Happy New year from the SEARAC team! 2014 was a transformative year for policy impact, community activism, and organizational growth at SEARAC. These successes were made possible with committed engagement of local and national community partners, financial support from foundations, corporations, and individuals, and the tireless dedication of SEARAC board and staff members, volunteers and interns.

Join us to celebrate 14 ways that SEARAC made a difference for Southeast Asian American (SEAA) communities in 2014, and consider making a year-end donation today to build a firm foundation for more transformative work in 2015.

1	Introducing national education legislation - All Students Count Act

SEARAC and our partners worked with Representative Mike Honda (CA-17) to champion and introduce the All Students Count Act, a bill that will improve the quality of the data that schools, school districts, and states collect to measure student performance by disaggregating student data by race categories, including seven Asian American and four Pacific Islander sub categories.

2	Successful leadership transition

Early in 2014, Quyen Dinh became SEARAC's new Executive Director, our fourth ED since SEARAC's founding in 1979! Quyen brings to SEARAC great passion for educational equity, grounded experience as a community organizer and thoughtful policy advocate, unwavering commitment to social justice work, and a deep love for her community.

3	Welcoming a new team - staff and board members

Rita Pin Ahrens joined the SEARAC team as Director of Education Policy, Souvan Lee joined as Policy Associate, and Linh Chuong joined as an Americorps VISTA in our California office. SEARAC also welcomed Cynthia Brothers, Sharon Stanley-Rea, Nerou Cheng, and Sophal Ear to our Board of Directors.

4	Southeast Asian Young Men's Collaborative

SEARAC launched the Southeast Asian American Young Men's Collaborative together with leaders from Khmer Girls in Action, 1Love Movement, Stone Soup Fresno, and the Vietnamese Youth Development Center. The Collaborative was featured in a short video by Frontline Solutions.

5	Reuniting families faced with deportation orders - Hak family reunion

SEARAC successfully advocated with Members of Congress and the Department of Homeland Security to help Touch Hak secure a one-year delay of deportation, allowing him to reunite with his family after several years of incarceration. Touch requested the "stay of removal" so that he could donate his kidney to his brother Puthy, who suffers from kidney failure.

6	Building pipeline of national leaders - 14^th annual LAT

SEARAC's 14^th Annual Leadership and Advocacy Training brought a total of 46 participants, representing 30 community-based organizations and 12 states, to Washington, DC, to advocate with policymakers on behalf of their communities. This year's LAT also included a community rally for the All Students Count Act, where we were joined by 40 school children from the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia.

7	Revealing service and resource gaps barring SEAAs from accessing health insurance - "Covering ALL of California"

SEARAC released a report titled Covering ALL of California: Voices from Southeast Asian American Communities from the First Year of Covered California. The report presents lessons learned and recommendations for enrolling hard-to-reach community members during the first year of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, in California.

8	Teaming up with award-winning documentary - "Cambodian Son"

In partnership with DC APA Film Festival at the West End Cinema, SEARAC hosted a sold-out screening of the film "Cambodian Son," which explores the deportation of Cambodian American spoken word artist Kosal Khiev. The Phnom Penh-based filmmaker Mashiro Sugano spoke at the screening, along with members of the Southeast Asian Freedom Network.

9	Groundbreaking hearing highlights challenges and contributions of SEAA young men in California

On June 19, 2014, the California State Assembly's Select Committee on Boys and Men of Color hosted an historic hearing on entitled, "Widening the Lens on Boys and Men of Color: Assets, Opportunities & Challenges in California's Asian & Pacific American Communities," giving the Asian American and Pacific Islander community a unique opportunity to highlight the challenges and disparities that impact our boys and young men. Headlining the hearing were youth leaders of the Southeast Asian American Young Men's Collaborative.

10	Building network of SEAA California health leaders - SEAA Enrollment Summit

SEARAC held our first Southeast Asian Enrollment Summit in Sacramento, CA, bringing together ten community-based organizations to strategize and coordinate targeted health advocacy campaigns for our families facing serious linguistic and cultural barriers to accessing health care.

11	Cambodian American community featured in national PBS series - "Pass or Fail in Cambodia Town"

SEARAC's partners Khmer Girls in Action and the United Cambodian Coalition were featured in an episode of the series "America by the Numbers" by Maria Hinojosa, which reported the low high school completion rates by Cambodian American students in Long Beach, CA. SEARAC Executive Director Quyen Dinh joined a panel of experts at the Long Beach screening, attended by more than 300 community members including students, parents, and grandparents.

12	SEARAC's voice amplified in national media

SEARAC gained national coverage this year, from Touch Hak's successful case to stay with his family in California, to Rithy Yin and Clay Tolliver's passionate advocacy against deportation in Seattle, to the All Students Count Act, and our work on educational accountability, the achievement gap, and the highly qualified teachers.

	13	Building strength through multi-racial coalitions
		SEARAC brought a unique SEAA perspective to coalitions and campaigns where SEAA voices might have otherwise been missing, including the National Council for Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA), the Campaign for High School Equity, the Coalition for Teaching Quality, the Diverse Elders Coalition, and Detention Watch Network, as well as in meetings with top policy makers.

14	Expanding and strengthening local partnerships We strengthened our partnerships with strong SEAA community-based organizations across the country, and began new partnerships with the SEA3eD Coalition in Seattle, WA, and Fathers and Families of San Joaquin and APSARA in Stockton, CA.

The Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC) is a national organization that advances the interests of Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese Americans by empowering communities through advocacy, leadership development, and capacity building to create a socially just and equitable society. Find out more at www.searac.org.