Social and economic conditions have a profound impact on our patients’ well-being. Since the founding of Asian Health Services in 1974, advocacy and policy change have been rooted in our mission as a community health center.
We mobilize and ignite action for the betterment and health of our communities – from our local General Membership Meetings to our Capital, we ensure our most underserved Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voices are heard.
</p> <h2>LEGISLATION</h2> <p>
Asian Health Services co-sponsored the California Healthy Nail Salon Bill (AB2125) and worked extensively with the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative to successfully pass the bill in 2016.
Nail salon workers are often exposed to harmful chemicals in their workplaces.
AB2125 calls for a consumer education program focused on the benefits of patronizing a Healthy Nail Salon, and an awareness campaign for local governments on the benefits of implementing a Healthy Nail Salon Recognition Program.
Asian Health Services remains active in promoting and ensuring health in nail salons. We work together with the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative, a coalition of 25 organizations.
To learn more about the continuing work of the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative or to get involved, please click here.
California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative and Asian Health Services worked to successfully pass AB2025 in 2016.
There is often a lack of information about workers’ rights and owner responsibilities in the nail salon industry. Most nail salon workers are Vietnamese-speaking immigrant women, often with limited English skills. AB2025 calls for workers’ rights education among all BBC establishments, and language-accessible labor issues information and materials.
To learn more about AB 2025 or if you want to get involved, please click here. AB2025 was co-sponsored by California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative.
AB 1726, a bill that calls for expanded data disaggregation for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) in California, was the first-of-its-kind legislature to be passed in a California school district. Banteay Srei, Asian Health Services Youth Program (The SPOT) and AYPaL: Building API Community Power worked together to collect data, present, and advocate for the AAPI youth in Oakland Unified School District.
Currently, data on AAPIs often hides the challenges faced by many groups within our community—especially among Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders. With expanded data disaggregation that breaks down information by specific ethnic group, we will better understand the conditions faced by the vulnerable in our community. As a result, we will also be able to mobilize the resources to address these disparities in health and economic outcomes.
For more information on the data disaggregation bill, click here.
Commercially Sexually Exploited
Children (CSEC) and Human Trafficking
Advocacy & Policy
Commercial sexual exploitation of children has traditionally been viewed as an issue of the criminal justice system. At AHS, we believe that this is also a public health issue, and that community health centers play an important role in identifying and addressing issues of sexual exploitation of minors.
Dr. Kimberly Chang, an AHS physician, is a nationally recognized physician and advocate who is leading efforts to change how our community and our nation addresses sexual exploitation of children.
Useful educational materials on addressing sexual exploitation:
To receive CSEC Screening Protocol for Providers, Please complete this form:
In 2011, Dr. Kimberly Chang, a physician at Asian Health Services, treated a Cambodian-American girl whom she suspected and who later admitted to being sexually exploited. This encounter along with hundreds of other patients in Oakland began Dr. Chang’s journey and Asian Health Services’ effort in advocating for commercially sexually exploitation of children as one that must be addressed as a public health issue. Dr. Chang has spoken nationally and has educated community health centers in identifying and addressing sexual exploitation of children.
Dr. Kimberly Chang, an AHS physician, is a nationally recognized physician and advocate, and founder of HEAL Trafficking, Inc.
She is the co-author of “The Role of Community Health Centers in Addressing Human Trafficking” chapter of the book, Human Trafficking Is A Public Health Issue
Nearly ½ of commercially sexually exploited children in California are in Oakland. Listen to the powerful, first-hand account of sexually exploitation of Southeast Asian minors.