Support AAFE Youth Center Launch in Flushing!

UPDATE 8.14.19
Thank you to everyone who have donated to our fundraiser! We have amazing news! AAFE will be matching all online donations from Today, August 14th to Carnival day, Saturday August 17th, up to $5,000! Now your donations will now be doubled!!! Please consider sharing this fundraiser to your network to ensure we reach our goal of $5,000 by August 17th!

Who We Are and What We Do

Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving Asian Americans and all those in need since 1974. AAFE provides a wide range of community services, covering housing, immigration, and other quality-of-life issues. 

Since its inception, AAFE’s Youth and Family Development team has put thousands of low-income youth of color on the path towards post-secondary success and provided them access to our network of community leaders and social justice activists, opening unimaginable doors for them. Now it’s time for us to open the doors of our Union Street office to them as well. We are transforming our old Union Street office into a Youth Center!



Why We Need Your Help

Our vision is to create a space where youth have a second home where they can build a community with each other and with our larger Flushing community. We want the space to be multipurpose and filled with couches, a library, a technology lab, and other resources.

And we need your help to build this space! We are raising funds to put towards developing this space that will fulfill our goal of making our youth center feel comfortable and safe.

AAFE Youth Team's summer youth have organized a special "Candy Land Carnival Fun-raiser" to raise $5,000 in two weeks!
 
Help us meet our goal!

Our Backstory 

We have always welcomed youth into the Union St office we shared with AAFE’s incredible immigration, benefits, workforce development, and small business/loan services teams. After school, kids would make the trek to the corner of the second-floor designated as the Youth team’s workspace. Some days they would come to attend informative workshops prepared by our team, some days they would come for one-on-one meetings with our counselors, and most days, they would come just to hang out. 


Our space situation was far from ideal. Workshops were held in the basement and we had to shuttle heavy educational materials back and forth from our second floor. When the demand for counseling sessions ran high, we had no space for a designated waiting room, so our youth had to wait in the hallways. When the youth came to our Union St office, they didn’t have a space for themselves.

But as challenging as the spatial logistics were, our Youth and Family Development team always wanted the youth to come to visit us any time they were free. We wanted to provide them a safe space to build peer relationships with the community members we aimed to serve! 


An Opportunity to Upgrade 

With the recent opening of AAFE’s 100% affordable building complex, One Flushing, many of our teams have moved to a new location at 41st Avenue. This has given us a unique opportunity to create a special youth center. We decided to dedicate our second floor for our youth!

Gone are the days of limited room and crowded hallways. The AAFE Youth team wants to transform our second floor into a multipurpose hangout space! This space will include: 

A workshop/ studying area
A library
A technology lab
A hangout spot



Our Thank You

Any donation will be greatly appreciated. To express our thanks, the AAFE Youth and Family Development team and AAFE youth would like to offer gifts to our donors! 

Please also fill out this form to redeem the gift(s): https://forms.gle/rNHscRXErTGKYPN26


$5  
- Admission to our Carnival Fundraiser-

Join us for our Carnival Fundraiser on Saturday, August 17th from 12pm-3pm at our One Flushing Office!


$15
- Origami heart message -

Send us your name and a message and we’ll transcribe your message into a paper heart that we will then use to decorate the walls of our new youth hangout space! 


$25 
- AAFE Youth button pin (designed by an AAFE youth) -

Display your AAFE pride anywhere: on your sleeve, on your tote, etc!


$50
- Homemade thank you card and button -

Our youth will make you a card and write you a personal thank you message!


$75
- AAFE water bottle -

Stay hydrated with an AAFE water bottle!


$100
- AAFE limited edition screen-printed tote bag and water bottle -

You’re carrying AAFE’s renovation project, so let us help you carry your belongings! You’ll receive an AAFE tote bag screen printed by one of our youths, in addition to an AAFE reusable water bottle. 


$150
- Flushing gentrification tour -

Come explore the history and gentrification of Flushing!



Thank you for your support!