Promoting API civic engagement and strengthening API leadership in the Sacramento Region
Thanks to our donors, since the start of our grantmaking in 2014, we have raised and given $243,500 to promote API civic engagement in the Sacramento region.
Between 2020 and 2024, we gave a total of $121,500 to 20 projects towards our theme: Combatting Anti-Asian Hate and Anti-Black Racism.
2023-2024 THEME: COMBATTING ANTI-ASIAN HATE AND ANTI-BLACK RACISM
Capital Stage $3,500
A Professional Staged Reading of "Daryo’s All American Diner" by Conrad A. Panganiban
Capital Stage, a 501(c)(3) organization, is deeply committed to fostering cross-racial and cross-cultural engagement and coalition building to combat both anti-Asian hate and anti-Black Racism amongst and within our AAPI communities. We believe the power of storytelling through theater can play a pivotal role in advancing these critical initiatives. The grant will partially support the production of to produce a professionally staged reading of "Daryo’s All American Diner," written by local playwright, Conrad A. Panganiban. This play encapsulates these efforts by telling the story of the Daryo family in the fictional town of Lakeside, Illinois. At its core, the narrative revolves around resilience, seen through the lens of a Filipino family grappling with the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and racism.
Council on American Islamic Relations, Sacramento Valley/Central California $3,500
Advancing Cross-Racial/Cross-Cultural Relations between BIPOC and Muslim Communities
We aim to create a network focused on cross-cultural relations, develop educational townhalls and collaterals to foster dialogue, activate public schools and colleges to promote collaboration and acceptance amongst leaders of tomorrow, and utilize mainstream and ethnic-owned media to promote messages of solidarity and reduce intolerance and violence. We will make these activities available to constituents receiving CAIR-SV/CC services.
Full Circle Project, (California State University, Sacramento) $3,500
Building Solidarity to Confront Anti-Asian Hate
The Asian American Studies (AAS) Program and the Full Circle Project (FCP) at California State University, Sacramento (Sacramento State) are uniquely positioned to address the challenges of an increased rate of anti- Asian hate incidents and crimes and to create a new generation of leaders. AAS and FCP will continue to serve students participating in these programs, the Sacramento State campus, and the greater Sacramento region with cross-cultural/cross-racial solidarity building, education, and hate crime prevention training.
Hmong Youth and Parents United $4,000
Youth Mentorship Circle: Youth Voices
The Youth Mentorship Circle: Youth Voices project will focus on giving API youth in marginalized North Sacramento a platform to discuss their views and opinions on anti-Asian hate, and anti-blackness, share their experiences, and learn from one another by participating in a series of short videos. HYPU values the voices of our youth and believes that youth are our future. By giving youth a platform to share their ideas and experiences, they will develop critical thinking and improve their ability to speak and present to audiences. They will also gain the confidence to speak up for what they believe in and rely on their peers for support.
Kansha Open History $8,000
Nikkei Farm History: Sacramento and Yolo Counties
Prior to World War II, Japanese American farmers were important designers, planners, ecologists, laborers, and economists who were essential to the creation of a flourishing, statewide, agricultural economy on the West Coast. They owned less than 2% of the state's farmland and produced 40% of the state's agricultural product. Much of this work took place in the Sacramento Delta, which was the heartland for Asian American farming communities and where generations of farmers and farmworkers experienced decades of racial violence, segregation, and political disenfranchisement as undereducated. Their story would be familiar to Black, Punjabi, Sikh, Hmong, Latino and Indigenous Delta communities today who have all experienced similar conditions and still do.
Sacramento Filipinx LGBTQIA+ $8,000
Elk Grove LGBTQIA+: Embodied Liberation and Magkaisa 2024
Sac Fil will organize the third annual Elk Grove LGBTQIA+: Embodied Liberation (EL), the first community based Pride event in Elk Grove that celebrates LGBTQIA+ youth and provides resources to the Elk Grove and Sacramento community and vicinity. EL celebrates LGBTQIA+ Pride through a holistic and visceral experience of freedom of Black, Indigenous, and Queer and Transgender People of Color (BIQTPOC) and overall LGBTQIA+ community, transcending intellectual understanding to encompass the integration of physical, emotional, and social dimensions.
