Advancing Justice – AAJC and Kaiser Permanente Collaborate to Support Community-Based Groups, Providing $3.6 Million in Grants
33 groups funded to counter hate crimes, hate
incidents, and discrimination against Asian Americans
Washington, D.C. –
Today,
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC (Advancing Justice – AAJC), a national
nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., that advocates for the civil and
human rights of Asian Americans and underserved allied communities, and Kaiser
Permanente, the nation’s largest integrated, nonprofit health system, announced
that they are collaborating to distribute $3.6 million to 33 community-based
organizations via grants over two years to combat the surge in violence against
Asian Americans and to support the rights, health, and wellness of Asian
American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities.
Through
the Stop Anti-Asian Hate and Violence Initiative, Advancing Justice – AAJC and
Kaiser Permanente developed a framework for funding the work of AAPI-serving
community-based organizations across three strategies to address anti-Asian
hate and violence, encompassing 1) Community Education, Mobilization, and
Coalition Building; 2) Direct Services, Mental Health, and Organizational
Sustainability; and 3) Advocacy and Organizational Leadership.
“Advancing
Justice – AAJC is proud to support local AAPI-serving community-based
organizations on the frontlines of the rise in anti-Asian hate during the
COVID-19 pandemic. It is essential to have this funding go into the local
communities, with trusted organizations that are deeply rooted in their communities
with the expertise to best address anti-Asian hate and meet their communities’
needs,” said John C. Yang, Advancing Justice – AAJC’s president and executive
director. “Many Asian American organizations recognize the troubling escalation
of hate we see today during the pandemic as a continuation of the long history
of anti-Asian discrimination that our communities have faced.”
Yang
continued, “Community-based organizations serving our beleaguered AAPI
communities have faced the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and hate, while facing
resource challenges in meeting the striking rise in community needs since the
beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. We thank Kaiser Permanente for funding this
grant initiative and their commitment to our AAPI communities.”
The
grant, to be distributed through Kaiser Permanente's fund at the East Bay Community Foundation, with guidance provided by Advancing
Justice-AAJC, will support the work of AAPI community-serving organizations in
meeting community needs through expansion of services, including some of the
following:
- Victim’s advocacy, legal
services, mental health services, and wrap-around support services for
those who have been impacted by anti-Asian hate.
- Culturally responsive therapy
to meet community mental health needs arising from and exacerbated by the
pandemic and anti-Asian racism, as well as support for staff that are
working with community members impacted by anti-Asian hate.
- Bystander intervention
trainings to teach Asian Americans and allies tactics to safely interrupt
and stop anti-Asian harassment, tailored to local communities and offered
in different languages.
- Anti-hate/anti-racism campaigns
and BIPOC solidarity meetings and public events so that community members
can come together and work on shared issues collectively.
- Building capacity of
organizations and community members to engage with local agencies and
government services to ensure they are responsive to the needs of the
community, including the need for linguistically accessible and culturally
appropriate services.
- Increasing organizational capacity to better support
underserved communities, such as Micronesians, Marshallese, and Palauans
in Hawaii.
- Community Safety Trainings in multiple Asian languages
for elders, business owners, youth, and their families.
- Partnering with and learning from LGBTQ+ and
gender-based anti-violence groups on effective strategies in anti-violence
work; organizing healing and support spaces to strengthen community
wellness and resilience.
- In-language
community outreach and education, including narrative change work through
ethnic media, to reshape public dialogue about violence and work to
reimagine community safety and advance restorative justice.
- Media arts literacy education to students from
elementary school to college, including building an Asian American and
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander media arts curriculum aligned with ethnic
studies in public schools.
“This
past year’s disturbing increase in hostility, discrimination, and violence
towards Asian Americans spurred us to further hone our strategy for community
support,” said Stephanie Ledesma, interim senior vice president of community
health at Kaiser Permanente. “This commitment is intended to help prevent
further racist acts, provide interventions when they occur, and promote healing
in communities that have been discriminated against.”
Organizations
and projects funded by the collaboration were identified by local community
health teams from Kaiser Permanente as well as members of the Kaiser Permanente
Asian Pacific Islander Association (KPAPIA), an internal business resource
group dedicated to workforce engagement, improvement of inclusive culture,
identification and advancement of diverse leadership, and community
volunteerism. Funding provided under the Stop Anti-Asian Hate and Violence
Initiative will advance the three strategies developed jointly with Advancing
Justice – AAJC.
The
grantees come from the eight regions where Kaiser Permanente has its
presence, including California, where the first spate of 2021 attacks came to
national attention. For a complete list of grantees, visit this link.
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