Fundraiser for Summer Youth Leadership Program
You can help middle school kids learn leadership skills, take on community and environmental issues, and have a fun summer!
Please help us raise funds for AAU’s summer youth program! You can:
- Become a member of AAU
- Make a donation to AAU to support this important program
To get involved, call AAU at 215-925-1538 or email esomekawa@mac.com.
DONATE TO AAU!
If you give to your workplace’s United Way Campaign, you can target your gift to AAU.
AAU’s United Way Donor Choice #00400
Thank you for your support!
FOLK ARTS-CULTURAL TREASURES CHARTER SCHOOL
The Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School (FACTS) celebrated its grand opening ceremony at its new building – and also AAU’s new home – at 1023 Callowhill Street last fall. The building represents one of the first investments of public dollars into the 140-year-old Chinatown community.
After years of dreaming, planning, and organizing, AAU in partnership with the Philadelphia Folklore Project won a charter for FACTS on March 9, 2005. The school opened in September 2005 and realizes an alternative vision of education rooted in community and folk arts as vehicles for academic learning and social change. With a multiracial student body and innovative academic programs such as Singapore Math, the school provides a nurturing, culturally rich learning environment for diverse children and families.
AAU has worked for more than two decades in the Philadelphia public schools to fight for quality education opportunities for Asian American and immigrant students and families. The charter school came out of the desire of many of our constituents for a school that that would respond to the needs of immigrant children and would serve as a public resource to the Chinatown community.
FACTS was won with the support of over a thousand petitioners, dozens of organizations that wrote letters of support, and hundreds of people who attended public hearings. Those who mobilized in support of the school included Fujianese leaders and Chinatown community organizations, allies from our multiracial/multiethnic South Philadelphia work, alumni from AAU’s youth programs, veterans of AAU’s Chinatown Parents’ Association, folk artists, and citywide allies.
As the school continues to grow, AAU looks forward to helping support and build an institution which functions as a place of learning and growth and of building community not only for FACT children and families but also the broader communities in which we work.