Thank you for your interest in partnering with Civic Leadership USA in civic leadership development and coalition building among AAPIs and beyond. With diligent and thoughtful assistance from our Strategic Development Consultant, Julian Munoz, and our committed National Task Force Planning Committee, we have discussed and listened to many #AAPI organization leaders in developing a more relevant and comprehensive #grants guideline. The Request for Proposal (#RFP) of 2022 and appendix are truly a labor of love and teamwork. Together we can turn the tide.
Like us on FB （@CLUSAcivicleadershipusa) and follow us (@civicleadershipusa) on IG to receive the most updated information about the AAPI community and beyond!
On September 24-25, the community partners organize a series of virtual webinars and in-person events for all AAPI communities nationwide. They provide a wide range of opportunities for all attendees, from a governmentcareer fair to leadership developmenttraining. In addition to networking with many civic/community leaders and public servants from different city, state, and federal levels. Join us to stand up & speak out together!
Thank you for your interest and partnership in civic leadership development and unity/coalition-building among AAPI communities. As you may know, Civic Leadership USA (CLUSA) has frozen most of its international grant-making in 2020-2021 and is in the process of re-examining our current national grant marking strategy and developing a new RFI/RFP process in response to all of these changes in the country.
To prepare for the transition, our board decided to outsource the 2021 internship grants administration to the Civic Leadership Academy (CLA), a new nonprofit that we supported. Thus, CLUSA will be able to focus on developing new funding guidelines for 2022. Our board is expecting more comprehensive grant programs that focus on civic leadership development and unity/coalition-building among AAPIs and beyond.
To assure a smooth transition, the 2021 internship grant program administration and monitoring will be handled by the same program team that spins off to CLA for continuity as of June 1, 2021. As the CLUSA will launch brand new grant guidelines & RFP process of 2022 this fall and will need a new infrastructure and consultant team in strategic grantmaking. In the meantime, we are conducting various Requests For Information (RFI) meetings with current and potential strategic partners around the country to listen and shape future guidelines that are more relevant and responsive. (Diverse in Leadership and Inclusive in Participation). More details will be announced this fall. Stay tuned.
Thank you to all the members of the peer review committee for the 2021 #CLUSA “Public Service Internship Grant”. For more detailed information about each committee member, click here, then click on the “Menu” (a burger menu icon) shown on the right edge of the screen, choose the member whose name you wish to locate, and then click on it.
Civic Leadership USA is grateful for the hard work of our Peer Review Committee (PRC) in the 2021 Public Service Internship grant cycle. Our board has approved the following organizations as the recipients of this round of Internship grants.
Asian American Community Initiative (AACI)
Alliance of Chinese American San Diego (ACA SD)
Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association (APAPA)
Asian Pacific Islander Community Leaders of Oregon (APICO)
Chinese American Parent Association of Howard County (CAPAHC)
Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment (CAUSE)
Coalition for A Better Chinese American Community (CBCAC)
Cal State East Bay Educational Foundation
National Institute of Health – Future Start Program
Hanlin Education Foundation of America
Muslim Educational Trust (MET)
National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA)
OCA – Greater Houston
United Chinese American – Illinois
Congratulations and thank you for your partnership in civic leadership development!
Carl Shan is the son of immigrants from mainland China. His family moved to the Bay Area when he was 5 years old. He grew up navigating the two different cultures, and often fought with his parents. Now that Carl is an older (and slightly wiser) 28 years-old, he volunteers as a workshop leader to help parents understand their teens and build stronger, healthier relationships. He spent 3 years working as a high school teacher, where he developed many techniques for supporting teens while holding them accountable. He holds a BA in Statistics from UC Berkeley and works as a Senior Data Scientist at LinkedIn. His workshops have reached over 1,500 parents.
Christie Lin grew up in the Bay Area and Taipei before moving to the East Coast to attend Harvard. While in college, she encountered many Asian American peers who struggled with mental health despite their outward “success.” Many of their challenges were tied to their relationships with their parents, and she began to see intergenerational communication as critical to the mental wellbeing of many young adults. After graduating, Christie moved back to the Bay Area, where she ran panels and other initiatives to share the 2nd generation experience with parents. She now works at BetterUp, a startup that helps individuals build self-awareness and communication skills through coaching.
Cat Xu has spent most of her time in the Bay Area – she grew up in Cupertino, studied human-computer interaction at Stanford, and now lives in San Francisco where she works (remotely) as a product manager at LinkedIn. She’s passionate about bridging intergenerational gaps, and building healthy and fulfilling relationships within Asian-American families. She believes good communication is the key to a good relationship, and has taught communication workshops in China and San Francisco.
Chloe grew up in the East Bay, studied Statistics and Computer Science at UC Berkeley, and now works as a Senior Software Engineer at a nonprofit tech company. As a teen, Chloe had repeated awful fights with her mother over small things and felt a deep loss of connection. Now, after having spent many years improving communication with her parents and healing wounds from her teenage years, she is passionate about helping other families similarly rebuild their relationships. She has previously conducted workshops with parents in the Bay Area on how to connect with their teenage children across generational and cultural gaps.
