Building Safety Through Story, Culture, and Cross-Generational Power

APILO’s Youth Advisory Committee at work

At API Legal Outreach (APILO), we believe that the work of ending violence must be deeply rooted in our relationships — across generations, across cultures, and across histories. This isn’t just a nice idea or a poetic frame. It’s a political commitment to breaking cycles of harm by listening to those who came before us, building with those around us now, and preparing a place for those who will come after.

This is what intergenerational organizing looks like — and why it’s core to our Youth Advisory Council (YAC). For decades, YAC has supported Asian and Pacific Islander youth to speak out against gender-based violence and reshape the conditions that make it possible. We do this not in isolation, but in community: with elders who hold ancestral knowledge, with parents and caregivers who are learning in real time, and with each other — young people leading, healing, and imagining together.

A recent Prism Reports article reminded us of the power of this approach. It profiled CAAAV in New York City, where elders in public housing are organizing alongside youth to fight displacement and neglect. The relationships being built in those tenant organizing meetings aren’t transactional — they’re transformational. Young people are translating and canvassing; elders are sharing histories and survival strategies. There is trust being built across age that defies the myth that generations are too far apart to work together.

That myth shows up everywhere: in how nonprofits silo programs by age group, in how school systems separate families from their children’s advocacy, in how we’re told to see elders as barriers rather than sources of wisdom. But we know better. Young people don’t need to reject their elders to organize — they need to be supported in building intergenerational power that reshapes our institutions, cultures, and possibilities.

At YAC, our approach to violence prevention is both intergenerational and culturally grounded. This means that instead of centering shame, we center the story. Instead of leading with punishment, we lead with possibility. Our young people use art, media, and cultural storytelling to talk about consent, relationships, safety, and love. And when we say culture, we don’t just mean tradition — we mean the ways we survive, resist, and connect.

Whether it’s through zines about queer and trans love, panels on healthy masculinity in Asian diasporas, or community care guidelines shaped by youth themselves, our work is about making prevention tangible. It’s also about making sure our elders — parents, aunties, chosen family — are not left out of the conversation. Because safety doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It lives in how we talk to one another at dinner, how we resolve conflict in our families, how we honor survivors in our communities, and how we remember where we come from.

The truth is: gender-based violence doesn’t begin or end with any one generation. So neither can our resistance.

We’re proud that YAC continues to be a place where youth are not only organizing — they’re organizing with vision, with clarity, and with the wisdom of those who walked before them. And in the face of rising attacks on our communities, that vision is more necessary than ever.

If you want to be part of this intergenerational, cultural, youth-led movement, we invite you to learn more, share our work, and build with us. Because the future we want? It’s not coming — we’re already creating it.

Learn more about YAC here.

Support the Work: Donate to Our API History Month Fundraiser

This month, we’re raising funds to sustain and expand YAC’s programming — from leadership stipends to art-based violence prevention workshops, from youth-led campaigns to intergenerational healing spaces. As public funding for culturally specific violence prevention shrinks, your support is more critical than ever.

You can make a contribution on our YAC campaign page here.

Help us grow the world our youth deserve — one rooted in culture, care, and collective power.

*****

If you are interested in connecting with YAC for collaborations and potential opportunities, please contact D Dagondon Tiegs, Youth Program Project Manager at dtiegs@apilegaloutreach.org.