Organization

Khmer Girls in Action


Khmer Girls in Action (KGA) is a youth organizing group in Long Beach, California, led by Southeast Asian young women and youth since 1997.[1] It began with Cambodian girls at Long Beach Polytechnic High School whose families had survived the Khmer Rouge genocide and resettled in the city.[2]

History

In 1997 Sophya Chhiv was a ninth grader in Long Beach. With other 1.5- and second-generation Cambodian girls, she began meeting after school in the parking lot by Poly Burger and La Lune, because it was the only space they had.[3][1] Their families had lived through genocide and now faced poverty and neglect in their new city.[1] The group became a reproductive health project called HOPE for Girls, and in its first campaign the girls gathered data on sexual harassment in Long Beach schools and presented their findings and recommendations to school officials.[4][3] In the early days, the group ran its work out of the trunk of a car.[2]

When the HOPE for Girls project ended in 2002, its young leaders carried on under a new name, Khmer Girls in Action.[4] Between 2002 and 2009 they published Her Turn to Talk, A Room of Her Own and From Monuments to Movements, and their short animations and digital stories, Mango Monday and Coming Together, screened at the Asian American Pacific Islander Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Festival.[4] General membership grew into tiered programs in 2007. A participatory action research project begun in 2008 led to the group's first published report on the state of Cambodian American youth in Long Beach.[4] KGA piloted its first program for young men in 2010 and became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2011.[4][2] In 2014 it was featured in the PBS series America by the Numbers.[4]

Its campaigns turned students' concerns into school and city policy. During the 2000s, KGA youth urged voters to reject two propositions that would have required parental notification for teenagers seeking abortions, and both failed.[3] In 2015 the group celebrated a campaign for wellness centers in Long Beach public schools, which KGA credits with bringing them in. It credits its 2016 Youth at the CORE campaign with securing a wellness center with teen-only hours at Roosevelt Elementary School, across from Poly High.[3][4] Through the Every Student Matters campaign, led by a multiracial coalition, it pressed the school district to use restorative justice rather than punishment alone. The school board later voted to reform its discipline practices, and KGA credits the campaign with influencing that change.[3] It also held a forum, "Not Home for the Holidays," on deportations in the Southeast Asian American community of Long Beach.[3]

City budget work followed. KGA's 2017 community survey on budget priorities shaped the demands of the Long Beach Invest in Youth campaign, and the city later filed its results as official data, and in 2018 the first Young People's Budget Hearing took place in the city's 9th District.[4] KGA counts two later city actions among its milestones: the passage of Measure US, a progressive tax, in 2020, and the City Council's 2021 adoption of the Long Beach Youth Strategic Plan and approval of Measure US funds for racial justice, climate resilience and youth programs.[4] As the anchor organization of the Invest in Youth Coalition, KGA oversaw the city's first participatory budget pilot in 2023, in which young people chose how to spend $300,000 in public funds on youth services, climate interventions and public health.[3] In 2022 its members supported the successful proposition that added reproductive freedom to the California Constitution.[3]

After being priced out of its office of more than ten years, KGA bought an office building in 2019.[4] It celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2022.[4] In March 2023 it bought a multistory building to create a long-planned Youth Movement and Education Center, meant as a hub for arts, healing, community programs and social justice campaigns.[5] By February 2024, Sophya Chhiv, a cofounder, was serving as the group's interim executive director. She estimated that about 800 students had come through its leadership programs over 27 years, with thousands more reached through its campaigns.[3] KGA's federal filings trace its growth. Revenue first passed $3 million in the fiscal year ending June 2019. In the fiscal year ending June 2024 it reported revenue of $3.32 million and net assets of $8.21 million, and in the year ending June 2025, revenue of $1.77 million and net assets of $6.89 million.[6]

Programs

Students enter through two introductory programs for Southeast Asian freshmen and sophomores in the Long Beach Unified School District. The Young Women's Empowerment Program builds sisterhood and explores gender and reproductive justice, and the Young Men's Empowerment Program builds brotherhood and explores gender justice and healthy masculinity. Both meet weekly at the KGA office through the school year.[7][8]

Graduates move on to Youth Organizing Long Beach, where sophomores and juniors learn organizing and apply it to campaigns, and then to the Khmer Justice Program, where juniors and seniors deepen their political analysis and lead campaigns. Between cohorts, the Summer Organizing Institute brings members together for political education and plans recruitment for the fall.[7] At Poly High, the student-led Khmer Club gives members hands-on experience in base building through events such as Club Rush, International Faire and Homecoming.[7][8]

Cultural Historical Arts, a multimedia arts, culture and storytelling program, runs through the core curriculum, and student work is shown at the annual Yellow Lounge. The first Yellow Lounge was held for members only; "Journey of Hope" followed as the first one shared with the community.[7][4] The LIFE Program gives academic and social-emotional support to young people from immigrant and refugee families.[7]

Community

KGA works most closely with Long Beach Polytechnic and Wilson high schools, and it holds an annual wellness week on the Poly campus, where students raise the needs the group then works on.[3] Its partners include Long Beach Forward, a nonprofit working on racial and income inequity, and the city agencies that joined the participatory budget pilot.[3] Alumni of the core programs join an alumni network, and organizations and individuals who support the Invest in Youth campaign can join as general members.[8]

Leadership (2025)

Officers and directors listed in the federal filing for the fiscal year ending June 2025.[6]

  • Lian Cheun, Executive Director
  • Preeti Sharma, Board Chair
  • Eric Wat, Treasurer
  • Norma Rodriguez, board member
  • May Lin, board member
  • Truc Hamai, board member
  • Eileen Ma, board member
  • Sophanarot Sam, board member

Press

  • America by the Numbers, PBS (2014)[4]
  • The 19th, feature on KGA and youth leadership (February 2024)[3]
  • Long Beach Post, feature on KGA's youth advocacy[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Khmer Girls in Action, Mission
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Long Beach Post, Khmer Girls in Action leads Southeast Asian youth toward advocacy
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 The 19th, Khmer Girls in Action and youth leadership (February 2024)
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 Khmer Girls in Action, History
  5. ↑ Khmer Girls in Action, home page
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Khmer Girls in Action
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Khmer Girls in Action, Programs
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Khmer Girls in Action, Apply to be a member
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This page was last edited on 26 September 2026, at 20:32.