, viet lead and 1love movement-philadelphia, work as a collaborative that was begun during our joint work on "2013: a community of contrasts: northeast report- and which served as a catalyst and launch pad for a formal collaboration among these four asian american groups in philadelphia to create a data-driven and community based policy voice for philadelphia's asian american communities. Collaborative members from aau, cambodian association of greater philadelphia, viet lead and 1love movement-philadelphia partnered together in 2013 to contribute to the publication of "a community of contrasts: northeast report". In 2017, the lotus roots began a community defense initiative serving immigrant community members facing hate crimes, detention and deportation. Four additional organizations serving the asian american community in philadelphia have joined this initiative. Maintaining cultural traditions through folk arts ensembles and residencies aau through a consortium comprised of the philadelphia folklore project and facts, engaged students in learning from accomplished artists from a variety of cultural traditions and folk arts genres. All of facts' 490 students, ranging from kindergarten through grade 8 enjoyed some level of participation in these opportunities. Through folk arts, students learn that every community (including their own) makes art and has an artistic and cultural heritage. By integrating folk arts education offerings into the structure of the school, young people have the opportunity to learn about and develop skill in some of the city's diverse culturally significant folk traditions and learn values of respect, patience and diligence. In 2017 folk artists included: tibetan sand mandala maker losang samten, west african drum artist steve jackson, beijing opera artist jun dai, step instructor javitta brockington, lion dance and kung fu teacher john testino, vietnamese zither player nhan ngo, indonesian dancer sinta hite, chinese puppetry artist hua hua zhang, capoeire angola artist alex shaw, and shawdowbox artist veronic ponce de leon. Mid-autumn festival in 2017, aau's mid-autumn festival continued to be an eagerly anticipated part of the chinatown community calendar, a multigenerational event where the extended chinatown community comes together, taking over the streets to celebrate traditions that had languished before aau youth made it a point to celebrate and nurture this important holiday. Generations of youth since have continued the tradition by volunteering, caring for & supporting the cultural health of their community through leadership development and a day or more of service at the festival. In 2017, more than 80 artists, 50 local businesses 200 youth volunteers participated in the festival. Emerging youth festival leaders took on more planning responsibility for the festival & worked on improving the overall volunteer experience. They worked on facilitation skills, organized a thank you event, & created new games and activities for all festival goers to enjoy.