What is the Community Organizing Program?

The Asian American Institute strongly believes in community organizing as a core strategy for Asian American empowerment.  AAI’s Community Organizing goal is to empower the community to have an impact on priority issues, by building and strengthening coalitions with Asian American leaders and organizations.  AAI’s work is informed by our community members.  We work with leaders and organizations to bring together people of all Asian American backgrounds to create change. 

Current issues include:

Immigration Reform:  Comprehensive immigration reform legislation has been introduced, and President Obama has pledged his support.  Yet there are voices who oppose key provisions that would benefit the Asian American community, including legalization of the undocumented, overhaul of the worker visa system, and elimination of family backlogs.  AAI is mobilizing Asian Americans to meet with their members of Congress and to speak out at public events to advocate for positive change.

State Budget: Illinois’s budget crisis is having a devastating impact on Asian American community-based organizations and the clients that they serve.  Many of Asian American service organizations are threatened with budget cuts every year, without a sustainable, long-term solution.  AAI is working with other community-based organizations to inform our legislators of the important role of these organizations and to advocate for continued funding for our communities’ programs.

Civic Participation: AAI partners with over 15 Asian American community-based organizations covering over 10 ethnicities and 13 languages to form the Pan-Asian Voter Empowerment (PAVE) campaign.  The PAVE campaign is a multi-year, multi-election campaign that is intentionally growing Asian American political power through grass roots voter empowerment work. This campaign’s goal is to outreach to our communities about the importance of civic engagement such as participating in the census and voting at every election.  Civic Participation also includes building up a relationship with our elected officials to keep them accountable to our communities on issues that concern us.

What we are working on now:

Meeting with legislators on the state budget with our partner Community-Based Organizations.

Redistricting advocacy, in collaboration with community members living or working in our target areas, including meeting with key legislators

Articulating neighborhood boundaries as defined by Asian American community members and community leaders themselves, which should be respected during the redistricting process.

How you can get involved:

If you live in our target area for redistricting and would like to give us input please contact So Jung Choi at sojung [at] aaichicago [dot] com.

Our partner Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community is leading redistricting advocacy in the Chinatown area.

If you would like to show support for AAI’s redistricting efforts by attending redistricting hearings, please sign up by contacting Sung Yeon Choi-Morrow at sungyeon [at] aaichicago [dot] com. Please note that hearing dates have not yet been announced.

Activities include:

• Collaborations with other Asian American and immigrant advocacy organizations
• Faith-based engagement (outreach, education, mobilization, and organizing)
• Legislative visits (at the local, state and federal levels)
• Policy briefings for elected officials and policymakers
• Public actions including marches, rallies and town hall meetings
• Voter education, registration, and mobilization

AAI also hosts quarterly potluck gatherings to bring together community members who are interested in getting involved in AAI’s work.