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Asian in Austin is a podcast by Minh Vu and Sandra Pham to elevate the voices and stories of Asian Americans living in Austin, Texas while exploring what it means to come into one's own Asian American identity and experience by inviting open dialogue and conversation with community members.
Sandra P.: Hey y'all, I'm Sandra Pham.
Minh V.: And I'm Minh Vu.
And this is Asian in Austin.
So for this month's episode, we
decided to share a conversation that
we actually had earlier this in May at
the Austin Asian Professionals Summit.
We were really honored to be invited
by the organizers of the summit, Y.
J.
Lin and Rebecca Le, or at least
those were the ones who did
the initial outreach to us.
And we since then learned that
it was a big collaborative effort
with a whole slew of organizations.
I think like the Asian American Resource
Center, the Greater Austin Asian
Chamber of Commerce, there is support
from the Austin Asian Film Festival,
Orchid Events, and North Shore Media,
just a whole like collaboration of
AAPI folks wanting to really create
an opportunity for professionals in
the city to come together and learn
more about different work that like
nonprofits are doing for the community.
So Sandra and I were able to join
that summit and I was able to help
moderate a specific conversation
with some of our, our nonprofits.
And we're really excited to kind of
share this conversation with you all.
I think it's really important to
learn more about the different
services that our brothers and
sisters are doing in the nonprofit
space and providing to our community.
And even the event
itself was a lot of fun.
Sandra, what do you
think of the, the event?
Sandra P.: Yeah, I think it was
really great to see the community
and the city kind of mobilize around
just creating more bridges between
corporations that are either based
or have a pretty large presence.
And so, I mean, you name it, the Dells
and the Samsungs and et cetera, indeed,
and really kind of understand that
there's importance in creating these
ERGs or employee resource groups and
make sure that there's representation
and specifically the AAPI community
and making sure that we also supporting
these local organizations, right?
We're thinking about fundraising
and where employees can also
give their time and money.
So yeah, really great and positive
to see the investment here.
And I hope that we just
continue to see more.
Minh V.: Yeah, so in this episode,
you'll hear from representatives at
the Asian Family Support Services of
Austin, Asian Texans for Justice, the
Austin Asian American Film Festival,
and the Austin Asian Community Health
Initiative, who will share more about
what they, what they do for the community.
So let's get into it.
All right.
Thank you all for being here with
us today on a Friday afternoon, 5 p.
m.
We're here.
We're doing it.
We're trying to build community.
I love it.
I love seeing this room
and everyone that's here.
Thank you again for
sharing your time with us.
I'm super excited to have this.
Like diverse group of leaders here
representing all different aspects of
services that we offer our community.
I'll do a quick introduction of myself.
My name is Minh Vu.
I co founded and co host a
monthly podcast that amplifies
Asian American stories in Austin.
So me and my co host Sandra over there
interview a couple of folks every month
to learn more about how their identity
impacts their lives and what it means to
kind of come into your own AAPI identity.
And so I'm really excited to be able
to help moderate this discussion
today with our esteemed panelists.
What I think we hope to get out
of this discussion is really
learning about ways that we can
activate the places that we work at.
to be able to support the work that
these organizations, these leaders
do for the community as well, too.
So hopefully we'll get into a
good little discussion about that.
And I think to start, I'd love because
we have such a breadth of services
from, like I said, cultural arts, civic
engagement, direct support services.
I'd love to learn a little bit more
about what each of your organization
does and the types of programs and
services you offer the community.
So Zahra, do you want to start us off?
Zahra S.J.: Hi, everyone.
Good evening.
My name is Zahra Shakur Jamal,
and I'm a director of outreach
and education at the Asian Family
Support Services of Austin or AFSA.
AFSA has been serving the Central
Texas Asian API and immigrant
community for the last 32 years.
And we are Asian and immigrant facing, and
we serve survivors of domestic violence,
sexual violence, and trafficking.
And so we do that by offering a range
of direct services, folks call our
hotline or get connected through
law enforcement or other service
providers and can get services ranging
from getting access to shelter or
safe housing to legal needs, right?
