Grantee Partner Response to COVID-19: API&!

API& is a group of self-identifying queer Asian Pacific Islanders based in Brooklyn who come together to center API identity by building community and healing since 2015. Support networks and discussion forums for trauma survivors are critical. API& is switching workshops to a virtual format amid the COVID-19 shutdown. A solid channel for online communication is more essential than ever -- racial violence is increasing against Asian and Pacific Islanders. At a recent online workshop, API& collaborated with a Vietnamese-American organization to create a safe forum, where members told stories about individual traumas and ancestral trauma caused by war, poverty, immigration hardships, and interpersonal violence.