Asian Americans United

Asian Americans United was founded in 1985 by a small group of volunteers seeking to create an organized response to rising issues of anti-Asian violence, substandard housing and the need for educational services for non-English speaking Asians in the city. Since that time, Asian Americans United’s mission has been to grow leadership in Asian American communities to build our neighborhoods and unite against oppression.

For more than three decades, AAU has worked in Philadelphia’s Asian American communities and in broader multiracial coalitions around quality education, youth leadership, anti-Asian violence, immigrant rights, neighborhood development, and folk arts and cultural preservation.

AAU’s accomplishments include initiating the settlement of a lawsuit with the School District of Philadelphia to improve services to immigrant students; developing the ​leadership of hundreds of youth; creating the Chinatown Mid-Autumn Festival; founding Chinatown Vote; and founding the Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School.​

AAU is the recipient of numerous awards for services to youth, folk arts programs, organizational excellence and intergenerational leadership.