Civic Engagement

Civic engagement is about building power within the community, and at HAWA, we work to build power within our Southeast Asian women, girls and queer-fem folx through providing citizenship services, mutual aid and grass-roots organizing. It is through building capacity in these three areas that we promote the leadership of our women, girls and queer-fem leaders to help shape a world in which they can be free of violence and injustice.

Grass-roots Organizing

Before 2018, door-to-door canvassing and voter registration in the Milwaukee Southeast Asian community was almost non-existent. Issues of language and culture barriers made it difficult for mainstream organizations to connect with potential Southeast Asian voters. With the launch of our civic engagement work in 2018, HAWA has built the capacity to:

Knock on over 5,000 Asian American doors and have conversations in Hmong, Chin and Karen about local and national elections, as well as the Census and other relevant issues.
Register over 300 individuals in the 2018, 2019 and 2020 election cycles, including 35 brand new voters through our citizenship pipeline.
Call over 10,000 Asian American phone numbers and provide information on upcoming elections.
Pledged over 1,000 individuals to vote and fill out the Census in 2020

Our movement building work is only possible through the generous support of individuals, organizational partners and foundations.

SAFETY EXIT

Other HAWA Programs

Queer Roots Space

SAY MKE Leadership Program

SAY MKE Camp

HMONG AMERICAN WOMEN'S ASSOCIATION, INC.

The Hmong American Women’s Association (HAWA), Inc. is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1993 by a group of thirteen community women who had a strong passion to advocate, organize and share concerns reflected by women in the larger Hmong community.