We had a lot of folks that have family
law needs or immigration law needs to
healing and really the whole gamut of
services, including long term economic
support and economic capacity building.
So how do we get folks on their feet after
they've left an abusive relationship?
So they're able to support themselves
and their families and can really
thrive and not just survive the
abuse that's happening to them.
We also want to make sure that we
disrupt cycles of violence and we
can't do that just by serving clients
and folks that are experiencing abuse.
So we take every opportunity in community
to have conversations and normalize
conversations about healthy relationships.
And violence and access to mental
health services within the community
to prevent violence from happening
and also offer opportunities for
folks to connect with resources
when they are experiencing violence.
Minh V.: Thank you.
I appreciate that.
That sounds like really
important and meaningful work.
Certainly some heavier topics.
I'm curious, and I'll ask each of our
leaders this too, but Zahra, if you
can expand, why might it be important
to focus specifically on the AANHPI
community with those types of services?
Zahra S.J.: Absolutely.
So I am a Pakistani American.
I grew up in a Muslim household, and I
know that In the work that I'm doing with
a lot of communities, not a lot of us grew
up having conversations around even just
what a healthy relationship looks like,
and what you can expect in a partner.
And so we find that there's so much
stigma in talking about violence
when violence is happening.
We know that folks that speak
other languages, well, I speak
Urdu, and I think a lot about
how difficult it is to identify
vocabulary that is in everyday use.
to talk about violence.
So there's so many additional barriers
that we know folks in our communities
face when they're experiencing violence.
That's on top of not being super familiar
in some cases with our legal systems and
our educational systems here, learning
English or speaking English with some
proficiency, but not as a native speaker.
And so we have complex systems here
that can Be helpful as people are
seeking supports and justice, but
it's not easy to do that alone.
It's not easy to do that while
you're overcoming all the cultural
barriers, whether it's shame or lack
of accessible vocabulary to talk about
violence and healthy relationships.
So that's why we think that, It's
so important for us to have these
conversations in our community.
In fact, we were founded 32 years ago
by a group of volunteers that were
volunteering at what's now SAFE, which
was the local shelter in Travis County.
And they found that a lot of people from
Asian Pacific Islander communities were
not coming forward to seek services.
And that's not because the shelter isn't
well intentioned and wants to reach out
and support everybody that is experiencing
violence, but they weren't set up.
To meet the needs of the
communities that we serve.
So that's how we started.
And we hold that very close to our
mission, the ability to serve in a
way that is culturally grounded and
offer lots of professional training
opportunities to law enforcement and
judges and other providers so that people
are able to serve our communities better.
Minh V.: Thank you, Zahra.
Hailey, I'd like to turn it over
to you and ask a similar question.
Can you share a little bit more
about what your organization provides
to the community, the programs
and services, and why might it be
important to focus specifically on
our community with those services?
Hailey E.: Yeah, so I guess I'm
wondering how many of you have been
to the doctor in the past month?
Minh V.: Doctor's visit?
Anyone?
Hailey E.: Yeah, so
about half of you, maybe.
Was it fun?
Was it easy?
No, it's not.
And so, and I'm assuming since
you're all here and I don't see any
interpreters here, you all speak English.
And so, what AACHI does is we help
folks navigate that whole process.
And the difference is though,
We don't really think about the
steps that it takes to go to the
doctor to get your fix, right?
So you don't just appear at
the doctor's office, right?
You have to call, make an appointment.
You have to confirm your appointment
or else they'll cancel it.
That actually just happened to me.
I even confirmed and
they canceled it anyway.
You have to get into your car
or call a lift, go on the bus.
Then you have to go to the doctor.
You have to fill out your paperwork.
You go to the doctor's, into the doctor.
You have to listen to
the thing, do the visit.
Then you leave.
Drive back home or get
your ride back home.
A week or two later, you get a bill
that looks like it says that you're
being charged like 5, 000, but it's
actually your insurance saying that
like, this is how much we paid.
