The mission of the Chinese Youth Initiative is to develop youth leadership in the Chinese American community.  We strive to accomplish this goal by cultivating awareness about the issues facing Chinese Americans and providing youth with experience in grassroots community organizing.

Check out the CYI Blog at http://aaiya.tumblr.com/

What is Chinese Youth Initiative (CYI)?

Since 1994, CYI has brought together Chinese American youth from all over the Boston area. Sponsored by the Chinese Progressive Association, the program’s mission is to develop and involve youth leadership in the Chinese American community. We strive to accomplish this goal through cultivating awareness around Chinese American issues and providing youth with experience in grassroots community organizing.

CYI was started with the notion that, if given guidance, opportunity, and experience in making a difference, many youth would want to better understand our society and create positive change in their communities. We empower youth through education, leadership skills development, and taking action!

Summer Internship

CYI hosts a seven week paid summer internship that provides high school students with the opportunity to get involved in the Chinatown community. The first half of the program focuses on educating the interns on both the history of Boston’s Chinatown and current issues facing the community. Interns develop leadership skills and explore their identities as Chinese/Asian Americans through a series of workshops, discussions, videos, guest speakers, and site visits. During the final weeks of the program, interns apply what they have learned to create a final group project that positively impacts the Chinatown community. (Application and interview process required.)

Past projects have included:

• Organizing a Chinatown Recreation Day to publicize the need for community space in Chinatown
• Developing and conducting a campaign to increase community access to the new Chinatown YMCA
• Conducting a survey of Asian youth needs and interests;
• Initiating a community-wide campaign to bring back a Chinatown branch of the Boston Public Library back to Chinatown
• Working with the Chinese Progressive Association to increase voter registration among the Chinatown residents
• Organizing “Fresh Off the Vote,” a youth forum on voting and civic participation
• Producing and directing “Chinatown Through Our Eyes… Young Voices”, a teen documentary that explores the many issues facing Chinatown and its residents from a youth perspective.
• Organizing and designing an art exhibit in the W/Y Gallery focused on the development in the Chinatown community.
• Coordinating a community-wide clean-up to promote the placement of public recycling receptacles throughout Chinatown called “Project Blue Bin.”   
• Organizing the “Chinatown Library Project;” a mock library in the Gateway Park to build membership and awareness in support of the Chinatown Library Campaign.

Year-Round Program

Chinese Youth Initiative’s year-round program is open to ALL youth who want to get involved with the Chinatown community. As a member of CYI, you will be given new opportunities to organize and develop your leadership. It will also be a great opportunity to meet other young people who are inspired to make change. Our year-round program consists of a paid internship, a youth steering committee and other youth volunteers.

CYI Steering Committee:

The CYI Steering Committee consists of high school student volunteers. We believe in a youth-led program, so this group is formed to involve young people in the decision making process of the program. Meeting once a month, the group discusses the direction and vision of CYI and also works on various projects and campaigns.  Currently CYI is focused on organizing around the Chinatown Library Campaign while supporting other youth organizations and city-wide campaigns.

Current CYI Projects:

• AAIYA!: The Asian American Initiative for Youth Action (AAIYA!) is a blog designed by our youth that covers news, CYI updates, local events and much more! Check it out at http://aaiya.tumblr.com/
• Library Campaign Documentary Project: CYI is creating a documentary for the Chinatown Library Campaign. We explore the history of the Chinatown Library, why we need one, what it will look like, and how we will get one.
• Events: This committee coordinates political, educational and social events. Recent events have included creating a mock library in the Chinatown Gateway Park, organizing a city-wide youth snowball fight, attending youth jobs rallies, coordinating movie nights, and holding educational workshops.
• Chinatown Bike-A-Thon: In CYI’s annual fundraiser, we promote healthy activity, investment in youth, and solidarity as we ride through the bike paths of Boston.  We welcome any sponsors and interested riders!
• Youth Jobs Campaign: CYI supports the city-wide youth jobs campaign by attending rallies, hearings and other meetings.

Year-Round Internship:

We provide paid internships for youth from our summer program to work with our youth coordinator to organize programs, campaigns, and projects for high school students.

Join the Chinese Youth Initiative Facebook group for more updates or e-mail our youth coordinator at laurence at cpaboston.org (“@” has been replaced by “at” in the e-mail address to avoid spam)