AYPAL is a community organizing and coalition building organization that aspires to create healthy, safe, and thriving communities.  AYPAL’s mission is to empower Oakland’s low-income Asian and Pacific Islander families to be leaders for positive school and neighborhood change.

Duties and Responsibilities:

•   Act as supervisor to a Leadership Team of 6 Youth Leaders.
• Work with Youth Leadership Team to recruit and retain 30-50 young people to form the Voices of Oakland Youth for Community Empowerment’s (VOYCE) general membership site.
• Act as an advisor and ensure positive group dynamics for the VOYCE membership site that meets weekly.
• Train VOYCE Youth Leaders and VOYCE members in leadership, community organizing and analytical skills.
• Work with VOYCE Leaders and adult staff to plan and implement AYPAL’s local Ethnic Studies campaign and statewide education equity initiatives.
• Work with VOYCE Youth Leaders and Members to implement VOYCE’s arts activism and service-based projects.
• Document and keep accurate records of participation for each individual member of the YLO.
• Work with adult staff to plan, implement and evaluate AYPAL’s political education curriculum and organization-wide social change initiatives.
• Represent AYPAL and play a key leadership role for AYPAL’s coalition and collaborative campaign activities.

Qualifications:

• Experience with youth development and community organizing practices and principles
• Experience (volunteer or paid) working with API communities and knowledge of their issues
• Commitment to the empowerment of historically underrepresented constituents, including young people, people of color, poor people, immigrants and refugees, women and LGBTQI communities
• Good administrative skills
• Good oral and written communications skills with youth and adults
• Bilingual and bicultural in English and another API language/culture a plus, but not required
• Able to work flexible hours (some Saturdays and evenings)

Email cover letter and resume to jay@aypal.org or mail to Jay Conui c/o AYPAL, 436 14^th Street, Oakland, CA, Suite 500, Oakland, CA 94612.  AYPAL is a fiscally sponsored organization of the Movement Strategy Center.

“This budget proposal is important because due to budget cuts, my school has resorted to constructing portables that have created an unhealthy and jail-like environment…and has a supply of unsteady counselors which leaves my graduating class of 2012 to less than 10. Half of them are not prepared to continue higher education…because they are unprepared to bounce back…and can barely manage their current settings.”
– Sweet-Jody Diala, AYPAL Youth

Picture this scene: Ten to fifteen young leaders step up one at a time to speak out about poor school conditions and the need for a new school funding formula in front of a panel of California lawmakers. Now imagine that these young leaders are some of the only voices in the room that represent students from large, urban school districts that are predominantly low-income youth of color.

This was the scene that AYPAL and the Campaign for Quality Education (CQE) coalition faced when we testified at the Senate and Assembly Budget subcommittees on education finance in February and March of this year. Despite much push-back from smaller, more rural, and more affluent school districts, we advocated strongly for a “weighted student formula” that would increase funding for low-income and English Language Learner (ELL) students. Without a new method to increase equity, accountability, and adequacy in our school finance system, many immigrant and low-income youth of color will continue to be under-prepared to graduate high school and/or attend college.

This spring, AYPAL will be working with the rest of the CQE coalition to demand that the California legislature and our Governor work together to create a new school funding formula that addresses the needs of our state’s neediest students. Stay tuned for future announcements on those upcoming actions in May!

LIKE CQE’s Facebook campaign to get up to date information: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Campaign-for-Quality-Education-CQE/181825965259524

Senate hearing: http://www.calchannel.com/channel/viewVideo/3331

Assembly hearing: http://www.calchannel.com/channel/viewvideo/3430

6 AYPAL Youth Leaders along with organizational members of the CQE were in Sacramento weighing in on statewide educational policy.

