Stop Anti-Asian Hate Campaign

The Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center's (APALRC) Stop Anti-Asian Hate Campaign (Campaign) addresses the rise in hate crimes and bias incidents against metropolitan-DCs Asian Pacific Islander (API) community since 2020, and the underreporting of these crimes/incidents. The APALRC mission is to protect the civil and legal rights of the low-income, limited English proficient (LEP) API community residing in metropolitan-DC through the provision of linguistically accessible and culturally appropriate civil legal services. (See Program Narrative pages 11-12.) The APALRC is requesting $388,843 in funding for 3 years to fully implement this Campaign.

The Campaign's goals are to: (1) promote community awareness and preparedness in addressing anti-Asian hate crimes/incidents; (2) encourage the API community to report anti-Asian hate crimes/incidents; (3) provide language-accessible legal redress to API victims of anti-Asian hate; (4) collect data on anti-Asian hate in metropolitan-DC to improve prevention and community response; and (5) partner with local jurisdictions and community stakeholders to de-escalate community tension and promote conflict resolution.

To address these goals, the APALRC will conduct community legal education seminars on how to identify anti-Asian hate, and how to respond as either a victim or as a bystander. Additionally, the APALRC will establish a language-accessible hotline to report anti-Asian hate crimes/incidents. The hotline will provide granular data on the number and nature of anti-Asian hate crimes/incidents in metropolitan-DC. Data collected will include whether the incident was reported to a government or other entity, the outcome of the reporting and, if not reported, why the incident was not reported.

The outcomes of the Campaign include: (1) increased knowledge by the API community in identifying, preventing, and responding to anti-Asian hate crimes/incidents; (2) enhanced organizational capacity to provide language-accessible legal services and resources to victims of anti-Asian hate; (3) increased and more accurate reporting of anti-Asian hate crimes/incidents; and (4) active collaboration between law enforcement, legal, social service, and mental health providers to reduce the frequency and impact of anti-Asian hate.