Bronx-based 18% and Growing Campaign Partners Rally in Parkchester for Renewed Investment in AAPI Community
Members of the 18% and Growing campaign rallied for an equitable budget in the Parkchester section of The Bronx.
The Bronx, NEW YORK (May 22, 2024) --The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families’ (CACF) 18% And Growing Campaign and dozens of their Bronx-based members and partners gathered in Parkchester on Wednesday to call on New York City Council to support a fair and equitable budget that centers the needs of New York’s most marginalized.
Speakers from CACF, Mekong NYC, Sapna NYC and the National Federation of Filipino American Associations highlighted the growing needs of The Bronx’s burgeoning AAPI communities — many of whom hail from Southeast and South Asia — and the need for increased support for culturally affirming and linguistically accessible services and an an inclusive City Budget that protects the needs of all AAPI New Yorkers (New York City’s fastest growing racial population). Throughout the rally, speakers noted that Bronx AAPI residents are often overlooked in conversations about the larger community and that more attention should be paid to the unique needs of AAPI and immigrant Bronx residents.
“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.
The rally featured speakers from both Sapna NYC and Mekong NYC, two of the 18% and Growing campaign’s most prominent Bronx-based partners.
“It’s really exciting to be here at the heart of Bangla Bazaar at our first 18% and Growing rally in Parkchester!” Diya Basu-Sen, the Executive Director of Sapna NYC. Throughout her remarks, Basu-Sen highlighted Sapna NYC’s work over the last five years as an Access Health awardee, funding that enabled staff to assist Bengali-speaking New Yorkers with accessing essential medical care like mammograms. She noted that one Bengali-speaking patient traveled two hours from Brooklyn in order to get a mammogram with Sapna NYC’s assistance because she knew Bengali speakers would be available to assist her. Medical services Sapna NYC provides include preventative doctor’s visits, cancer screenings, and more. “Our health is deeply personal and community trust allows us to do what we do,” said Basu-Sen. “None of that would be possible without Access Health.”
Those sentiments were echoed byMekong NYCCampaign Director Khamarin Nhann.“We are the ones on the ground doing the work for our community members,” he said. “TheBronxis home to such a diverse community, there are refugee communities that have been here for decades. But to do the work that we do, we need this investment from the city.”
For more information, please contact Felicia Singh, CACF’s Director of Policy and Government Relations, at fsingh@cacf.org.
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