Pacific Islander Health Careers Pipeline Program 2010

Aloha! Hafa Adai! Talofa! Malo e Lelei! Yokwe!

We are doing it again! Welcome to the 2010 PIHCPP Blogspot where we will be following our 13 new fellows! With all the support and overwhelming success of the first 2009 cohort, the PIHCPP Program will thrive for yet another year!

This program was established to increase the number of Pacific Islander (PI) health care providers and health related professionals by increaseing access and preparation to educational and health career opportunities for young PIs.

The PIHCPP Fellowship Goals are:
- To provide an understanding of health disparities, specifically cancer disparities, and health needs in the PI community as it relates to history and culture
- To understand the need for PI health care professionals
- To showcase the opportunities and diversity of health-related work and its benefits
- To provide and empower PI youth and young adults with the skills, resources and support needed to pursue higher education
- To provide PI youth and young adults with an opportunity to interact and establish networks/support systems with professionals and peers

This past week we had the ORIENTATION EVENT that welcomed our 2010 cohort. Special thanks to Mary Anne Foo, Khushbindar Lally, Alisi Tulua, Joe Fa'ave, Joey Quenga, and the Pipeline Advisory Board who made this event possible. EVEN MORE SPECIAL THANKS to Sora Tanjasiri, Diana Tisnado, Tu-Uyen Nguyen, Mary Anne Foo, and Lorraine Tuala for sharing valuable information and insights that have already made an impact on our students.

Follow this page for it will keep you posted with all the happenings of the program, and get to know our new, incredible interns who are making our big dreams a reality!

Proud of Our Interns! PIFA 2009

The San Diego Pacific Islander Festival is a two day event and one of the biggest PI festivals in the country. It is also an ideal place for young community workers to get their feet wet in learning how to engage the community. As PIs, we are often in silos in our individual communities and never get the chance to learn about the other PI communities. Festivals are the perfect places to learn other cultures and immerse one self in the other communities.
As community researchers, this is THE PLACE to learn how to engage the communities outside of one's own community. It is the place where "Aunty" and "Uncle" applies across the board and you get a response. It is the place to really step out of your shell and have a conversation with others that you wouldn't encounter otherwise. Ultimately, it is THE PLACE to really learn about how to interact with the PI community. So, we encouraged our interns to attend the festival and volunteer at a booth or even help out with the other interns.






Lena and Ono speaking to the crowd at the Pacific Islander Festival in San Diego, CA about their research! AND learning from one of our fearless leaders, Tana Lepule. Proud of our interns!

With funding from the National Cancer Institute...Through WINCART!

The project was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities, grant U01CA114591 - WINCART (Weaving an Islander Network for Cancer Awareness, Research and Training). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NCI CRCHD. This American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funded project provides the opportunity for paid summer research internships for 10 Pacific Islander students to explore cancer and cancer-related health research topics! We are GRATEFUL!

THANK YOU WINCART!

"WINCART is dedicated to reducing disparities in cancer incidence and mortality among Pacific Islanders in Southern California. This network will address the cancer needs of Chamorro, Marshallese, Native Hawaiian, Samoan, Tongan, and other Pacific Islanders through community and research partnerships aimed at increasing capacity building to support community-based participatory education, research and training as well as improve access to, and utilization of, effective cancer prevention and control programs."

Visit the WINCART website to learn more.


The WINCART Family!

"VISION: Empowered and Healthy Pacific Island Communities"

Aloha! Hafa Adai! Malo e Lelei! Talofa! Yokwe!

Welcome to the Pacific Islander Health Careers Pipeline Program (PIHCPP). This program was established to increase the number of Pacific Islander (PI) health care providers and health related professionals by increaseing access and preparation to educational and health career opportunities for young PIs. PIHCPP is a program of the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA) and is funded by The California Endowment.

This program is what we in the work call "Pipe 2" because this is the second funding phase of the PI Pipeline program. The first phase really set the foundation for this second phase to exist. The first phase was the planning portion of the program. With the tireless efforts of Joe Fa'avae, Ashley Cheri, Michelle Wong, Jacqueline Tran and OCAPICA's fearless leader Mary Anne Foo, this phase conducted a needs assesment of the Pacific Island communities of Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego Counties and captured findings about health and educational access issues among Chamorro, Marshallese, Native Hawaiian, Samoan and Tongan youth in Southern California. A beautiful report called Pacific Islander Pipeline binds all the findings of this needs assessment.

As a result of the recommendations made from the needs assessment, ideas developed for an implementation of programs that can address the issues presented through the needs assessment. The Pacific Islander Health Careers Pipeline Program II is the result of the implementing phase of funding. With programs planned and led by Michelle Wong, Alisi Tulua-Tata and Khushbindar Lally, PIHCPP looks forward to programs that will lay the foundation for the continued success of our Pacific Islander students. This page will link you to all the happenings of this program! As a start, you will hear about the Summer Internship Program 2009 from the interns themselves.

Those who dared to dream! The beginning of the PI Pipeline.
Kickoff Meeting, San Diego, CA -- September 2007.
In YOUR Honor!