Established as the Filipinx Policy Committee by LEAD Filipino and the Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies in 2018, the Committee aimed to increase Filipina/x/o participation in legislative and policy advocacy. These efforts soon led to building a statewide coalition of Filipino organizations, including the South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN) and the Filipino American Educators Association of California (FAEAC) to host the first FilAm Advocacy Day, bringing Filipina/x/o students and families from across the state, to the California State Capital in 2019. In 2020, after organizing a statewide Town Hall for hundreds of community members on Fighting Anti-Blackness in the Filipina/x/o community and demonstrating solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives, the Committee officially rebranded as the Filipinx Igniting Engagement for Reimagining Collective Empowerment [FIERCE] Coalition.

 

Since then, the FIERCE Coalition has presented at key policy symposia on Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) political leadership, helped pass civil rights legislation at the state level, including Assembly Bill 490, the Justice for Angelo Quinto Act, and has advocated for human rights and higher education issues, such as the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, just cause eviction laws, and the defense of Ethnic Studies.