Welcome To
Regional Pacific Islander Taskforce
The Regional Pacific Islander Taskforce (RPITF or “Taskforce”) was formed in 2015 to address the lack of data and reporting on Pacific Islander (PI) population health and health disparities in different health departments across the Bay Area. Serving as an advisory council to the directors of the health departments and their leadership, the Taskforce raises the awareness and visibility of Pacific Islander health and social issues by
- Educating counties on Pacific Islander history and culture
- Improving regional data collection and reporting on Pacific Islander communities
- Building intergenerational solidarity
- Increasing Pacific Islander civic-engagement participation
In 2015, several Pacific Islander (PI) community leaders took the initiative to engage with directors of local
public health departments of Alameda, San Francisco, and San Mateo Counties to address the lack of data
and reporting on PI health disparities and established the first tri-county Regional Pacific Islander Taskforce.
The Taskforce is regional in focus, and the goal is to raise awareness and increase the visibility of PI health
disparities, advocating for data equity in the collection, and reporting on health issues impacting Pacific
Islanders in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. The Taskforce serves as an advisory council for each of
the three county directors of public health departments and their leadership to address Pacific Islander health
and social disparities.
Within the Pacific Islander community, health disparities are so prevalent that they have created a lifecycle
of issues, as shown by this framework above. These are both ongoing and emerging needs of our community.
Key to addressing these needs is data disaggregation and analysis to help break this ongoing lifecycle of
disparities. Our approach is innovative in that we have focused on making inroads with county officials to
influence change.
The Taskforce is a highly collaborative coalition of leaders from over 20-organizations who volunteer their
time to serve their PI community in the Bay Area. They are professors, clinicians, executive directors and
directors, managers, faith leaders, and community advocates. This effort is entirely led and driven by local
community champions and community-based organizations (CBOs) in partnership with tri-county health
departments and agencies. The purpose of the Taskforce is to ensure that county agencies consider
alignment/regional approach model for PI communities in operations, funding priorities, program
development, and health services delivery to improve their health outcomes. Today, the Pacific Islanders
are still invisible and underserved and it is vital to being able to clearly see the issues confronting this
community.
Who We Serve
The purpose of the Taskforce is to ensure that the 10 Bay Area county agencies and public health departments align and standardize their data practices to adequately capture the state of Pacific Islanders’ (PI) population health.
In order to do this, the Taskforce champions a regional approach model for PI communities in each county to be better linked in operations, funding priorities, program development, and health services delivery to improve their health outcomes through organizational partnerships and community-based collaborative efforts.
Today, many Pacific Islanders are still invisible in aggregated public health data and thus underserved as their unique needs are not considered in focus. It is vital to build standards for Pacific Islander data disaggregation in order to see the issues confronting this diverse community. The Taskforce will continue to support advocacy and grassroots efforts to envision innovative practices for understanding PI community health.
WHAT WE DO
The Taskforce is a highly collaborative coalition of leaders from over 20-organizations who volunteer their time to collaborate and serve their PI community in the Bay Area.
They are professors, clinicians, executive directors, managers, faith leaders, and community advocates. This effort is entirely led and driven by local community champions and community-based organizations (CBOs) in partnership with Bay Area regional health departments and agencies.
Where We Focus
The Taskforce adopted a life-course model as a framework that strategically prioritizes, for instance, housing as a fundamental need and follows a life span to see how the interplay of risk and protective factors influence health through a Pacific Islander’s lifetime—from prenatal health to birth outcomes and across the life-course.
The Taskforce focuses on five key priorities
- Housing
- Mental/Behavioral Health
- Maternal, Child, & Infant Health
- Population health (Chronic Diseases)
- Data
Analyzing the multiple factors influencing both individual and population health over the life course offers a broader understanding of patterns of health and disease disparities by recognizing how these are shaped by social, structural, and cultural contexts.
Taskforce Achievements
Since its inception in 2015
From Alameda, San Francisco, and San Mateo Counties to address Pacific Islanders health and social disparities
Designed a data disaggregation plan for Pacific Islanders and will expand across all 10-counties in the Bay Area.
Established first regional Data sub-committee workgroup conversation across all three-county leadership and the new addition of Santa Clara County as director Sara Cody agree to join in this data disaggregated initiative and appointed one epidemiologist from each county to be a part of the Data committee to design a plan. This is facilitated by BARHII with guidance from Taskforce Date sub-committee.
Established the first regional sub-committee workgroup with all three-counties leadership to address Maternal Child Health recommendations.
"When your personal values match your work values, you stand the best chance of being content – but when your both lives personal and professional are in alignment, the contentment is PRICELESS.”
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