AIA Directory Item

DIRECTORY:

Vision New America

514 Valley Way
Milpitas, CA 95305
408-941-0888 phone
info@visionnewamerica.org email
http://www.visionnewamerica.org website

Area of Inerest:
Organization - APA civic participation

Primary Ethnic Community Served:
Asian Pacific Americans

Description:
Vision New America is a non-partisan, non-profit grassroots organization formed in 1996 whose educational programs:

Introduce Asian Pacific American (APA) Youth to Government and Public Service
Inform and Empower APA Voters
Identify and Mobilize APA Community & Business Leaders. We seek to promote the civic participation of underrepresented ethnic groups, starting with the APA community. Vision New America hopes to help more Americans become involved in the community and in civic activities.

There are over 1.3 million APAs in the San Francisco Bay Area (U.S. Census 2000) but APAs remain underrepresented in community leadership opportunities, which deprives the entire community of the insight and resources that APAs can offer and leads to an absence of role models and mentors for APAs interested in community leadership.

Vision New America recognizes this challenge and has implemented programming to introduce APA youth to public service and develop future leaders; ensure the APA community has access to the civic process through educational efforts; and engage APA business and community leaders to discuss issues of particular concern to the APA community.

Our Summer Public Policy Internship program recruits, trains, and places high school and college students in government offices to provide our youth with an opportunity to gain insight and exposure to governmental affairs and public policy; to build bridges between the APA community and public officials; and to encourage APAs to participate in mainstream politics and community service.

APAs traditionally have lower voter participation than the mainstream population. This may possibly be due to barriers such as language or lack of access to election information. Vision New America implements innovative, non-partisan voter education and outreach strategies to increase APA civic participation, resulting in increased APA voter turnout and greater contributions to the civic community.

Vision New America also promotes leadership and unity in the APA community by bringing together Asian Pacific American business and community leaders to discuss issues of particular concern to the APA community.

Staff:
Anna Wang, Executive Director

Submitted by:
Anna Wang

New - 06/03/2003

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