“An Agenda for Policy Change: Participatory Research and Data Collection by Southeast Asian Youth”
Volume 9:1-2, p. 29 (2011)
by Kohei Ishihara
ABSTRACT: In a policy-making world that is influenced by “model minority” ideology and racial aggregate data, Southeast Asian Americans have become one of the most underrepresented and misunderstood Asian American communities. Cambodian, Laotian, and Hmong youth leaders in Providence, Rhode Island, protested this lack of representation by surveying 16 percent of the city’s Southeast Asian youth population. This data became the first of its kind to provide a quantitative and qualitative portrait of the lives and issues experienced by the city’s Southeast Asian residents. Youth leaders were trained in survey administration and data analysis in order to design and execute the survey. Survey results revealed the very intricate and oppressive realities faced by Southeast Asian youth, including lack of education, gang violence, racial profiling, inter-generational conflict, as well cultural conflict over ideas of gender and sexuality. Youth leaders used the data and a process of consensus decision making to develop a list of policy-change recommendations targeting Rhode Island decision makers and power brokers.
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Article Citation:
Kohei Ishihara (2011) An Agenda for Policy Change: Participatory Research and Data Collection by Southeast Asian Youth. AAPI Nexus: Policy, Practice and Community: 2011, Vol. 9, No. 1-2, pp. 29-36.