2022-2023 THEME: COMBATTING ANTI-ASIAN HATE AND ANTI-BLACK RACISM
Los Rios Colleges Foundation $7,500
Reducing Recidivism through Ethnic Studies Program
This proposal is for the design and development of 2 Asian American Studies courses for the Cosumnes River College’s Prison and Reentry Education Program (PREP). Funds will support the launch of the inaugural Ethnic and Asian American Studies college credit course to serve incarcerated students in the Sacramento region. The proposed courses will focus on teaching the history of Black-Asian American solidarity movements and be offered initially at Mule Creek State Prison (3785 men). This project is inspired by the Asian Prisoner Support Committee’s (APSC) ROOTS (Restoring Our Original True Selves) program, a weekly class at San Quentin and Solano State Prisons, which offers lessons about immigration/refugee history, leadership, and reentry planning to Asian American and Pacific Islander inmates currently serving life sentences. The Los Rios Ethnic Studies courses will be developed in collaboration with APSC.
Sacramento API Regional Network $7,500
Building AA & PI Capacity to Build Power and Engage in Racial Solidarity
Asian American Liberation Network or AALN’s powerbuilding project seeks to strengthen our network and establish new and innovative ways to unite more cohesively, collaborate, and work together through the development of a Power-Mapping and Landscape Analysis that will advance a multi-racial democracy. The power-building will map out our community assets, identify gaps in programs and services, and catalyze power in our communities. Through this analysis, they will create a collaborative model that builds strength among already tight-knit allies. They will also call on funders to support and address the inequities and unjust systems and underscore the woefully inadequate attention paid to AA & PI communities..
Sacramento Filipinx LGBTQIA+ $5,000
Queer Source and Magkaisa
Sac Fil will organize the second annual QueerSource, the first community based Pride event in Elk Grove that celebrates LGBTQIA+ youth and provides resources to the Elk Grove and Sacramento community. They will collaborate with the same organizations (Asian American Liberation Network, Trans Queer Youth Collective, Sacramento LGBT Center, and more) from 2022’s QueerSource and will invite additional Queer and Transgender BIPOC led organizations to continue the momentum to provide access to free resources focused on mental health, physical health, advocacy, LGBTQIA+ education, and youth services. While QueerSource will always be open to the entire community, this year, Sac Fil will place intentional focus on the BIPOC LGBTQIA+ community in Elk Grove/Sacramento with the purpose of bringing awareness to anti-Blackness and anti-Asian hate in the LGBTQIA+ community and community at large. To do this, Sac Fil will host workshops, panel discussions, and invite speakers and performers who are known advocates in the community. As a second project, Sac Fil will also co-organize Magkaisa 2023 with local organizations to integrate LGBTQIA+ culture and content into the community at large in Elk Grove.
Full Circle Project, (California State University, Sacramento) $4,000
Building Solidarity to Confront Anti-Asian Hate
The Asian American Studies (AAS) program and the Full Circle Project (FCP) will address crosscultural / cross-racial solidarity building, anti-Asian hate impacting our Asian communities, and working to combat anti-Black racism within our API communities. This proposal aims to work closely with regional Stop the Hate (STH) partners and APIs Rise to build and strengthen the next generation of API leadership for the Sacramento region.
Empowering Pacific Islander Communities $2,500
Pacific Islander Leaders of Tomorrow
EPIC’s most robust effort at developing anti-racist leadership is through Pacific Islander Leaders of Tomorrow (PILOT). Acting as the primary mode of youth leadership development and base-building, PILOT is a community-focused program created to increase the number of emerging leaders in the Pacific Islander community. It’s one of the only programs nationally that focuses on NHPI youth leadership and organizing, grounding them in decolonial anti-oppression work, and cultivating values and skills that are culture-based and community-focused. In the past six years, EPIC has developed over 180 young NH/PI leaders through twelve cohorts of our PILOT program. APIs RISE Fund will support two youth from Sacramento region for the PILOT program.
2021 THEME: COMBATTING ANTI-ASIAN HATE AND ANTI-BLACK RACISM
Empowering Pacific Islander Communities $8,000
Black Pacific Alliance
Inspired by the work of Dr. Connie Wun and AAPI Women Lead, EPIC believes that the racism that Native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders (NHPIs) face is made possible by anti-Blackness and anti-indigeneity. EPIC strives to be a pro-Black and pro-indigenous organization, which shows up in various aspects of our advocacy, leadership development, and research programs. The most explicit space for combating anti-Blackness is in the Black Pacific Alliance. The APIs RISE Fund grant will contribute to: 1) organizing an in-person convening; 2) establishing a formal organization focusing on addressing and eliminating anti-Blackness in the Pacific Islander community led by Black and Pacific Islander identified individuals and 3) creating a story collection and sharing project.
