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Western Washington is home to one of the largest Pasifika (NH/PI) communities in the United States. Our Polynesian, Micronesian, and Melanesian communities first made Western Washington their home 200 years ago and have continued to build home here on Coast Salish land. More than half of the state’s NH/PI population have made Snohomish, King, Pierce and Thurston counties their home away from home. The oldest Pasifika church institutions are all in Western Washington.
We work collaborative with state and local partners to facilitate the wellness of our Western Washington NH/PI communities. These partners include: DOH, Kaiser Permanente, Harborview, Providence, Seattle King County Public Health, Tacoma Pierce County Health District, King County Public Library Systems and many others.
Spokane County in Eastern Washington is home to the second largest Marshallese population in the U.S. continent, second only to Arkansas. It is also home to many of our Chuukese, Samoan and Native Hawaiian families as well. Spokane County has seen the exponential growth of our NH/PI population, who have emigrated to there due to employment opportunities. Existing barriers to healthcare and lack of insurance enrollment continues to drive negative consequences that our local community currently suffers.
Our partners include Marshallese Community Advisory Board, CHAS, Spokane Regional Health District, SNAP, Native Project, APIC-Spokane and other local agencies who are committed to working together in ushering in policies that are driven by race-equity to mitigate local disparities experienced by NH/PI communities.
Southwest Washington has a unique history of being a suburb of Portland and has attracted a large portion of our NH/PI communities who often travel into Portland for employment and return home to SW Washington where they have settled due to more accessible housing. While our Southwest Washington NH/PI communities are made up of our diverse Pasifika communities, our Chuukese community from the Federated States of Micronesia have built large networks and made Clark and Cowlitz County their home away from home.
Our partners include Clark County Health Department, Cowlitz County Health District, PeaceHealth and Kaiser Permanente. We hold once a month meetings to co-design local Southwest efforts to support our communities in accessing service provisions, as well as drive local funding and policy priorities that lift up our communities.
Northern Washington has become home to many NH/PI communities, with a sizable Marshallese and also Fijian community who have made this region their home. Most of our families live in Everett but have also spread out to other Snohomish cities. We offer food supports in this region, along with providing wellness navigation to some of our families in the region.
Our partners include the Snohomish Health District and Healthier Here (Providence), Immigrant & Refugee Services along with our Pacific Islander church bodies in the region.
Pacific Islander Community Association of WA (PICA-WA) is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization operating across Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Chinook, Cowlitz and Spokane tribal lands in Washington State. We honor with gratitude the land itself and the traditional stewards who never ceded these territories.
We will be back to normal operation hours on Monday, May 15th. Thank you for understanding!
