Partners
Culturally grounded work has to stay connected to real communities. Our partners keep us honest, rooted and useful.
Asia Pacific Cultural Center
“Our mission is to bridge communities and generations through art, culture, education, and business.”
Asia Pacific Cultural Center mission statement
The Asia Pacific Cultural Center (APCC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in Tacoma, Washington, founded in 1996 by artist and community leader Patsy Surh O'Connell. It represents 47 countries and cultures. Its work includes cultural programs and festivals, youth leadership, business and community engagement, and, since 2022, a Mental Health Program serving Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities.
We are developing the Lantern Suite in partnership with APCC.
Four parts of one mission
APCC's mission names four ways to bridge communities and generations. We have built the Lantern Suite around all four.
Art
Original, hand-built art in every game, from batik tiles to a kintsugi bowl. All of it is drawn in code, so it is light enough for any tablet.
Culture
Each game honors a specific tradition and names it accurately: Pacific wayfinding, Hani and Ifugao terraces, the tea cultures of five nations. No generic "Asian" decoration.
Education
Skill practice with plain-language reflections on attention, shame, family duty and resilience, written at about a 5th-grade reading level.
Business
A Washington-based, AAPI-owned small business building local, community-rooted technology for public agencies.
What the partnership is for
Incarceration separates people from their families and their cultures, and that isolation reaches the families at home too. A cultural center that serves those same communities is the right partner for software meant to reconnect them.
- Cultural grounding: guidance on representing the cultures APCC serves respectfully and accurately.
- Community connection: a path from inside the facility to cultural community, family support and wellness resources after release.
- Wellness alignment: content shaped by the same commitment to destigmatizing mental health that drives APCC's AANHPI Mental Health Program.
APCC is an independent nonprofit. This page describes our collaboration. It does not mean APCC endorses particular clinical outcomes, and APCC does not provide clinical services through the Lantern Suite.
Partner with us
We are building a coalition so culturally responsive tools reach the people who need them.
Corrections agencies and county jails
Pilot the suite in a unit or facility. We support your publication review, security review and program evaluation.
Tablet and education platforms
License or co-publish finished, review-ready content that fits your catalog's technical and content rules.
Reentry and community organizations
Use the suite in transition programs, youth diversion and family services, on any tablet or laptop, online or off.
Schools and ethnic studies programs
Adapt the cultural and skill content for classroom modules on Asian American and Pacific Islander history and wellness.