Our Reports and Research
Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California works to promote a better understanding of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities by making data on AAPIs more accessible through research, technical assistance, and training.
Community of Contrasts
A powerful free tool for community-based organizations, policy makers, and all who advocate for the AANHPI community, the Community of Contrasts platform offers data and stories that help break the “model minority” myth by highlighting specific community needs, providing data at multiple geographic levels and regions, and offering insights into the community’s sociodemographic characteristics.
The platform features:
- A data dashboard with disaggregated data on up 42 Asian American and 32 NHPI ethnic groups, that help to dispel the “model minority” myth and highlights community needs
- Data that offers insights into the socioeconomic status of the AANHPI community, drawing from Census data and national and local agencies
- Over 2000 data visualizations available at multiple geographic levels including national, all 50 states, and metro regions with a high density of AANHPI populations
- A space to magnify and uplift AANHPI voices and experiences
As the ICE raids and immigration enforcement escalate, our communities are suffering from growing fear and instability. In moments like these, access to community-specific information is essential for our community. Knowledge is power.
Join our webinar on the Community of Contrasts website, a data resource platform featuring extensive national disaggregated data on the diverse AANHPI community.
Join us on August 26th, 2025 at 11 AM for an in-depth navigation of the site.
The webinar will demonstrate how to use the site to:
- Better understand disparities in areas like health, housing, immigration, and language access
- Inform equity-focused policy and advocacy
- Support grant writing and funding cases
If your network includes funders, researchers, nonprofit leaders, or advocates working with AANHPI communities, we hope you’ll share this opportunity widely.
Findings Say Young Adult Asian Americans Are More Likely to Experience Hatred and Less Likely to Report Incidents
Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California (AJSOCAL) and RAND are proud to release Enhancing Support for Asian American Communities Facing Hate Incidents: Community Survey Results from Los Angeles and New York City and the Community Learn and Outreach Toolkit for Countering Anti-Asian Hate, a collaborative research report and resource developed for community-based organizations (CBOs) to address racism-related challenges faced by Asian American community members. Both are made possible in part by The Asian American Foundation (TAAF).
Due to the alarming rise in anti-Asian hate and discrimination since the COVID-19 pandemic, both RAND and AJSOCAL were moved to examine how Asian American community members can access help when they need it and how to equip community organizations to address community members’ needs when they experience an act of hate or discrimination. AJSOCAL, RAND, and community partners in Los Angeles and New York collaborated to better understand the scope of hate incidents across different Asian American demographic groups, to assess the resources necessary to counteract these incidents, and to identify primary methods of outreach and engagement to reach community members.
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The toolkit is an evidence-informed resource derived from discussions with Asian American organizations in Los Angeles and New York City, including AJSOCAL, and a 2023-2024 survey completed by more than 800 community members in both cities. The community survey aimed to provide CBOs with important insights to enhance outreach and support strategies.
The Community Learn and Outreach Toolkit for Countering Anti-Asian Hate contains the following:
- Key Terminology: Definitions of anti-Asian hate-related terms and their distinctions, such as hate crime versus hate incident
- Response Options: Strategies for responding to hate incidents and crimes, such as how to respond to verbal attacks
- Barriers and Solutions: Common challenges that community members face when seeking services and their potential solutions, such as actions CBOs can take to encourage community members to report hate incidents and crimes
- Outreach Strategies: Insights into outreach strategies for Chinese, Korean, and Thai communities, including specific strategies on social media and for in-person outreach events
- Infographic Summaries: Infographics and appendices that summarize the toolkit for staff training.
The research report provides an in-depth analysis of the LA and NYC community survey findings, highlighting the urgent need for culturally and linguistically tailored strategies to effectively reach Asian Americans across various immigrant generations and age groups with information about anti-hate resources at CBOs. It offers actionable recommendations for CBO staff, policymakers, and researchers focused on Asian and Asian American communities.
Key Survey Findings:
- English-speaking Asian American young adults, particularly those from 1.5, second, or later immigrant generations, reported higher instances of experiencing anti-Asian hate but were less likely to seek help compared to first generation or take any action.
- Despite most Asian Americans valuing community-based counter-hate services, usage rate remains low. The majority of respondents (67%) lacked knowledge about community resources that were available or faced barriers like language difficulties, time constraints, or lack of transportation to receiving services.
- The in-language dominant population are as likely to call CBOs as the police (or more likely) to ask for their help if an Anti-Asian Hate incident were experienced. Only 37% would use 211 or 311.
- Word of mouth from family or friends was the top information source for English, Chinese, and Thai speakers, and the second most preferred by Korean respondents, who favored television as their most popular source. Top info sources for receiving Anti-Asian Hate-related information is WeChat for Chinese, TV for Korean, family or friends for English and Thai speakers.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California’s research focuses on:
Demographic Profiles
Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California’s reports present the latest data on Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in a clear and accessible way. Our Diverse Face of Asians and Pacific Islanders and Community of Contrasts reports include population counts, growth, and key socioeconomic characteristics such as age, immigration, language, education, income, employment, housing, and health for AAPI communities as a whole, as well as specific ethnic groups. Given the social and economic diversity in these communities, data disaggregated by ethnic group is critical to fully understanding them.
Political Participation
Other Areas
Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California’s other areas of research on issues impacting Asian Americans and AAPI communities include language and limited-English proficiency, disaster preparedness, marriage equality, and philanthropy.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California is also a Census Information Center (CIC), an official program of the U.S. Census Bureau aimed at promoting the dissemination of census data in underserved communities.
A Community of Contrasts Reports
CRUCIAL DATA ABOUT AAPIs AND
COMMUNITY RESOURCES
In multiple Asian languages and English, the Asian Resource Hub is a free online destination that provides crucial information about the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities within the framework of discrimination and hatred.
It is a collaboration between civil right non-profits Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California (AJSOCAL) and Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC (AAJC) and supported by Microsoft.
The Asian Resource Hub provides a one-stop destination for users to find compiled public data on the AAPI community. It illustrates the scope of widespread anti-Asian discrimination and hate in the U.S. using storytelling narratives and the Microsoft-powered PowerBI data visualization platform based on data collected by StopAAPIHate.org, StandAgainstHatred.org, the U.S. Census Bureau, FBI reports, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, local law enforcement, and more sources.
The Asian Resource Hub also introduces a searchable resource directory, featuring vetted AAPI community-based organizations (CBOs) that provide low/no-cost and culturally competent and linguistically appropriate direct services. This directory makes it easier for individuals and communities to access essential resources tailored to their own languages and needs.
Some examples of services you can find in the directory include:
- Social service support (ie: basic needs, language assistance, victims services, etc.)
- Legal assistance
- Mental health support
- Opportunities to get involved in civic engagement and policy advocacy
Are you looking for resources? Want to learn more about how anti-Asian hate has affected AAPIs? Visit the Asian Resource Hub to find English and in-language service providers and advocacy groups that serve AAPIs across the country and learn more about the hatred against AAPI communities through data from multiple sources —national, public and nonprofit — to illustrate crucial facts about the AAPI population, incidents and impact.
