The Coalition for Asian Pacific American Youth is a project of the Asian American Studies Program at University of Massachusetts Boston. It builds the leadership of Asian American high school students in the greater Boston area through the development and implementation of youth-led projects. We believe that youth united by a common cause can make a difference.
The project that the VISTA member will be contributing to is called Media Justice. Its purpose is to provide low-income Asian American youth with the skills and tools to produce alternative voices in the world of mainstream media and culture. Youth in the program are learning how to advocate for themselves and their own communities using video cameras and editing software. They are bringing voice to the diverse experiences of Asian Americans who are often stereotyped as the silent and model minority.
When low-income youth are empowered with the ability to create digital stories, they begin to take the next steps toward making changes in their communities. They work to disseminate the media they create, to change the way people think about Asian Americans. They also shed light on the stories and experiences of Asian immigrants, many of whose stories have not been heard before.