But it kind of looks like a bill.
And also, your doctor's office then
sends you a bill for the same amount.
And you have to deal with that.
I want you to imagine doing that process
entirely alone with no access to the
language skills that are needed for that.
So, try to get a Lyft in Korean.
Learn Go to the bus stop and read the sign
in English, if you don't speak English.
Even whenever you go
to the doctor's office.
So, there are laws that say that
federally qualified health centers have
to provide translation interpretation,
but it's really at that one spot.
So they can, you can go to the doctor,
you'll get your translation, but when
you get home and you get that 5, 000
bill, all you see are those 5, 000.
If you don't read English,
You're freaked out, right?
And you need someone to help you, or
you might actually owe that money, and
then you get called to collections.
So, what AACHI does is we help everyone
through that whole process, even before
that, like, trying to get health coverage.
Most of these services really only
have language access at one part.
of the process.
So we're here to fill in the gaps
to make sure that the process
is entirely accessible so people
can get the care they need.
So what we do is we have these
really special positions called
community health workers.
Community health workers are people
who represent the community they
serve, speak their languages.
They come from those communities.
Most of the time they've been
doing this job pro bono for free
and their free time for years.
So we have our community health
workers who go and provide
one on one health navigation.
They also do health education
classes for lots of different folks.
I forgot to mention, there's some
stats that I've been looking at lately.
30 percent of folks who speak
Asian languages in the Cedar
Round Rock Georgetown area speak
English less than very well.
That means they have limited English
proficiency and 60 percent of our
Asian community are foreign born.
Even though our stats show that Asian
Americans have, like, really great
rates of health insurance and stuff,
they're not thinking about all of
the different complex identities
that are within this community.
So, that's what we're here for,
is to address those things.
Minh V.: Thank you.
Yeah, and I think for a lot of us
who might be able to relate, like,
growing up in multi generational
homes, It becomes a family project
to navigate the health system.
It's like, I laugh, but it's traumatizing
as well too, because especially if
you're a young adult in the family,
having to help your elders, it can be a
lot to take on as a, as a young adult.
And so it's great.
That you have resources
through your organization.
Sabrina, I'll turn it over to you to
talk a little bit more about Asian
Texans for Justice and what y'all do
and why it's important to focus on
the community with y'all's services.
Sabrina S.: Yeah.
So I'm the operations and development
manager here at Asian Texans for Justice
so we are an advocacy organization
dedicated to connecting the 1.
9 million AAPI Texans
to their civic powers.
So what does civic power look like?
It means everything from voting to
testifying to even learning about
Asian American studies in school
to developing the next future
generation of our community's leaders.
So we work to do that to ultimately
create a Texas where all can
feel bold in their belonging.
A little bit of, about the
programs that, like I said,
is we invest from communities.
We invest in communities to be able to
access language, culturally competent and
linguistically accessible voter materials.
So voting is kind of difficult.
You have so many different
polling locations.
You have so many different candidates
to look from, things like that.
So we are nonpartisan, which means
we just provide them information.
We let them know these
are the voting dates.
These are the steps
that they need to take.
To be able to vote and then provide
help to translations, election
protections, and things like that.
And then similarly, once the elections
are over at the Capitol in Texas,
legislative session is every other year.
We connect our community to
what's going on at the Capitol.
Every law, every legislation
impacts our community directly.
And most often times, our voices in
our communities are not represented at
the halls of the Capitol or not being
heard when they're hearing bills that
could potentially impact our community.
And so our goal is to help connect
our community to that power to be
able to testify, whether in person or
submitting a written testimony, um,
being able to connect them with that and
again, training our future generation
to be able to learn that and be able
to become the future leaders in their
community, training them the tools of
advocacy, what advocacy looks like.
Similarly, we are statewide, right?
Texas is a big state.
Prior to ATJ's founding, there
was no dedicated AAPI advocacy
organization that serves statewide.
