Nearly 290,000 Filipino immigrants and Filipino Americans call the San Francisco Bay Area home. Right now, that sense of home, belonging, and safety is under threat.
When Sweet Lao immigrated to California from the Philippines, she felt isolated and alone as she arrived without family and without knowing a single person in the Bay Area. But she found her way to Filipino Advocates for Justice, a Stand Together Bay Area Fund recipient, where they took the time to sit with her, listen, and connect her to a broader Filipino community. Whether through referrals, check-ins, or shared space to gather, they make sure people like Sweet Lao feel a sense of belonging, know they are cared for, and do not have to navigate that fear alone.
Today, Sweet Lao is a Worker Leader with Filipino Advocates for Justice’s organizing team, working closely with domestic workers, many of whom are Filipino immigrants caring for children, supporting elders, and maintaining households across the Bay Area. She helps workers navigate issues like wage theft, working long hours without breaks, or fear of losing their jobs if they speak up. Sweet Lao meets people where they are by checking in, listening, and connecting them to support and resources—motivated by the same hope that first brought her through the organization’s door.
“Filipino Advocates for Justice has provided me a home away from home,” Sweet Lao says. “I found my community and a family.”
A Half-Century of Solidarity
Sweet Lao’s story reflects the experience of Filipino immigrants over the past 50 years. As more Filipinos arrived in the Bay Area in the 1970s, many faced discrimination, isolation, and barriers in housing, employment, and civic life, with few institutions equipped or willing to support them. Filipino Advocates for Justice was created to provide support that was missing.
That founding mission is as urgent as ever. As anti-immigrant policies intensify across the country, Filipino and broader immigrant communities are once again under pressure—facing fear, uncertainty, and the threat of family separation. Filipino Advocates for Justice continues to meet this moment with the same approach that has defined its work from the beginning: showing up, organizing, and bringing the community together to create change.
Support that Meets the Moment
For many Filipino immigrants, finding support can begin with a single connection. At Filipino Advocates for Justice, that support is immediate and personal. When someone comes in with a concern or needs help navigating the immigration process, staff and organizers sit with them, listen, and help them understand their options. They then connect people to trusted legal partners, guide them through immigration applications and appointments, and help them navigate next steps like finding healthcare or stable housing.
Filipino Advocates for Justice also builds connections beyond urgent needs. Volunteer organizers check in with community members who may have been feeling isolated, connect families to resources, and support domestic workers and caregivers in understanding their rights and addressing workplace issues. Support from SFF’s Stand Together Bay Area Fund helps sustain this integrated approach, supporting both immediate community needs and the long-term support network that defines the organization’s impact.
“Funding from Stand Together Bay Area lets us do what we do best in the Bay Area when our communities are under attack — show up for each other in solidarity to exercise our collective power to fight back,” says Executive Director Geraldine Alcid.
“In times of crisis, caring for our people is necessary to do the organizing and advocacy work we do. It provides the safety and stability to continue, as well as a reminder that our people are a part of a beloved community. This is what allows us to continue to organize, change the forces that created these conditions in the first place, and create what comes next after crisis,” says Alcid.
At a moment when immigrant communities across the Bay Area are facing the full weight of hostile federal immigration policy, Filipino Advocates for Justice remains what it has always been: a space where Filipino immigrants do not just find support, but find each other, come together to create change, and shape what comes next.
For Worker Leader Sweet Lao, that beloved community is not an abstraction. It is the lived experience that transformed her from a newcomer experiencing isolation into an organizer inspiring others to do the same. Her outreach work reflects what Filipino Advocates for Justice gave her: a home, a family, and a place to belong.
SFF is proud to support Filipino Advocates for Justice and other organizations providing critical support to immigrant communities through the Stand Together Bay Area Fund. The Stand Together Bay Area Fund brings together donors and community nonprofits to distribute urgent financial assistance and wraparound support to immigrant families at risk of eviction, hunger, and family separation due to increased threats of detention and deportation.