Applications for our Eastern Regional Leadership Academy are coming to a close. The deadline for our Eastern RLA is April 9th. Get your applications in today! The APAICS Regional Leadership Academy (RLA) is a two-day leadership training event for community stakeholders, individuals seeking to run for public office, current elected officials, and those with an interest in policymaking or social justice. The Eastern RLA will focus on individuals interested in pursuing elected positions across the East Coast. To submit your application, click here. For more information head to our website here. Now more than ever, it is crucial that we support and uplift those who aspire to pursue public office. The needs facing Asian American community are growing and we need elected leaders who will answer the call. If you are interested in supporting the AAPI pipeline and those eager to run for office, please consider donating $25 to our Regional Leadership Academy Scholarship Fund and sponsor a participant to attend one of our trainings today! Pledge your support here.
I was inspired by President Kennedy’s words, “Ask not what this country can do for you, ask what you can do for this country,” in my roles as a mom, neighbor, nurse educator and community organizer.
On the same day of the Atlanta mass murders, two of my daughters and I went to a local spa as part of a mother-daughter outing. The tragedy has brought terror to an already edgy Asian American community, and my daughters and I have been feeling anxious, angry, and sad all the same time. I cannot help but reflect on how we have been fighting both COVID-19 and political viruses this past year.
I visited my parents in China in December 2019, right before China announced its first COVID-19 cases in Wuhan, and, four months later, the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Like everyone complying with social isolation, staying separated from family has been difficult.
My parents had been on strict lockdown for months, having their groceries delivered directly to their doors. I was not able to visit them as planned in the following year to help my father, who has multiple health issues. For my parents, the social isolation and the traveling restrictions, which prevented me and my siblings from visiting them, had been extremely difficult.
However, they never doubted the necessity of the lockdown and dutifully complied while anxiously counting the days to see their beloved children and grandchildren in the U.S.
While trying to figure out the challenges and uncertainties of keeping our families safe during the pandemic, we had to fight the political virus of racism by addressing its detrimental effects on our children. I remember my youngest daughter in high school came home one day, telling us that one of her Asian classmates started coughing in class, and their teacher mocked her cough and said, “coronavirus!” I asked her what her friend did, and she said “nothing.”
It broke my heart knowing our children had to face microaggressions that reflect racial stereotypes, and that they did not know how to respond. I have Chinese American nurse friends who were threatened by patients and asked to “Go back to China”, and attacked in a hospital parking lot at night, yet were too afraid to speak up. There are others who might want to speak up, but have to remain silent due to limited English proficiency, including both parents and children.
As a result, we started organizing bilingual anti-racism webinars and spoke to Chinese-language news media to help parents understand racism, its negative effect on children’s psychological development and how it can lead to mental illness, and we suggested ways to help their children.
Despite political and racial vitriol targeted toward Asian Americans, we believe in “Combating Hate with Love, and One People United.” I helped the United Chinese Americans (UCA) successfully organize a national “Food of Love” campaign in May 2020. We delivered hot meals to homeless shelters, nursing homes, senior buildings, police stations, and many frontline workers.
The campaign reached 50 states and 124 cities, involving over 170 Chinese-American community organizations and restaurants. Our good deeds were picked up by over 100 media outlets. Since the start of the pandemic, we have also launched a personal protective equipment (PPE) donation drive. Our Illinois chapter in Chicago alone donated more than $250,000 of PPE to area hospitals.
I have been in the United States for 33 years. As a mother of five wonderful children, nurse, mental health advocate, and Chinese American, I am fighting COVID-19 and racism. This is where I received my graduate education in nursing and applied my clinical experiences in community health settings serving White, Black, Chinese, and Hispanic communities to make Americans healthier.
I am currently a nurse educator training the next generation of nurses and vaccinating my community. As a clinical scholar with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and UNC-Chapel Hill, I am advocating for the holistic well-being of Asian youth and developing a peer mentoring program for nursing students experiencing stress and anxiety during COVID-19.
I always love my community and was voted “The Neighbor of the Month’’ by Naperville, Ill.’s community television station. I led girl scouts and was a sports team and school room mom while raising my children.
I was inspired by President Kennedy’s words, “Ask not what this country can do for you, ask what you can do for this country,” in my roles as a mom, neighbor, nurse educator and community organizer.
As our community and the country mourn for innocent lives lost in Atlanta, we fight against racism and xenophobia head-on. But let’s not forget our belief: “Combating Hate with Love, and One People United.” We are the United States of America.
Jian “Lily” Chen, RN, MA, is a certified nurse educator, project director for UCA’s Wellness, Advocacy, Voices, Education and Support (WAVES) Youth Mental Health Collaborative and a community organizer. She lives in Cary, N.C.
