Greater Malden Asian American Community Coalition Inc

Founded in 2014, the Greater Malden Asian American Community Coalition (GMAACC) is a grassroots, community-led nonprofit that serves and builds power with Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community members in Greater Malden. Through cultural programs, civic engagement, youth leadership development, and creative community development strategies, we work alongside AAPI youth, elders, immigrant families, and workers to amplify AAPI narratives, advance cultural and civic advocacy, and build the social infrastructure for resilient community care.

Our work builds community capital across cultural, economic, health, intergenerational, and civic dimensions, advancing equity and belonging for AAPI communities in Greater Malden. We have co-led successful campaigns for Malden’s Chinese transliteration bill and the city’s first Language Access Coordinator, while youth leaders organize around housing, food insecurity, and climate resilience.

Building on this foundation, we offer workshops and pop-up events that bring together families, creatives, small business owners, youth, and seniors to strengthen relationships and surface stories of belonging rooted in lived experience. These spaces function as creative laboratories for imagining healing and collective courage, while building feedback loops between residents, organizations, and municipalities to shape more just civic and physical infrastructure.

Key Programs:

• Language & Civic Access: Co-design and facilitate civic forums related to voting rights, language access, and participatory engagement for AAPI residents and businesses in decision-making processes.
• Youth Leadership: Organizes AAPI youth at Malden and Medford High Schools for local advocacy on food insecurity, language inclusivity, AAPI small business support, and climate resilience.
• Cultural Wellness: Offers social connection and problem gambling awareness for AAPI seniors through activities like ping pong and cultural arts.
• AAPI Ethnic Studies: Provides an Ethnic Studies, Storytelling, and Theater initiative to build political identity and narrative power among youth and adults.
• New Center: In May 2025, GMAACC acquired its first physical building—an approximately 6,300–square-foot property—now being transformed into the AAPI Community and Cultural Center, the first of its kind in the region outside of Boston.
   

We believe that when AAPI communities have a home for belonging, cultural expression, leadership, healing, and civic power, we can transform the systems that shape our lives.