Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education (ARISE)

ARISE’s advocacy campaigns have supported eliminating funding for school resource officers to fund social-emotional learning programs, and it has advocated for Rhode Island public schools to require students to take critical race theory-aligned courses in order to graduate. ^{2 3}

Background

The Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education is a left-of-center organization that was founded in 2017 by Chanda Womack to advocate for issues pertaining to Southeast Asian Americans, which includes Cambodians, Hmong, Laotians, and Vietnamese. ARISE argues that Southeast Asian Americans face increased poverty, illiteracy, and language issues, but are often overlooked due to  being grouped with Asians, who typically excel in these statistical measurements. ¹

ARISE organizes education programs for Black, Hispanic, and Southeast Asian students between the ages of 13 and 18, and it organizes left-of-center education policy advocacy campaigns with the participants of its education programs. In 2017, ARISE successfully campaigned in partnership with Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM) to pass the All Students Count Act to disaggregate data for Rhode Island schools that requires them to differentiate subgroups within the Asian American and Pacific Islander racial category. ¹

ARISE offers SAT test-preparation courses and after-school programs that focus on topics that it describes as “culturally responsive” and incorporate “social justice.” It also has a partnership with the Providence Public School District to offer a credit-bearing ethnic studies course on the Vietnam War that discusses “power, privilege, and oppression.” ¹

Advocacy

Critical Race Theory

In April 2025, the Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education submitted a written testimony to the Rhode Island General Assembly in support of House Bill 5836. The bill would establish an ethnic-studies graduation requirement across Rhode Island, and ARISE argued that a critical race theory-aligned curriculum is necessary so that students can identify and analyze “systems of racism.” The testimony also argued that ethnic minorities need to be taught how they have been harmed by alleged “systems of racism” to be able to understand how they have allegedly “internalized” being oppressed. ²

Defund the Police

In October 2021, ARISE co-signed a statement written to the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) by the Police Free LAUSD Coalition. The statement followed a shooting by a school police officer outside of Carver Middle School in September 2021 and argued that the LA School Police Department (LASPD) should be completely defunded and that its funding should instead be used for social programs such as “social-emotional supports.” It advocated banning all firearms from being in the vicinity of schools, criticized the legality of firearm ownership, and argued that the presence of school police officers perpetuates the alleged racism occurring within the LAUSD. ³

In August 2023, the Los Angeles Police Department published the findings of its review of the incident and concluded that the non-fatal shooting by LASPD Officer Luis Cortez was lawful and a “reasonable self-defense” use of force. The incident occurred after a community member was reported by a Carver Middle School assistant principal for acting hostile towards parents outside of the school, and the suspect charged Officer Cortez with a knife after having fled the initial contact. ⁴

Providence Alliance for Student Safety

In 2019, ARISE co-founded the Providence Alliance for Student Safety (PASS) along with the Providence Student Union (PSU) and the Providence Youth Student Movement. ⁵

PASS operates the Counselors Not Cops campaign that opposes the employment of student resource officers in public schools and instead supports hiring counselors with the same funding. It is also a member of the OurSchoolsPVD coalition that advocates for critical race theory to be incorporated into public school curricula. ⁵

Leadership

Chanda Womack is the founder and executive director of the Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education. She previously worked as a supervisor of high school programs and a high school field coordinator for the College Crusade of Rhode Island. ⁶

Financials

In 2024, the Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education reported $801,076 in total revenues, including $160,237 in fees for services. ⁷ It also reported $716,437 in total expenses, which included $402,733 in salaries and compensation of employees. ⁸