GARDEN GROVE, California — Leaders of the four largest Asian community-facing organizations in Orange County (Korean Community Services, OCAPICA, Southland Integrated Services, and South Coast Chinese Cultural Center) gathered Monday morning at a press conference in Garden Grove’s St. Anselm’s Episcopal Church to announce the start of concerted efforts to integrate civic engagement within their respective organizations to further stimulate voter registration.
Given the stark increase in Orange County’s Asian American demographic throughout the past decade, the population has reached nearly a quarter of the entire county population. This concerted effort between these four organizations is critical in this election year to ensure future policies and elected leaders of the community will be representative of the existing needs of the local populace.
“We are the third largest Asian county in the United States, and the second largest Korean county in the country,” said KCS Executive Director Ellen Ahn. “Being such a large Asian county, it felt like we needed to do something, so this started with just some quick chatting, and here we are today, forming a collaborative called the Asian American Initiative.” These efforts by the coalition, as accentuated by OCAPICA Executive Director of OCAPICA, are nonpartisan in nature, aimed toward encouraging and assisting marginalized Asian American communities to vote on the issues that affect them.
“The community is really concerned about the following issues: from affordable housing, to healthcare, to older adult care. We really want policymakers to listen to that,” said Foo.
According to Foo, these community organizations currently reach thousands of individuals within their respective centers through both community and healthcare services, many of whom do not understand or are unaware of the process to register and ultimately vote.
“We really want our communities to have a voice, and know their power. By knowing that every single time they vote, it matters. The policymakers work for us, by voting we hold them accountable as well,” said Foo.
The endeavors of this coalition are aimed to have a greater effect than increasing voting numbers, according to Southland Integrated Services CEO Tricia Nguyen, but they hope to train younger leaders to continue the work.
“We hope we can create a pipeline for younger leaders to become more influential, policymakers, and a lot of the youth have to be actually excited to want to make a change,” said Nguyen.
The announcement included an initial plan to integrate civic engagement within their respective organizations to stimulate voter registration in marginalized populations.“The first thing is texting, we are working through whether we can text in language, but [March 5], I believe a text will go out in English and we have already started doing phone banking in- language, mostly at [OCAPICA],” said Ahn. “We also hope to do some mailers in targeted cities.
There are more cities that are more concentrated; however, Garden Grove, Irvine, Westminster, Fullerton, Buena Park are cities we will definitely be in.” CEO of South Coast Chinese Cultural Center Yulan Chung emphasized the long-term focus for these organizations, and that the coalition does not plan on stopping until the last person in their communities knows how to vote.
“You hear us, this is just the beginning,” said Chung.
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城市新聞3 月4 日園林市報導，橙縣（ Orange County ）四個傑出亞裔組織（ AAPI ） 的領導人在聖安瑟姆聖公會教堂舉行新聞發布會，宣布將公民參與納入各自的組織，動員更多人積極投入選民登記，站出來投下自己神聖的一票。
南海岸中華文化中心執行長鍾幼蘭、 KCS 執行董事Ellen Ahn 、 OCAPICA 創辦人兼執行董事Mary Anne Foo 、 Southland Integrated Services 執行長Tricia Nguyen 出席記者會，並作說明。發布會表示，鑑於過去十年亞裔人口大幅增加，目前佔奧蘭治郡居民的近四分之一，四大面向亞洲社區的組織的聯合倡議至關重要，尤其是在這個選舉年，這項將公民參與納入各自的組織，動員更多人積極投入選民登記，站出來投出自己神聖的一票，現正處於關鍵時刻。
KCS 執行董事Ellen Ahn 表示，奧蘭治郡是美國第三大亞裔人口最多的縣(county) ，作為一個如此大的亞裔社區，感覺需要團結起來一起做點事，形成了一個名為亞裔倡議的合作組織(Asian American Initiative) , 共同為亞裔社區發聲。OCAPICA 執行董事Mary Anne Foo 強調表示，該聯盟是無黨派的，旨在鼓勵和協助邊緣化的亞裔社區就影響他們的問題進行投票。
OCAPICA 創辦人兼執行董事Mary Anne Foo 表示，社區真正關注以下問題：從平價住房 到醫療保健，再到老年人護理, 兒童教育, 青少年心理輔導等等。希望政策制定者能夠聽取亞裔社群的心聲。這些社區組織目前透過社區和醫療保健服務在各自的中心內接觸到成千上萬的人，其中許多人不了解或不知道如何登記成為選民 並最終投票。我們亞裔要發出自己的聲音，透過每次投票，讓政策制定者了解我們亞裔的訴求。
Southland Integrated Services 執行長Tricia Nguyen 表示，亞裔聯盟旨推動增加投票人數，讓更多亞裔民眾站出來投票，發揮更大的效應，並希望培訓年輕的領導人繼續這項工作，希望年輕領導人變得更有影響力。
南海岸中華文化中心執行長鍾幼蘭強調表示，四大亞裔組織的首次合作是日後長期合作的開端, 共同的關注點是傾全力促使亞裔知道如何通過投票行使公民的權利和義務, 並且一定要站出來投票為自已發聲。