Sacramento Asian Pacific Cultural Village $10,000
Solidarity and Movement-Building within Black and Asian Communities
With the support of APIs Rise Fund and the Sacramento Regional Community Foundation, the Sacramento Asian Pacific Cultural Village (a fiscally sponsored project of ABAS Law Foundation), will produce Solidarity and Movement-Building within Black and Asian Communities – a four-part project of the 2022 Sacramento Asian Pacific Film Festival. Outcomes for this project include: 1) Greater appreciation for the depth of Black and Asian solidarity and community-based social justice activism; 2) Increased level of dialogue around race and racial tension among both festival-goers and project participants; 3) Increased engagement of youth and transitional youth (17-24 years old) who are comfortable using forms of artistic and cultural expression to build bridges and create social change.
Sunny Side Theatre Co. $3,000
Parallel Veins: Conversations on Colorism
"Parallel Veins: Conversations on Colorism" is a project dedicated to shedding light on the existence and affects of anti-Asian hate and anti-Black racism in the Sacramento API community, while constructively engaging viewpoints on how to positively move forward together. The proposed project would be a three- night event that would involve a group of 10 speakers each performing a personal essay, poem, monologue or song (about 3-7 minutes long each) that explores and honors API cultural identities, experiences, and the affects of colorism on individuals in the API community, Black community, and multi-racial members of both. It is also a way of utilizing the unique platform theatre creates as an opportunity to hear, acknowledge and encourage the sharing of experiences, and encourage common ground.
Council on American Islamic Relations, Sacramento Valley/Central California $9,000
Combatting Anti-Asian Hate and Anti-Blackness
CAIR members’ own experience in confronting Islamophobia informs how they will address anti-Asian hate impacting our Asian American and Pacific Islander siblings. Specifically, CAIR will provide legal services and community education, while also sharpening the focus on combating anti-Asian hate and violence. To combat anti-Black racism, in addition to incorporating the importance of it in the Bystander Intervention Trainings, efforts will focus on Black History programming in the community and a program called the Muslim Gamechangers Network (MGN)—a four-month social justice training program for Muslim youth ho learn identity, history, social responsibility, and organizing tools, all grounded in a social justice worldview.
2020 THEME: COMBATTING ANTI-ASIAN HATE AND ANTI-BLACK RACISM
Sacramento API Regional Network $10,000
The Network will host a virtual roundtable discussion, “Showing Up: Intergenerational API Activism in California.” Speakers will explore social justice movements and their relation to the anti-Black’ness in Asian communities. They will also host a photographic documentary and oral essay, "Lifting Up: Elevating Generational API Activism in California," to highlight the activism work in the region amongst APIs; engage and educate the community on shared strife with Black siblings; and deconstruct anti-Blackness internally and promote solidarity.
View the townhall co-hosted by APIs Rise Fund, Sacramento API Regional Network, the Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies, and Everyday Impact Consulting to discuss the racist incidents of anti-asian hate/violence due to COVID-19 in the Sacramento region, current research and policy on anti-Asian hate, and the movements and resources addressing racism and violence against the API community.
Jakara Movement $9,000
The Jakara Movement aims to build a multi-pronged approach to engage youth, adults, immigrants, and large sections of the of the Punjabi Sikh community. Rooting the project in academic research, Jakara Movement’s project will lead discussions with Punjabi Sikh young people on anti-Black racism in the community. The experience will be made into a video and featured at the monthly movie night. Complementing this screening, youth will lead a conversation around anti-Black racism on Punjabi radio.
Hmong Innovating Politics $10,000
HIP will create core training and workshops built through the lens of racial equity and justice for Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian Americans. HIP aims to create the conditions that support an increased number of engaged Hmong and Southeast Asian American (SEAA) youth and young adults in systems change work that challenge the institutions that reinforce systemic racism. Read the Final Report.
Asians for Black Lives in partnership with Black Zebra $1,500
A4BL will network with other Asian organizations in the region to learn about how their members have been impacted by anti-Asian violence, both related to and preceding the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies $4,000
Support the Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies’ work in further tracking and reporting racist and xenophobic incidents; the dissemination of easily digestible action alerts and communications; and, advocacy focusing on civic and community leaders. View the Townhall co-hosted by APIs Rise Fund, Sacramento API Regional Network, the Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies, and Everyday Impact Consulting to discuss the racist incidents of anti-asian hate/violence due to COVID-19 in the Sacramento region, current research and policy on anti-Asian hate, and the movements and resources addressing racism and violence against the API community. This was a special grant from AAPIP.