For the past few weeks, we've been blogging about California's vibrant, growing Pacific Islander American community. Even though Pacific Islanders are left out of much of our national dialogue, there have been more than enough Pacific Islander news this year to dedicate a whole month just to one state.
Closing out our California series, here are some of the other stories we wanted to highlight:
San Mateo's Tongan American community, and a study-in-progress on the county's Pacific Islanders: This San Francisco Examiner article describes the challenges and strengths of San Mateo County's Tongan American community. It is also mentioned that Sela Panapasa of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan is overseeing a comprehensive study on the needs of Pacific Islanders in the county, which could be used to validate the need for services like after-school programs for at-risk youth. LINK
Pacific Islander health "navigator" in East Palo Alto: This feature profile, from the Peninsula Press, follows East Palo Alto community health worker Tiffany 'Uhilamoelangi-Hautau, one of two health "navigators" at the Ravenswood Family Health Center. 'Uhilamoelani-Hautau also works with a nonprofit called Collective Roots, to promote healthy eating that's consistent with Tongan and Samoan culinary traditions. LINK
Californian Summits, Conferences and Organizations dedicated to Pacific Islanders: While these last links aren't to news stories, I would be remiss if I didn't mention at least a few of the summits, conferences, and education-related Pacific Islander organizations working to improve access to higher education and well-paying jobs:
- The National Pacific Islander Educators Network recently held its tenth annual conference in Paramount. LINK
- A few months earlier, the Santa Monica College Asian Pacific Islander Achievement Project hosted the "Pacific Islander Higher Education Summit: We Rise." LINK
- On the training and employment front, the Pacific Islander Pipeline continues to work to help Pacific Islander Americans prepare for careers in the health care industry. LINK
(Did we miss an outstanding California-based Pacific Islander organization, or story? Let us know and we'll work to cover it in a future post!)
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