The Center for Neighborhood Knowledge at UCLA Luskin has co-authored a report aimed at combating discrimination toward Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) through storytelling. The report, “AAPIs Connect: Harnessing Strategic Communications to Advance Civic Engagement,” was published in partnership with the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund, a national initiative established in 2014 to foster a culture of civic participation within Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. “Reaching ethnic populations is extremely challenging given linguistic and cultural barriers, and we hope that this report will empower community stakeholders, public agencies and elected officials to more effectively connect with Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders,” said Paul Ong, the center’s director and one of the principal investigators. The authors note that the Asian community in the United States has been cast as apathetic or less civically engaged — a reflection of historically lower voter registration and turnout rates — and have faced specific discrimination and barriers at the polls. A survey of the fund’s grantees underscored that the majority of local AAPI groups have little to no strategic communications capacity or infrastructure. The impact of the COVID-19 global health crisis makes this need more urgent, said EunSook Lee, AAPI Civic Engagement Fund director. “We hope this report can serve as a call to action to philanthropy to support organizations that have the cultural competency and linguistic capacity to reach and engage AAPI communities.”