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 $268,000 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.
2024 - 2025 THEME: Multi-racial Democracy or AANHPI Mental Health Resources
With the time and commitment of anonymous reviewers selected from our giving circle, APIs RISE Fund has selected these four grantees who rose to the top of the list.
Solving Sacramento (Local Media Foundation) | Media Lens on Sacramento's AAPI Community
Solving Sacramento’s goal is to improve the representation of AANHPI community in local journalism coverage — both in terms of who produces the journalism and what people and issues are reflected in that coverage. As a result of this improved coverage, they hope all Sacramento residents, policymakers, institutions, and other groups to have a more comprehensive, deeper and nuanced understanding of the local AANHPI, in terms of people, culture, significant issues and contributions to Sacramento’s larger community. ($6,000)
Kansha Open History | The Power of Japanese American Farmers in the Delta
This project builds on last year's work by adding new data, including interviews with local farming families, and publicly-available financial documents, to create a richer picture and understanding of the many ways that the region's Japanese American farming families protected themselves and each other in the face of extraordinary local, state and national pressure. Volunteer historians will add more data from the National Archives and CSU Sacramento to existing database. The project will conduct meetings with elders and farmers to develop a more comprehensive picture of the lives of pre-war Japanese American farmers in Sacramento, Placer, and Yolo Counties. ($6,500)
Asian Resources, Inc. | SHINE: Sharing Histories to Inspire, Nurture, and Empower Generations
This project seeks to engage AANHPI youth as active participants in capturing the stories of elder leaders, whose resilience and contributions have profoundly impacted the community. By fostering intergenerational connections, building a digital archive of AANHPI stories, and equipping youth with essential leadership skills, this initiative will create a lasting legacy. It will ensure that the powerful voices and contributions of AANHPI leaders continue to inspire, educate, and empower future generations. ($6,000)
Filipino Community of Sacramento and Vicinity | Filipino-American Multigenerational Leadership Project
The Filipino-American Multigenerational (FAM) Leadership Project will bolster mental health literacy through an 8-part workshop series of culturally-competent programming designed to de-stimatize mental health and wellness while fostering Fil-Am leadership. The FAM Leadership Project is designed to address mental health and wellness by strengthening the community and its leadership and celebrating Filipino / Filipino-American culture. Developing healthy cultural identities among Fil-Ams is a foundational element of the FAM Leadership Project. Filipino Community of Sacramento and Vicinity and partners will utilize interventions that promote positive cultural identity building in order to improve mental wellness in the community. ($6,000)
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.