Relational Organizing
Relational organizing is the process of harnessing personal relationships and networks to build community and effect change.
The AACCC is harnessing our relationships with elected officials and with local AAPI community leaders to build a vast multi-ethnic, inter-religious, and linguistically diverse community in Greater Austin. It is from building and sustaining this community, that we can mobilize all of our AAPI networks to become more active in civic engagement.
Steering Committee
Alice Yi, Chair, AACCC
Sumit DasGupta, Co-Chair, AACCC
Ashwin Ghatalia, Co-Chair, AACCC
Hannah Roh, Project Manager, AACCC
Saatvik Ahluwalia, Digital Strategist, AACCC and Progress Texas
Anaami Pandit-Haji, Marketing & Media, AACCC
Fang Fang, CEO, Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce (former Partnership Specialist, Census Bureau)
Quynhanh Tran, District Director for Representative Celia Israel
Suchitra Gururaj, UT Division of Diversity and Community Engagement
Darlene Lanham, Asian Family Support Services of Austin
Erin Gurak, District Director for Congressman Lloyd Doggett
Jolsna Thomas, South Asian Bar Association of Austin
Nicholas Chu, Judge, Precinct 5
Sobeyda Gomez-Chou, Outreach Director for Council Member Greg Casar
Grantees
We have disbursed small grants to local AAPI organizations:
Ethnic based organizations (11): Indian, Nepali, Bangladesh, Vietnamese, Iranian, Taiwanese, Chinese, Korean, Japanese
Faith based organizations (3): Buddhist, Christian, Muslim
AAPI non-profit organizations (4)
Region-based outreach consultant (1)
Grantees
- Indian American Coalition of Texas
- Greater Austin Nepali Society
- Bangladesh Association of Greater Austin
- Vietnamese American Community of Austin Texas
- Austin Iranian Professionals Association
- Filipino Young Professionals
- Austin Chapter of Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce
- Chinese Society of Austin
- Austin Chinese American Network
- Austin Iranian Professional Association
Digital Organizing
Website: www.aaccc-atx.org
Social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube channel, WeChat and social media influencer campaign.
Facebook Ad campaign: 45 videos, 29.1k video views, 21k views over 15 seconds (average of $0.01 per view), 14k people reached via FB/IG ads, 57k impressions and 150 link clicks (average of $0.83 per click)
Social media testimonials: 30 second videos of community members (used as Facebook ads)
Blue Squad: 24 supporters on-boarded, 43 actions completed, 56 text messages sent
Digital Organizing
Email Campaign: sending partners email templates for Census messaging to circulate within their communities
Email Newsletters: weekly newsletter which features local updates, culture and events related to the 2020 Census (average 67% open rate)
Webinars on YouTube and Facebook Live: taking place fortnightly with inspiring and accomplished guest speakers within the local AAPI community
El Toro: retroactive IP targeting
Online Youth Competition (AAPI students)
Virtual Events
04/01/2020 Census Day Webinar Views: 15
04/15/2020 Webinar: “Coronavirus & Census” Views: 30
05/06/2020 Webinar: “Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month” Views: 50
05/27/2020 Virtual Town Hall on PBS Documentary Asian Americans Views: 700
07/01/2020 “The Declaration: We Count!” Virtual Dance Party with Body Rock ATX Views: 4,500
08/05/2020 Webinar: “Beyond the Model Minority Myth: Breaking Stereotypes and Building Solidarity” Views: 478
Press
We are in the news!
Austin Monitor, January 23, 2020 - "New nonprofit seeks to boost census participation"
New York Times, February 14, 2020 - “Why the Fastest Growing Population in America is Least Likely to Fill Out the Census”
KUT, February 17, 2020 - “Austin’s Asian Population Is Underrepresented in Public Life. The Census Could Help.”
Austin American-Statesman, February 24, 2020 - “Now Is the Time to Count Asian Americans In”
Austin PBS, March 13, 2020 - “Community Leaders Hustle to Inform Residents about 2020 Census”
The Rabble Podcast, March 27, 2020 - “Time to Come to Our Census, Y’all!”
