2017 Year End Highlights

In 2017, LEAD Filipino embarked on an ambitious agenda, including major developments and roll-outs in our program areas.

What were the results of hours of planning meetings, conference calls, and last-minute runs to print handouts. . .

. . .our 1st Annual Fly Pinays Leadership Summit, tripling the participation of our summer Awareness in Action Program, media coverage from a number of local press outlets, multiple invitations to members of our team to guest speak at conferences nationwide, and much more to continue elevating the public and civic leadership of Filipino Americans, here in the South Bay.

This past year, our small organization celebrated significant victories in our (4) core program areas:

LEADERSHIP

We hosted our first Fly Pinays Leadership Summit in San Jose, CA and engaged 120 Filipina women and girls.
We organized subsequent events for our Fly Pinays mentors and mentees and engaged 50 individuals through these efforts.
We led the organizing efforts for a South Bay Filipino American Town Hall at San Jose City Hall on the issue of understanding Filipino American concerns with domestic and foreign public policy.
We co-sponsored a community forum on neighborhood preservation at the I-Hoteln in San Francisco, CA.
We helped draft the City of San Jose’s proclamation language for Filipino American History Month (October).
We co-hosted a Filipino Heritage Night with the San Jose Earthquakes.

EDUCATION

From June to August, we tripled the participation of our summer Awareness in Action Program from 5 to 15, held at Asian American Recovery Services (AARS) in San Jose.
We increased our Awareness in Action Program partners from 3 to 6.
15 community members completed our 8-week Filipino Ethnic Studies & Community Leadership Program.
We organized 3 Filipino Ethno-Exposure Community Tours: SoMa Pilipinas, Watsonville, and the Fil-Am Mental Health Initiative.
We organized a two-day Delano Manongs Immersion Tour with 22 high school students and local Filipino/a leaders down in Delano, CA.
We partnered with the Filipino Googler Network (FGN) to host ~120 high school students from Newark Memorial, Overfelt, Milpitas High School and Westmoor at Google’s, “3rd Annual Career Day”.

ACTIVISM

We co-organized a “Know Your Rights Legal Clinic” with PAWIS, Fil-CAIA, FBANC and the Asian Law Alliance that attracted 60 attendees.
We became an official partner in the “Voter Mobilization and Engagement Project” with the Asian Law Alliance and Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters.
We helped register 500+ voters at the County of Santa Clara’s monthly Naturalization Ceremonies from September to December.
We marched alongside hundreds of other organization’s in the International Worker’s Day March.
We hosted a free training with 14 community members on getting appointed and serving on city/county commissions and committees.
We co-hosted a training with Sacred Heart Community Service and 4 other community organizations on becoming a “Rapid Responder” against ICE raids in our locality that engaged 19 individuals.
We joined the API Justice Coalition with other leading grassroots organizations and nonprofit agencies.

DIALOGUE

We hosted 6 different cultural leadership and education workshops with 8 local colleges and student organizations. (De Anza College, Santa Clara University, and UC Davis, to name a few. . .)
We organized the 2nd Annual Eastside Entrepin@yers event for 100 students at San Jose State University.
We teamed up with FANHS Santa Clara Valley, AKOmicron, AKOmega and Akbayan SJSU to host a special, “Gender Justice” workshop for 65 students at San Jose State.
Our joint “Know Your Rights Legal Clinic” was covered by Balitang America.
Our Fly Pinays Dialogues Event was covered by Fil-Am Star.