Yin and a pioneering group of fellow civic-minded friends and community leaders. APAPA was established with the primary mission of empowering Asian Pacific Islander (API) Americans in civic and public affairs through education, active participation, and leadership development. To accomplish this objective, APAPA developed voter registration events, internships, scholarships, voter education forums
, and leadership, mentoring, and networking programs designed specifically for the education, betterment, and advancement of the API community. APAPA has earned a reputation as a trusted and well-respected organization and is now at the forefront of today’s API leadership and civic engagement movement. Thanks to the dedication and generosity of thousands of volunteers throughout California, APAPA has built a solid organizational foundation and created strong partnerships with many diverse communities, businesses, and governments across the state. APAPA has formally established five chapters as of 2010: the Sacramento Headquarters; the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter; the Central Valley Chapter; the Southern California Chapter; and the Collegiate Council. These chapters enable APAPA to not only better serve the diverse API community, but also educate its broad membership and cultivate future API leaders. Since the organization’s inception, APAPA has helped greatly increase API representation in state government. In 2001, there were no API state elected officials in California. Thanks in part to APAPA’s efforts, however, in 2009, fifteen members of the API community were elected to legislative and constitutional offices. APIs now hold state constitutional offices, occupy seats in the State Assembly and State Senate, and hold positions across the Executive branch and on the bench in the state Judiciary. In fact, 2010 saw the historic appointment of Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye as California’s first API chief justice. That year also witnessed another groundbreaking victory for the API community with the first Chinese-American woman, Judy Chu, sworn in as a member of the United States Congress from California. As the organization settles into its new home in Sacramento, APAPA looks to the future with a renewed commitment to further strengthening its community foundation and organizational structure such that it will effectively expand nationwide and empower Asian Pacific Islander Americans across the country to become the local, state, national, and indeed, global leaders of tomorrow.
