AYPAL: Building API Community Power

Since 1998, AYPAL is a youth leadership development, community organizing and coalition building organization that seeks to create healthy, safe, and thriving communities. 

AYPAL’s mission is to empower Oakland’s low-income Asian & Pacific Islander immigrant and refugee families to be leaders for school reform and neighborhood change.

In recent years, our work includes passing a city measure to lower the voting age for school board representatives, disaggregating data on Oakland Unified School District registration forms, and blocking the building of a new stadium in Oakland Chinatown. Our current efforts include implementing the Oakland Youth Vote, planning for the Vietnamese and Cambodian American Model Curriculum, and planning and preparation for the 26th annual May Arts Festival in Oakland Chinatown.