HEFN

All people have a right to a clean and healthy environment, in which their communities can live, work, learn, play, and thrive. Towards this vision, the Asian Pacific Environmental network was founded in 1993 to bring together a collective voice among the diverse Asian Pacific Islander communities in the United States to work for environmental, social and economic justice. Through building an organized movement, we strive to bring fundamental changes to institutions that will prioritize the right of every person to a decent, safe, affordable quality of life, and to participate in collectively-made decisions affecting our lives.  The heart of our work is in our two organizing projects: the Laotian Organizing Project in Richmond, California, and Power in Asians Organizing in Oakland, California.

Laotian Organizing Project (LOP)

The Laotian community in Contra Costa County, CA lives in one of the most toxic regions in the nation. Surrounded by more then 350 industrial sites and toxic hazards, their home, school, and work environments are exposed to dangerous levels of lead, pesticides, and other chemicals on a daily basis.  LOP was started in 1995 to bring together the diverse Laotian ethnic and tribal groups in Contra Costa County to respond to the needs of the community, work toward change, and provide a vehicle to build the community they envision.

 
Launched in March 2002, PAO is organizing the diverse Asian ethnic communities of Oakland. Similar to the Laotian community in Richmond, APIs in East Oakland have limited access to culturally appropriate services, bear higher rates of toxic exposure at work and at home and lack access to decision-makers to impact change.

APEN brings one of the largest and strongest membership bases to the environmental justice and environmental health movement in the Bay Area, and is one of the few locally and nationally that organizes low-income API's around these issues.  APEN's on-going campaigns include a focus on reducing toxins in the environment, home, and the workplace, and promoting equitable and sustainable development that benefits all communities and not just the wealthy.