Speaker: Karthick Ramakrishnan
The 2019 Silicon Valley Asian American & Pacific Islander Civic Leadership Summit is a special community event bringing together community-based organizations, public officials, activists, legislative staff, professionals, and students.
With a theme of “Stepping Up to 2020”, anticipated outcomes of the 2019 Civic Leadership Summit will include identification of issues affecting our community, AAPI community involvement for a 2020 Census complete count and voter registration, and increasing civic participation.
Summit Event: AAPI & Census 2020 Complete Count, 1:20 pm
- Moderator: Edwin Tan, AACI Director of Advocacy & Development
- Nick Kuwada, Manager, Office of the Census, Santa Clara County
- Anne Im, Immigration Program Officer, Silicon Valley Community Foundation
- Kelly Batson, Senior Vice President, Community Impact, United Way Bay Area
- Discussant: Karthick Ramakrishnan, Director, Center for Social Innovation
The panel discussion focused on the following subjects:
Why does the Census Matter?
Funding:
- $ 675 distributed annually
- California’s share $ 76 billions
- Funding is distributed based on Census
Political Power:
- Congressional representation
- Reapportionment and redistricting
- 1990 undercounted cost a California Congressional seat
What are some of the barriers to an accurate count?
- Citizenship question may be intimidating
- Language barrier
- Multiple families live under one roof
- Not enough ethnic volunteers, community outreach persons, paid staff
- Undocumented status
- Distrust of immigration enforcement
- Cultural barriers
- The census will be taken online which could be a barrier to participants who are less computer literate.
What actions are being taken?
- Santa Clara County established the Office of Census with a website to inform and to make sure that our communities are not undercounted.
- United Way is hiring staff and giving grants to ensure the 2020 census is taken correctly.
- SVCF (Silicon Valley Community Foundation) is engaging in advocacy and grant-making to Bay Area nonprofits as part of the Bay Area Census Funders Collaborative.
- All the participating organization has websites where you can find more information.
- AAPI Data has many sources of census information as it relates to Asian Americans on their website.
Summit Event: Keynote Speech, 12:50 pm Building AAPI Civic Capacity
Dr. Karthick Ramakrishnan, Director, Center for Social Innovation
Dr. Ramakrishnan introduced the Center for Social Innovation (CSI) at UCR (UC Riverside) and described the work they do. CSI promotes collaborative research, policy innovation, and narrative change in the inland region (away from the high tech coastal area) of California. CSI tries to understand and to realize the potential of the inland region’s civic activities and to promote philanthropic investments in the nonprofit sector.
CSI has coined the term DNA as an acronym for Data and Technology, Narrative Change (Framing, storytelling, messaging) and Action (Advocacy, Civic Engagement, Social Enterprise) to describe the work that they do. By studying immigrant status in the inland California areas, CSI hopes that the new data will help community service providers to address local needs and assist the lawmakers to use these data to work on immigration policies in the region.
Dr. Ramakrishnan pointed out that 1/7 of Asian Immigrants are undocumented and that” there are many troubling findings about perceptions and barriers related to Census 2020 among communities of color”. ”Asian Americans were the least likely of any racial group to report that they intended to complete the survey form. Only 55% of Asian Americans said they were “extremely” or “very” likely to fill out the Census form, compared to 69% of Whites, and 65% of Latinos, and 64% of Blacks.”
Asian Americans were also the least likely to express familiarity with the census and are the group most likely to say that their answers to the Census “will be used against them.”
Here are a few follow-up items:
- IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Balitang America Elected Officials Panel Live Stream
- Asian Journal: How to succeed in politics: 4 takeaways from the 2018 NaFFAA Civic Leadership Forum
- Event Photos courtesy of Ram Jazmin
- Civic Leadership USA website and video
- AAPI Data website and Karthick Ramakrishnan’s presentation
For leaders interested in running for office (please share with your networks!):
- APAICS National Leadership Academy
- New American Leaders Programs
- Victory Institute LGBT Candidate & Campaign Trainings
[As a non-partisan, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, NaFFAA cannot endorse candidates for public office.]Please also save the date for our 2019 National Empowerment Conference at the Carson Community Center from August 15-18, 2019, and visit naffaa.org/2019nec for more info:
For leaders interested in running for office (please share with your networks!):
