Campaign Targets Asian Youth

SAN FRANCISCO - Leveraging the digital social networks popular among students, Youth Charge Now! has launched a nationwide campaign to educate and encourage youth to become leaders in civic engagement. In partnership withAPIAVote.org, Engage Her a national organization promoting leadership among multicultural youth and communities has partnered with dozens of organizations aimed at the millions of Asian American and Pacific Islander youth new to the political arena.

The Youth Charge Now! campaign is encouraging Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) students to recruit others to the campaign, including $500 in cash and the chance to win a Kollaboration Concert at their college or university. Kollaboration is a popular concert series incorporating hip hop and rap music performed by AAPI youth in venues across the United States.

Mable Yee, CEO and founder of Engage Her, stresses that in California all the combined multicultural communities now constitute the dominant majority. The U.S. Census Bureau is projecting by year 2052 or sooner, the rest of the nation will look like California’s population.

“We must pay attention to this huge seismic shift in our population and ensure our leadership reflects the needs of this rapidly growing population in our nation,” says Yee, the former tech entrepreneur and marketing executive.

Yee adds, “Because AAPI youth makes up the fastest growing percentage of multicultural communities, it is critical to reach this influential group using Social Media and personal networks.”

The campaign will use digital tools, such as texting, YouTube videos and enlist popular YouTube celebrities to create a national network of connections around civic engagement and voting.

The Youth Charge Now! campaign has signed up the leading APIA national youth and community partners – including APIAVote, ECAASU, MAASU, KAYA and NAAAP. The campaign also offers an optional voter registration through Votolatino.org’s United We Win and partners with VoteAgain 2010 with their 35+ youth partners to promote voting in the midterm elections targeted to multicultural communities. “We are pleased to partner with Youth Charge Now! to encourage our members to promote leadership and civic engagement expanding to the college and youth sector” says Brad Baldia, President of National Association of Asian American Professionals, the largest AAPI professional association in North America. The long-term goal of the campaign is to mobilize APIA youth to become involved and supportive of key issues that face our youth.