Yesterday in Washington DC, Asian American and Pacific Islander leaders presented a report to the White House with recommendations on how 23 federal agencies and offices can improve the everyday lives of the nation's AAPIs: President Receives Report With Recommendations For Agencies To Increase AAPI Representation.
The report addresses problems uniquely facing Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, such as linguistic isolation, health problems that disproportionately affect AAPIs, bullying and other civil rights issues. Recommendations in the report include:
- Early identification of chronic Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations that don’t know they have the virus. Hepatitis B chronically infects about 1.5 million people in the U.S., and AAPIs account for over half of all the cases.The report was submitted during a gathering of two groups created under the executive order establishing the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders -- the President's Advisory Commission and the federal Interagency Working Group, which includes representatives from almost every federal agency.
- Strengthening of Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions programs to increase college graduation rates for AAPI students. While educational attainment among East Asian and South Asian groups is high, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders have lower high school graduation rates.
Details outlined in the report were submitted by each agency to address priorities established by the White House Initiative -- creating healthy communities and sustainable neighborhoods, expanding educational opportunities, increasing economic growth and improving civil rights.
You can download a copy of the report here.