And so what we do is we help build the
coalition and build the infrastructure
for Asians everywhere across Texas
to be able to have access to that
ability through sub granting, training,
through helping uplift their work.
We create kind of that
baseline infrastructure for
our community's advocacy.
And yeah.
Minh V.: That was great.
Thank you, Sabrina.
What I'm hearing too is like, so often
these systems that we have to operate
in aren't built for all of us, you
know, and it's really important to
have organizations such as y'alls be
able to help the community navigate
these systems that, like I said,
often aren't built for people like us.
So I really appreciate all the,
the work that y'all are doing.
And Hannah, I want to
learn a little bit more.
I mean, storytelling is, My favorite,
but with the Austin Asian American
Film Festival, tell us more about that
and what y'all offer the community.
I'm back on stage
Hanna H.: again.
Welcome back.
Um, the first panel, my
commission position is actually
just what I do for fun.
So this is actually my work.
It's Austin Asian American Film Festival.
I'm the executive director for it.
We've been around for 20 years.
We're going into the spring.
Sweet 16 of our actual
film festival program.
But our organization has been doing
an organizing grassroots wise for
20 years in the city of Austin.
We actually have a history exhibit
about our organization at the history
center that will be up until July 2nd.
So if you're ever downtown and want
to swing in and take a look, we have
an exhibit about our long legacy.
But a little bit more about what
seems like just one festival in
our name is we're actually a.
Full-fledged nonprofit.
We used to be a volunteer run and
we've expanded from just doing a
few days a year festival program
to, we're doing things year round.
You might've seen our logo or our
name around for film screenings at
the AARC or maybe in partnership
with some of our friends over here.
And we also provide a lot of services.
to local Asian American, Native Hawaiian,
and Pacific Highlander filmmakers.
So we're really, uh, behind crafting
more of like a grassroots led identity
and group and network for those as
well, who are aspiring filmmakers,
but also established filmmakers, who
here has watched an Asian or Asian
American film in the last like two days.
It's like probably almost everyone.
Maybe on YouTube.
Raise your hands.
Y'all watch TV.
Y'all watch movies.
And if you haven't, go turn
on your Netflix or whatever
streaming platform you want.
There's plenty to watch.
What we're doing with the festival
program, which this year it'll be
June 26th to 30th at AFS Cinema, is
we're bringing new independent films.
So stuff you cannot find anywhere else.
on streamers yet.
This is stuff that's just made.
It's doing the film festival circuit.
It's gathering awards.
We are deep in the planning for the one
coming up, and we have some fantastic
news to share in the next week about
our films that we're confirming
and guests that we plan to bring.
I'll tell them in privately later, so.
Come find us.
You might hear some of it, but our opening
night film will be quite fantastic.
And I hope y'all can come out
to, to that night on the 26th.
The work that we're doing is really
championing Asian American stories.
That's like the simplest way to put it.
And not just on like the screen and
like in front of you, but behind the
camera, that stuff doesn't get made.
By the people that are on the screen,
like they're working certainly, but
it's really all those that are involved
in the creative process of getting
film together and making and creating
and iterating and approving it.
That is so important, right?
And there's a statistic that always
sticks to me that I want to share, which
is, it's from USC Annenberg school, a
school of media, and they have a statistic
that 75 percent of the leading roles for
AAPI in the last, I think, like, 10 or
20 years is, it's pretty much the rock.
That's like the leading
Asian American, yeah.
So it's the rock.
So that's not enough, right?
That's not enough representation
for one male person in our community
to be the main Asian American lead.
So that means there's not enough roles
going to other Asian American leads.
And we need to change that.
And I really, truly believe it
starts with audience building
and with Artist development.
So these two areas are where
you'll see us focus on.
Some of our other year round
programs you'll see is we curate
in Asian American Video Club.
And so we'll get a few suggested
films that are playing at AFS
Cinema or other cinemas around
town, and we'll get you a discount.
The AFS Cinema discount's
always 4 off the ticket for the
films that we're suggesting.
So that's the same as if
you had an AFS membership.
And AFS is Austin Film Society.
