Building empowered communities

Due to the recent feedback from the 2018 election guide and the increasing attack on immigrants, KWC, KAAGP and KACC saw the need for and were encouraged to form a new organization, Korean Americans for Civic Participation.  Given the current political environment, increased Korean and Asian American civic participation is critical for our community.

2021 Campaign

This year, voters in Pennsylvania decide the outcomes of the PA Justice of the Supreme Court, the PA Judge of the Superior Court, the PA Judge of the Commonwealth Court, the PA Judge of the Common Pleas Court, and municipal elections. Korean and Asian American voices are as important in local and municipal elections as these elected officials have the potential to make a direct impact on our community life.

To increase Korean and Asian American voter turnout in 2021, Woori Center continues to lead KACP’s civic engagement activities.  Along with our volunteers, KACP aims to empower our communities through its continued efforts of voter education, engagement and protection for both the primary and general elections. KACP plans to register first-time voters, canvass neighborhoods in Greater Philadelphia, and lead multiple rounds of phone-banking and text-banking. In addition, KACP recognizes the importance of civic education, providing in-language voter education guides and in-language resources on Korean ethnic media and social media platforms. To provide immediate assistance to our community members, KACP will continue its One-Stop Help Desk for the duration of the election cycle. 

2020 Campaign

With Asian Americans being the fastest growing racial demographic in Pennsylvania and the United States, KACP aimed to empower and build the statewide Korean American electorate in order for our communities to vote in RECORD numbers for the 2020 Presidential Election. As such, KACP joined the civic engagement efforts led by Woori Center and its national partner, NAKASEC, to lead multiple rounds of phone banking and text banking, mail and hand-distribute election guides, and provide direct assistance at our One Stop Help Desk to help voters register to vote and develop mail-in or in-person voting plans. To help us achieve all of these goals and initiatives, KACP registered 107 new voters and recruited a total of 210 volunteers. With their support, our organizations made 189,468 attempted phone calls (that is almost 10% of all phone calls made by 501c3 organizations in Pennsylvania) and had reached 5,837 unique voters. While text banking, we sent 75,960 text messages to registered Asian American voters in Pennsylvania. We distributed more than 8,000 copies of election materials, including 5,000 election guides, 2,500 brochures, and 400 voter’s rights cards, and sent out over 30,000 mailers. To reach a broader audience and emphasize the importance of the Asian American voter, KACP published four articles and four op-eds, reaching 23 hits in total. In order to address the language barriers limiting Korean speaking voters, KACP operated a voter helpline throughout the election cycle and a voter hotline on the election day, provided in-language translation at the polls, and collected information from voters on election days of difficulties voting to report to the Board of Elections to improve systems for Korean immigrant voters in future elections. To maximize our efforts, KACP coordinated with numerous civic engagement coalitions and tables across the state of Pennsylvania.

In addition to our work for the 2020 Presidential Election, KACP educated and motivated our community members to participate in the 2020 Census. The results of the United States Census allocates educational, health, and governmental resources to our communities. However, one in five Asian Americans live in hard-to-count census locales, putting our communities at risk of being missed, including our members with limited English proficiency and/or are low-income. To address these difficulties, KACP participated in phone banks, led text banking efforts, sent out mailers, and published pieces in Ethnic Media outlets! KACP and its volunteers made 23,224 attempted phone calls and contacted 1,340 community members, sent 1,821 text messages and contacted 307 community members, distributed our first mailer to 528 Korean American households, distributed our second mailer to 3,447 Korean American households statewide, and published six articles on Ethnic Media outlets, reaching 28 hits in total!

2019 Campaign

In 2019, KACP successfully planned, implemented and evaluated a systematic civic engagement program for its community members for the 2019 primary and general elections. KACP registered 124 new Korean and Asian American voters, collected 260 Pledge to Vote cards. KACP also provided the community members with appropriate in-language materials and education on the municipal elections in 2019. KACP created and distributed more than 2,000 five county voter guides (1,800 Korean and 200 English guides). It also organized how to vote workshops to educate the Korean community before the elections, as well as a series of civic education workshops as part of its youth leadership program. To ensure registered Korean American voters to get to the polls to make their voices heard, KACP recruited 20 volunteers and mobilized a Get Out the Vote (GOTV) effort including canvassing and phone banking before the primary and general election. KACP also collected 191 Census Pledge Cards and conducted one of the first Korean American community surveys.

2017 campaign

After Trump’s election, the three organizations began to receive concerned calls from community members, which led them to co-organize a Know Your Rights (KYR) workshop in early 2017.  Over 50 community members attended this workshop, where in-language KYR brochures and wallet cards were distributed. Korean American attorneys helped lead the workshop and stayed afterwards to address individual community member concerns.