APASA’s KeepAnHome Advocacy Event, as told from the perspective of Anthony Xu, one of our Co-Graphics Director, and Brian Park, our Marketing Director.

Our attendees listening to the Advocacy Chairs.

Chatter quickly filled the classroom as people started to file in, ready to learn and make an impact. As they lined up for boba from Cup o’ Joy, people caught up with old friends and introduced themselves to new faces. And after everyone found a seat, drink in hand, our two lovely Advocacy Chairs Alice and Christina took center stage (i.e. the front of the classroom) and cheerfully greeted everyone who came.

Before getting into anything specific to the #KeepAnHome campaign, the Advo Chairs held a quick community check-in, asking us to talk with our peers about activities that heal us, which fit right in with our advocacy theme for this year, #TheRightToHeal (check out the blog post on that!). It was great to destress at the end of the week by being mindful by sharing and hearing various ways we can heal ourselves, and it helped recenter us all before moving onto the rest of the presentation about the social campaign.

Co-Advocacy chairs Alice and Christina speaking about the prison-to-deportation pipeline.

Next, we learned about the campaign itself, which focuses on preventing An Nguyen from being deported to Vietnam after serving his prison sentence in the United States. We talked about the prison-to-deportation pipeline and what steps we can take as a community to prevent people like An from being separated from his family. We also touched on why advocacy in general is important for people to participate in.

Two APASA interns, Cody (left) and Ryan (right) during Kahoot! :)

After the impactful information session, it was quiz time! The familiar music of Kahoot (with a spooky twist) started to play, and everyone whipped their phones out. Stakes were high; there were two Amazon gift cards on the line. Prize or not though, the Kahoot quickly turned into what most Kahoots do, an intense trivia match with answering speeds never seen before in APASA. It was a close match the entire way through, with some exciting turnarounds and late game surprises along the way. In the end though, there could only be two winners, but everyone had a great time :)

Christina, one of APASA’s Advocacy Chairs, explains the letter writing workshop.

After people calmed down from the heated Kahoot match, we began what we all really came here to do: to write letters to Governor Newsome to #KeepAnHome. Christina and Alice made the process very simple by providing everyone with a clear, concise letter template. The template addressed all of the key information that we discussed in the workshop; how An’s experience of poverty and racism, the mistakes he made in the past, and how he’s being unjustly treated by the prison-to-deportation pipeline. To further make all of our letters unique, we each added a personal touch about why An’s story is so important to all of us, explain why An deserves a second chance, and how stories of systematic injustices and oppression still continue on. In total, we submitted 33 letters on the CA Office of the Governor portal!

As everyone started wrapping up their letters and submitting them, our lovely Advocacy Chairs showed more ways in which we could take action, which included signing petitions, calling the Governor’s office, engaging with locally elected officials, and more!

It was great to see so many faces come out on a Friday night to learn more and take action towards such an important cause (The free boba and fruit tea were definitely a plus too :’) ) Thank you to all those that came out, and we look forward to see you again in future events!

KeepAnHome Advocacy Event 📝