APIsCAN Background

by Tessie Guillermo and Debbie Ching

At the California Asian Pacific Islander Health and Human Services Network (CAPIHHSN) legislative day in 1992, there was a call to convene a permanent structure so that future legislative days and statewide advocacy could be more coordinated, and therefore more effective.

At the legislative day in 1993, a preliminary strategy meeting co-chaired by Tessie Guillermo, then executive director of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum and Dr. Edward Chow of NICOS + Chinese Health Coalition, was held to provide input on the possible form and function of a statewide advocacy network, and an ad-hoc steering committee was established. The ad-hoc steering committee, which was composed of volunteers from the coalitions and organizations represented, took the input provided at this meeting and established a process to develop a structure, mission, goals and objectives and an operational plan. The objective was to present the proposed structure, etc. at the following year’s legislative day.

With funding support from Pacific Bell and the California Consumer Protection Foundation, the Health Forum convened the ad-hoc steering committee at two meetings hosted by the Asian Pacific Planning Council (APPCON) of Los Angeles.

At the first meeting of the ad-hoc steering committee in October, a mission statement was developed. The name of the network was changed from CAPIHHSN to the Asian and Pacific Islanders California Action Network, or APIsCAN. A decision was made to plan a statewide conference, rather just a legislative day in April of 1994, to formally establish APIsCAN as a formal statewide body, determine membership, select leadership, and to outline a plan of action for the coming year.

An Interim Coordinating Committee (ICC) was formed to complete work on goals, objectives and planning for the April conference. The ICC met through a series of conference calls throughout the year. Debbie Ching, President of APPCON and Tessie Guillermo agreed to serve as general co-chairs of the ad-hoc steering committee until the structure was finalized and leadership was elected from the membership of APIsCAN.

What was established at the 1994 inaugural conference for APIsCAN will certainly be a mark of progress, but we have much to do and our strategies are still developing. The success of statewide organizing is still dependent on recruiting participation from the local and regional level, and building the capacity of these local advocacy and service provider groups. We call upon your continued commitment, energy, enthusiasm and leadership to accomplish our common goals.