12% and Growing Coalition Rally

Wednesday morning on the steps of City Hall, YWCA of Queens staff and ESL participants gathered with 150 other members of the 12% and Growing Coalition and Council Members Daniel Dromm and Margaret Chin to demonstrate our growing Asian Pacific American (APA) community. In particular, the rally called upon the Mayor and all of City Council Members to allocate a fair share of the budget to the underserved APA and immigrant population. Please find the press release below with more information on APA needs and the lack of government funds to support our large community.

Asian Pacific American Community Calls for Fair, Equitable Funding

Fears Vulnerable Communities Will Be Left Behind in Mayor's Budget

New York, NY - The 12% and Growing Coalition, a group of over 40 Asian led or serving community based organizations, held a press conference today to announce their campaign to seek fair, equitable funding for the Asian Pacific American community and calls on our Mayor and City Council to protect the most vulnerable in our community - recent immigrants, low-income, seniors, women, and young people - by avoiding damaging cuts to education and health and human services.

Formed in 2009, the 12% and Growing Coalition - the first-ever such coalition of diverse Asian Pacific American (APA) community groups - brought together community members, advocates, service providers, and others on the City Hall steps today. The Coalition called for elected officials to promote equity and fairness in their budget allocations, protect the most vulnerable community members, invest in organizations that serve immigrant communities, and balance the budget by addressing both revenue and expense sides.

To achieve equity and fairness in budget allocations, the 12% and Growing Coalition is asking that the City Council as a whole increase their discretionary funding to Asian-led organizations - organizations whose leadership is APA, whose board is at least 50% APA and whose mission explicitly includes the APA community. In FY2011, the total giving of the speaker's pot and City Council funding, which includes individual youth, aging and discretionary dollars, totaled close to $50 million (Who Got What: FY2011, Gotham Gazette, June 30,2010). Asian-led organizations received $711,332, a mere 1% of the total giving. City Council directed initiative funding, such as Immigrant Opportunities Initiative and Adult Literacy, totaled $115 million in FY 2011. Asian-led organizations received $612,527 in initiative funding, which is 1% of the total.

Vanessa Leung, Deputy Director of the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, says, "Asian-led organizations are committed to meeting the needs of the diverse Asian Pacific American community through culturally competent and language accessible services. The City Council has an obligation to support the organizations that are on the ground serving our most vulnerable community members. 1% of their total giving in discretionary dollars and initiative funding is not acceptable. We look forward to working with the City Council to increase that percentage and reach a more fair distribution of funding."

The 12% and Growing Coalition is also asking Council Members to collect and share information on services available for APA community members in each district by gathering information on organizations that include total population served, percentage of that population that is APA and the language capacity and cultural competency of staff members to serve diverse populations.

Steve Choi, Executive Director of the MinKwon Center for Community Action says, "As the co-lead of the Coalition, the MinKwon Center for Community Action feels that our efforts are coming at a critical time - our disadvantaged, underserved community members are facing savage budget cuts, while still in the midst of a deep recession. In 2011, we all need to step up our efforts at protecting the crucial services that these community members are relying on for survival. We also call on our City Council Members to join us by finding out the needs of these often-isolated community members in their own districts, and to meet these needs during these critical times."

Linda Lee, Associate Executive Director of the Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York,says, "During tough economic times, it is always the most vulnerable populations that experience more difficulties; the elderly population is no exception. KCS is dedicated to providing various social service programs to empower our seniors, enhance their quality of life and foster greater independence and productivity. Our community needs to ensure that seniors continue to receive quality services and an equitable distribution of funding towards these vital programs."

"Chinatown Manpower Project provides immigrants and refugees with vocational training, ESL classes and entrepreneurial training. Since the start of the economic downturn, CMP has seen at least a 25% increase in the number of walk-in clients, a return of former clients seeking new jobs and over 200 individuals on our waiting list for ESL classes. It is our hope that Mayor Bloomberg and the city of New York continue to support services and programs for immigrants to attain economic self-sufficiency," says Stephanie Lau, Assistant Executive Director of Chinatown Manpower Project.

Catherine Chao, Community Development Officer of the Queens YWCA, says "Cuts to women's services would have a devastating impact on not only women, but to their families and children. Women are the backbone of our community, and to eliminate or reduce funding to crucial women's services greatly affects the economic well-being and health of the entire New York community. YWCA of Queens is an organization dedicated to serving women in our community so that they have the tools and resources they need to achieve prosperity. Continued cuts to our programs will reduce the number of people we can serve... people [will have] fewer and fewer opportunities to receive the education and skill-building services for a better life because of these government budget cuts."

"South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!) relies on public funding to offer after-school programs at five sites throughout Queens. With the support of funding provided through NYC Council Member items, we reach close to 600 youth per year. In this current difficult economic climate, cuts in this discretionary funding will force us to reduce both our culturally and linguistically competent staff as well as our services to youth," says Udai Tambar, Executive Director of South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!).

Sudha Acharya, Executive Director of the South Asian Council on Social Services (SACSS), says "SACSS was created specifically to assist underserved South Asians in New York, and SACSS' major focus is healthcare. In the current dire economic situation when people are struggling to survive, access to quality healthcare is crucial. We urge the Mayor to protect these services."

The 12% and Growing Coalition is comprised of over 40 Asian led and serving organizations aiming for the New York State and City governments to have fair budgets that protect the most vulnerable Asian Pacific American New Yorkers.