They run a art house cinema
in the Highland area.
That's also where we
host our film festival.
And In terms of why it's important,
I mean, I think most of us here
can attest to the very, very few
faces that looked like ours on
the TV screens growing up, right?
Like, the fact that The one
Hey Arnold episode, Christmas
episode from 20 years ago now.
Minh V.: For when?
Yeah.
Cowboy.
He's a country artist.
It's like taking its way back
Hanna H.: and we all talk about it.
That's like a core memory for a
lot of Asian, young Asian Americans
now, or millennial Asian Americans.
So there should be more, right?
And then even just Joy Luck Club, when
that came out, and then the distance
between when Crazy Rich Asians came out.
That was 20 years.
That's crazy.
So we want to shorten that.
And we've seen that.
We've really seen that activeness
in on the national sphere, but on
the local scale, we are very aware
that will probably be the first
film festival you come out to.
Maybe you've gone to a screening here
or there, but most people will not have
attended a film festival when they come
out to ours, and we kind of teach you
the process, but on a more local scale.
We're also providing a, a really
intimate chance for you to sit
in the audience with your peers.
And with a filmmaker, that's more
than likely from your community, too.
Minh V.: Alright, so a lot of us in the
crowd are likely part of employee resource
groups at the companies that we work with.
And as we think more about finding ways
to kind of build those inroads between
the private and public sector, The
nonprofit sector, the work that y'all do.
There's a question of like, how, how
can we collaborate further together?
Could one of y'all maybe share an example
of like an intentional type of partnership
that y'all entered into with a local
company and what did that look like?
How did it come about?
I'm just going to pass it to the panel.
So anyone who wants to chime in
there and y'all listen, cause we
need to be hearing this so we can
advocate for them at our companies
and come up with these ideas too, to
support the work that they're doing.
Sabrina S.: So I'll start off.
One thing that everyone can
do at their employer is to do
like the employer match system.
So I'm going to answer from
the development perspective
because that's what I do.
So development is fundraising.
And so one thing that y'all have the
option to do, um, Assuming everyone works
at like a bigger company is they'll always
do an employer or they usually do an
employer match where if you donate 50 from
your paycheck to whatever organization,
usually it has to be a 501 c three.
But if you do like 50, a paycheck
that goes to us and then your
employer will actually match it
so that donation becomes doubled.
And that's a Really, really amazing
thing for a lot of us as non profit
organizations, because that's a
consistent source of funding to
keep the programs that we do going.
And that's something that
everyone can ask their employer
about, about the employer match.
Minh V.: Yeah, that's
a, that's a great point.
I know at my company, we definitely
have like an annual budget that they
give their employees up to a certain
amount that will, they'll match
your donations to the nonprofit.
So definitely, if you haven't done that
at your company, or if your company
doesn't offer that, it might be worth
suggesting that as a employee perk.
Hailey E.: We're all 501c3's here.
So
Minh V.: they all are on that
list that you can donate to.
And
Sabrina S.: it's like a set it
and forget it kind of thing.
Like you just do it once.
And you don't have to think about it
and it's really easy and we love it.
So
Minh V.: any other examples
that y'all would want to,
Zahra S.J.: I can chime in.
So I think that there's a couple of
different ways that I think about it.
I think that a lot of us that are,
if you're curious about any of our
nonprofits, follow us on socials,
attend some programming, I'll say.
A lot of the partnerships that we've
had with corporations were really
driven by that one person that was
like, I would like my company to be
a more responsible participant in
this community that I am part of.
And so a lot of folks will.
Take the time to learn a little bit about
the work that the nonprofit is doing.
And we do a lot of ERG events.
So like we'll come talk about
our work, talk about something
that's relevant to you.
So for example, a lot of folks will
have a share, something about the model
minority myth and how to work against
it, or how to be more aware of it in the
spaces that we're occupying as highly
educated, in some cases, doing pretty
well, Asian folks that are in this space.
Corporate setting, right?
