CACF: Coalition for Asian American Children and Families

We are honored to announce that CACF is the recipient of a generous gift from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott and Yield Giving! This unrestricted gift will help CACF advance its work to fight for equity for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders throughout New York. Since our founding in 1986 as a coalition, CACF has brought together community-based organizations, youth, and community allies to fight for equity in education, healthcare, and supportive services for AAPIs to be able to reach their full potential. This gift is a testament to the work of coalition-building and uniting as a diverse AAPI community to create a more equitable New York. For our full press release, head here: https://lnkd.in/gvJidFim

This National Intern Day, we’re turning the spotlight onto CACF’s incredible Summer 2024 cohort! We’re so thrilled to be able to host eight incredible high school and college students this summer as they work with our Policy, Programs, and Communications teams on everything from data and policy research, leadership development programming, and social media messaging. Thank you to our partners at Apex for Youth and our very own Asian American Student Advocacy Project (ASAP) for helping to support this year’s intern cohort! Swipe through to see our cohort mingling with many interns from across our member and partner organizations after our recent visit to City Hall! #NationalInternDay

CACF’s Data Equity Team headed to Detroit earlier this month for Disaggregation Nation! A Data Equity Summit hosted by our partners at the The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Support and funding from Leadership Conference has been pivotal to the expansion of CACF’s Invisible No More campaign in recent years as we continue to work to bring data equity to New York State. CACF was proud to moderate a panel discussion at Disaggregation Nation! on the impact of the Invisible No More campaign featuring our close partners Francesca Perrone of Hispanic Federation, MALIKAH's Rana Abdelhamid, and The New York Immigration Coalition's Taina Wagnac, BA, MPA. We also took part in a second panel on what disaggregated data looks like in action alongside ACCESS - Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, Center For Health Innovation for Health Innovation, and the Johnson Center for Philanthropy. Thank you to everyone who attended both discussions!

CACF and summer interns from several of our coalition members and partners got a firsthand look at what it is like to serve in City government on Monday when they headed to City Hall for a special careers roundtable hosted by AAPI staffers at the Office of the Mayor of New York City. We’re sending a special thank you to Senior Advisor Patrick Kwan of the Community Affairs Unit,  Deputy Chief of Staff/Senior Advisor Meagan Chen, and Chief of Staff to the Deputy Mayor for Operations Bonny Tsang for talking to our young people about their career paths, the vital relationship between city government and community-based organizations like ours, and the need for even more AAPI voices at all levels of government. We’re also so glad that interns from our partners at Immigrant Social Services, Inc., MinKwon Center for Community Action, Adhikaar for Human Rights and Social Justice, Chinese Progressive Association New York, and Asian American Federation could join us!

Our team is feeling refreshed and energized after our all day CACF Staff Retreat at CPC One on Thursday. We’re sending a huge thank you to all of our friends and partners at Chinese-American Planning Council for hosting us and for their incredible hospitality throughout the day. (We’re all still talking about how beautiful your new home CPC One is and how we can’t wait to come back!)

CACF’s Co-Executive Director Vanessa Leung joined our partners at AAPI Data at the APIA Vote Leadership Summit in Philadelphia last week for a panel discussion titled “Advocacy in Action: Why Data Equity is Essential and What You Can Do.” During her remarks, Vanessa detailed the work CACF’s Invisible No More campaign continues to do in order to bring data equity to New York State. She also discussed how AAPI Data’s new AANHPI Community Data Explorer tool will help our team strengthen our research capabilities across our policy advocacy and programmatic work. Thank you to conference host National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) and to our fellow panelists at Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, EPIC, and OCAPICA for a great conversation!

Our team was thrilled to welcome community-based organizations from across the city to our office last month for our first-ever Access Health NYC Learning Circle! Our Learning Circles will serve as a space for our Access Health NYC awardees to collaborate on problem-solving, share resources, and network with one another as we work together to serve the health care access needs of AAPI New Yorkers. Our inaugural Learning Circle was dedicated to a discussion of mental health needs in our communities and the many reasons why more access to holistic and collective healing practices is critical. As co-administrators of Access Health NYC — a New York City Council-funded initiative – CACF is proud to be able to host these collaborative spaces for our awardees. For more on our approach to promoting collective healing through policy, check out our recent policy brief “Collective Healing: Moving Towards A More Community-Centered Approach to AAPI Mental Health Care" here: https://lnkd.in/edS4r9Av

CACF is asking our community members to add their names to our new sign-on letter to the New York State Education Department and the The Rockefeller Foundation urging them to revise the Foundation Aid Formula. Foundation Aid — which is defined as the public dollars allocated to pay for educator salaries, school facilities and maintenance, and classroom resources — is critical to the operation of public schools in New York State. Swipe through to discover why revising the currently woefully outdated Foundation Aid Formula would benefit AAPI public school students across the state. Then head over to https://lnkd.in/e_M2Xejk to add your name today!

CACF’s Co-Executive Directors Anita Gundanna and Vanessa Leung headed up to Albany on Tuesday to meet with local community-based organizations providing critical services to the region’s growing AAPI population. In addition to discussing our upcoming statewide advocacy efforts, Anita and Vanessa detailed how groups can apply for funding through the AAPI Community Development Fund, for which we are currently collecting applications. We’re sending a big thank you to Assemblymember Patricia Fahy for hosting us at her offices in the Legislative Office Building and to Ashok Adikoppula, PMP and all of our partners at APAPA - Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association Albany for their essential help in coordinating Tuesday’s gathering.

✨ MARK YOUR CALENDARS! CACF’s 2024 Catalyst for Change Awards are set for Monday, November 18 at Tribeca 360! ✨ Join us as we celebrate those who are IGNITING ACTION in our communities every day. Head here to get your tickets or to discover how you can sponsor what is sure to be a great event: https://lnkd.in/evxntvuY