API Rise Grant — Final Report

Submitted to: srcfgrants@sacregcf.org | solvingsacramento.org | info@solvingsacramento.org

Description of Program Activities

With support from the $6,000 API Rise grant, Solving Sacramento launched a dedicated

initiative to expand local journalism coverage of Sacramento's Asian American, Native

Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities. This grant directly addressed a critical

gap we identified in our collaborative: despite having seven news partners serving Sacramento

County's 1.6 million residents, our AANHPI community had been largely absent — both as the

journalists producing content and as the sources and subject matter experts featured within it.

Our program activities were organized around four core commitments drawn from our grant

proposal:

1. Hiring AANHPI freelance journalists

We actively recruited and contracted 8 plus Sacramento-based freelance journalists — writers,

photographers, and videographers — who identify as members of the AANHPI community.

These journalists were assigned, edited, and paid for original story packages distributed to our

seven news partners. We pay between $250–$500 for written story assignments and a flat $300

rate for photo assignments.

2. Producing original AANHPI story packages

We produced 19 original story packages focused on issues, events, people, and culture of

relevance to Sacramento's AANHPI community. Stories were cross-published across our news

partner outlets to maximize reach. Published stories include:

1. Sacramento celebrates AAPI Heritage month with food, culture and community | Hmong

Daily News, May 9, 2025 | By Srishti Prabha

2. Sacramento Bonsai Club celebrates 79 years of living history | Sacramento News & Review,

May 14, 2025 | By Chris Woodard

3. California Museum in Sacramento honors Japanese Americans, Nisei veterans with flag

ceremony | Sacramento News & Review, May 22, 2025 | By Justine Chahal

4. Sacramento's AAPI Night Market brings culture and community to the Capitol | Russian

American Media, June 1, 2025 | By Chris Woodard5. Sacramento Groups Address Loneliness, Create Community for Older AAPI Adults |

Hmong Daily News, June 12, 2025 | By Amritpal Kaur Sandhu-Longoria

6. Jakara Movement's Mandeep Singh on building community power for Punjabi Sikhs in

Sacramento | Sacramento News & Review, June 13, 2025 | By Srishti Prabha

7. Sacramento Iu Mien Festival celebrates community, preserves culture | Hmong Daily News,

July 1, 2025 | By Lien Apoux

8. Washington Post's approach to the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War | Solving

Sacramento, July 7, 2025 | By Srishti Prabha

9. Sacramento initiative connects Hmong youth internationally, fosters cultural exchange |

Hmong Daily News, August 4, 2025 | By Amritpal Kaur Sandhu-Longoria

10. Hmong flower cloth making preserves culture and strengthens community | Hmong Daily

News, August 28, 2025 | By Lien Apoux

11. Valley Vision's Kathy Saechou on why knowledge is power in the fight for environmental

justice | Hmong Daily News, August 31, 2025 | By Christa Ison, edited by Justine Chahal

12. Bayanihan Festival in Sacramento celebrates local Filipino culture | Russian American

Media, September 9, 2025 | By Justine Chahal

13. Iu Mien Community Services' annual picnic brings together older adults, celebrates

community | Russian American Media, September 25, 2025 | By Andri Tambunan

14. Elk Grove's Bayanihan Festival brings people together during Filipino American History

Month | Sacramento News & Review, October 16, 2025 | By Justine Chahal

15. Sacramento Hmong New Year Festival celebrates culture and tradition | Hmong Daily News,

December 3, 2025 | By Justine Chahal

16. Sacramento State's Stop the Hate Showcase Emphasizes the Importance of AAPI

Representation in Arts and Media | Hmong Daily News, December 10, 2025 | By Justine

Chahal

17. Sacramento State Educator Bao Lo On The Importance Of Teaching Hmong History In

California's Classrooms | Hmong Daily News, December 16, 2025 | By Srishti Prabha

18. Finding Safety and Support: How My Sister's House Helps AAPI Survivors of Domestic

Violence | Hmong Daily News, January 19, 2026 | By Amritpal Kaur Sandhu-Longoria

19. The California College Promise: making education affordable: | Hmong Daily News, February

25, 2026 | By Macy Yang

3. Applying a solutions journalism lens

All coverage was produced using the Solutions Journalism Network's four pillars: identifying a

response to a problem, explaining how it works, presenting evidence of its effectiveness, and

acknowledging limitations. This approach moves beyond deficit-focused reporting to highlight

the people, ideas, and organizations paving the way forward in the AANHPI community.

4. Multimedia approach

Coverage was distributed through multiple formats — written stories, photo essays, social

media, and podcast content — to reach diverse audiences across our partner platforms, which

include print, digital, and broadcast radio.

