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Building Power Through Leadership Development


I serve on the steering committee of the Asian Pacific Islander Community Leadership Institute (API-CLI). Now in its third year, the racial justice-focused leadership program welcomed a new cohort comprised of professionals and community leaders from diverse Asian Pacific backgrounds. Managing the program are staff from two of my favorite social justice organizations: Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) and the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO)  

 Last week, I was delighted to help document the workshop proceedings of the new API-CLI cohort. Meeting the new API-CLI fellows took me back to 2012, when I took part in the "first class" of the leadership program. Funded by the Meyer Memorial Trust through the Coalition of Communities of Color, API-CLI's purpose is bold and deliberate: 
"... a response to the pervasive racial and ethnic inequities faced by communities of color here in Oregon. Within the context of culture, each leadership program empowers and makes visible communities of color, immigrants and refugees, expands the pathways for social inclusion, increases civic engagement and networking in communities of color, and builds culturally-specific social capital."   
Here's a 2012 article about the program from the Asian Reporter newspaper.




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