Kew Gardens, NEW YORK (May 28, 2024) --  Dozens of Queens-based advocates and community members rallied with Coalition for Asian American Children and Families’ (CACF) 18% And Growing Campaign outside of Queens Borough Hall on Tuesday to call on New York City Council to support a budget that supports the needs of the borough’s growing Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.

Speakers from CACF, Adhikaar, Asians Fighting Injustice, Armenian-American Action Network, Center for the Integration and Advancement of New Americans (CIANA), Community Inclusion and Development Alliance (CIDA), Jahajee Sisters,  Korean American Family Service Center (KAFSC) and the South Asian Council for Social Services (SACSS), highlighted Queens’ growing need for in-language services so that AAPI New Yorkers and other immigrant and limited English proficient New Yorkers can access the health care, food support, and mental health services they need to thrive.

Speaking in several languages, rally goers also noted Queens’ legendary diversity and the need for services that residents can readily access in the languages they speak and understand.

“Currently, the AAPI community is by percentage the fastest growing group in New York City, nearly doubling every decade since 1970 and making up 18% of the population. Unfortunately, current levels of public funding for the AAPI community remain disproportionate to our community’s expansive   growth and needs,” Felicia Singh, CACF’s Director of Public Policy and Government Relations told the crowd. “In Fiscal Year 2024, we are hoping for an enhancement to critically invest in over 90 AAPI led and serving community- based organizations that provide culturally responsive and linguistically accessible direct services to the hundreds of thousands of AAPI New Yorkers that reside in New York City.”

The name of the 18% and Growing Campaign hails from the fact that AAPI New Yorkers comprise more than 18% of the City’s population, and are the fastest growing racial community in New York City, State, and the country at large. Despite the AAPI community’s expansive growth and development, funding for AAPI communities in New York City has historically lagged behind. In Fiscal Year 2024, New York City invested less than 6% of total public dollars in AAPI communities of a $107 Billion City Budget. With a total population of over 1.2 Million AAPI New Yorkers, the budget unfortunately only invests $0.89 per capita which does not include undocumented and asylum seeking New Yorkers.

Throughout the rally, speakers centered the main points of the 18% and Growing campaign’s budget ask, which are:

• Enhance the AAPI Community Support Initiative to $7.5 million to expand social services by AAPI serving community-based organizations to address the fiscal equity needed to build bridges between culturally competent and linguistically accessible services and the most vulnerable AAPI New Yorkers.

• Enhance the Communities of Color Nonprofit Stabilization Fund (CCNSF) to $7.5 million to provide capacity building support to Black, Latinx, and AAPI-led community-based organizations.

• Enhance the Access Health Initiative to $4 million to support community-based organizations (CBOs) who provide education, outreach, and assistance to marginalized New Yorkers on how to access health care and coverage.

“We as West Asians and the SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) community amplify the call for City Council to invest in AANHPI New Yorkers,” Christine Serdjenian Yearwood, New York Field Organizer for the Armenian-American Action Network, told the crowd. “We need more money for New York’s most diverse borough!”

Many speakers noted how they’ve seen the 18% and Growing campaign expand over the years, and amplified the need for funding to follow suit. “CIANA has been part of the campaign since it was known as the 10% and Growing campaign. “We’re now 18% and Growing and we are from across Asia, the Pacific Islands, and Hawaii,” CIANA’s Communications Specialist and Outreach Worker Micah Dicker noted. “Thanks to efforts by CACF and the City Council-funded Community Support Initiative, we have been able to provide the legal and cultural services to our communities they so desperately need. We need to enhance the AAPI Community Support Initiative now.”

Those sentiments were echoed by Kimberly Powell, Executive Director of Asians Fighting Injustice. “Today I am here to represent just one of the 90+ community groups that make up the 18% and Growing campaign,” said Powell. “Despite the notable and outstanding contributions by our community to New York City, the AAPI community remains underfunded by City government. Investing in groups like ours means that we will be able to have a greater impact on communities impacted by injustice.”

Groups that continue to provide services to the newest New Yorkers noted that while demand for services has sharply increased, funding has not followed suit. “All we ask for is a fair and equitable New York City Budget,” said Joann Kim, Director of Community Engagement at KAFSC. “Our populations are growing, but we are not being recognized. All we are asking is to get the funding we need for our communities.”

Many 18% and Growing partners who serve New York City’s South Asian populations made it a point to highlight how trusted, in-language support services are key to getting community members the care they need. 

“I’m here representing the tens of thousands of Nepali New Yorkers in our city. We are taxi drivers, nail salon workers, and more,” said Pallavi Subedi, a Health Navigator at Adhikaar. “As part of Adhikaar’s health care navigator team, our team has enrolled hundreds of Nepalis in health care plans over the last year. But as we have seen an increase in new immigrants to New York, it’s critical that New York City Council funds nonprofits like Adhikaar.”

“Our Asian communities face tremendous language and cultural barriers in accessing health care,” agreed Mary Archana Fernandez, Director of Family Support Services at South Asian Council for Social Services (SACSS). “Funding initiatives like Access Health allows SACSS and other groups to get community members the care they need.”

“The challenges our communities face often go unnoticed. They include language barriers, health care barriers, and discrimination,” said Dr. Young Seh Bae, the Executive Director of Community Inclusion and Development Alliance (CIDA). “It’s time for us to act. We need to create spaces where everyone is seen and valued.”

For more information, please contact Lakshmi Gandhi, CACF’s Senior Communications Coordinator, at lgandhi@cacf.org.

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