Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Asian Americans United (AAU) in the City of Philadelphia.

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Asian Americans United (AAU) in the City of Philadelphia. WHEREAS, Asian Americans United (AAU) was founded in 1985 by a small group of volunteers seeking to create an organized response to rising issues of anti-Asian violence, substandard housing for non-English speaking Asians in the city; and WHEREAS, For four decades, AAU has worked in Philadelphia’s Asian American communities and in broader multiracial coalitions around quality education, youth leadership, and anti-Asian violence, immigrant rights, neighborhood development, and folk arts and cultural preservation; and WHEREAS, Across all of AAU’s programs, six core values shape its mission and its relationship and understanding with the communities it serves: value each other, safety, inclusion, cooperation, integrity, and courage; and WHEREAS, Since its beginning, AAU has championed many wins not only for the Asian American community, but multiracial communities City wide, such as initiated a lawsuit that resulted in the hiring of Asian bilingual staff and structuring of services for English Language Learners, created the annual Chinatown Mid-Autumn Festival, founded the Chinatown Vote, and organized students across the city to fight the 1995 SEPTA student fare hike; helped build a community garden for elderly Chinatown residents; and WHEREAS, AAU advocates for the needs of immigrant, refugee, and non-English speaking students and their families. There current focus areas include, imm…