On Friday, March 8th, we co-led our second statewide training on the planning, development, and strategy of our upcoming Filipino Advocacy Day in Sacramento next month!
For some background, last fall, we co-led a uniquely Filipino Community Policy Symposium (read recap here) in tandem with our partners at UC Davis’ Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies. The goals of the Symposium were three-fold:
- Host at least 20 Fil Am organizations, nonprofits, and grassroots groups in discussions around their agencies and what public interests were important to them;
- Provide a space for base-building and networking;
- Define a handful of public policy priorities from the discussions and workshops hosted at the Symposium.
The outcomes from the Symposium resulted in 27 organizations in attendance and the development of a distinctive “8 Policy Area Platform” (viewable here) that were representative of the diverse voices, experiences, and stories of the organizations that participated.
With this information, we continued our work with the Bulosan Center well into the winter with the intention of hosting a Filipino Advocacy Day in Sacramento.
Serving primarily as organizing leads, we have worked with the Bulosan Center to push forward the dialogue with the 27 organizations that attended last fall on envisioning, planning, and defining a Filipino Advocacy Day.
Since January, we have hosted one statewide Advocacy Day training and a conference call with our 20 partners. During these two convenings, we identified that our Advocacy Day items would be:
- AB 331 (Ethnic Studies)
- Requesting $5 million in General Fund support for the establishment of a Domestic Workers Education and Outreach Fund to be administered by the California Department of Labor Enforcement Standards (DLES).
At our first training, the partners reconnected, and we reviewed the purpose of the Advocacy Day which is:
- To establish a Filipino/a presence in California’s Capitol.
- To engage a delegation of 20 organizational leaders, staff, and clients in our democratic public policy process.
- To advocate on passing AB 331 and a $5 million budget ask for domestic workers in California.
Our next statewide conference call, where we will begin planning our legislative visits will be in late-March. If you are interested in engaging in these efforts, we want to hear from you!