Why AAUC?
The concept of forging unity among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) has existed for a long time. However, the huge diversity, language barriers, and lack of trust among Asian Americans have made this an impossible task until a new generation of immigrants and their children develop the identity of being Asian American. Even though AAPI community is the fastest growing it is still only 6-7% of the total population in the U.S. Without Unity, AAPI will forever remain as the invisible minority and powerless to affect change.
Asian American Unity Coalition (AAUC) came into existence through the historic conference held in Alaska in 2018 in which 12 unique AAPI organizations and 20 leaders representing 5 major ethnicities: Chinese, Indian, Philippines, Korean and Japanese Americans were present.
The group came together to define the core values and the platform of AAUC. In 2019 the structure of AAUC is established with its Constitution and Bylaws to govern its operation. It has also obtained the 501c3 status by the end of the year.
During our formative year in 2019, AAUC accepted the Herculean task of chairing the 2019 National Civic Leadership Forum in Washington DC in collaboration with APAPA, 80-20 United, New American Leaders, and UCA. More than 200 AAPI leaders attended the four-day forum. At the press conference in the Capitol on September 17th, 2019, over 70 different AAPI organizations representing over 10 different ethnic groups signed a joint statement pledging a full scale civic engagement of AAPI. A number of congressional representatives also spoke at the press conference expressing their support.
AAUC also hosted the National Civic Leadership Forum in 2020. Due to the pandemic, the physical meeting in Las Vegas originally scheduled in June was delivered as an nine day virtual conference in September. The recordings of all the sessions are listed under the event tab on 2020 NCLF page in this website.
The election of the Board of Governors took place in February 2020. Currently, AAUC has a 19-member Board with 5 officers and 8 standing committee chairs. The active members include 17 national, local and regional organizations and 18 individual lifetime members representing 6 different Asian ethnic groups.