History

The Massachusetts Asian AIDS Prevention Project (MAAPP) is founded by activists in response to the lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate HIV/AIDS prevention services for the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community.



— 1993
The AIDS Action Committee provides MAAPP with its first grant. This seed money allows MAAPP to begin organizing a series of workshops.

— 1994
Previously an all-volunteer organization, MAAPP hires its first employee with a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.


— 1995
MAAPP is recognized as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.


— 1995
Lina Sheth, with a background in public health, is named MAP’s first Executive Director and goes on to serve in that capacity for 6 years.

— 1996
John Wong, longtime resident of Boston’s Chinatown and advocate for Asian youth efficacy, becomes MAAPP’s first youth coordinator. AZN Pride, later known as Asian Pride, will go on to become the organization’s signature program.

— 1998
With funds from the Office of Minority Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, MAAPP launches an HIV/AIDS prevention program in the Cambodian community in Lowell and Lynn.

— 2000
MAAPP expands its mission to better embrace the broader health work in which it engages, including general health promotion, building HIV and sexuality awareness, fostering community leadership, and advocating for access to health care and services for Massachusetts API communities, with an emphasis on important health issues that disproportionately affect APIs but remain unaddressed due to cultural stigmas prevalent in our communities.

— 2000
Jacob Smith Yang, formerly engaged in HIV policy work at the AIDS Action Committee, begins his tenure as Executive Director of MAP and goes on to serve in that capacity for 10 years.

— 2002
MAAPP is rebranded to Massachusetts Asian + Pacific Islanders (MAP) for Health to reflect the broader mission of promoting health and well-being for all APIs.

— 2003
MAP for Health and Executive Director Jacob Smith Yang are named Boston Pride Marshals, becoming the first-ever Asian-American Pride Marshals in the 37 years of Boston Pride.

— 2007
The Hepatitis B Initiative (HBI), originally an Albert Schweitzer Fellowship project at the Harvard University School of Public Health, moves to MAP for Health.

— 2009
MAP moves from 59 Temple Place in Downtown Crossing to 322 Tremont Street in Chinatown.

— 2010
MAP receives the Community Hero Award from The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Asian American Commission, for “selfless commitment to the issues and events affecting AAPIs” and “efforts towards the betterment of AAPIs without self-promotion or fanfare.”

— 2016
MAP celebrates its 25th anniversary. Special events include an Asian Pride open-mic night and the premiere screening of the documentary “MAP for Health: 25 Years of Asian Pride” at the Boston Asian American Film Festival.

— 2018
MAP is honored at a special pre-game ceremony at Fenway Park, as part of the Boston Red Sox’s acknowledgment of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

— 2021