In June 2020, Asian American Organizing Project (AAOP) launched a COVID-19 Relief Fund for Youth and Young People. We focused our fund relief efforts for young Asian folks in Minnesota, opening up applications on June 25, 2020 and closing it not even 24 hours later.
It’s clear that the need is great in our communities. We have young college-aged Asian people being let go of their jobs and internships and having to move back with their parents to accommodate the new changes. We have young people who are one of the only people in their multi-generational families working. We have young parents falling behind on bills because of reduced hours or job loss.
And this is on top of the increased incidents of xenophobic attacks against Asian folks in the state.
We received over 100 applications and were able to fund all applicants.
However, this was the first time that we as an organization had developed and executed a Relief Fund. As such, we encountered unexpected hurdles that prevented us from disbursing funds in a more timely manner.
- This was the first time we used Action Network as an application to receive Relief Fund requests. As such, we did not realize the technicalities behind the setup of the application form to better streamline data. Because of that, we are missing confirmed ethnic data. However, we do have racial data.
- We initially wanted to focus on disbursing funds through digital means: PayPal and Venmo. However, both PayPal and Venmo had security measures that made it difficult for us to send funds promptly.
Of those funded:
- 75% were between the ages of 14 to 25
- 10% identified as queer and/or trans
- 56.5% identified as female
- 61% identified within the femme/women spectrum
- 92.6% were from Minnesota (other states included: Wisconsin, New York, California*)
- 22% were currently in high school or recent high school graduates
- 42.6% were currently in college or recent college graduates
Thank you to all those who applied and shared our COVID-19 Relief Fund for Youth and Young People. While we were able to fund all applicants, we know that the need in our community is great.
*there are those out of state who have connections to Minnesota (ie: through work or school)