Southeast Asian Youth Empowerment: Lessons and Models of a Cambodian Youth Project in Lowell Massachusetts

Presenters: Chanvon Mom, Cambodian American student, University of Massachusetts, Boston; Chan Sgnoun, Project Coordinator, Youth Project, Lowell, MA; Trinh Nguyen, Director, Coalition for Asian Pacific American Youth, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Chanvon Mom was a previous program participant in 1997-1998. She was the lead organizer of the Youth Leadership Project. As an alumni, Chanvon gives workshops, trainings and facilitates meetings for the 1999-2000 program participants. She is the founder and organizer of youth groups and many ground-breaking community projects such as the Cambodian Student Organization at the University of Massachusetts Boston and parent orientations.

Trinh Nguyen is the Director of the Coalition for Asian American Youth (CAPAY), a statewide youth run organization that promotes bold and innovative youth leadership for development models. She is currently supporting youth development projects in the greater Boston area, Worcester, and Lowell, MA. She also works with progressive foundations and philanthropists to invest in youth leadership development and social change.

Chan Sgnoun is currently a Project Coordinator for the Youth Leadership Project at Lowell high School, and a Coordinator of Lowell’s Community Charter School. He has experience working with Southeast Asian and Latino youth in the city of Lowell. Chan has presented on numerous panels on issues of youth leadership, parent involvement, and ending racism in schools.

The purpose of the is presentation is to share a model of and lessons learned from a high school based, youth leadership development project in Lowell, Massachusetts. Lowell is the second largest Cambodian American community in the U.S. with over 25,000 Cambodian residents. Despite the growing Southeast Asian communities in Lowell, culturally relevant youth leadership for development resources is minimal.

The youth leadership project in Lowell was initiated by Southeast Asian youth and supported by the coalition for Asian Pacific American youth (CAPAY) in 1998. After two years, the project has increased youth civic participation in the community, supported youth-led activism to improve the quality of education in Lowell high school, built cross-cultural coalitions, and increased parent involvement in school and youth issues. We would like to share strategies and advocacy activities of the project by coordinating a panel that focuses on the following:

These activities/projects were organized by youth with the assistance of young adults (ages 18-26). The success of the model depended on the education to practice approach that we used. There were lessons learned about limited resources, generational and cultural conflicts. We would like to share these lessons and stories with the participants and create a dialogue on how we can channel appropriate resources for building the next generation of leaders and activists