Who is APEN?
Building the power of Asian immigrant and refugee communities.
Our History
Asian Pacific Environmental Network is an environmental justice organization with deep roots in California’s Asian immigrant and refugee communities. Since 1993, we’ve built a membership base of Laotian refugees in Richmond and Chinese immigrants in Oakland. Together, we’ve fought and won campaigns to make our communities healthier, just places where people can thrive.
Mission
All people have a right to a clean and healthy environment in which their communities can live, work, learn, play and thrive. Towards this vision, APEN brings together a collective voice to develop an alternative agenda for environmental, social and economic justice.
Through building an organized movement, we strive to bring fundamental changes to economic and social institutions that will prioritize public good over profits and promote the right of every person to a decent, safe, affordable quality of life, and the right to participate in decisions affecting our lives. APEN holds this vision of environmental justice for all people. Our work focuses on Asian immigrant and refugee communities.
Vision
Our communities are stronger than the crises that threaten us. Together, we’re building a world where all people have the resources they need to live full, dignified lives.
APEN is leading a transition away from an extractive economy based on profit and pollution and toward local, healthy, and life-sustaining economies that benefit everyone.
We’re building community-owned renewable energy resources to power our neighborhoods, protecting affordable housing so that our historic cultural communities can stay together, creating a local economy of cooperatives owned and governed by community members, and taking back control of our democracy.
Our Approach
Our work is grounded in the leadership of immigrant and refugee community members, who know that to win what our communities deserve, we have to build power at many levels and in many ways.
Diagram caption: 1. Start with the experience & knowledge of the participants 2. Identify Patterns 3. Add new information and theory linked to the patterns in what people know 4. Practice skills, strategize, & plan for action 5. Apply what’s been learned in the world.
The heart of our work is bringing together Asian immigrants and refugees in Oakland, Richmond and Los Angeles to advance solutions to the issues that matter most to them. We believe that everyone can develop their leadership, and people come to this work as both teachers and learners. Working with multiple generations of Asian Americans in multiple dialects and languages, APEN plays a critical role in developing the leadership of our communities.
At the state level, we’re engaging with immigrant and refugee voters in their languages to advance our shared vision. We are organizing in the communities that politicians and political parties too often ignore, and we are winning groundbreaking policies that put working-class communities of color first.
Along the way, we’ve formed deep relationships with organizations around the country that are taking on similar challenges and putting power back where it belongs—in the hands of our communities.
Together, we’re building a movement powerful enough to make justice inevitable.
Where We Work
We have offices in Oakland Chinatown, Downtown Oakland, and Richmond.
Find us in
your neighborhood!
Our Office Locations
Downtown Oakland
Our Main Office (Downtown Oakland)
1212 Broadway, Suite 200
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: (510) 834-8920
Fax: (510) 834-8926
Email: info@apen4ej.org
Transportation and Accessibility Info
Taking public transit? We are located 1 block away from the 12th Street/Oakland City Center BART station, and close to many AC Transit bus lines including the 1, 62, 40, 51A, 88, or the free Broadway Shuttle.
Planning to drive? There is limited metered parking nearby or park at several nearby paid garages, including the Oakland City Center Parking Garage 1 block away on 14th St.
Accessibility: Our downtown office building has an elevator and wide enough halls and doorways for wheelchair users. Doors open manually, and a security guard on-site can assist visitors with opening doors during weekday work hours.
Richmond
Our Richmond Office
3060 Hilltop Mall Road
Richmond, CA 94806
Phone: (510) 236-4616
Transportation and Accessibility Info
Taking public transit? Get off at the Richmond Bart station and catch the AC Transit line 76 (Richmond Parkway TC Via C C College Birmingham Drive) and stop at Shane Dr & Gilma Dr. Our office is about a 9 minute walk.
Planning to drive? There's a free parking lot in front of our office.
Accessibility: Our Richmond office has limited accessibility for people who use wheelchairs. There are no steps, and our restroom is not wheelchair accessible.
Wilmington (LA)
Our Wilmington Office
117 E Anaheim Street
Wilmington, CA 90744
Transportation and Accessibility Info
Taking public transit? The Metro lines 232, 246, DASH Wilmington will get you within a few blocks or closer to our office.
Planning to drive? There’s a free parking lot in the back of our building with limited parking spaces or there is metered parking nearby.
Accessibility: Our Wilmington office has no steps. There are ADA accessible bathrooms in our office. Doors open manually.
