August 2020

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

Hello AdvOCAtes,

Thank you for supporting the work we do. A special thank you to everyone that attended the OCA Summit: Resilient Communities. We had a record number of attendees this year! If you would like to re-live the experience (or go back to watch a session you missed), you can still purchase an on-demand viewing experience. Keep reading for more information.

Our semiannual publication, IMAGE, is ready for your reading pleasure. The Spring/Summer edition features work from former OCA interns of the past two decades. Thank you to all of our contributors for sharing their content!

Right now, it is a pivotal moment in our country to address, rebuild, and reimagine true racial equity and justice in light of the cases of police brutality and tensions from the past few months. At OCA, we are engaging in these conversations with our community partners, fellow organizations, and members like you. OCA is committed to racial equity and justice, and we will be working with organizations and leaders in the Black community on how we can be effective allies and advocates.

We hope you and your families are safe and healthy during the global COVID-19 pandemic. We have some updates and events to share with you below.

July Press Releases

IMAGE Spring/Summer 2020 is ready! Go to our website to read the digital version.

Virtual OCA Summit: Workshop Recordings

Did you miss our OCA Summit: Resilient Communities? On August 14, 2020, we will re-launch sales of the On Demand Digital Streaming package with which you will be able to view all of the workshops from last week for one year.

(If you purchased a ticket for this already, you will receive your codes to view the workshops on August 14.)

New! OCA-UPS Gold Mountain Scholarship for Rising College Seniors

The OCA-UPS Gold Mountain Scholarship for Rising College Seniors awards $2,500 to Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) college students who are rising seniors. In order to be eligible students must identify as Asian American or Pacific Islander (AAPI), be enrolled as an undergraduate student, be starting their senior year during the Fall 2020 term, and must have attended at least three workshops at our virtual event OCA Summit: Resilient Communities. If you were not able to attend Summit you can view the recordings of our workshops by purchasing the On Demand Digital Streaming package when it becomes available on August 14th. The deadline to apply for this scholarship is Sunday, August 23, 2020 at 11:59 PM PT. Learn more about this scholarship here.

Save the Date! Corporate Achievement Awards

Join us on October 2nd in honoring emerging AAPI leaders in the corporate space. We are excited to announce that the 2020 CAA celebrations will be virtual and comprise of panels and webinars of past and present CAA honorees.

Here's what our Policy team worked on in July:

Hosted an Anti-Blackness in Asian American Communities workshop
Hosted Intern Advocacy Day where 21 OCA interns met with nine Congressional offices to advocate for OCA's hate crimes and immigration policy priorities
Engaged Congressional members to condemn acts of anti-Asian bias during the COVID-19 pandemic in a letter sent to Attorney General Barr
Signed onto 8 letters:
- Civil Rights Business Immunity by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (LCCHR)
- Election Provisions in HEROES Act by LCCHR
- Emergency Broadbands Connections Act by LCCHR
- Senate Principles for COVID Legislation by LCCHR
- Letter to DHS and ICE on SEVP Program Modivications by Rep. Jimmy Panetta
- Family Separation Letter by Amnesty International
- Honor Late Representative John Lewis by Passing VRAA and HEROES by LCCHR
- We are with DREAMERS Unity Statement by Emerson Collective
Endorsed the Amendment to Section 1033 of the NDAA by Senator Brian Schatz
Continued Advocacy for the HEAL Act for Immigrant Women and Children

OCA COVID-19 Toolkit & Website

Our Civil Rights Fellow, Matthew Nguyen-Ngo, worked tirelessly to create our much-anticipated COVID-19 resource toolkit. We have made slight updates to the toolkit as of June.

We also have a special landing page for COVID-19 resources for advocates and community members on our website. We will be updating this list of resources, media, corporate responses, and more. The website is https.://www.ocanational.org/oca-covid19-home

OCA COVID-19 TOOLKIT

OCA COVID-19 Page

Are you looking for an internship?

OCA has a running list of available internship opportunities on our website. The list will be updated accordingly and includes both OCA and other opportunities. To view the list and find out more, visit our website.

OCA National Public Events Calendar

The OCA National Public Events calendar is where we post OCA National and OCA Chapter events. You can check out events happening virtually near you! The link is here: bit.ly/ocaevents.

If you, your family members, someone you know, or community members have experienced xenophobia, discrimination, or harassment (in light of COVID-19), please report the incident using our hate crime reporting tool at aapihatecrimes.org.

Report a Hate Crime

Copyright © 2020 OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
OCA National Center
1322 18th St. NW
Washington, DC 20016

(202) 223-5500

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