Asian Media Access

Submitted by Guest on December 3, 2008 - 4:00pm.

3028 Oregon Ave. S.,

Minneapolis

55426

Website:

www.amamedia.org

Ownership:

501c3 organization

Organizational Membership:

Individuals

Organizational Membership:

Organizations

Organization Type:

Community Technology Center

Organization Number:

30049

Organization Phone:

(612) 376-7715

Organization Fax:

(613) 659-7172

Detailed Description

Mission,Constituency, Structure:

I. Mission - Connecting the Disconnected Founded in 1992, Asian Media Access (AMA) is a comprehensive, media-based community advocacy organization helping the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community to mobilize communities, and young people to engage in understanding and communicating Pan Asian issues to arrive at a participatory decision making process for a safe, supportive environment for all. AMA is one of only five national media organizations situated outside of the East and the West coast devoted to serving AAPI?s media/advocacy needs. With over a decade of experience in researching, developing and/or adapting communications strategies for specific cultural and language groups, AMA has produced numerous educational videos and media campaigns in multimedia formats and in several languages to raise community awareness about sexism/racism and other important issues, in order to encourage actions for social betterment. 1994 marked a milestone in the development of Asian Media Access. AMA established an affiliation with the Metropolitan State University's College of Arts and Sciences and Center for Community-Based Learning to create programs and services for inner city communities. AMA has since developed a broad community network throughout the Twin Cities and the greater Minnesota. Over the years, AMA has received awards recognizing its accomplishments: ? 1993 and 1994 "Community Television Awards" ? 1995 "Nonprofit Mission Awards" for Anti-Racism from Minnesota Council of Nonprofits ? 1998 "St. Paul Neighborhood Network's Access Producer's Award" ? 1998 & 1999 "Award for innovation in the Arts" from 3M ? 2006 Human Rights Award, and ? 2007 Governor?s Best Practices of Community-based Initiative Award. II. Constituency - Immigrants/Refugees, Asian American & Pacific Islander community (focusing on at risk youth, girls/women and Limited English Proficiency members), and homeless/runaway youth. The motto at AMA is ?to connect the disconnected." One of our special focuses is our commitment to Equality, which is by supporting girls/women of the AAPI community overcoming problems they face as results of cultural, linguistic, and other value differences. When faced with sexism, racism, prejudice, and exclusivity that make it difficult for AAPI women to achieve lives as full and productive, our programs support them with skills and resources to break down those barriers. We do this through uses of media and information technology in its many forms, including youth development program ("What About Us" initiative), cable television programs (?Youth In Charge? series), education videos ("No Means No" animation), literature (Sexual Violence Prevention booklet), and virtual media including the Internet. Through these methods and diverse channels of communication, we connect various elements for the AAPI girls/women, not only with each other but also with the society as a whole, so that everyone benefits. One successful example is the "What About Us" Initiative. WAU was designed by a core group of Pan Asian teen girls looking to educate peers about issues that AAPI girls and women face. Its goal is to change the community perceptions about gender inequalities, to prevent Pan Asian girls from sexual violence and teen pregnancy. In part because of the WAU?s effort, the Star Tribune did its October 2005 investigative series "Shamed into Silence" to report on the runaways and gang rape of Hmong girls. The report has significantly opened the Hmong community's dialog about girls' safety and girls' rights. III. Structure - Asian Media Access is governed by the Board, with open selection process and a 3-yr term. AMA has adequate levels of diversity and representation in decision-making roles of the population that we serve, and we fully understand the importance of plurality and engaging constituents at all levels of the agency. AMA focuses on cultural diversity on an inter- or intra- community basis, and foster diversity at all levels within our board, staff, volunteers and programs/services constituents. Since AAPI community contains a total 48 diverse ethic groups, we see racial diversity as a given, but also focus diversity on age, sexual preference, professions and abilities. We are constantly working to expand our structure/programs to reflect the diversity in our community. Especially, AMA is governed, directed and supported mostly by AAPI women and girls - a strong female Executive Director, 60% female board members, and a strong girl-led WAU team. AMA is well qualified as a women-led agency. Besides fiscal leadership, AMA practices a very female-style, shared leadership within the agency. The organization chart likens a spider web/circle rather than hierarchical. Most of the decisions are made through group decision process, tasks are allocated to teams, and frequent communication and check-ins encouraged. Everyone takes turn serving as leader and support in different capacities. For example, WAU's structure is explained in girls' own words as follow: "While we receive advice, suggestions and mentorship from many women, the design, structure, content comes from ourselves. We are led by four council members: President, Secretary, Treasurer and Researcher. The president keeps group and council members intact, holding them accountable for roles and responsibilities. The secretary keeps notes at each meeting. The treasurer holds fundraising activities and keeps financial records. The researcher searches for issues to be addressed, bringing them to groups' attention. We meet weekly to discuss activity plans and needed actions, coming to consensus about what to do, and ask our members to take on various tasks. Each of us reports back at the next meeting." IV. Decision-making process - As indicated above, AMA is a shared leadership structure, everyone takes turn to lead. Besides implementation of such policy, AMA's "Learning Organization" vision has also supported practices of shared leadership at the philosophical level. There is a set of understanding within AMA Team: 1) Everyone has a voice - to build shared visions based upon individuals' personal visions as a starting point; 2) Forging a collective voice through open process - to reflect collectively, to balance "discussion" where people advocate their views and "dialogue" where people collectively reflect on differing views of complex issues; 3) Collective voice may change often, depending on the continuous learning and un-learning process. Such philosophies have taken deep root within AMA - for learning throughout our organization and supportive learning infrastructures. We create such set of values as a commitment to the truth/equality/diversity and an ability to foster inquiry as well as advocacy, that is inherently more conducive to environments for learning.

