October 10

OCA - Greater Tucson Chapter presented Voter Education session to 20 attendees at the Chinese Student Association, University of Arizona. Chris Ahearn facilitated interactive exercises that help voters make decisions on candidates. Program was funded by PCI grant.

October 12
Success in the Workplace Workshop at YWCA Southern Arizona for young professionals. The four topics and presenters: Effective Communications in the Workplace, Emily Bridson and Teleia Taumanu, League of Women Voters Greater Tucson; Managing to “$Million,” Peter Chan, NY Life; Interview Skills & Career Planning, Anissa Brown. Solid, practical advice was accompanied by real experiences.

November 1
APA Y Advocate Leadership Conference for Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) high schools. Enrollment maxed out at 35, the room capacity The three topics and presenters: Anti-Asian Hate History and Current Status by Richard Koo, Esq.; Prominent AAs in Tucson History and Today by Sandy Chan; and Voter Education by Chris Ahearn. Students were actively engaged, and we recruited a senior to volunteer with the Chapter. Voter registration form was reviewed.

OCA - Greater Washington D.C Chapter

DC Chapter President, Mary Tom, went for training at the Board of Elections and signed an affidavit, with an ID card issued to her identifying her as a Voter Registrar/voting registration volunteer, which expanded the Chapter's voter registration efforts at the Great Wall Supermarket and Rockville Public Library.

The Asian American Student Association (AASU) leadership at The George Washington University coordinated, through VP of Membership, Siddarth Sharma, a well-received GOTV initiative, with snacks funded by the DC Chapter, for students to actually take the time to step up and VOTE!  

OCA - Greater Washington DC Chapter was pleased to participate in the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI) and WHIAANHPI Regional Network 3 event on Friday, November 1, for an in-person community engagement event in Rockville, MD. This event focused on celebrating belonging and inclusion by bringing together government officials, community-based organizations, and local leaders to discuss issues facing the AA and NHPI communities, and to share critical resources.  

Chapter President, Mary Tom, along with Immediate Past President, Dr. Adrienne Poon, shared with the federal agencies and other attendees, during the network session, the health assessment survey the Chapter is conducting to understand what health needs are in our local communities to better develop community health efforts locally.  This survey is sponsored by OCA-DC and the GW School of Medicine & Health Sciences.  Dr. Poon is the Principal Investigator for the Survey.

OCA-DC also shared a needs assessment survey on local Asian businesses to better understand the needs of our local small businesses, to strengthen community ties, and to see how the DC Chapter can be more responsive as an organization to the small businesses. 

The Chapter was pleased to hear from Asian authors, such as Tiffany Yu, who wrote a book "The Anti-Ableist Manifesto - Smashing Stereotypes, Forging Change, and Building a Disability-Inclusive World."  Tiffany's book addresses anti-ableism, which is anti-discrimination in favor of non-disabled people - how to unpack your biases and build a disability-inclusive and accessible world.

Ricky Mui, VP of Community Outreach of the OCA-DC Board, networked at the event, along with Yvonne So, an active Chapter member advocating for the inclusion of Asian history into the American history curriculum of public schools in Maryland.  Hoang-Viet Tran, Chapter Intern, fourth year medical student from GWU, was also networking at this exciting WHIAANHPI event!

The event was well attended with over 200 attendees engaging in discussion at the networking session between federal agencies and community based organizations who are interested in collaborating with each other toward providing resources that are relevant in promoting quality health care for all and other resources that benefit our AANHPI communities in the DC, MD, VA (DMV) area.  

The federal agencies at the event included:  DHHS/Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), US Department of Labor (DOL), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), US Social Security Administration (SSA), Department of Commerce (DOC), Smithsonian Institution, Department of State, the US Small Business Administration (SBA).  

Mary Tom retired from HRSA in December 2023, and was delighted to re-enter the HRSA office building, after a 10 month absence, to support HRSA's AANHPI Employee Resource Group (ERG), as a co-host of the event, under the volunteer leadership of OCA-DC Board member, Marylen Rimando, who is also the current Co-President for the AANHPI ERG at HRSA and a member of the WHIAANHPI Regional Network 3 .

OCA-DC was proud to be actively engaged in learning the quality resources available through the federal agencies and how our Chapter can assist in getting the word out to our community leaders, participating in a community-driven listening session with federal agencies regarding the needs/concerns from community leaders, and hearing from a passionate panel of AANHPI authors who shared their stories of inclusion and belonging found in their books.

OCA - St. Louis Chapter

October 6 - Annual Community Picnic
OCA - St. Louis Chapter had a wonderful time at our Annual Community Picnic. It was a joy to see everyone and bring the community together. We were also thankful to be able to share community resources, other organizations, voter information, and the health tent where we were able to offer flu shots as a benefit to those who were interested.

October 13 - Mahjong & Vote Event
OCA - St. Louis Chapter was delighted to partner with the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis (JCRC) for our Mahjong & Vote event. Hosted at the St. Louis Artists’ Guild, we had a great time learning about what was on our ballot, making a plan to vote, and exploring voter resource guides. We also enjoyed a delicious meal and played mahjong together. It was wonderful to see Chinese, Filipino, and Jewish / American and more versions of mahjong being shared across the table as we came together in community. We appreciate those who attended, and we are especially grateful for our teachers from the AAPI and Jewish community who patiently taught those of us who were new to the game.

OCA - San Mateo Chapter

OCA - San Mateo Chapter held their 32nd Annual Asian American Achievement Awards and fundraising dinner on October 26, 2024 in South San Francisco. Over 180 supporters came to honor Russell Jeung, professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University and co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, Connie Young Yu, Chinese American historian and author, Abigail Hing Wen, best-selling writer and film producer of "Love Boat Taiper", and David Mineta, social worker and CEO of Momentum for Health. Linda Ng, national president was present to give proclamations to 12 community partners.

OCA - San Francisco Chapter

In September and October, OCA - San Francisco sponsored a youth-led arts event by illustrASIAN. illistrASIAN is created and led by two high school seniors, Vannysa Saechao and Selina Xue. The students led a series of four Sunday workshops based on Asian and Pacific Island regional arts. Each Sunday, after the presentation, 14 students participated in workshops creating their own artwork based on the region's art. They then displayed their artwork at an art exhibition culmination event in October and invited community guests. Some of the artwork will be donated back to the community.