FY 2019 Asian Pacific American Discretionary Budget Increase

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, July 25, 2018

New York, NY - The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) is pleased to announce that discretionary funds allocated to Asian Pacific American-led organizations by the New York City Council for Fiscal Year 2019 increased by a little over $200,000 as compared to FY 2018, with a total of $2,426,240 for FY 2019. The highest total discretionary award received by an APA-led organization was $269,000, an increase of $11,000 compared to FY 2018. Total discretionary awards made to APA-led organizations increased by 1.00%, bringing the percent of total discretionary funding to APA-led organizations up to 5.06% for FY 2019. Specifically, Manhattan and Staten Island saw an increase in percent of total discretionary funding given to APA-led organizations. However, it is important to note that, without including speaker funding, 30 Council districts individually gave less than FY2018 of total discretionary funding.

Anita Gundanna and Vanessa Leung, Co-Executive Directors of the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, said, "We are happy to see an increase in discretionary funding to organizations committed to providing critical services to the APA community and communities across NYC. Our organizations are frequently that only ones who provide language accessible and culturally competent services necessary for our communities' survival and growth. CACF looks forward to continue working with the City Council to ensure that the APA community is receiving the necessary services and funding."

John Park, Executive Director of the MinKwon Center for Community Action, said, "As one of the founding organizations of the 15% Coalition when it was first launched almost a decade ago as the 12% Coalition, we have seen the dramatic growth of APAs in NYC along the multi-layered and evolving challenges in finding and accessing resources. Although we are encouraged that APA-led organizations have reached 5% of the total discretionary funds for the first time in our City's history, it is still sorely inadequate to meet the growing needs of the APA communities that make up 15% of the City. There are many City Council districts where APA percentages of the population are in the double-digits, yet very few or no APA-led organizations in those districts are getting these resources. We need our representatives to be accountable to their constituents, including APAs, so we have a budget that is fair for all New Yorkers."

"CPC is pleased to see more discretionary funding allocated to the growing Asian American community," said Wayne Ho, President and CEO of the Chinese-American Planning Council, "yet there is still much more to be done to allocate funding equitably to meet the needs of Asian Americans, immigrants, and other communities of color. Ensuring that discretionary funding is equitably allocated to the organizations that most effectively serve those communities is key to ensuring that persistent needs and emerging trends are addressed."

Aya Tasaki, Policy and Advocacy Manager of Womankind, said, "Womankind greatly values the City Council's support for our work, especially in the face of the current federal administration's hostility. While the allocations fall short of the clear needs our fast-growing communities have, especially of those who are survivors of gender-based violence, we are grateful for our longstanding champions within City Council. We continue to be committed to working in strong coalition with other APA-led, APA-serving organizations, towards a New York City where our community can truly thrive."

"At AAFE, we thank our City Council Member partners who have helped bring APA issues to the budget negotiating table and we look forward to even greater strides in the years to come," said Asian Americans for Equality Co-Executive Directors Jennifer Sun and Thomas Yu. "But while the Council has made increases to support the growing need in the Asian American community, we still have a ways to go to match funding support levels proportionate to the population growth. New York City's Asian Americans unfortunately face the highest poverty rate of all ethnic groups and we see a large gap in program funding, especially for recent immigrants. We hope that we can build on this year's budget increases in future years to meet the needs ahead."

The Asian Pacific American community looks forward to continuing its partnership with the City Council in order to best address the needs of the community.

Click here to view FY 2019 Schedule C Funding Report