History

The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) was founded over 20 years ago as the nation's only pan-Asian children's advocacy organization. View our most recent accomplishments here.

CACF was established in 1986 and incorporated in 1992 by a group of proactive social service providers who were concerned that New York City private and public health, education, and human service institutions could not adequately serve the growing number of Asian Pacific American and immigrant families. In 1995, CACF hired its first executive director, after being successfully volunteer-run for almost ten years. Today, CACF is still the only organization of its kind in the nation to advocate for the rights of children of all Asian Pacific American backgrounds.

Accomplishments

2010	Co-led the 12% and Growing Coalition that consists of over 35 organizations to advocate for fair state and city budgets, restoring over $53.14 million in the City budget for services for children, women, seniors, immigrants, and low-income individuals with the MinKwon Center for Community Action Hosted inaugural conference, “Power in Numbers: Uniting the Asian Pacific American Community for Action” to unify the Asian Pacific American community to leverage our growing power and to address our continuing challenges Released CACF Briefing Book to provide an overview of the history, current critical issues, and policy recommendations in Child Welfare, Education, and Health Launched Asian Pacific American Healthy Eating and Active Living in our Neighborhoods (APA HEALIN’), a new collaborative that aims to reduce chronic disease and poor health outcomes in the diverse Asian Pacific American community in New York City by increasing health eating and physical activity through structural and policy changes Led inaugural Asian American Health Advocacy Day in Albany to educate legislators about the health challenges facing the community and to urge that their needs are met in the new health care system to be developed under federal health care reform Selected as one of 37 organizations to serve on the New York State Health Care Reform Advisory Committee Received $380,000 from W. K. Kellogg Foundation to launch a full-scale initiative of Project POWER (Parents Organized to Work for Equal Rights), a leadership program to train immigrant parents to become effective advocates for their families and communities
2009	Led the 12% and Growing Coalition that consists of over 35 organizations to advocate for fair state and city budgets, restoring over $350 million for vital health and human services Launched pilot of Project POWER (Parents Organized to Work for Equal Rights), a leadership program to train immigrant parents to become effective advocates for their families and communities Worked with the Campaign for Better Schools to improve mayoral control of New York City public schools, helping to create a parent center and a citywide council on English Language Learners Participated in national health care reform efforts by meeting with representatives from the White House, including Nancy-Ann Deparle, the offices of Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand, and Congressman Rangel Received $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to increase the advocacy capacity of our member agencies Collaborated with Asian Americans for Equality to receive $600,000 from Deutsche Bank to launch a school reform project in Flushing, Queens Held first-ever Asian Pacific American City Advocacy Day on April 22, 2009 to protest New York City budget cuts that would negatively impact Asian Pacific American and immigrant communities Worked with the Sikh Coalition and AALDEF to release Bias-Based Harassment in New York City Public Schools, an assessment of the Department of Education’s policies addressing student-to-student bullying and bias-based harassment. Released Recording Voices: Stories of Asian Pacific American Youth as Language Brokers in New York City, which finds that Asian Pacific American families often rely on children to be translators when accessing public services. Released "Keeping Children Safe and Families Together: A Guide for Immigrant Families to Understand Child Abuse and Neglect Laws and Support Services in New York" in Bengali, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Punjabi, Urdu, and Vietnamese Awarded Making a Difference Award from the Family Health Project, the Child Advocacy Award from Commissioner John Mattingly of the New York City Administration for Children’s Services, the Community Champion Award from the Korean American Family Service Center, and the Community Service Award from the New York chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans
