Woven Together

INSIGHTS INTO GEORGIA’s AAPI COMMUNITIES

Woven Together is more than research — it’s a community building effort to strengthen and connect Georgia’s AAPI communities. By lifting up our voices and weaving together our experiences, we can create a roadmap to build power and shape a hopeful, thriving future where everyone in Georgia can flourish.

Understanding This Moment

Georgia’s AAPI communities are facing a defining moment — one that will shape the South and the nation for a generation.
As the 2024 elections close out and a new political era begins, the return of Trump to the White House has intensified attacks on immigrant, Muslim, and working-class families at levels unseen in modern history.

In August 2024, over 400 immigrant workers were detained in the Hyundai plant raids across West Point — the largest workplace immigration raid in U.S. history, with nearly 300 AAPI workers impacted. Families were separated overnight, local economies destabilized, and fear rippled through Asian and immigrant communities across the South. Coupled with ongoing uncertainty around H-1B visas and a resurgence of anti-Asian rhetoric, our communities are facing threats that have quadrupled in scope and intensity — while remaining largely invisible in public discourse.

Woven Together was created for this moment. A community-rooted, data-driven project, it helps us understand who we are, what we need, and how we build power that lasts — in Georgia and beyond.

With AAPI voters poised to determine close races at the local, state, and national levels next year — from city councils to the U.S. Senate — investing in deep understanding is one of the most powerful acts of long-term strategy.
Through Woven Together, we’re building the knowledge, relationships, and shared strategy needed to sustain AAPI political and civic power well beyond a single election — creating the foundation for lasting, systemic change across Georgia and the South.

WHY THIS MATTERS

The findings from Woven Together will provide policymakers, organizers, educators, and advocates — as well as civic and electoral leaders — with the insight needed to drive real change and long-term systemic impact.
By centering Georgia’s AAPI communities, the project helps translate community priorities into the policies, organizing strategies, and power-building efforts that shape our state’s future.

The report will help:

• Strengthen programs, outreach, and community organizing efforts that engage AAPI Georgians year-round — not only during election cycles

• Inform electoral strategies grounded in the real needs and priorities of our communities, helping turn engagement into lasting political power

• Align initiatives across organizations to build sustainable infrastructure for advocacy and civic participation

• Amplify AAPI voices in decision-making spaces — from local school boards and city councils to the State Capitol — where we have historically been underrepresented

Ultimately, Woven Together is about more than data — it’s about building durable, people-centered power. By turning insight into action, Woven Together ensures that the priorities, experiences, and leadership of Georgia’s AAPI communities drive strategy, investment, and long-term systemic change across the state.

OUR APPROACH

Woven Together is built on connection — between data and stories, between local leaders and statewide advocates, and between community insight and long-term strategy. Our approach combines quantitative research with deep listening and collaboration across Georgia’s growing AAPI advocacy ecosystem.

Digging Into the Data

We’re analyzing voter files, census data, and community reports to understand who makes up Georgia’s AAPI population — and how our demographics, needs, and power are shifting.

This data-driven foundation helps us identify both the opportunities and disparities shaping AAPI life across Georgia, informing everything from policy priorities to voter engagement strategies.

Listening to Our Communities

Numbers only tell part of the story. Through focus groups, we’ll hear directly from AAPI Georgians about what matters most, what challenges they face, and how they want to see change happen.
Focus groups will explore:

• Political engagement and influences

• Community priorities and issue resonance

• Outreach preferences and motivation for civic participation

Accessibility is woven throughout this process — with multilingual materials, culturally responsive facilitation, and inclusive engagement practices to ensure every voice can be heard and represented authentically.

COMMUNITY LEADER CONVERSATIONS

Alongside community conversations, Woven Together will include in-depth stakeholder interviews with leaders, organizers, and advocates across Georgia’s AAPI landscape.
These interviews will:

• Capture insights from those shaping advocacy, civic participation, and service delivery on the ground

• Highlight shared priorities and emerging needs across different ethnic, generational, and geographic AAPI communities

• Strengthen relationships and alignment across organizations, coalitions, and leaders working toward justice and equity

By combining lived experience with institutional perspective, the project bridges community voices with organizational strategy — ensuring that both inform the policy recommendations and long-term impact.

PARTNERING WITH GRASSROOTS leaders

It will take the full strength of Georgia’s AAPI advocacy network to meet this moment. In a time of heightened attacks on immigrants, rising disinformation, and national efforts to divide our communities, Georgia continues to stand at the center of the fight for democracy and representation.

It will take the full strength of Georgia’s AAPI advocacy network to bring this vision to life.

Woven Together is designed as a collaborative project — one that connects grassroots and grasstops organizations, community coalitions, and trusted leaders through shared learning and collective visioning.

Through these partnerships, we aim to:

• Build alignment around shared goals and data-informed strategies

• Create a statewide ecosystem of AAPI organizations that can coordinate, not compete, for visibility and resources

• Ensure findings translate into real-world advocacy, policy, and electoral action

This isn’t a one-time assessment — it’s the foundation for lasting power-building. By working together, Georgia’s AAPI communities can turn insight into sustained action, driving systemic change that endures beyond a single election or report.

Get Involved

For Partners:

• Help recruit participants who bring trusted voices and lived experiences into the room.

• Share your knowledge of community dynamics and outreach strategies.

• Amplify the importance of this project through your networks.

For Community Members:

• Join a focus group and share your perspective. Click below on a focus group scheduled for the upcoming weeks!

• Bring your story, your concerns, and your vision for the future of Georgia’s AAPI communities.

• Help shape the strategies, campaigns, and advocacy that will serve your community for years to come.