Our Story

 

During the summer of 2013, Duc Ta, David Kupihea, Paul Jung and traci ishigo had their first meeting in South Los Angeles.

At the time, Duc and David were both employees at the Amity Foundation, mentors and conscientious community leaders. As formerly incarcerated individuals, Duc and David had experienced long histories with the criminal justice system and possessed unique storytelling abilities that informed both the purpose and vision of the organization from the very start. Both Paul and traci had experience working at separate nonprofit advocacy organizations. Paul helped create a nonprofit that created jobs and training for individuals with drug addictions in the Koreatown area.

The conditions we want to address are complicated and quite nuanced: due in part to the cultural stigma, silence and apathy in the Asian and Pacific Islander American (API) community regarding criminal justice issues and the resulting lack of infrastructure and API institutional capacities around these issues, particularly here in Southern California. Until now, no organization has recently stepped up to champion these issues and to directly organize and promote the leadership of API formerly incarcerated populations.

The four founders, collectively coming from vastly different backgrounds and life experiences, also realized that diversity and inclusions are key assets to draw upon in our communities to empower and lift up the voices of the invisible and oppressed among APIs in California's Prison Industrial Complex. This became the organization's goal and clarion call.

The four point of focus of API RISE are:

  • Provide a support group of peers who help heal the past wounds and generate solutions for the future.

  • Create a network of mentors to encourage and help members navigate challenges.

  • Educate and advocate for APIs by collecting disaggregated data through storytelling to reveal the strength, resilience and diversity of API communities.

  • Encourage API social enterprises as a model for economic empowerment and sustainability..