The NAPWC
The National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) was formed in 2002 as a mechanism for national coordination for education, research advocacy and capacity building to address the priority areas for the Filipino-Canadian community’s participation and involvement. A non-profit organization, it was borne out of the national consultation of Filipino-Canadian women in 1999 in Vancouver, B.C. It is the national coordinating body that unites and guides the works of the Philippine Women Centre (PWC) in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. Among its mandate and general objectives are to:
Advance the struggle of Filipinos in Canada, particularly among women, for equality, peace and genuine development.
Develop national programs to enhance the community’s full participation in the civic, social and political life of Canada.
Conduct community based studies and research on the Filipino community that would help empower and develop capacity building skills in the community.
Help strengthen the member organizations’ capabilities in community organizing, research, education and mobilization.
Since its formation, the NAPWC has met and lobbied with politicians at municipal, provincial and federal levels with the perspective to conduct policy engagement for genuine change for the Filipino-Canadian community. The NAPWC has connected and networked with other organizations within and outside the community establishing it as a recognized national body representing a large segment of the Filipino-Canadian community. It has helped strengthen member organizations in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and Ottawa by conducting studies and workshops, among them on community organizing, public policy development and engagements, anti-racism, immigration and other issues affecting the community.
In 2009, the NAPWC completed a comprehensive three-year community-based project “The Filipino Community and Beyond: Towards Full Participation in a Multicultural and Multiethnic Society” that addressed the program of Multiculturalism Canada. The project brought together Filipino-Canadians and progressive Filipino-Canadian organizations, nationally, to develop initiatives to overcome economic barriers experienced by the community; to combat systemic racism as it affects the community; to enhance women’s equality and genuine development; and to increase youth participation in the community’s future.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
ARE YOU READY to COUNTERSPIN?
Here’s a sneak peak of what you’ll be part of this Saturday!
SATURDAY JUNE 18, 2011
8:00-9:15 Breakfast and Registration, Cultural Opening, Welcome Greetings
9:15-10:45 Panel 1: Creating and Nurturing a New Path
Ninotchka Rosca: “Break the pattern, change the narrative”
Geraldine Pratt: “Filipinos as a transnational community”
Manny Sayo: “Settlement and Integration of Filipinos in Canada”
11:00-12:30 Panel 2: The leading force: Makers of history
Joy Alarcon: “Building alliances and understanding the interconnectedness of
the struggles in community building”
Arlene Oropel: “Experience of LCP and the future of our children”
Bryan Taguba: “Challenging the cyclical pattern of migration as a young
worker”
12:30-1:15 Lunch Break
1:30-2:30 Panel 3: Something Else, Something Fierce: New perspective in our women’s organizing
Charlene Sayo: “Bringing about the new concept”
Qara Clemente: “Developing our women in taking the revolutionary road”
Krystle Alarcon: “Bringing about progressive media in our community”
2:30-3:30 Panel 4: Sharpening our tools for our future
Carlo Sayo and Neil Castro: “Making the Filipino youth count”
Reuben Sarumugam: “Revisiting the benchmarks in youth organizing and going back in our community”
3:30-4:30 Panel 5: Social Services and the Filipino Canadian community
Ilyan Ferrer: “Understanding social services in Canada”
Shauna Butterwick: “Canada’s social services: policies and impacts”
Cecilia Diocson: “Accessing social services: a needle in the haystack”
7:00 Dinner and Cultural Evening
(to be held at Simply Delicious Galleria & Sushi Lounge , 4316 Main St.)
SUNDAY JUNE 19, 2011
10:00-2:00 Linking arms & breaking new grounds for future
generation
This day will be a simultaneous sharing amongst Filipino Canadian youth and
Filipino Canadian workers as we advance our struggle in
building a progressive movement in Canada.
May 24, 2011
Conference Announcement
Progressive Filipino Canadians boldly continue to pave and lead the path to genuine settlement and integration at a national conference
The National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) welcomes and encourages all to partake in “Counterspin: Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration” – a nation-wide conference taking place from June 18th to 19th, 2011 in the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia.
Under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), “Counterspin” will embark upon the momentous task of reconceptualizing and building the movement to counter and transform the social reality of the Filipino Canadian community – a transnational community caught in a cyclical state of permanent impermanence, induced by the ever-intensifying threats of neoliberal globalization and imperialism.
As a continuation of the first Counterspin titled “Towards a just and genuine settlement and integration: Link arms and unite for freedom,” held in the City of Montreal on April 30th until May 1st of 2010, women, workers, and youth, from the Filipino Canadian community, will once again gather to deepen and strengthen their resolve to realize our community’s entitlements of fully participating in the broader Canadian society as makers of history and as a people for social transformation.
Organized by the nationally formed organizations housed under the Kalayaan (Freedom) Centre in Vancouver, The Magkaisa (Unity) Centre in Toronto, and the Kapit Bisig (Link Arms) Centre in Montreal, the two-day conference will usher in a new phase in the rich history of our educating, mobilizing, and organizing work in the Filipino Canadian community. Armed with the challenge to proactively advance our successful development, empowerment, and community building in Canada, this vital undertaking is all the more paramount for the coming future generations to inherit our community’s legacy of struggle and resistance.
As Filipinos have been coming to Canada for over five decades, becoming the third largest immigrant group in the country, the call for a just and genuine settlement and integration have taken the centre focus in valiantly tackling our issues as workers, women, youth, and as peoples of colour – systematically pushed to the physical, cultural, social, economic, and political peripheries of society by the very system that boasts of diversity and multiculturalism. We have arrived at a new dawn of identifying with a truly progressive perspective that expressively and assertively places the struggles and the best interests of the most oppressed and exploited at the forefront of self-recognition, community representation, and cultural affiliation.
Thus, as we sharpen our tools in creating a progressive movement for the future of the Filipino Canadian community, this two-day conference will be indicative of our community’s renewed vigour and political will to take action towards countering economic marginalization, systemic racism and social exclusion. “Counterspin” will provide the venue for us to share and learn from one another as we deepen our understanding of our current collective realities, as well as our roles in changing and shaping our community’s future in Canada. “Counterspin” is and will be a symbol of the progressive Filipino Canadian community’s assertion for the advancement of the struggle for genuine settlement and integration towards our full participation and entitlement in Canadian society! Let us live out history by taking part in its creation!
“Counterspin: Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration”
National conference
Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC)
Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia
6476 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC
Registration is $25.00 (includes 2 meals and conference materials)
For more information or to register, please contact the conference secretariat:
Krystle Alarcon| 778-321-8275| krystle.alarcon@gmail.com
Jon Nieto| 778-384-7378| jonziphone@gmail.com
Arlene Oropel| 778- 317-5265| ajalex12jaylon@gmail.com
