CACF Expands Leadership Programming to Long Island With Expansion of AAPI-LEAD Youth Conference

Press Statement Press Release
Written By CACF

ASAP Youth Leaders get ready for AAPI-LEAD Long Island. (Photo credit: CACF)

ADELPHI UNIVERSITY, LONG ISLAND (July 17, 2025) — The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) and Youth Leaders from CACF’s Asian American Student Advocacy Project kicked off its inaugural AAPI-LEAD Long Island youth conference on Thursday with 65 students from across Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

The launch of AAPI-LEAD Long Island marked the first time CACF’s acclaimed youth leadership conference was hosted outside of New York City. First founded in 2022, AAPI-LEAD (Lead. Engage. Advocate. Dream.), was created by CACF and its ASAP Youth Leaders to ensure that AAPI young people had a space to discover how they could advocate for themselves and their communities while also learning about the issues that affect them the most.

Since 2004, CACF’s ASAP program has been educating, training, and equipping its Youth Leaders to be self-aware and informed advocates for their communities.

Each of the three-day conference’s sessions are being led by the current cohort of ASAP Youth Leaders and recent ASAP alums, making AAPI-LEAD a conference designed by AAPI young people for their AAPI peers. Registration for AAPI-LEAD Long Island quickly filled up this summer, illustrating the need for youth-centered programming for AAPI New Yorkers in Long Island and beyond.

“The overwhelming response to the launch of AAPI-LEAD Long Island shows that our young people are looking for opportunities to build connections and community with other AAPI youth while also diving into the issues of the day,” said CACF’s Co-Executive Directors Anita Gundanna and Vanessa Leung. “With this expansion of AAPI-LEAD, we have the chance to bring together even more young people for these important conversations just when they are most needed.”

Photos from AAPI-LEAD Long Island can be downloaded here. Please credit CACF in all usages.

For more information, please email Lakshmi Gandhi, CACF’s Senior Communications Coordinator, at lgandhi@cacf.org. 

CACF

Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) is the nation’s only pan-Asian children and families’ advocacy organization bringing together community-based organizations as well as youth and community allies to fight for equity for Asian Pacific Americans (APAs).

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