Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Base-Building & Leadership Development
Advancing Justice | Chicago builds a base of community leaders who are impacted by issues and shares our racial equity analysis. Our leadership development equips community members with the knowledge and skills necessary to be informed, strategic leaders and active participants in our policy campaigns and organizing strategies. Base-building programs include KINETIC, I Speak Power, and A Just Chi.
Issue-Based Advocacy Campaigns
We work on issue-based advocacy campaigns for laws and policies that promote social, economic, and political equity for the Asian American community while operating within a racial equity framework, including initiatives in the areas of voting rights, language access, immigrant rights, and discrimination. Advancing Justice | Chicago also collaborates with other progressive or immigrant-serving communities to leverage our collective power to move bold agendas of solutions to the challenges facing our communities. Issue-based campaigns include Erase the Database, Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act, Citizenship for All, and more.
Civic Engagement
Civic engagement programs and initiatives provide community members with the knowledge and resources needed to show their power and fight for issues that impact our communities. Programs include voter education, voter protection, the annual Asian American Action Day in Springfield, and census planning and outreach.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Advancing Justice | Chicago is a leader in the Just Democracy Coalition, a coalition of community groups dedicated to protecting and promoting the value of every vote, regardless of the voter’s geography, race, ethnicity, or party affiliation. The Coalition won Automatic Voter Registration [AVR] in Illinois in 2016 and has since been engaged in an ongoing struggle with the Illinois Secretary of State Office to fully implement AVR. Advancing Justice | Chicago is part of the lawsuit against the IL Secretary of State regarding these ongoing problems and lack of transparency and accountability in the implementation of AVR. In the coming year, the Coalition will also largely be focused on independent redistricting reform and engaging communities in the redistricting process.
Immigration has historically been one of Advancing Justice | Chicago’s primary issue areas. For the past six years, Advancing Justice | Chicago has been on the front lines battling xenophobic executive orders and leading state-level coalition efforts to pass legislation like the IL Way Forward Act, IL Trust Act, and IL VOICES Act with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights [ICIRR]. ICIRR has and continues to work on state-level policy to limit cooperation between local law enforcement agencies and immigration authorities, disrupt the deportation pipeline, increase access to services for immigrants regardless of citizenship status, and pass protections for immigrants regardless of immigration status. The IL Way Forward Act passed in 2021 was a major victory, ending all Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] contracts with local prisons across the state and prohibiting local police from collaborating with ICE on civil immigration enforcement, marking a significant step towards getting ICE out of our communities.
Language justice has long been a priority for Advancing Justice | Chicago; we have been engaged with the Mayor’s Office on this issue for several years and have continued to run one of the largest poll monitoring operations during elections specifically looking for language access for voters. In 2015, Advancing Justice played a significant role in the passing of Chicago’s Language Access Ordinance, although the ordinance was not as comprehensive as we had hoped. In 2019, Advancing Justice | Chicago launched a language justice campaign and coalition with the aim of creating a comprehensive language justice policy. We paused the coalition’s work as most of our member organizations are direct service agencies and were over capacity serving their community during the pandemic, but we aim to restart the campaign before the end of 2021 when our coalition members are able to engage their clients and grassroots community members in person again.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Advancing Justice | Chicago combines grassroots base-building, advocacy, and civic engagement to build power, strengthening our ability to hold elected officials accountable to a progressive, community-driven agenda to move us towards racial equity.
Our work cultivates powerful grassroots leadership from spaces often neglected and under-resourced in the leadership development landscape. Through culturally relevant training and opportunities, we see the emergence of powerful grassroots leadership from immigrant and refugee communities, whose contributions lead to more robust and relevant organizing and advocacy work. In addition to equipping our community members with the knowledge, skills, and resources necessary to regularly engage with power-brokers and decision-makers at all levels of society, we align, convene, and collaborate with like-minded organizations to advocate for laws and policies that benefit all communities.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago
Board of directorsas of 03/09/2023
Ms. Khai Yang
Allstate Insurance
Ms. Jean Kim
US Foods
Youngmee Ko
CME Group
Karthik Raja
Ascension
Michael P. Chu
McDermott Will & Emery LLP
Mark Anthony Florido
Leadership for Educational Equity
Sheehan Band
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
Milynn Mapalo
Prosper Rose Consulting
Cathy Nieng
Freelance UX Designer & Interactive Strategist
Mary Mam
US Foods
Aisha Ghori Ozaki
Allstate Insurance
Maria Odiamar Racho
Allstate Corporation and FilKor Capital
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Not applicable
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.
Equity strategies
Last updated: 10/18/2021GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.