In New York City, almost half of all Asian Pacific American babies are born into poverty or near poverty. Across the nation, many Asian Pacific American (APA) children are failing school, going to bed hungry, and even dying before their first birthday. Yet America still thinks all APAs are doing fine.

Clearly advocacy for APA children should be more vigorous. However, incredible ethnic diversity, scattered geographic distribution, intergenerational differences, and a socioeconomic divide complicate APA children’s advocacy by fragmenting the community. While national APA advocacy efforts have addressed immigration, civil rights, health care, and political participation, they rarely focus their energies on children’s services. Mainstream children’s advocacy efforts often overlook APA children. As a result, there is no organized effort to speak up for APA children’s rights, education, well being, and access to services.

In March 2000, over 100 individuals who work with APA children and youth across the country came together at the Children’s Defense Fund’s (CDF) national conference. Recognizing the need to examine APA children’s needs and advocacy priorities, CDF held its first special half-day APA session. Although the majority of participants were from the New York City area, there was a diversity among panelists and participants that resulted in a unique discussion of local concerns in the national and regional contexts.

The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families and the New York office of CDF planned the session with representatives from community-based organizations (CBO) in New York City serving children and families. The opening panel was invited to speak about topics of concern in their region of the country and national implications. Breakout sessions on education, bias crime and violence, poverty, child abuse and neglect, and health followed. In each breakout session, participants were asked to identify and prioritize advocacy opportunities.