Fil-Am youth conferences unite under one theme

NEW YORK, New York – Delegates from across the United States for the first time will attend Filipino American leadership conferences that are under one, unified theme – “Your Move.”

Pilipino American Unity for Progress, Inc. (UniPro), Fil-Am Young Leaders Program (FYLPro), and Empowering Pilipino Youth through Collaboration (EPYC) agreed on the theme with hopes that the initiative would jump-start a movement of cohesion between all Fil-Am leadership conferences across the country.

After collaborating with other organizers across the country, members of the Pilipino American Unity for Progress, Inc. developed a concept to challenge delegates to leave their mark.

“We wanted to show that unity can be accomplished and all it took was to reach out and talk to each other,” President of UniPro Rachelle Ocampo said.

The first of three conferences will be the Fil-Am Young Leaders Summit on Saturday, May 3 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Filipino Community Center in Waipahu, Hawaii.  The Summit’s keynote speaker will be Tony Olaes, President and CEO of ODM Enterprise as well as Chairman of U.S. Gawad Kalinga.

The summit wants to bring Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose L. Cuisia’s Fil-Am Young Leaders Program participants from all over the country “to empower, inspire and discuss solutions on how to advance Fil-Am interests.” www.fylsummit.com

The movement will continue to New York City with the Annual UniPro Summit: The Multinational Forum for Pilipino Young Adults, Students and Youth at Fashion Institute of Technology on Saturday, May 31. UniPro wants to challenge the delegates to find themselves in their community and address its needs by aligning themselves with organizations.

Through panel discussions, guest speakers will share how they found their place in the community, what they have accomplished, what issues they are tackling, what still needs to be accomplished and how the delegates can contribute. www.unipronow.org

The third conference under the same theme “Your Move” is the youth -oriented component of The National Federation of Filipino American Association’s (NaFFAA) annual empowerment conference called Empowering Pilipino Youth through Collaboration (EPYC) in San Diego, California from August 7 to August 10.

The leadership development institute aims to facilitate collaboration between regional Filipino American student organizations across North America, for networking and sharing of best practices in student organizing.

It envisions an international community of Filipino American student leaders that consistently communicate, learn from each other and exchange ideas to improve their reach and impact on Filipino American youth. www.empowerment.naffaa10.org

“The usual talk about collaboration among Filipino organizations across the nation is old news, but this milestone is significant. We encourage organizers with similar interests to contact us,” said UniPro’s Ocampo.