January 6, 2017
Last Friday, L.E.A.D Filipino joined a team of ~6 other Filipin@ and San Jose-based grassroots groups in a Filipino American Town Hall. The partners of this event included: FANHS Santa Clara Valley Chapter, Anakbayan Silicon Valley, PAWIS, the Disaster Support Network of the Philippines (DSNP), Silicon Valley Workers’s Project, and the Asian Law Alliance. Other organizations in attendance included: the Immigrant Advancement Alliance and Fil-CAIA.
The Town Hall was attended by nearly ~30 community members and was an expression of both concern and solutions with respect to the incoming Trump Administration and changes to public policies that have benefitted marginalized groups throughout our country.
As the second largest Asian American group in the United States (our Chinese brothers and sisters claim the top-spot), the visibility of Filipinos in public policy and politics — is increasing. We’re recognizing that the first step to inciting change, is to step up and step out in our own communities. This Filipino American Town Hall was symbolic and representative of those steps.
During our Town Hall, we discussed public policy issues and injustices of concern to the South Bay Filipino American community. Among the top of our list:
- Healthcare
- K-12 & Higher Education
- LGBTQIA Rights
- Women’s Rights
- Immigrant Integration & Rights
- Environmental Justice
- Workers’s Rights
- Economic Competitiveness
We learned that as a community, continuing to convene on issues that matter to children, families, and seniors, we can make that difference.
Sulong!
Angelica Cortez
L.E.A.D Filipino
