Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC) is a nonprofit advocacy group for Pacific Islanders living within and outside of the United States. ¹ EPIC advocates for the American government to increase its focus on Pacific Islander issues, including by increasing spending on various welfare programs that support Pacific Islanders and liberalizing immigration policies.

Since 2020, EPIC has been a fiscally sponsored project of Community Partners. ² Since then, EPIC has received funding from billionaire MacKenzie Scott, the Ford Foundation, and other left-of-center donors.

Advocacy

In 2012, Empowering Pacific Islander Communities brought 25 leaders of Chamorro, Fijian, Marshallese, Native Hawaiian, Samoan, and Tongan communities together in Washington, D.C., to establish the “Policy Platform Blueprint for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in the United States” (PPB). ³

On education, the PPB advocated the U.S. Department of Education draft a plan to support Pacific Islanders to “reduce education disparities” with other Americans, increase federal support for scholarships targeted at Pacific Islanders, and for the government to tie immigration status to the pursuit of higher education. ⁴

On health care, the PPB advocates increasing federally funded research into health problems associated with Pacific Islanders, expanding the U.S. National Health Service Corps to cover more Pacific Islander communities, and promoting access to Federally Qualified Health Clinics for Pacific Islanders. ⁵

On civil rights, the PPB advocates for the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to jointly develop a plan to address the alleged civil rights disparity between Pacific Islanders and other Americans. The PPB also supports federal law enforcement agencies releasing Pacific Islander criminal statistics. ⁶

On immigration, the PPB advocates for simplifying the immigration process, reducing the backlog on family-based immigration visas, and ensuring health care and welfare benefits for immigrants. ⁷

Activity

Empowering Pacific Islander Communities runs Pacific Islander Leaders of Tomorrow (PILOT), a leadership development program for Pacific Islanders. PILOT holds an annual four-day seminar at various college campuses across the United States, hosts summer seminars to develop specific skills, and encourages alumni to contribute to community organizing through PILOT’s Forward Movement Project. As of 2024, PILOT operates in eight states and has over 200 alumni. ⁸

EPIC sponsors research projects for indigenous individuals “grounded in concepts and pillars” from Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. The book argues that Western conceptions of research are inherently biased against indigenous communities and have historically exploited such communities. Smith argues that indigenous communities should produce their own researchers who can forge a new, non-western research paradigm for the material benefit of the indigenous. ^{9 10}

EPIC provides assistance for registering to vote through Rock the Vote. ¹¹

Terminology

Empowering Pacific Islander Communities has expressed opposition to the use of the terms “Asian American,” “Asian American and Pacific Islander” (AAPI), and “Asian Pacific Islander,” which have been used by the federal government in official statistics since the 1980s. Allegedly, the terms are too broad since they lump together East Asian immigrants, who tend to be prosperous, with Pacific Islanders, who tend to have lower outcomes in terms of income and education. EPIC tends to prefer the term “Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander” (NHPI). ^{12 13}

EPIC’s Policy Platform Blueprint states, “the NHPI community in the U.S. is often aggregated into the ‘Asian Pacific Islander’ category, which has been historically associated with healthy profiles, obscuring NHPI health issues and making them invisible in reported data.” ¹⁴

Former EPIC executive director Tavae Samuelu has commented on the terminology: “In some ways, marginalization and erasure feel inevitable.” ¹⁵

Funding

In 2023, billionaire MacKenzie Scott donated to Empowering Pacific Islander Communities as well as over two dozen other Asian and Pacific Islander advocacy groups. ¹⁶

Also in 2023, EPIC received $100,000 from the Ford Foundation, ¹⁷ along with donations from Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP) ¹⁸ and the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development. ¹⁹

EPIC has received funding from the Weingart Foundation. ²⁰

In 2018 to 2019, EPIC received funding from the Asian Pacific Community Fund. ²¹

1. “Empowering Pacific Islander Communities.” Weingart Foundation. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://weingartfnd.org/empowering-pacific-islander-communities/.
2. “Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC).” Community Partners. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://communitypartners.org/org/empowering-pacific-islander-communities-epic/.
3. “Advocacy.” EPIC. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://www.empoweredpi.org/advocacy.
4. “Advocacy.” EPIC. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://www.empoweredpi.org/advocacy.
5. “Advocacy.” EPIC. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://www.empoweredpi.org/advocacy.
6. “Advocacy.” EPIC. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://www.empoweredpi.org/advocacy.
7. “Advocacy.” EPIC. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://www.empoweredpi.org/advocacy.
8. “Leadership Development.” EPIC. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://www.empoweredpi.org/leadership-development.
9. “Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples.” Ministry of Social Development. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/journals-and-magazines/social-policy-journal/spj17/decolonizing-methodologies-research-and-indigenous-peoples.html.
10. “Research.” EPIC. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://www.empoweredpi.org/research.
11. “Register to Vote.” Rock the Vote. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://register.rockthevote.com/registrants/new?partner=39094&source=embed-rtv200x165v1.
12. “Advocacy.” EPIC. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://www.empoweredpi.org/advocacy.
13. Zhou, Li. “The inadequacy of the term “Asian American”.” Vox. May 5, 2021. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://www.vox.com/identities/22380197/asian-american-pacific-islander-aapi-heritage-anti-asian-hate-attacks.
14. “Advocacy.” EPIC. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://www.empoweredpi.org/advocacy.
15. Zhou, Li. “The inadequacy of the term “Asian American”.” Vox. May 5, 2021. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://www.vox.com/identities/22380197/asian-american-pacific-islander-aapi-heritage-anti-asian-hate-attacks.
16. Randall. “Philanthropist Mackenzie Scott donates millions to AAPI orgs.” AsAmNews. December 12, 2023. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://asamnews.com/2023/12/12/charity-nonprofits-jeff-bezos-donations-gifts-asian-american-pacific-islander-native-hawaiian/.
17. “Core support for Empowering Pacific Islander Communities to build power across the pan-Asian community, specifically within the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community.” Ford Foundation. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/grants-database/community-partners-148664/.
18. “2023 Grantees.” Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://aapifund.org/grants/current-grantees/.
19. “OVERVIEW.” National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://www.nationalcapacd.org/our-work/2022-aa-and-nhpi-community-resilience-fund/.
20. “Empowering Pacific Islander Communities.” Weingart Foundation. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://weingartfnd.org/empowering-pacific-islander-communities/.
21. “Grants.” Asian Pacific Community Fund. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://www.apcf.org/current-grants.