Organization Description:

To connect the disconnected.

States Worked in:

CA CALIFORNIA

States Worked in:

GA GEORGIA

States Worked in:

IL ILLINOIS

States Worked in:

IA IOWA

States Worked in:

MN MINNESOTA

States Worked in:

WI WISCONSIN

Current Organizing Agenda:

I. Current Organizing Agenda a. Advocating for Hmong runaway/homeless girls' rights b. Community organizing with AAPI community-based agencies for digital divide and health disparities issues II. Goals and Tactics a. Currently, AMA works with low income, undeserved, and underrepresented girls/women of color, with a special focus on Hmong American girls due to the high incidents of violence toward this group. This group of girls are mostly runaways and homeless, and are at the risk of gang involvement, drug abuse, and sexual violence. Data has proven that Hmong girls have higher risks of running away and being gang-raped than other non-Hmong groups. While rapes occur in all ethnic groups, research by Midwest Children's Resource Center shows that Hmong girls are about 9 times more likely than other victims to runaway more than once, and 6 times more likely to being raped by five or more people. Although the Hmong culture is the source of much strength, it also contributes to a tolerance of domestic/sexual violence. These cultural implications create many motivations for Hmong girls to run away from homes. The lack of attention to such serious issues with so many young Hmong runaways being abused is intolerable. AMA provides at-risk, runaway girls that have fallen victims to the dangers of the street and economic insecurity with tools they need to transition back to productive lives. To do so we need to empower all girls through planning and leadership development opportunities for better solutions, provide street outreach activities to runaway youth, design programs to teach life skills to enable these youth more readily make this transition, and to encourage these youth to utilize media to tell their own stories, to create educational materials, such as videos to educate others about the dangers of runaway life. b. We have been working on a project - Asian Pacific American Community Network('APA ComMNet') with many MN Community-based agencies, to assist the disadvantaged AAPI (Asian American & Pacific Islander) community become further involved in the virtual world of information and digital technology, so that it ultimately becomes an integral part of society. At this phase of the project one immediate concern is to challenge existing cultural and linguistic barriers to access information on sensitive health and mental health issues. Specifically the APA ComMNet seeks to incorporate technology to serve AAPI elderly, and people with limited English proficiency in their native languages and make available information content on sensitive and urgent health and mental health issues, voter information, social service issues, and legal issues throughout the web.

Issues:

Anti-Racism

Issues:

Civic Participation

Issues:

Civil and Human Rights

Issues:

Economic Development

Issues:

Economic Justice

Issues:

Health/Health Care

Issues:

Immigrant Rights

Issues:

Media Accountability

Issues:

Multi-Issue Community Organizing

Issues:

Neighborhood Revitalization

Issues:

Progressive Media, Arts and Culture

Issues:

Racial Justice

Issues:

Violence Prevention

Issues:

Women's Empowerment

Issues:

Women?s Reproductive Health

Issues:

Youth Empowerment

Leadership:

Volunteer Board

Organizing Strategies:

one-on-one meetings

Organizing Strategies:

member meetings

Organizing Strategies:

community meetings

Organizing Strategies:

leadership development

Organizing Strategies:

training

Organizing Strategies:

direct action

Organizing Strategies:

e-mail/list serves

Organizing Strategies:

political education

Organizing Strategies:

voter education

Organizing Strategies:

public education

Who We Organize:

Low-income

Who We Organize:

Homeless

Who We Organize:

Immigrants/Refugees

Who We Organize:

Women

Who We Organize:

Youth

Who We Organize:

Asian / Pacific Islander

Who We Organize:

People of Color

Who We Organize:

Urban communities

Asian Media Access

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