CONTACT:
Brandon Lee
blee@advancingjustice-chicago.org
773-271-0899 x200

Over 150 people build community at 12th annual Asian American Leadership Forum

Forum featured track for Mandarin-speaking youth, sponsored by the Comcast Foundation

CHICAGO – On Saturday, February 20, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago hosted its 12th annual Asian American Leadership Forum. For the past 11 years, the Leadership Forum has become a collaboration between people with diverse skills, backgrounds, and passions, coming together to deepen their investment in the Asian American community. (more…)

ASIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY WILL BENEFIT FROM EXPANSION OF MINORITY BUSINESS PROGRAM

This week the Chicago City Council passed an expansion of the affirmative action program for minority and female owned construction firms. The percentage will be increased to 26 percent for minority owned firms, and 6 percent for female owned firms, per the Chicago Sun-Times. Asian Americans are among those eligible for contracts set aside for minority owned businesses.

“Asian Americans fought long and hard since 2003 to be covered by the minority business program, a successful effort that yields benefits for our community to this day,” said Tuyet Le, Executive Director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago. “While we would have preferred proposals that secured 30 percent of contracts for minority owned businesses, the 26 percent approved by the City Council will go a long way towards securing economic opportunity for communities of color across Chicago, including Asian Americans.” (more…)

Advancing Justice | Chicago’s Legal Director Andy Kang spoke at a press conference today announcing Korean language sample ballots will be available in areas of Chicago and Cook County with high numbers of limited-English proficient Korean voters. This is a major victory for Advancing Justice | Chicago, the Korean American Resource and Cultural Center, and the Korean community of Chicago, as these ballots will be provided by the County and City voluntarily, not yet mandated by federal law. Andy Kang’s full statement is below.  (more…)

Voting is a fundamental right and part of what makes America great. Our democracy works best when everyone makes his or her voice heard on election day, but unfortunately not everyone is, thanks in part to our outdated voter registration system. In the last presidential election, its estimated that over a million eligible voters tried to vote but were turned away because of registration problems.

We can do better. Over the past several years, Illinois has taken significant steps to modernize and improve voter registration and election administration. We should continue this process and work towards Universal Registration where every eligible voter is on the rolls, only eligible voters are on the rolls, and the state takes responsibility to build the rolls and automatically updates voters’ records where possible. (more…)