Vaccine confidence survey for the Lao community |
The Laotian American National Alliance (LANA) is conducting a survey to learn about where people are getting their information on COVID-19 vaccines and how different factors may influence vaccine confidence in the Lao community. Your insight can help LANA reach Lao community members who need our support accessing vaccine information. The survey takes approximately five minutes and can be taken in both English and Lao. Your responses will remain anonymous.
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We're hiring! Application deadline extended for three positions |
Join our team! SEARAC is currently hiring for three open positions:
The Director of Field will grow our field strategy by leading our intersectional leadership development, community engagement, and community mobilization strategies. These strategies aim to build, engage, and mobilize our base to affect policy change on SEARAC’s issue areas including education, health, and immigration.
The California Program Manager will lead our state-level programming through event planning, campaigns, trainings, coalition management, partnership building, and support with community engagement and organizing. The position aims to foster strong partnerships, build the capacity of community leaders, and support advocacy activities and mobilization to advance SEARAC’s priorities in immigration, criminal justice, health, and education.
The Immigration Policy Manager will lead our national immigration advocacy activities through policy analysis, advocacy, community engagement, and coalition building. Goals include: building key policy champions on the national level, as a representative of SEARAC and through partner coalitions, to advance immigration justice for Southeast Asian Americans (SEAAs) and other immigrant and refugee communities.
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SCOTUS dismisses ACA lawsuit |
In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit last week challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. This decision protects healthcare access for millions of Americans, at a time when access to healthcare is particularly vital because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Affordable Care Act, which has reduced the uninsured rates of the Southeast Asian American communities by half since its passage in 2010, has now survived all three of its major challenges before the Supreme Court. SEARAC released a report in 2017 uplifting the voices of SEAA community members whose health has been improved by the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion. Click here to read and share.
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Participate in a COVID-19 Vietnamese virtual focus group |
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is conducting a focus group for Vietnamese-speaking frontline food industry workers. Deloitte, an agency directly supporting the CDC, will host the focus group with the goal of testing an in-language toolkit about various COVID-19 topics. Each participant will receive a $75 e-gift card for their participation. If you are interested in participating, please contact Tracy Sun at tsun@apiahf.org.
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Support diversity in health research with a new survey |
The Diverse Elders Coalition is collecting personal experiences from people who engage in health research to understand how we can overcome barriers to participation in health research. Their new 20-minute survey seeks responses from participants in New York, Texas, Chicago, Miami, and Detroit. Participants can be: medical providers, health care providers, researchers, academics, community leaders, research participants, and other people that work in the medical, science or health fields.
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Meet our new Education Policy Manager |
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Natalie Truong is excited to join SEARAC as Education Policy Manager. Natalie is a 1.5 generation immigrant from Iowa where she attended public schools and college. She is driven by her parents’ dedication to education and comes from a line of educators in Vietnam. Natalie is passionate about meeting students where they are in their development and works to ensure policies are a right fit for students and their communities. She also aims to lift up diverse student voices and ensure they are accounted for in policy and practice. With nearly a decade of experience in education, including as a teacher, researcher, and policy advisor, Natalie hopes to use her experience in her role at SEARAC to advocate for just and equitable policy for SEAAs. You can reach Natalie at natalie@searac.org.
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Demand President Biden and DHS lift visa sanctions now! |
SEARAC is calling on President Biden and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to take bold action to end the unjust deportation of Southeast Asian Americans. Our new petition, in partnership with the Southeast Asian Deportation Defense Network (SEADDN), demands that sanctions be removed against countries that have been deemed “recalcitrant” for not accepting enough individuals to be deported. Sanctions are being used to coerce countries into accepting more deported individuals and are perpetuating the United States’ inhumane deportation machine.
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Pride for who we are, Pride for where we come from |
In honor of LGBTQ+ Pride Month and Immigrant Heritage Month, SEARAC’s new Communications and Development Manager, Jenna McDavid, wrote a new blog post introducing herself to the SEARAC community and outlining all the reasons we have to celebrate this month.
“[In June,] Southeast Asian American members of the LGBTQ+ communities are centered, and the roots of SEAA families and stories are recognized as the strengths that they are.”
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Farewell and gratitude from Campaign Manager Sina Sam |
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Congratulations on making it to the halfway mark of 2021, SEARAC community! It is with great gratitude that I share the news of my transition out of office work to focus on family care, mental health, and self-care. The pandemic has presented unparalleled challenges in all our lives; despite all the obstacles, I am proud of the solidarity, perseverance, and equity work that many of us have resiliently taken on this past year. It has been a tremendous honor to serve our communities as a field staff member, in partnership with many of you during this unprecedented time. I look forward to a world safely opening back up again, when I can return in renewed capacity after some much needed restorative rest.
Much love and appreciation to our SEARAC team, board of directors, community partners, funders, leaders, and allies who will carry forward 45+ years of powerful, national civil rights work, exemplifying SEAA excellence and service. Thank you all so, so much for your fierce love, commitment, and continued leadership in advocating for our most vulnerable! Please help strengthen our leadership pipeline by joining our team or sharing the three open positions we have available right now. Application deadline is July 11, 2021, apply today!
Sending all my love to finish 2021 strong, in good health, wealth, and achieving all our shared community and power building goals for the many years to come!
Always in community,
Sina Sam
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Diverse Elders Coalition seeks a strategic planning consultant |
The Diverse Elders Coalition, of which SEARAC is a founding member, is hiring a consultant to help with our 2021 strategic planning process, including identifying the coalition’s priority advocacy areas, priority program areas, and more. Proposals will be accepted until July 6.
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Apply for the APAICS National Leadership Academy
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Applications for the APAICS National Leadership Academy are now open! The training will be held virtually on the weekend of July 16-18. The program provides community and political leaders with high-level training on topics relevant to running for office. Notable alumni of the National Leadership Academy includes Congressman Ted Lieu, former Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa, the late Congressman Mark Takai, and Boston City Councilwoman Michelle Wu. The application is open until Friday, July 9.
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Study seeks international Southeast Asian graduate students |
Clinical psychology doctoral student, Pavanam Valuyeetham, is conducting a study to explore the acculturative stress, psychological distress, and attitude towards seeking professional help of graduate international students from Southeast Asia studying in the United States. Participants qualified to complete this survey are those who are currently graduate level international students from one of these countries; Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, and East Timor. The 20-minute online survey is anonymous, private, and confidential, and no identifying information will be collected. For any questions or additional information, please email pvaluyeetham@adler.edu
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Let us know about your upcoming events |
If you have an event or campaign that you would like SEARAC to promote to our communities, please fill out this form to let us know! We recommend alerting us to your event at least two weeks in advance of the date to allow time for processing. If you have any questions about your submission, please email jenna@searac.org.
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SEARAC is a national civil rights organization that empowers Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese American communities to create a socially just and equitable society. As representatives of the largest refugee community ever resettled in the United States, SEARAC stands together with other refugee communities, communities of color, and social justice movements in pursuit of social equity.
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