Raise money for AYPAL: Building API Community Power

AYPAL started in 1998 in response to increasing gang activity, truancy, and substance abuse issues among low-income Asian and Pacific Islander (API) youth. The project was also formed to address the marginalization of API youth voices in the burgeoning Bay Area youth movement. Since its founding, AYPAL has developed the leadership of hundreds of Youth Leaders and has engaged over 5000 young people in grassroots campaigns. More importantly, the organization has become a vital home where youth from different schools, neighborhoods and ethnicities can gather together to learn, discuss, and collectively change the adverse conditions impacting their lives. Today, AYPAL is a leader in youth movement building. AYPAL is working in partnership with other Oakland youth organizations around the Oakland Youth Vote, a policy allowing 16- and 17- year olds to vote for school board directors. AYPAL also helped to edit and pilot the Cambodian American Studies Model Curriculum and Vietnamese American Experiences Model Curriculum for California in the last couple of years.