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Track 2 - Public Policy & Lobbying
Workshop 1: APAs Don't Vote - What Can You Do to Change This?
Facilitators:
Curtis Chin, APA for Progress National Coordinator
Janelle Wong, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Southern California
Organization: APAs for Progress
This introductory workshop will be conducted by Asian Pacific Americans for Progress (APA for Progress), a newly organized political group that seeks to provide progressive APAs with the tools to be effective grassroots activists. The purpose of the workshop is to provide detailed information to students on how they can help increase the political participation of APAs, focusing on the turnout of APA voters during elections.
The workshop will begin by briefly looking at statistics that indicate the low level of political participation of APAs and examining the reasons behind this lack of participation. We will spend the majority of the time describing ways in which students can help increase voter turnout among APAs (including voter registration drives, GOTV efforts in the form of phone banking and canvassing, poll monitoring, exit polling), as well as other forms of political participation (house parties to provide issue education and to raise funds). Lastly, we will talk about the efforts of APA for Progress to increase political participation this year.
We will conduct the workshop in an interactive presentation style. Attendees will also have a chance to ask questions to the facilitators during a Q&A session at the end of the workshop. We will provide written materials that attendees can use for future reference.
Workshop 2: Developing a Policy Initiative and Action Plan
Facilitators:
Veronika Geronimo, Project Director
Hemi Kim, Health Policy Advocate
Rupal Patel, State Policy Advocate
Organization: Asian Pacific American Legal Center
This workshop uses a variety of popular education techniques to guide participants in identifying the needs in their communities and how to address these needs on a policy level. Through interactive activities and discussions, the workshop will take participants through the process of policy advocacy. Participants will be given tools on how to develop a policy idea, assess their capability to implement these ideas and develop an action plan to reach their policy goals.
This training will draw upon actual policy campaigns engaged in by the Immigrant Welfare Project at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC). The Immigrant Welfare Project at APALC was formed as part of the California Immigrant Welfare Collaborative (CIWC), in response to the health and welfare challenges facing immigrants in California. CIWC works directly in the community as well as with policy makers in order to provide an integrated response to health and welfare law changes and to advocate for the rights of low-income immigrants.
Workshop 3: The Personal and the Political: Lobbying and Policy to Address Hate Crimes
Facilitator: Ben de Guzman
Organization: National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium
This workshop will explore a variety of perspectives to address hate crimes and anti-Asian violence on campus, local, and national levels. Participants will develop a framework through which affecting change around hate crimes and racism can be discussed, then develop strategies to do so.
Workshop 4: What Is the Akaka Bill and How Can Students Lobby For It?
Facilitator: James Kawika Riley, University of Northern Colorado student
This workshop will provide a brief overview of the Akaka Bill. The presentation will be structured first by an introduction of the bill, the history and how/why it came to be, the US Indian Law as it applies and then the structure proposed by the bill. Concerns from both sides for and against the bill will also be discussed, as well as unanswered questions.
Workshop 5: Justice for Filipino World War II Veterans
Facilitators: Erin Dawn Pasaporte, Luisa Antonio
Organizations: (S.A.V.E.) Student Action for Veterans Equity/ (V.E.C.)Veterans Equity
Center
Filipino Veterans fought, sacrificed, and died for the American flag during World War II and still to this day are not respected or acknowledged by this country or its government as recognized Veterans.
There are close to 30,000 Filipino World War II Veterans living, about 7,000 of whom reside in the United States. Half of the 7,000 Veterans are concentrated in California, mainly in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. These Veterans struggle daily under a government which continuously refuses to treat them with and give them equal benefits to all other war Veterans in this country.
This workshop will focus on the issue of Full Equity for Filipino WWII Veterans. And how, as students, it is our responsibility to fight for the respect and honor due to our elders & all of those who came before us who helped build this country. It will give a brief educational on the history of the Filipino WWII veterans, their relationship with the United States before and after World War II, and current actions that have transpired against the injustice.
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