On March 19, AYPAL was back in Sacramento to advocate for the weighted student formula in the Governor’s Budget. Students shared their personal stories and pushed for a more equitable school funding system at the Assembly Budget Sub-Committee on Education. Here are some excerpts from the testimonies our leaders gave:

“[The weighted student formula] would make Oakland public schools work more for students and that would change a lot of people’s lives. Take my little brother for example, I really want better for him. We both come from a low income family. If they target low-income youth, my brother can break the cycle of poverty in my family. He could have everything that I couldn’t get. He could have all the resources, all the classes, all the activities! I want him to feel he can make it. I want him to know that he can make it. I think we should prioritize low income and ELL students. ”
- Tommy Phan (AYPAL Youth Intern, Sophomore at Oakland High School)

“I believe if no more money is given to education, at schools like mine courses are going to be cut, cut and cut. There won’t be any more electives or AP classes given to us, and basically we will have the core classes and this doesn’t prepare students for college. The school district is setting us up for failure in college.”
- Ryan Tern (AYPAL Youth Intern, Junior at  Fremont High School)

To see the entire hearing click here.

The youth have been busy learning, practicing and creating various performing arts: cultural dance, hip-hop dance, spoken word, and guerrilla theater. We’ve learned that through art, youth learn ethnic traditions and histories, while finding creative and empowering ways to discuss current issues and express themselves! Performances will include Cambodian, Mien, Filipino and Pacific Islander dances, guerilla theater, videos, and more.

WHAT: AYPAL’S 14th annual May Arts Festival

WHERE: OACC – 388 Ninth Street, Suite 290, Oakland, CA 94607

WHEN: Thursday, May 17, 2012. Doors open at 5:30, show starts at 6 pm.

 Please bring your check books to participate in our silent auction in the lobby area!

$3 for youth; $5-$20 for adults  *** No one turned away for lack of funds! ***

Our youth need your help to have an amazing event! We need to raise $5000 before May 17th to help pay for cultural teachers, costumes, and other event expenses! Donate here to support youth art activism!

AYPAL youth, Christopher Saechao (middle) and Nhi Nguyen (right), testify at a Senate Budget Committee Hearing this February. Photo by Tiffany Eng

 “California has been facing many
budget cuts since 2007 and each of the
cuts have been leaving wounds on the
most neediest students.”
– Christopher Saechao, AYPAL youth

While improving our state’s public education system might seem like a daunting task, AYPAL is honing in on specific issue areas to make meaningful improvements to our schools — both locally and statewide!

In February, AYPAL Youth Leaders Nhi Nguyen and Christopher Saechao testified at a Senate Budget Hearing with other members of the Campaign for Quality Education (CQE) Coalition in support of Governor Brown’s proposal for a “weighted student formula”. This funding formula would help make our education system more equitable by taking student needs into account when giving money to school districts.

It’s a step in the right direction toward improving California’s public education system, especially for the low-income Asian and Pacific Islander immigrant and refugee families that AYPAL serves.

However, a fair funding formula isn’t enough – we also need to make sure that all schools have the kind of funding that once made California a top state in the nation for public education.  Look out for progressive tax-the-rich initiatives on the November ballot that will increase public education funding!

PS. You can watch Nhi and Christopher’s full testimonies here: http://www.calchannel.com/channel/viewVideo/3331

Our mission is to transform school and neighborhood inequities so that all people can be healthy, safe and thriving members of their communities.

On behalf of AYPAL we would like to express our sincere and humble THANK YOU’s to everyone that came through to support AYPAL’s House Party & Pacquiao Fight Fundraiser on Saturday, November 12th!

Your generous donations and contributions will allow AYPAL to continue our work to build strong API movement leaders and advance our campaign to get Ethnic Studies for all students in the Oakland Unified School District.

As this larger movement for social change continues to build momentum both locally and across the country, we appreciate having these opportunities that allow us to keep building together, celebrating together, and growing together as a community.

DJ’s for Rockin’ All Night:

Our Amazing Volunteers:

…And a Special Thanks to our Sponsor:

All proceeds will go towards supporting AYPAL’s Ethnic Studies campaign

* RSVP on Facebook *