Mission Statement

AAPI Women Lead is a community-based, intergenerational organization committed to ending violence and uplifting stories of Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (ANHPI) women, girls, and non-binary communities.

AAPI Women Lead was founded as an ANHPI queer, feminist, survivor-led and former sex-worker led organization. AAPIWL stands in solidarity with Black, Indigenous, and other marginalized communities, working collectively toward a world free from violence and oppression.

Through community-driven research and education, healing, wellness and power-building programs, as well as our community-events, our organization amplifies and creates platforms to build upon the histories of resistance of Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander women, girls, and our gender-expansive communities and to mobilize towards progressive social change. Our work encourages our communities to tell their stories, to heal, and to organize towards the end of violence against and within our communities and to create a new world.

Programs

Our approach is feminist, matriarchal, queer, community-driven, and community and survivor centered. Our work is rooted in relationships, transformative justice and solidarity. We are informed by our communities’ collective needs; expansive knowledge; and progressive, radical, and powerful approaches to creating a new world.

Community Driven Research

Research on Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities often lacks depth, survivor-led perspectives, and nuanced definitions of violence. Our Institute prioritizes community-driven, survivor-centered research that recognizes the distinct and interconnected challenges faced by these diverse groups.

Community Driven Education

Our education programming under the R.E.A.L. Institute offers trainings through which we teach communities, organizations, and corporations about ending racial and gender-based violence in our communities

Collective Study & Cultural Narrative Shift

In our Collective Study and Cultural Narrative Shift programming, we bring our communities together to learn from each other and community leaders. This approach recenters communities’ resistance against violence and shifts our cultural narratives by teaching and mobilizing communities, both online and in-person.

Healing, Wellness, & Power Building

At AAPI Women Lead, we prioritize healing and wellness as key to liberation. By using culturally reflective modalities and collaborating with practitioners across the US and its affiliated territories, we provide our communities with tools to reclaim ancestral healing traditions and build communal power.

ImReady Movement Conference

The ImReady Movement conference unites ANHPI movement leaders, community members, and allies from various fields and experiences. Our speakers and attendees will contextualize the current political and social landscape affecting Asian, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian women, femmes, and non-binary communities. As always, we also offer healing justice and wellness activities for our attendees.