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MAYOR'S FY 2015 PRELIMINARY BUDGET REFLECTS PROGRESSIVE AGENDA

On Wednesday, February 12, Mayor de Blasio released his $74B Preliminary Budget aiming to “put us on the road to giving New Yorkers a fair shot.” In the Asian Pacific American community, where 1 out of every 2 children is born into poverty and 1 out of 4 children do not graduate high school on time at all, cuts of essential programs have a severe impact.

Jessica S. Lee, Interim Executive Director at the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families said “We were happy to see that many of the vital services utilized by the Asian Pacific American community included in Former Mayor Bloomberg’s November Plan, continued to be baselined in the FY 15 Preliminary Budget. It is clear that Mayor de Blasio wants the budget to reflect a progressive agenda with funding to programs like the Immigrants Opportunities Initiative, the HHC operating subsidy, paid sick leave and funding for identification cards for undocumented workers.”

We are glad to see that education is at the core of the budget and we wholly support Mayor de Blasio’s plan for Universal Pre-Kindergarten and after school for all middle school students. We were also thrilled to see the baselining of the $144 million in child care and after school funding that Mayor Bloomberg cut and the council restored in FY 2014.

As Mayor de Blasio enters tough negotiations with the labor contracts, we ask him and the City Council to work together to keep vital services in the budget and we urge them to ensure the distribution of these funds is inclusive of organizations that are providing culturally competent, language accessible services to the city’s fastest growing community.

Talking Transition: Asian Pacific American New Yorkers Count

On November 22, 2013, Asian Pacific American organizations came together for a Talking Transition session to put forth recommendations to Mayor Elect de Blasio. The policy recommendations below include contributions from community members and Asian Pacific American leaders who provide services to the most vulnerable residents of our city, themselves often without sufficient resources. The recommendations are outlined below are those we hope Mayor de Blasio will consider in addressing the issues in the APA community, and we look forward to finding solutions with the new administration.

Click here for the policy recommendations.

CACF STATEMENT ON GOVERNOR’S PRELIMINARY FY 2014-15 BUDGET

On Wednesday, Governor Cuomo delivered his 2014 State of the State speech and emphasized the progress that the State has made over the last three years. In New York State only 50% of Asian Pacific American (APA) students are considered prepared for post-graduation plans. That number is more disparaging as the rates of APAs and college readiness deceases in urban areas like New York City. We are glad to see that the Governor continues to make education a priority and is taking an early action approach by standing behind statewide funding for Universal Pre Kindergarten. We urge him and the State Legislature to ensure that these programs are reaching Asian Pacific American students, especially the high English language learner population that fills our schools today. His New York Education Reform Commission is a step in the right direction and we applaud the Governor for his efforts to cut down racial and religious discrimination in schools.

We agree with the Governor that the elimination of health disparities must be driven by communities themselves. 1 out of 8 Asian Pacific Americans is uninsured, so we urge the Governor to prioritize that our community is part of the evolving Regional Health Improvement Collaboratives. In this new era of health care reform, community health planning is critical to ensuring a broad spectrum of stakeholders are part of an open public process to shape and improve the availability, accessibility, and quality of healthcare services in their community.

In the Asian Pacific American community, 78% are foreign born with the highest rate of linguistic isolation (43%) so we are deeply concerned with Governor Cuomo’s failure to mention the growing immigrant population in New York State and address the needs of our most vulnerable communities.

As we move forward in this new year, we look forward to working with our State leaders to ensure that the diverse and growing Asian Pacific American community is included in discussions around reform and ensure that our community’s needs are met.

CACF Congratulates First Asian Pacific American Appointment, Bill Chong, Commissioner of the Department of Youth and Community Development

The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) wants to congratulate Bill Chong, our new DYCD Commissioner. With a career dedicated to serving New Yorkers and improving the capacity of community based organizations, we are excited to work with Commissioner Chong to ensure effective community programs are given the resources they need to provide high quality youth and family programming.

As the nation’s only pan-Asian children’s advocacy organization, CACF has worked to develop strong relationships with agencies that interface the most with Asian Pacific American (APA) children and families. We would like to also congratulate Lilliam Barrois-Paoli, incoming Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, Carmen Farina, Schools Chancellor and Gladys Carrion, Commissioner of the Administration for Children’s Services. In addition to Commissioner Chong, their experience and knowledge of government systems will help to ensure all New York City’s children have access to the quality services they deserve.

As Mayor de Blasio continues to name the leaders of the city, we urge him to continue to look at talented, dedicated Asian Pacific Americans who understand the needs of not only the APA community, but many of the city’s most vulnerable populations. Congratulations again to all of the newly appointed leadership and we look forward to working together in the future.

Asian Pacific New Yorkers Count: Awareness to Action

On behalf of the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) and the Fund for Public Advocacy, it is our pleasure to present the report, Asian Pacific New Yorkers Count: Awareness to Action. This report is a direct response to concerns regarding a lack of data and misunderstandings surrounding the needs of the Asian Pacific American community, and the organizations that serve them. This report presents demographic information on the growth and diversity of the Asian Pacific American community, current services available to the community, and the gaps in services in meeting the needs of different segments of this community. We are grateful for the generous support of the Ong Family Foundation and the research support from the Asian American/Asian Research Institute at CUNY.

Click here for the report.

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