About

The Asian Pacific Islander Community Leadership Foundation (ACLF) is a community-based, nonprofit organization that trains and supports the leadership of Asian Pacific Islanders (API) with a commitment to social justice, community empowerment and public service.

ACLF’s purpose is to provide an environment which fosters the development of individual leadership, community strength, and inter-community unity to promote issues critical to API’s. The key components of our organization include leadership training, political empowerment, community organizing, and mentorship. ACLF is non-partisan and involves any API community interested in participating.

HISTORY
In December 6, 1998, a group of community leaders from different organizations and government offices met to discuss the need for an organization that could serve a growing need: the ability to train and nurture emerging leaders. This group developed a framework for a program to nurture leaders, who embrace values of community and social justice, to affect social change through proactive, principle practice. The founding committee adopted a mission statement and began to lay down the ideas that would lead to the founding ACLF. ACLF had its first Community Leadership Program class in 1999-2000 and has had one every year since then.

Mission

Build individual and community leadership that:

• Promotes greater economic, social and political justice.
• Develops and mentors ethical, highly-skilled, and caring API leaders.
• Strengthens the unique and diverse voices of the united API community in the democratic process.

Objectives

• To prepare API’s for leadership positions in the public, private, political, and non-profit sectors.
• To strengthen API influence in the democratic process.
• To increase API involvement in civic participation.

Core values

• Equity
• Community
• Social and political justice
• Asian Pacific Islanders must be represented in all echelons of business, academics, government, nonprofit and political sectors.