In May 2007, APIOPA (formerly known as the API Obesity Workgroup) received partial funding from The California Endowment to begin a pilot project aimed at mitigating obesity-causing factors in Asian and Pacific Islander (API) communities.  In January 2008, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals supplied the rest of the funding needed to make the 2-year pilot project successful.

Partnerships

The pilot project targets three ethnic communities in Los Angeles County: Pilipino, Japanese, and Pacific Islanders.  While APIs as a collective group has a faster growing rate of obesity compared to all other ethnicities, Pilipinos, Japanese and Pacific Islanders already have higher rates of obesity compared to the average API in LA County.  APIOPA subcontracted with three community-based organizations to implement the obesity intervention pilot project.   These lead agencies include Asian Pacific Health Care Venture (APHCV) to outreach to the Filipino community, Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC) to outreach to the Japanese community, and Guam Communications Network (GCN) to outreach to the Pacific Islander community.

Raising Awareness

With the help of two interns and through a refining process by our steering committee, APIOPA developed a curriculum to raise awareness of the obesity epidemic in our three target communities.  This curriculum was put into a four-hour workshop, tailored each time for the given audience, and held at various venues across the county.  Our health workshops were repeated over 18 times during January-March 2008, and reached over 300 LA County API residents.  While we originally thought we would conduct the workshops in English only, opportunities arose to allow us to provide translations in American Sign Language, Tongan, Samoan, Tagalog, and Japanese.

The goal of our workshop was to make API residents aware of:

1.    Specific health risks for API communities
2.    The media’s effect on us
3.    Body mass index (BMI) and its limitations for APIs
4.    The food environment
5.    The physical activity environment
6.    Potential community responses to changing these environments

Community Action Groups

From our pool of health workshop participants, we recruited volunteers from each of the three ethnic communities to form Community Action Groups (CAGs).  These 3 CAGs are essentially the heart of this pilot project.  While APIOPA staff provides CAG members with advocacy training and technical assistance along the way, it is the committed community residents in the CAG who ultimately bring change to our API neighborhoods.  The goal of each CAG is to implement a policy change on the local level that will effect the social or physical environment to reduce obesity.

The training topics and skills that APIOPA brings to the CAGs include:

1.    Community advocacy basics
2.    Talking to the media
3.    Talking to local officials
4.    Using the community assessment tool ENACT

To make our curriculum more relevant, we invited guest speakers who have years of advocacy experience within our API communities to share real-life advice with the CAGs.

The Pilipino, Japanese and Pacific Islander CAGs finished their community needs assessments in the summer of 2008.  From their findings, the CAGs have developed a policy implementation plan and budget projection through the summer of 2009.  With approval from the APIOPA Steering Committee and guidance from staff, the projects will put policies in place to create long-lasting, healthy changes in our API neighborhoods, churches, schools, and families.  While our pilot project will come to an end by summer 2009, our hope is that the CAGs will have the capacity to continue on without APIOPA supervision, so that APIOPA can concentrate on bringing this CAG model to more API communities.

For updates on the CAGs, view APIOPA's quarterly bulletins:

Making Health Happen, Summer 2009 

Making Health Happen, Spring 2009 

Making Health Happen, Winter 2009 

Making Health Happen, Fall 2008  

View a powerpoint on SAFE's (Pacific Islander CAG) community action project. Presented at The California Endowment for the August 2009 APIOPA Quarterly Meeting.

View a powerpoint on PEP's (Pilipino CAG) community action project. Presented at The California Endowment for the August 2009 APIOPA Quarterly Meeting. 

View a powerpoint on GetFit Little Tokyo's (Japanese CAG) community action project . Presented at The California Endowment for the August 2009 APIOPA Quarterly Meeting.

Visit GetFit Little Tokyo's (Japanese CAG) website. Includes community health information, news and events, project updates, and opportunities to "GetFit" in Little Tokyo!