7 awesome activities for a Virtual AAPI Heritage Month celebration at work
May is Asian American and Pacific Island Heritage Month and comprises a series of events to honor the contributions, influence, and achievements of Asian Americans and Pacific Island Americans to society. Previously, there have been a host of physical activities to commemorate the month, but many remote teams are figuring out for the first time how to celebrate virtually. Thankfully, there are many virtual activities we can do as teams to celebrate this amazing community. Whether you are looking to educate friends and family or want to create awareness and highlight the contributions of the AAPI community at work, here are creative activities to have a successful virtual AAPI Heritage Month celebration.
Educate your team about the AAPI community
Educating your team about Asian and Pacific Island Americans is one of the best ways to understand the community’s experiences at work and in every facet of life, and to learn about their contributions to American society. One of the best places to start is the Smithsonian’s Asia Pacific American Center, which has a host of resources on the community’s history, culture, music, and cuisine among others. As a team, you can also create virtual reading clubs during the month to explore books and other online resources that highlight the contributions of the AAPI community. And your team’s learning shouldn’t stop here. You can ask coworkers who identify as Asian and Pacific Islander Americans to share their experiences working with the team or living in America (only if they volunteer to do so, but they shouldn’t be compelled to). There are many other resources, such as TV shows and podcasts, that your team can also engage with to learn about the AAPI community.
Host exciting and educational trivia and puzzle games
One way to educate your remote employees about the AAPI community while having fun is to include trivia and puzzle games. Teams can create interesting learning sessions by using online trivia or word puzzles on Bar None Games to create questions and interesting puzzle games around the AAPI community. Some areas to explore would include the history of the AAPI community in America, their culture, cuisine, music, and anything that will create awareness and educate your team members.
Reach out and support the AAPI community
Aside from making efforts to learn, the month of May is also a time you should set aside to reach out and listen to co-workers and friends who identify as AAPI and offer help in any way possible. It’s also a good time to review your company’s diversity and inclusion policies to ensure that it doesn’t discriminate against the AAPI community or any other member of your organization. Whether you’re a remote team of five employees or a large conglomerate, this is a month to listen, be empathetic, and take steps to tackle inequalities within the work environment.
Use your digital channels to celebrate AAPI culture
By using your company’s digital channels, join the rest of Americans to celebrate the beautiful history, language, and culture of the Asian and Pacific Islander community. Some of the best ways to do this are to follow and share AAPI events and celebrations online, share content from AAPI thought leaders or get a historian to publish an educational post about the community on your company’s blog. This effort will help create awareness and help spark conversations about the community either at work or through social media.
Support an AAPI community-focused nonprofit
There are many charities, nonprofits, and philanthropists that work to support the education, development, and rights of the AAPI community in America. Use this month as an opportunity to support a few of these organizations by volunteering as a team or donating money, books, and other resources to help their efforts. From the Asian American Government Executives Network and the Asian American Journalist Association to the Center for Asian Pacific American Women, there are a lot of nonprofits to choose from.
Support an AAPI entrepreneur or business
The pandemic has slowed down businesses and the Asian and Pacific Islanders in America are among the most affected groups. You can do your part to help revive these businesses by ordering from them, promoting their businesses on your social media channels during the month, or helping them in their fundraising efforts.
Invite an external speaker
Inviting an external speaker at least once during the AAPI Month is a great way to talk to the team about the community’s culture and contributions to society. This can be as a webinar or an internal conference, but the most important element of this session is to give your team the freedom to ask questions, clear any doubts, and share their experiences freely.
