CACF’s 18% and Growing Campaign Rallies in The Bronx’s St. James Park for A Fair and Equitable NYC Budget

Bronx-based members of the 18% and Growing campaign during Thursday’s rally.

Over 50 community members, service providers, community leaders, advocates, and elected allies raised their voices to lift up the health, education, and language access needs of New York City’s AAPI community.

BRONX, NY (May 15) — Over 50 AAPI advocates, service providers and community members from CACF’s 18% and Growing budget advocacy campaign gathered in St James Park in the Fordham section of the Bronx on Thursday to rally for equitable funding for the borough’s diverse AAPI communities.

Local City Councilmember Pierina Sanchez joined community leaders for the rally as attendees called on City Council to dedicate funding to AAPI New Yorkers, the fastest growing group in the Bronx and the city at large. Rallygoers in attendance included representatives and community members from Laal NYC, Mekong NYC, and Sapna NYC.

The crowd joined in chants of “We are 18%” and “We need a fair and inclusive NYC budget” as they urged New York City Council to support AAPI-led and -serving community-based organizations across the five boroughs of New York City.

Throughout the rally, speakers centered the main points of the 18% and Growing campaign’s budget ask, which are:

• Enhance the AAPI Community Support Initiative to $7.5 million to expand social services by AAPI serving community-based organizations to address the fiscal equity needed to build bridges between culturally competent and linguistically accessible services and the most vulnerable AAPI New Yorkers.

• Enhance the Communities of Color Nonprofit Stabilization Fund (CCNSF) to $7.5 million to provide capacity building support to Black, Latinx, and AAPI-led community-based organizations.

• Enhance the Access Health NYC Initiative to $4.5 million to support community-based organizations (CBOs) who provide education, outreach, and assistance to marginalized New Yorkers on how to access health care and coverage.

“At a time when so many New Yorkers are worried about the future of the programs and social services they rely on, it’s more important than ever for New York City Council to invest in initiatives that uplift the needs of every day people,” said Anita Gundanna and Vanessa Leung, Co-Executive Directors of CACF, which leads the 18% and Growing campaign.  “City Council-supported programs like the AAPI Community Support Initiative, Communities of Color Nonprofit Stabilization Fund, and the Access Health Initiative provide critical resources to community-based organizations across the city that are doing the vital work of supporting our communities, regardless of their language fluency or immigration status. We urge the Council to support the enhancement of these critical programs in the New York City Budget.”

Sapna NYC Executive Director Diya Basu-Sen addresses Thursday’s rally.

“This year marks the 50th anniversary of the U.S. wars in Southeast Asia. At at time where we are commemorating, reflecting, honoring, we are also at a pivotal time where we need to react, defend and fight back,” said Khamarin Nhann, Campaign Director at Mekong NYC. “Fighting and advocating for our community in times of crisis because of both the social and economic impacts from harmful policies. Defending our communities right and access to affordable housing, food, Healthcare, mental health services, safety and dignity. We now more then ever need support from our elected officials to stand and continue fighting for our communities. Organizations here today have always been here, at the forefront, in times of needs, they continue to be the bedrock of vulnerable and marginalized communities. We need the resources and funding to not only sustain, but grow this important work.”

“I’m here to represent not just the South Asian community or the Bengali community but all AAPI New Yorkers. We are 18 percent of the population and we saw during the pandemic that all of our communities are intertwined,” said Diya Basu-Sen, Executive Director of Sapna NYC, a longtime Access Health NYC awardee that provides culturally and linguistically accessible services to Bangladeshi community in the Bronx. “That’s why we are here asking for $4.5 Access Health NYC. We’re demanding $7.5 million for the AAPI Community Support Initiative and we’re calling for $7.5 million for the Communities of Color Nonprofit Stabilization Fund. We’re here on this rainy day asking for our share of the NYC Budget.”

Photos from the rally can be found here. Please credit CACF in all usages.

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