Pride and Progress
CPAF Family,
We are back to our regular bimonthly newsletter schedule after our special May AAPI Heritage Month edition last month. We are pleased to share with you the happenings of the past month, which included a focus on Pride Month, a virtual convening of our annual Youth Forum, the release of CPAF’s first zine, and welcoming several new staff members.
Pride Month
CPAF joined many other organizations in honoring Pride Month. On social media, we shared posts to affirm our support of the LGBTQ+ community. At our leadership and all-staff meetings, we undertook discussions to educate ourselves about how we can better serve the LGBTQ+ community, including discussing the impact of gendered language and terms. CPAF has committed to continue ongoing conversations and follow up actions to close the gaps we have in our programs and organization on serving and supporting LGBTQ+ staff, clients, and volunteers. CPAF recognizes that these are conversations that should be happening all the time, not just once a year during June. Stay tuned for more updates on what CPAF will be doing.
Identity affirmation is inherent to CPAF values of self-determination and commitment to non-violence, and it's included within our 65-hour advocate training. To honor someone’s pronouns, expression, and identity is to honor their autonomy. To disrespect them is part of abuse. LGBTQ+ people, however, are not a monolith and nuance exists across the spectrum. We can and should practice active listening and validate people’s experiences and identities. For culturally-specific learning, check out this great list of resources for queer APIDA allyship compiled by Asian American Organizing Project.
Happy Pride! Let’s celebrate throughout the year by being affirming and inclusive.
Happy Pride Month from one of our program teams! [Six people in separate squares wear rainbow-colored masks. Clockwise from the left the square backgrounds are green, orange, blue, yellow, red, and light blue with the center square purple and containing a rainbow heart.]
Community Program Updates
Youth Forum Wrap-Up
Thank you to everyone who attended CPAF's Youth Forum this month! Youth and adult-ally participants had the opportunity to celebrate the talents of youth and learn about the Rooted Leadership Projects. Many presenters were inspired to take action based on relationships they witnessed among their peers and shared what they learned from their research on Gather in virtual conference rooms.
A screenshot of the four members of @mkhssnap performing two poems--one by Jamaal May and an original--and a screenshot of a presentation room on gather.town with five avatar participants over an aqua background with white arrow accents pointing toward each screenshot.
Five illustrated speech bubbles filled with white text set over an aqua background. Text is feedback received from participants.
Have you checked out our zine yet?
Earlier this month we published our first zine! If you haven’t had a chance to see the art and writing of our CPAF community members, you can read through it here.
Cover of CPAF's new zine. Eggshell blue background with light purple branches stamped on the left side. On the right center are words in camouflage green reading, "Nurturing Change: Where We've Been, Where We Are, and Where We're Going. A CPAF Zine, Spring 2021."
Zine table of contents with a light blue geometric patterned-background.
Staff Updates
A warm welcome to our new staff and a bittersweet farewell to our outgoing CPAF staff!
Over the past several months, CPAF has said goodbye to a few colleagues and welcomed a few more. We bid farewell and offer our thanks to residential counselors Tiffany Chiem and Serina Cardenas, community youth organizer Matthew Diep, and program associate/interim remote counselor Iris Hernandez. We have several new colleagues, including those that have joined in the interim through the PPP loan that CPAF received in spring 2021, which helps CPAF bolster its capacity across the organization in both programs and administration for the next few months. Welcome, everyone!
Gina Kim, interim data entry specialist
Nora Fujita-Yuhas, community youth organizer
Rosario Regalado, interim residential counselor
Samantha Copé, interim development coordinator
Katherine Pool, interim remote counselor
Nare Park, senior virtual community outreach specialist
Chet Lee, IT Director
Interested in joining one of our teams? Check out the positions available here.
Donor Thank Yous
Special shout out to the thousands of employees from Spotify who donated through their Supporting AAPI Against Violence matching program! We appreciate the outpouring of support.