So I think that really thinking about
what are relevant ways of hosting
these conversations in the spaces
you occupy and introducing any one
of our nonprofits in those settings,
because people are looking to connect
and give back and have community.
And so I think that's a nice way to do it.
We also find that individuals
will step forward, right?
So.
So we have client facing work, and
if someone's interested in supporting
a client one on one, there are
some high training requirements.
I know Hailey will probably
share that, some of those.
But there are opportunities for you to
work directly with survivors of violence.
We also run a school based program.
So, Serving as a mentor to a
young person from a newly arrived
immigrant or refugee family.
That's within attending
a public school system.
Usually a Title I school
in our case in AISD.
So there are opportunities
like that as well.
Again, we have a gala every year.
So if you're a gala goer, sponsor a table.
Let's go dress up.
It's on November 2nd this year.
So get a table, bring some friends.
There are many ways to support us
and your time is as important as the
dollars, but we also need the dollars.
And the last thing I'll say is that I
think that we, all of us, are connected
to folks that, when we think about
interpersonal violence, we often think
that it's this thing that happens
very far away from where I am, right?
And I Went to law school and I, you
know, I'm educated and I'm doing well
and we think that those are protective
factors and one would hope that they
are, but they unfortunately are not
so a lot of spaces that we occupy.
We have to be brave and normalize
these conversations, right?
And the statistics are so high, right?
One in four folks will experience
interpersonal violence.
The numbers for sexual violence
are also pretty high, and those
numbers are underreported.
And we know that the numbers
are even further underreported
in Asian communities.
So really just normalizing the
conversation, putting yourself out there.
And if you need help in having
those conversations, then
that's what we're here for.
Reach out and host those conversations
in all the spaces that you're in.
Minh V.: Yeah, thanks for those answers.
And I think one thing that I hear is
being creative about how you partner
with these organizations and that
all of them are open to that type
of creativity and that partnership.
Think about your company OKRs, your
company goals, see how it can intersect.
I work in corporate clearly, honestly,
like you can advocate for these
nonprofits that way and make it an easier
self or the employer to invest and to
cough over open their purse strings.
You know, I know one last
example that I'll share is I know
another company that I've seen.
seen do like a field day where
they split into two teams, they
nominate, they participate on
behalf of one of the organizations
to help raise money for them.
So employee engagement is a
big buzzword in corporate too.
So yeah, I was
Hailey E.: going to say, I think ERGs
could run fundraisers within themselves.
I think that's a really great idea.
Another thing is that some of us
have products that we sell, like
they have, uh, Asian Texas for
justice have really cool t shirts.
Deal?
Sabrina S.: Yes.
Hailey E.: And so you can buy some
for your whole ERG and then that's
going to go to their work, or we
have the family style passport.
You can buy one for your whole
ERG and then go eat out together.
And then I think one more
thing is just volunteering.
So, Just keep in mind, volunteering,
especially for these folks who we're
helping is a little challenging, a
little complicated because there's a
lot of shame involved with receiving
help and it's just complicated.
So.
I think something to keep in
mind is that we actually need
your expertise in the fields that
you're in and even the resources.
So like we actually reached out to
Waymo and we were like, Hey, do you
want to give us some free rides?
Cause our clients need rides.
So maybe you could advocate for
services or resources that you
could share with nonprofits that we
wouldn't normally have access to.
Minh V.: That's great.
Yeah.
Thank you.
All right.
We've got a couple minutes for Q and A.
I think all of y'all have tables
in the back or most of y'all.
So if you have, if you want to learn
more, please go learn more over there.
But yeah.
Any questions?
What y'all got?
Y'all got something.
Audience Member: Hello?
Hello?
Hi.
First, I just want to say thanks
everybody for making this event happen.
I'm a huge supporter of AARC.
I come here as often as I can
and I thank you for being you and
what you do for the community.
I have a selfish question.
I'm half Vietnamese and Hannah
mentioned earlier, the statistic
is that Austin is like 8 percent
Asian, but mixed race doesn't count.
Hanna H.: Yeah, it's just
the way the census is set up.