2008	Worked with the Sikh Coalition, AALDEF, NYCLU, and NYAGRA to get the Mayor and Chancellor to create a regulation to address bias-based harassment and bullying in New York City public schools Launched AmeriCorps*VISTA program with FAHSI, KAFSC, and SAYA! Released our policy brief on immigrant families’ preferences for and access to early childhood education programs in New York City Educated over 280 immigrant Asian Pacific American parents on the availability and their families’ rights to public services Worked with advocates to get the NYC Administration for Children’s Services to launch the Immigrant Community Partnerships Initiative to fund “cultural brokers” for the South Asian, Mexican, and West African communities Launched Project CHARGE (Coalition for Health Access to Reach Greater Equity) when CACF and 13 partner organizations were selected as one of 11 coalitions nationally to receive a four-year grant from the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Implemented Advocacy Institutes that have trained nearly 200 youth, parents, and community based organization staff on policymaking and advocacy strategies
2007	Worked with advocates, practitioners, and researchers to get $1.3 million in the New York State budget for a community awareness campaign to address the high rates of suicide and depression among Asian Pacific American women Released Connecting the Dots: Improving Neighborhood-Based Child Welfare Services for Asian Pacific American Families our second report on the Administration for Children's Services (ACS), New York City's child welfare system. The report critically analyzes the needs of Asian Pacific American families, the barriers to accessing child welfare services, and the opportunities to develop collaboration with the Asian Pacific American community. Launched the ACT (Asian Communities Together) Now! Campaign, working with over 30 organizations throughout New York City to improve the quality of life for the Asian Pacific American community.
2006	Worked with advocates to allocate $4.2 million to community-based preventive service programs to bring on 240 more staff to keep caseloads to the national standard of 12 and to keep children safe Increased funding for the DOE Translation and Interpretation Unit from $10 million to $12 million Released landmark policy brief, Building Bridges: Increasing Language Access for the Asian Pacific American Community of New York City, on language access to the education, child welfare, and mental health systems for the Asian Pacific American community of New York City Received a three-year, $750,000 grant to build the capacity of Asian Pacific American community based organizations
2005	Launched youth leadership program, Asian American Student Advocacy Project (ASAP) Worked with advocates to get the NYC Department of Education to create a Translation & Interpretation Unit Developed a collaboration with the Partnership for After School Education (PASE) to provide cultural competence training to approximately 550 Out-of-School Time Programs
2004	Released the first-ever policy report on Asian Pacific American students in the city's public schools Advocated for the New York City Council in successfully passing the Dignity in All Schools Act (DASA) Organized the Asian Pacific American track of the first-ever national conference by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on child health and child welfare
2002	Released Crossing the Divide: Asian American Families and the Child Welfare System Concerned Mothers testified at two hearings, attended a rally, participated in two letter writing campaigns, met with their City Councilmember, and participated in administering a community health survey Advocated successfully for the NYS Department of Social Services to change its ethnicity data category from the derogatory term "Oriental" to the acceptable term "Asian"
2001	Trained/presented before over 600 professionals and service providers Held South Asian, Korean, Chinese, and Filipino Community Dialogues Organized the Concerned Mothers to speak at two public hearings and participate in two letter campaigns
2000	Published summary of proceedings of CDF event, "A Seat at the Table: Toward a National Agenda for Asian Pacific American Children" Trained/presented before over 600 professionals and service providers
1999	Published Half-Full or Half-Empty? Health Care, Child Care, and Youth Programs for Asian American Children in New York City Published Opening the Door, A Survey of the Cultural Competence of Preventive Services to Asian and Latino Families in New York City Held conference "Speaking Out: Addressing the Unmet Needs of Asian American Children"
1998	Supported Client Organizing Project in conducting letter campaign and meeting with ACS
1997	Initiated Asian Cultural Diversity Roundtable Series Launched Asian Client Organizing Project Organized Asian American parents to attend CDF's Albany advocacy day
1996	Published "Newcomer's Resource Directory" and "Parenting in Your New Environment" in Chinese Organized parents to attend Children Defense Fund's (CDF) Washington advocacy day
1995	Hired first executive director with a seed grant from the New York Foundation
1992	Incorporated CACF
1990	Presented series of community education discussions on Chinese radio
1988	Published "Asian American Social Service Directory"
1986	Held a social service conference on Asian American families
1986	Founded as the nation's only pan-Asian children's advocacy organization