MinKwon Center for Community Action & NAKASEC Joint Announcement

MinKwon Center for Community Action (MinKwon) and the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC) are thrilled to announce that MinKwon has officially rejoined the NAKASEC network as its New York affiliate.

Founded in 1984 by Korean American immigrant young people, MinKwon empowers the Korean American community and works with the wider Asian American and immigrant communities to achieve economic and social justice for all. MinKwon was a founding member of NAKASEC in 1994. NAKASEC’s mission is to organize Korean and Asian Americans to achieve social, racial and economic justice. 

Recognizing that we have more power to build a progressive Asian American community and create systemic changes at the city, state and federal levels for our most marginalized community members together, MinKwon and NAKASEC have rejoined forces. This marks an important moment both for our organizations and for our community, and especially meaningful against the growing anti-Asian and anti-immigrant sentiment sweeping the nation.

Yu Soung Mun, MinKwon Board President and founding member of NAKASEC stated, “Formerly known as the Young Korean American Service and Education Center (YKASEC), the MinKwon Center for Community Action’s reaffiliation with NAKASEC is historic and a major milestone in our organization’s history. For many in MinKwon’s leadership and board, this is more than a reaffiliation, but a reunion of grassroots activists and movement builders who organized together for decades, brought together by our late shared founder Yoon Han Bong. We have continued to be inspired by NAKASEC’s impact and relentless fight for immigrant rights, and we are excited to expand our focus and strategy to a more national level. We look forward to a bright future for the MinKwon Center, NAKASEC and its affiliates, and most importantly our immigrant communities.”

MinKwon’s executive director John Park stated, “There is not a single community based organization in the country that so closely mirrors the MinKwon Center’s mission, values, and commitment to building grassroots power in Korean and Asian American immigrant communities than NAKASEC. MinKwon’s reaffiliation and partnership with NAKASEC unequivocally increases our collective impact and strengthens our Korean American and immigrant communities, and this could not have come at a more critical time as we fight to ensure the dignity, equality, and rights of all 11 million undocumented immigrants with a path to citizenship.”

NAKASEC’s Board Chair, Ju Hong, remarked, “Having MinKwon rejoin the NAKASEC network is a movement forward in unifying our community and progressive movement. We are in a moment in history where we have the opportunity to win citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants, of whom 2 million are Asian American, and address the increasing anti-Asian hate. Unity at this moment is more critical than ever, and we are so excited to reunite with MinKwon in this effort.”

“As New York is one of the epicenters of the Asian American community in the country, MinKwon’s reaffiliation with NAKASEC grows our power as an Asian American and immigrant community, “ stated NAKASEC’s executive director, Becky Belcore. “Our organizations share the same vision, values and commitment to movement building. We are extremely excited to have MinKwon officially back in our network and look forward to all that we will accomplish together.”

The NAKASEC network also includes Woori Center in Pennsylvania, NAKASEC VA in Virginia, HANA Center in Chicago, the Korean American Voters League in Texas and the Korean Resource Center in southern California. NAKASEC network partners all engage our most marginalized community members including the low-income, recent immigrant, limited English proficient, undocumented, women, seniors and LGBTQ+ community members in community organizing, advocacy, and civic engagement to build progressive power for the long-term.