The Nation­al Coali­tion of South Asian Orga­ni­za­tions (NCSO) is a thriv­ing ecosys­tem of South Asian orga­ni­za­tions in the U.S., work­ing col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly to devel­op advo­ca­cy strate­gies, pol­i­cy actions, and com­mu­ni­ty enrich­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. Orig­i­nal­ly formed in 2007 as a net­work facil­i­tat­ed by SAALT to fos­ter col­lab­o­ra­tion across shared South Asian iden­ti­ty, the NCSO has been reor­ga­nized since 2020 to work towards abo­li­tion of harm­ful sys­tems impact­ing our com­mu­ni­ties through unlearn­ing — of caste suprema­cy, of carcer­al com­plex­es, of ongo­ing colo­nial­ism.

Start­ing in 2022, the NCSO is build­ing towards a fed­er­at­ed mod­el that pri­or­i­tizes decen­tral­ized and demo­c­ra­t­ic deci­sion-mak­ing and explic­it­ly ana­lyzes pow­er dynam­ics as they exist and affect South Asian orga­niz­ers and com­mu­ni­ties. This shifts SAALT’s role from being a facil­i­ta­tor of the coali­tion to work­ing hor­i­zon­tal­ly and in equal col­lab­o­ra­tion with all oth­er NCSO mem­bers.

If you belong to a South Asian orga­ni­za­tion, or would like to join or sup­port a South Asian orga­ni­za­tion, reach out to us at info@saalt.org so we can con­nect you with local allies and share more infor­ma­tion about what it means to belong to the NCSO.