Explanation of Impact on the Target Population

This initiative has begun to address a longstanding gap in Sacramento's media landscape. Prior

to this grant, Solving Sacramento had only a handful of freelancers identifying as AANHPI,

meaning the community was not being served either as journalism producers or as story

subjects. The grant allowed us to change both.

The stories produced have documented cultural traditions, addressed social isolation among

older AANHPI adults, highlighted civic organizing within Punjabi Sikh communities, and

captured cultural preservation efforts in the Iu Mien community — coverage that had not been

provided by mainstream local outlets.

By hiring journalists from within these communities, we also helped create paid professional

opportunities and published bylines for AANHPI journalists in the Sacramento market.

Representation behind the camera is as important as representation in front of it.

Cross-publication among our news partners further amplified reach, exposing audiences across

Sacramento's diverse media ecosystem to AANHPI stories, building cross-cultural awareness

and offering a sense of recognition and validation for community members who have historically

been underserved by local media.

Anticipated and Unanticipated Challenges

Anticipated

Recruiting qualified AANHPI journalists with availability for freelance work in Sacramento proved

challenging. The limited local talent pipeline is itself a symptom of the systemic

underrepresentation this grant aims to address — California has lost 68% of its local journalists

over the past two decades, according to a Northwestern University's Medill journalism school

report, and AANHPI journalists are underrepresented even within that shrinking pool. We

continue to actively recruit and see expanding this pipeline as a long-term priority.

Unanticipated

Initial community outreach required significantly more relationship-building time than originally

anticipated. We learned that meaningful engagement with some AANHPI communities cannot

be approached transactionally — trust must be established before story pitching begins. This

was a valuable lesson that will inform how we structure future community engagement.

Explanation of Additional Funds Received

This Grant inspired additional donations which were leveraged to support the reporting and

photography required for these stories:

Christine Tien and Israel Ramirez: $1,000 (5/29/2025)

TCE: $3,000 (9/2/2025)

How This Work Connects to Broader Community Issues

The absence of AANHPI coverage in Sacramento's media is not an isolated journalism problem

— it reflects and reinforces broader patterns of civic invisibility. When a community does not see

itself in local news, its concerns are less likely to reach policymakers, its members are less likely

to engage in civic life, and the broader public develops an incomplete picture of Sacramento's

richly diverse population.

Our solutions journalism approach adds another layer: rather than simply acknowledging this

community's existence, we are centering the people, institutions, and movements within it that

are actively building a better Sacramento. This approach speaks directly to the negative news

burnout many readers experience, and early evidence suggests that solutions-focused

coverage resonates with audiences and encourages engagement.

Perhaps the most meaningful outcome of this grant period is the growth of Hmong Daily News

as a key voice in the region’s journalism ecosystem. Through this work, the outlet expanded its

coverage by bringing on additional journalists and photographers, allowing for more consistent

and culturally grounded storytelling. This investment has deepened engagement with AANHPI

communities, including Pacific Islander audiences, in ways that feel more authentic and

sustained.

We see this not as a one-time expansion, but as part of a broader effort to strengthen

Sacramento’s local media landscape. By building capacity within Hmong Daily News, this work

helps ensure that AANHPI community coverage is not episodic, but embedded—continuing well

beyond the life of this grant.

Lessons Learned

Several key learnings emerged that will inform our work and potentially help other collaboratives

undertaking similar efforts:

• Representation in the newsroom produces better journalism. Journalists with

lived experience in AANHPI communities consistently surfaced more nuanced angles

and accessed sources that outside reporters would not have reached.

• Solutions framing resonates with community audiences. Story subjects and

community members responded especially positively to coverage that highlighted

agency, resilience, and organized efforts — not just problems.

• Relationship before story. The most impactful coverage came from sustained

community engagement, not one-off outreach. Trust-building must precede story pitching

with many AANHPI communities.

• The journalist pipeline problem requires proactive investment. Expanding our

roster of AANHPI freelance journalists in Sacramento will require deliberate mentorship,

professional development, and outreach — not simply open calls for pitches.

• Cross-publication multiplies impact. Distributing stories across seven news

partners dramatically expanded the reach of each piece, ensuring AANHPI communities

were reflected across Sacramento's diverse media landscape simultaneously.

Financial Report

SRCF grant: $6,000

LMF fee: ($600) Local Media Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable trust affiliated with the Local

Media Association. (Tax ID #36‐4427750)

Freelance assignments: ($5,400)

Balance: $0

Primary Use of Funds:

Reporter and editor payments for AAPI-focused stories

Coverage of cultural events, community issues, and local voices