Coalition of Asian American Leaders

Collaborations & Partnerships: Partnering with a variety of stakeholders to build and address common concerns.

Leadership Support: Equipping and supporting leaders to be effective and strategic social justice movement builders

Advancing Community Priorities: Advancing the community's priorities of education, economics and immigration through policy, organizing and research.

Network Weaving: Convening, facilitating and gathering leaders across sectors, generations and ethnicities.

Release MN8: To end detention and deportation by providing support to impacted Asian families, community organizing and civic engagement to bring about social and political change. This is a fiscal sponsorship that began with CAAL in 2020.

Other programs:In 2022, CAAL went through a leadership transition with the exit of the founding Executive and Network Director (END) to a new END while the office remained almost 80% virtually with the exception of in-person events, team meetings, and other in-person meetings as requested. Under new leadership, CAAL created the "Waves of Change Fund" to support CAAL's leadership transition process and team building activities. CAAL raised an estimated $65,000 for the fund through 100% Board donation, individual contributions, and one-time corporate donations. CAAL also engaged in a restructuring process with staff and consultants to assess the current capacity of the organizations and potential areas of growth. CAAL hosted its first-ever regional meetings in Worthington, Duluth, Rochester, Brooklyn Park/Brooklyn City, and the Twin Cities Metro to expand our reach and invite more leaders into our network. Also, we strategically met with Greater Minnesota legislators and local elected officials in-person in Worthington, Duluth, and Rochester, building a new set of relationships and community partners. CAAL commenced the first CAPEE leadership program for parents in the metro area. They graduated in June and many became recipients of CAAL's Spark grants and leaders in our policy priorities. It was an amazing group of parents who have now expanded their learning to start other initiatives, such as the Edina Asian American Alliance and the Forest Lake School District work group. Together, these parents, students, and teachers participated in a unique three district meeting with all three Superintendents showing up to learn from the student's Asian American experience and to respond to their concerns. There were over 75 people in attendance. CAAL hosted its second Leadership Summit in September 2022 that had over 300 participants, 25 workshops, and 10 new partners. A significant number of participants were through our outreach efforts from colleges and universities in the state of Minnesota. During the pandemic, CAAL was invited to be an organizational leader by the AAPI Civic Fund to collectively lead the "Shared Liberation Network". We were called the "Network Weavers and had an opportunity to work closely with grantees and funders from AAPI Civic Fund. CAAL made significant strides in our policy, advocacy, and civic engagement work. At the Capitol, we increased the number of CAAL network leaders engaged at Day at the Capitol and CAAL's policy priorities by 100 individuals who showed up to meet legislators, attend hearings, and testify in committee; We supported the Minnesota Asian Pacific Caucus in creating the first hearing on the State of Asian Minnesotans which resulted in over 200 attendees, 20 presenters, and 4 state agency presentations to an audience of over 10 elected officials. We received significant media attention for CAAL's legislative priority to "Invest in Asian Minnesotans" bill, the combating hate bill, the ethnic studies bill, and the driver's license bill. For the November 2022 elections, we partnered with Asian Minnesotan organizations to turn out over 200 volunteers to engage in the 2022 elections.