May 19, 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Beverly Quintana
Communications Manager

AAPCHO Launches Voter Engagement Campaign in Asian and Pacific Islander Languages

Nonpartisan Initiative Aims to Mobilize Thousands of Eligible Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Voters

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. – The Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO), in partnership with its member community health centers, launched the My Health, My Vote multilingual voter registration campaign today. The campaign is a nationwide, nonpartisan effort to engage Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (AA&NHPIs) and other underserved populations served at health centers, to register and vote in the 2016 general election and preceding local elections.

“We are excited to work with our member community health centers to educate and empower AA&NHPIs to have a say in how our country will be run, and to encourage their communities to get out and vote,” said Jeffrey Caballero, executive director of AAPCHO. “Health centers have always played a key part in civic engagement, mobilizing individuals to create change and improve the health of their communities, and are best poised to reach this often overlooked but increasingly influential part of the electorate.”

In 2013, only 60 percent of eligible Asian Americans were registered to vote. Major voter registration obstacles include little or no language assistance, a lack of outreach from political parties, and regressive voter ID laws that discourage AA&NHPI voters.

The My Health, My Vote campaign aims to address these barriers by working with health centers to educate and encourage their broad network of patients and community members, particularly AA&NHPIs, to register to vote. Campaign materials include multilingual voter registration posters, buttons, personal stories and social media tools available in English and five Asian and Pacific Islander languages (Chinese, Chuukese, Korean, Tagalog, and Vietnamese).

In conjunction with the campaign’s national push to increase voting and civic engagement within the AA&NHPI community, AAPCHO member health centers will be hosting local voter registration events across the country to help eligible voters register to vote leading up to the November 8 presidential election.

AAPCHO is encouraging other organizations and individuals working with AA&NHPIs to join the campaign on social media by using #MyHealthMyVote and by using the campaign materials in their civic engagement efforts. For more information about how to get involved in the campaign or to download campaign materials, go to: http://bit.ly/MyHealthMyVote.

About AAPCHO
AAPCHO is a national association of 35 community health organizations dedicated to promoting advocacy, collaboration and leadership that improves the health status and access of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. For more information on AAPCHO, please visit www.aapcho.org.