So when they Pull out the numbers.
They don't include people who are
checking off boxes for like multiple,
or if you're writing in, you can get
those counted individually and like
pull that category individually.
But unfortunately, when you start
to pull together a group, like a,
a NHPI, it gets real complicated.
So whenever you see demographic reports,
you can ask and see if it includes
anyone that's like selected multiple.
So we know that any count of our.
Community is always
some sort of undercount.
Audience Member: Right, right.
No, I, I imagine.
I was just kind of curious, like,
you know, so where does my number go?
It just, like, disappears.
Hanna H.: You might be in, like, a greater
number or, like, more singular category.
So, it really depends on how, when people
are pulling reports, they're just pulling
raw data and making those findings.
So you can ask questions of the
report generator, like, what did you
include when you made this category?
It might depend on that.
So the recent demographer report,
I asked her specifically, like, Oh,
does this include mixed race Asians?
Like if they check more than one box
and she said, no, this number does not.
Well,
Audience Member: thank you.
I was just curious.
I
Minh V.: think that, thank
you for bringing that up.
I mean, I think that just exemplifies
the theme here about systems that
are created in our communities
aren't always being inclusive.
Thinking about the different nuances of
challenges that our community might face.
And so just really highlights
even more the important work that
these organizations are doing.
And I want to ask everyone to give
them a round of applause, please,
for all the work that they've done.
And thank you for joining us.
Thank you all for being here.
Really appreciate it.
Sandra P.: Hey, just want
to give a shout out to you.
Great job.
I know that was really fun.
And I'm biased.
You're an amazing moderator, but
just such a good conversation to
have with such key community leaders,
which was just really nice to hear.
And honestly, I learned so much
about some of the key services
and things that that exists that
I didn't even know about myself.
Minh V.: Yeah, I appreciate that.
Yeah, I think one that really stood out to
me was when Hailey was talking about the
health navigators that they have at the
Austin Asian Community Health Initiative
and just thinking about Growing up.
I don't know about you But like there was
a lot of things that me and my brother
would have to help our parents with
sometimes government related things like
documents or just like Things that felt
like me as maybe a 10 year old shouldn't
necessarily have to know about just yet,
but the reality was, you know, me and
my brother knew potentially could help
fill in the gaps, at least in terms of
like language proficiency and what some
of these documents were asking for.
And we had to use context clues too.
But I just think about how Helpful it
would have been to know that a resource
like this existed and to have our family
be able to like benefit from that.
So I'm really glad that they
have something like this.
Sandra P.: Yeah, me too, for sure.
And I'm even just thinking
about in the future.
I mean, there's some really big
things that are happening, right?
The election in November and
thinking about how I know this,
these groups are going to rally
and figure out how to support them.
So I know a few of them talked about
resourcing, how they can even get
On the bus to polling stations and
how we can communicate how they can
get lists and all these things just
to make it easier and barriers that
are in place that may prevent this
community from being able to vote.
And it is important that they have access.
So yeah, really just big applause and
go out and support these organizations.
If you have not already, I know really big
things that are coming up and you know,
I'm sure they could use time resourcing
and volunteers and things like that.
Minh V.: Yeah.
And I just really appreciate to the
wide range of like services that
we heard from, like you're talking
about just civic engagement, Asian
Texans for justice, and even the film
festival, which just recently passed
the Austin Asian American Film Festival.
I went this year, saw the opening
night of the new wave documentary
and had a lot of, a lot of fun.
And I think.
A lot of these different organizations
provide really important aspects of
community, either through direct services
or through art and entertainment and
representation, like the film festival.
So you can check out more of their stuff
and resources in the episode description.
We'll have links there, but Yeah.
Appreciate you listening in with
us and definitely also we have
a list of AAPI led organizations
in our bio and on our website.
So if you're interested in learning more
about different organizations in the
community, definitely check that out.
And yeah, just encourage
you all to get involved.
Thanks for listening.
Sandra P.: Bye all.
Minh V.: Bye.