Submit Your Feedback on 2014-2015 Federal Agency Plans to Support the AAPI Community

Last week, the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI) hosted its first National AAPI Community Google+ Hangout and announced the release of the 2014-2015 Federal Agency Plans.

Twenty-four federal agencies created plans to improve data disaggregation, workforce diversity, capacity building, and language access for AAPIs across the nation. These plans were created to outline how the federal government is actively working to support the AAPI community through concrete objectives, strategies, and benchmarks such as:

• Disaggregating data to better understand and more accurately define the needs of the AAPI community
• Improving programs for Limited English Proficient (LEP) AAPIs
• Opening up the federal workplace to more AAPI applicants
• Increasing awareness on funding opportunities to the AAPI community

In addition to plans that were created this year, an Agency Accomplishments Report was released to highlight the major accomplishments of the 2012-2013 Agency Plans. Below are a few of the major highlights from last year:

• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) awarded $600,000 to organizations providing training and resources to hair and nail salon workers (40% of nail salon workers nationwide are AAPI)
• The Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) conducted a webinar to address the AAPI community’s needs during disasters and increased outreach to AAPI media
• The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) made over 7,200 loans totaling over $4.7 million to AAPI small business owners in FY 2013

To promote public engagement with these outlined agency objectives, WHIAAPI has created an interactive Community Feedback Module to give the public a chance to provide feedback. The module allows users to “like” different agency objectives and submit comments through the “Submit Feedback” option. The site is only open until March 31, 2014 so time is limited to be a part of this interactive feedback tool. You can log onto the website at aapi.ideascale.com, register using your e-mail address, and begin commenting today!  Federal agencies look forward to hearing from you on how they can best serve the AAPI community.

Linda Li is a Program Analyst at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Barbara Goto is Deputy Regional Administrator for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Region 9.  Both are members of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders’ Regional Interagency Working Group.