January 16, 2025
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WASHINGTON D.C. – NAAPIMHA, the National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association, was one of three awardees of the inaugural Combating Hate and Promoting Healthy Communities Innovator Challenge, a challenge administered by the White House Initiative on Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI), an initiative run out of the U.S Department of Health and Human Services.
In September 2024, WHIAANHPI launched the rapid response national idea competition for 501(c)3 community-based organizations to propose community-driven efforts to raise greater awareness of hate crimes and address the health consequences, including mental health, of communities burdened by bullying, hate, and bias. Over 100 innovative ideas were submitted from across the nation, and NAAPIMHA received the $100K prize and award alongside Hawai’i Arts Alliance and the Vietnamese American Community Center of East Bay at the January 10th WHIAANHPI Community of Partnerships event in Washington D.C.
With this award, NAAPIMHA will lead a National AANHPI Community of Practice for Radical Healing and Community Care, bringing together AANHPI leaders from across the country to train, share best practices, develop new resources, and respond to future mass community traumas, bullying, hate incidents, or bias impacting our communities.
NAAPIMHA recognizes rapidly growing mental health needs within AANHPI communities, given the rise of anti-AANHPI violence, the existing mental health crises, and the unexpected disasters and trauma occurring in communities, such as shootings and natural disasters. While NAAPIMHA pivots with urgency as one of the only national mental health organizations to support mental health needs, policy, and advocacy efforts related to these threats, NAAPIMHA values the importance of collective movement to improve mental health support and care for our communities, ourselves and our partners as frontline responders.
With this understanding of the field and our organization, NAAPIMHA’s initiative is to launch a National AANHPI Community of Practice for Radical Healing & Community Care rooted in the cultural ways of being, knowing, and healing of AANHPI communities and takes a trauma-informed, healing-centered approach to working with AANHPI communities who are deeply impacted by historical and ongoing racial and systemic trauma experienced in today’s society.
NAAPIMHA will convene the National AANHPI Community of Practice for Radical Healing & Community Care (CoP) to 1) train AANHPI community leaders in NAAPIMHA’s array of mental health trainings, including Achieving Whole Health and Mental Health First Aid, 2) facilitate sharing among CoP cohort members to uplift community strategies and resources that address bullying, hate, & bias, and 3) actively mobilize a network of leaders to collaboratively develop strategies around how to respond to ongoing and future instances of bullying, hate, & bias impacting AANHPI communities.
The CoP is an initiative that will be composed of AANHPI-serving community leaders who are interested in developing or enhancing their knowledge and skills to address bullying, hate, & bias in AANHPI communities. Community leaders may include: AANHPI-serving community based organization staff, AANHPI mental health advocates, and/or AANHPI leaders with lived experience. Participants will meet on a bimonthly basis with NAAPIMHA leadership and other guest speakers engaged in responding to recent crises impacting AANHPI communities.
The CoP will build on NAAPIMHA’s current response efforts with community partners and provide a dedicated space to participate in this learning community and implement lessons learned with their organizations and the communities they serve. A virtual CoP learning space will hold all session materials and all vetted resources for public use will be added to the Healing, Empowerment, Awareness, Resilience Toolbox (HEART) on NAAPIMHA’s website and disseminated through NAAPIMHA and partner networks, social media, and listservs. The initiative will begin in the Spring of 2025.
NAAPIMHA extends its gratitude to WHIAANHPI and HHS for the award as well as the President’s Advisory Commission on AANHPIs, the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration’s Office of Behavioral Health Equity, and the White House's Office of Public Engagement for organizing national convenings on AANHPI mental health over the last four years of the Biden-Harris administration.
As an Innovative Challenge Winner, NAAPIMHA honors this legacy and will continue this mental health movement through the National Community of Practice for Radical Healing & Community Care and its portfolio of culturally-grounded mental health training, community programs, policy & advocacy, and crisis response efforts.
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About NAAPIMHA
NAAPIMHA, the National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association, is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote and redefine the mental health and wellbeing of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities, through mental health trainings, community mental health programs, national policy and advocacy, and rapid community crisis response, while centering those with lived experience.
Since 2001, NAAPIMHA has worked with AANHPI-serving community based organizations across the country to identify and respond to the mental health needs of AANHPI communities nationwide. Over the past 20 years, provided training and consultation to over 150 AANHPI-serving community-based organizations and 3500 AANHPIs around the country resulting in behavior change and improved skills to promote positive health outcomes for individuals and the communities they serve.