Spectrum News, April 2, 2020 - “Coronavirus Pandemic Complicates Census Outreach in Texas”
Daily Texan, April 2, 2020 -“Fill Out the Census, Make Sure You Are Counted”
Rukus Avenue Radio, April 2, 2020 - Episode on Census
KUT, August 11, 2020 – “Census Changes Could Take Political Power, Funding from Texas Latinos Already Hit Hard by COVID-19”
Austin Chronicle, Sept 18, 2020 - "Local Leaders Scramble to Get a Complete Census"
Austin History Center
The Austin History Center is the historic branch of Austin Public Library and the official archive for the City of Austin.
We were approached by their APA Community Archivist, who works collaboratively with long-time Asian community members and organizations to ensure their stories and impact on Austin are not forgotten.
AACCC has submitted material documenting our civic engagement and community efforts to the Austin History Center. Chairwoman Alice Yi was also interviewed specifically for this archive.
Transition
In August 2020, we transitioned from Austin Asian Complete Count Committee to Austin Asian Communities Civic Coalition.
This enabled us to solidify our community networks and efforts into effective GOTV outreach.
Similarly to our 2020 Census strategy, we continued to serve as a community hub providing educational events, resources and AAPI empowerment.
We continued to utilize digital ads and engage with local press and media, to encourage our community to not only complete the Census, but also register to vote, and vote early.
Digital Organizing
Virtual Events
AACCC co-hosted Candidate Forums by joining forces with other AAPI organizations such as WiseUp TX, Indian American Coalition of Texas, Korean American Association of Greater Austin, SABA Austin, APAPA, and Network of Asian American Organizations.
08/15/2020 Candidate Forum: Texas House Candidates
08/22/2020 Candidate Forum: Congressional Candidates (moderated by AACCC steering committee member Shenghao Wang)
08/29/2020 Candidate Forum: City and County Candidates (moderated by AACCC digital strategist Saatvik Ahluwalia)
09/12/2020 Candidate Forum: County Candidates
Community Resources & Outreach
AACCC Voting Guide
Sumit DasGupta (AACCC co-chair) compiled an easy to follow voting guide, which we shared widely with our networks. This guide can be viewed here.
League of Women Voters Translations
We collaborated with the Austin League of Women Voters to translate voter guides into multiple AAPI languages, which was made available on both the LWV and AACCC websites and social media.
AAPI Mailer for Central Texas
We worked with the organization Civitech to send out 4,193 mailers to AAPIs across Central Texas.
GOTV
Phone banking: with APAPA and AAPI students
Text banking: with APIA Vote, 13k messages sent
Postcards: Approximately 8000 handwritten GOTV postcards mailed to communities
APIA Vote Election Disinformation Training (our marketing team was trained)
AALDEF Election Exit Polls: several AACCC steering committee members served as supervisors whilst conducting AAPI exit polls on election day
Results
Press & Media
Decibel (Austin PBS), 10/14/2020 - We Hosted Our First Community Conversation. Here's What We Learned
Decibel (Austin PBS), 10/14/2020 - We Asked Asian American Voters About The Upcoming Election
KVUE, 27/10/2020 - Nearly half of the eligible Asian American and Pacific Islander voters in Travis County have already cast ballots
Recognition
Support from Congressman Lloyd Doggett
2020 NCLF COVID-19 Award
Thank you!
Credits:
Created with images by Carlos Alfonso - "In photographing the best looks of a burgeoning city I captured a photo of the Austin skyline." • Piotr Makowski - "untitled image" • Henry & Co. - "Old Time Billboard" • Channey - "rented a 85mm Zeiss from my local cam store and it was shick. got this shot from it of my xmas lights from Target" • Jeremy Banks - "My Instagram is @_jeremybanks - I’d love if you tag me when you use my photo, so I can see all the cool ways it ends up getting used :) - Message me to collaborate/work together!" • Skye Studios - "Thanks for checking out our photo, be sure to connect with us on social media as well: Instagram: @skyestudiosmedia YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzkRfcDCpFjVivcsVI0zVJw" • Alexandra_Koch - "device screen communication" • Md Mahdi - "Reflection Of Mumbai Life.. Tons of newspapers are sold within minutes and it's quite accessible to find a newspaper seller in Mumbai" • ChristopherPluta - "book library archive" • KBaucherel - "austin texas bridge" • 1778011 - "texas state capitol austin america" • shawn1 - "american flag us flag united states"