What We Do

Civic Participation

The MinKwon Center's Civic Participation Program, established in 2004, plays a critical role in building a strong base of empowered Korean American and immigrant community members in New York City by mobilizing the community towards active and engaged civic participation. We believe that low-income, immigrant, and Asian American community members should not be disenfranchised, but instead should be empowered, informed, and active in holding our elected officials accountable.  

The Korean American, Asian American, and immigrant communities in New York face many obstacles to full, active civic participation.  More than three-quarters of Korean Americans are foreign born, and nearly 60% of Korean-speaking residents are limited-English-proficient (LEP).  The U.S. political system is often difficult to navigate for these newcomers.  Election information is often not readily available in other languages, and many immigrants face discrimination at the poll sites - being physically pulled out of the voting booths, asked to prove citizenship, and prevented from entering the booth with an interpreter.  All of these factors discourage immigrant civic participation.

Educating, Mobilizing, and Protecting – MinKwon Center Civic Participation Initiatives
Our civic participation initiatives seek to fight against community disenfranchisement by engaging a diverse base of new citizens through intensive voter registration efforts - yet we take these further by educating our community on pressing community issues, creating valuable voter resources, and engaging in them in large-scale mobilization and organizing efforts to ensure active participation.  Our efforts include:  
-    Voter Registration: We have registered nearly 10,000 new voters every year through street outreach, registration drives, one-on-one meetings, and other methods.
-    Voter Research: In 2004, we created the first-ever database of Korean American voters in New York City, compiling a list of over 28,000 Korean American voters.  This database is updated on a yearly basis, and is a powerful tool for our mobilization/education efforts.
-    Voter Education: The MinKwon Center annually organizes a candidate forum around Asian American issues for local political candidates in the greater Flushing area – often the only such candidate forum for the Asian American community.  In 2009, the MinKwon Center held a candidate forum for District 20 City Council candidates that drew over 300 community members.
-    Voter Mobilization: We engage in an intensive, comprehensive effort of phone-banking, door-knocking, and leafleting to mobilize and organize our community members to participate in elections.  In 2008, the MinKwon Center launched the first-ever nonpartisan door-knocking/canvassing effort in Flushing, knocking on nearly 800 voters’ doors.  We also supplement this by making thousands of Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) calls through our phone-banking efforts.
-    Voter Assistance: The MinKwon Center annually runs a Korean-Language Voter Hotline (the major Korean-language hotline in the city) to assist voters on important election information, such as helping voters identify poll sites and obtain the status of their registrations.
-    Voter Protection: The MinKwon Center annually coordinates a voter protection/exit poll survey effort, together with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.  Each year, we engage approximately 1,000 Asian American voters in exit poll surveys to track and ensure the protection of voters’ rights.

The MinKwon Center continues to work collaboratively with other voter empowerment groups in New York City.  In 2008, we co-founded the “Voice Your Vote NY” Coalition; the first Asian American coalition of voting groups to coordinates voter efforts to empower the Asian American voting population.  We continue to work with the New York Immigration Coalition as a leading member of their “Democracy in Action! 2009 Civic Participation Campaign.”  The Project also continues to participate in voter empowerment coalitions as a steering committee member of the Asian Pacific American Voter Alliance (APAVA).
The MinKwon Center believes that civic participation is deeply linked to our long-term social justice vision rooted in grassroots community work and collaborative action.  As the major Korean American advocacy and organizing group in New York, we have led numerous campaigns and coalitions on issues such as comprehensive immigration reform, fighting for a fair budget, and combating hate crimes.  Our civic participation work will continue to be closely connected with our grassroots organizing work in order to garner more support for our campaigns and strengthen our base of active community members.  This connection is integral as we put our vision for lasting, fundamental change into community action.