About

Hua foundation is a youth empowerment non-profit working on racial equity and civic engagement issues on unceded territories and lands, in particular, those of the three title-holding Nations: the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), colonially known as Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Our work lives at the intersection of cultural heritage and social change. We are based in Vancouver’s Chinatown and have been working for years alongside youth and community members from the Asian diaspora.

Our team and community are working, living, and relying on ancestral, traditional, unceded and occupied Indigenous territories, including the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ speaking xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), qiqéyt (Qayqayt), qʼʷa:n̓ƛʼən̓ (Kwantlen), kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), sc̓əwaθən (Tsawwassen), and q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Sníchim speaking Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nations. This land was never surrendered, relinquished, or handed over by these nations to Canada or British Columbia through a treaty or other means. It is sovereign and unsurrendered.

Our Mission

Our mission is to strengthen capacity among Asian diasporic youth, in solidarity with other communities, to challenge, change, and create systems for a more equitable and just future.

Our Vision

We envision a world where young people are empowered and equipped to imagine, design and fully participate in their futures.

Theory of Change

Our Approach

Centering culture

Acknowledging the legacy of racism and discrimination endured by racialized people, including people from the Asian diaspora, much of our work is guided by the desire to dignify the lived experiences of racialized people by building pride and meaningful connections to our ancestral cultures, our cultural practices, and our cultural communities. The stuff of our hearts is hard to quantify, of course, so much of this work lies in shedding light on that which feels intangible, but shapes our everyday lives.

Conserving heritage

We wish to honour and share the history of struggle, resistance, and resilience that lies at the root of our experiences as diasporic Asians and that defines Vancouver’s Chinatown, where our work is grounded. We do this while focusing our work on empowering youth and fostering intergenerational, intercultural exchange.

Tackling systems change through reciprocity

We apply community-based approaches to research and engagement design, grounded in reciprocity, to provide policy analysis and recommendations that address the root causes of social, environmental, and cultural issues. 

Embodying what we advocate for

We know that any and all systems change and justice work begins at home, within ourselves and our communities. From prioritizing care and rest to experimenting with new operational processes, we are actively piloting new ways of collaborating and interacting with each other and our communities in equitable ways.

Our Name

The ‘hua’ in hua foundation comes from the Mandarin pronunciation of the words 變化 biàn huà, 文化 wén huà, as well as 華人 huá rén (in Cantonese: bin fa, màhn fa, wàh yàhn); respectively defined as: ‘change’, ‘culture’, and ‘people of ethnic-Chinese descent’. This terminology reflects our beginnings as an organization whose primary focus was working with members of the ethnic-Chinese community.

While our work has expanded since then to other communities under the broad umbrella of ‘Asian’ (and all the myriad ways we can define this), we’d be remiss to sever this piece of ourselves and our history so quickly. So critical to our work is to understand deeply the individual pathways that lead us towards solidarity, and all of the brilliant and unique skills and knowledge that we contribute, when we own and acknowledge those roots. 

And so while the original meaning behind the name is tied to a specific experience, we also acknowledge that meanings change over time and with context. It’s with this in mind that we suggest the following interpretations of hua (in roman letters, without tonal inflection), in the context of us: a movement for social change, one that is grounded in heritage and builds a sense of pride and ownership of our cultures.

Check out our Press Kit for a full pronunciation guide.

Our Values

Awards & Recognition

• 2019 – City of Vancouver Heritage Award of Merit, for hua foundation’s Vancouver Chinatown Food Security Report
• 2019 – City of Vancouver Awards of Excellence: Greenest City Leadership

hua foundation is a certified living wage employer