Asian American Resource Workshop

Aarw organizes pan-asian communities around issues of displacement and supports grassroots leadership development. This includes programs to support southeast and south Asian youth and young adults, narrative strategy projects and the boston Asian American film festival, workshops and political education development, spaces for members to build their organizing skills and respond to timely issues within the Asian American community, and working directly with Asian American community members, particularly those who speak vietnamese, around issues of housing and immigration. Here is a list of the programs we support:-dorchester organizing and training initiative: dot-i is an innovative organizing space for vietnamese American young adults who live in dorchester. Fellows are working on projects around housing, immigration, and education equity.-dorchester tenant organizing & development without displacement: aarw is growing base-building of working-class vietnamese tenants and community members to organize within a multiracial community pushing back against unaffordable and speculative development by supporting policy and solutions such as tenant protections to stabilize housing.-southeast Asian deportation defense project: we support southeast Asian families (mostly cambodian and vietnamese) impacted by deportation through case support, organizing, an active support committee, and advocate for policy reforms on the local, statewide, and federal levels. -member working groups: aarw hosts 4 member-led working groups building political consciousness, political education, and supporting organizing within our anti-displacement framework. To best align this work, our 4 working groups are now: housing justice, immigration/deportation, environmental justice, and abolition/criminalization.-activist training institute: ati is a pan-asian intensive organizing training space building the skills and capacity of Asian American organizers in greater boston to organize.-narrative strategy team: this work highlights our members' stories in the service of organizing campaigns. Members submit stories about their personal experiences with themes like immigration or housing, which provides a platform for creativity and lifts up marginalized voices within our community. For example, we are working on a podcast, zine, and other storytelling circles.-c-salt: our new cambridge & somerville south Asian leadership training (c-salt) program is running its inaugural cohort of south Asian youth and young adults from cambridge and somerville going through organizing training and supporting campaign work.-raise boston: given the fact that 1/3 of the undocumented population in ma identify as Asian, we see our growing work with the undocumented Asian community as critical. Raise boston is a space for young undocumented aapi community members to come together, build a base, and push for systemic change. Across our programs we organize against displacement in all its forms. We focus on organizing around housing justice, deportation defense and immigrant rights, and civic participation and engagement, while supporting other issues of racial and economic justice.