Health through Action: Improving the health and wellbeing of communities through innovative capacity building targeting emerging AA and NHPI leaders

Organizational capacity building is widely viewed as a means to help community organizations improve their service delivery, efficiency in operation, and financial stability. There is limited literature on capacity building of organizations serving racial minorities, particularly Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AAs and NHPIs). We will report on the experience of the Health through Action (HTA) program, a five-year national capacity building program of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF). HTA focused on strengthening and empowering AA and NHPI communities through building capacity of eighteen community coalitions and organizations across fifteen states. Recognizing that AA and NHPI leaders in emerging communities have limited networks to support their professional development and community work, APIAHF created national AA and NHPI learning cohorts around strategy and leadership; policy analysis; strategic communications; and research, evaluation, and data. Each cohort group has received targeted trainings, technical assistance, and coordinated activities. Such focused leadership development and technical assistance has resulted in a new cadre of young AA and NHPI leaders, mostly in their 20s or 30s, who have raised the awareness of AA and NHPI issues, formed local or state-wide coalitions to leverage their resources for greater impact, and created new venues where AAs and NHPIs can take part in policy advocacy as well as provide significant input to health policy discussions and recommendations. Success stories of local communities and coordinated efforts between APIAHF and local coalitions will also be shared.