About the Vincent Chin Institute
The Vincent Chin Institute was founded in 2023 to continue the mission and work of the past 40 years of movement and building solidarity against anti-Asian violence and all forms of hate.
Today, the Vincent Chin Institute creates intergenerational resources for the support, education and empowerment of Asian Pacific American communities to stand against bigotry and to build the beloved community, especially in areas where there is little advocacy infrastructure.
In the opinion of our expert network, the current period of anti-Asian hate is likely to continue for several years—so it is even more imperative for our historical expertise and memory to be passed on in a systematic, constructive and cohesive manner. Learn about our mission and guiding principles.
Read Vincent’s story and learn about the Birth of our Movement.
OUR MISSION
The Vincent Chin Institute was founded with the goal of bringing Asian Pacific Americans and other vulnerable communities together to fight anti-Asian violence and all forms of hate. This is our mission:
To provide informational resources, empowerment tools and networks of veteran APA organizers to communities where there is limited Asian Pacific American advocacy infrastructure.
To build networks of local activists and a generation of established leaders from around the country who wish to use their expertise where they can be most effective in countering anti-Asian bigotry.
To strengthen and advance Asian Pacific American communities and amplify APA voices locally and nationally to bridge both organizing, networks and narrative connectivity between multiple sectors.
Photo: Vincent Chin, Courtesy of The Estate of Vincent and Lily Chin
WHAT WE DOVCI engages seasoned activists to share their expertise with local communities to support, educate and mobilize a new generation to build solidarity and fight anti-Asian hate. Together, we will:
Establish a national network of veteran community leaders who are willing and able to provide support, expertise and servant leadership to incident areas where there is little advocacy infrastructure. Such collaborative networks can form a connective tissue between local, regional and national groups.
Create narratives that integrate historical lessons with contemporary anti-Asian hate that amplify the multiethnic, multiracial, cross class and inter-faith organizing of the Vincent Chin legacy that is rooted in the Black Civil Rights movement.
Provide education via multiple and multilingual channels VCI-created tools, such as Crisis Communications FAQ, Crisis Funding FAQ, and the Vincent Chin Legacy Guide to reach K-12 as well as adults in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution’s APAC and many others.
With these focused program areas, the Vincent Chin Institute will play a vital role in making critical linkages for underserved API communities and today’s generation of committed API organizations with the strategic lessons from historical Asian American organizing. In doing so, the VCI aims to inspire new generations of community leadership with the Vincent Chin legacy.
PRINCIPLESWe are a fundamentally collaborative network dedicated to supporting and uniting others working toward the same goals. These are our guiding principles:
Our work is to bring the marginalized Asian American communities to the center.
The Institute can serve as an intergenerational connective tissue to reach and address Asian Americans who are unserved or critically underserved.
That to work collaboratively is to address needs that have not been met and support others who are doing beautiful work in adjacent areas.
That together we are so much more than the sum of our parts.
OUR VALUES
Our values run through all of the work we undertake on behalf of the pan-Asian movement. They are:
Integrity
Honesty
Accountability
Generosity
Inclusion
A Message From Helen Zia on Behalf of the Vincent & Lily Chin Estate
“Today's anti-Asian hate has uncanny parallels to the anti-Asian hate of the 1980s. The Vincent Chin movement’s founding principles are the legacy of solidarity: in 1983, we declared our commitment to equal justice FOR ALL and a stand against racism and discrimination OF ANY KIND.
As Vincent’s mother Lily courageously said on national television, “Our skin color is different, but our blood is the same.” The Vincent Chin Institute continues the Vincent Chin movement’s legacy to advance the ideals of equal justice, solidarity against racism and hate, and a commitment to the right all families and communities to live in safety, without fear of violence.”
— Helen Zia, Executor, Estate of Lily and Vincent Chin