Search to Involve Pilipino Americans

Founded in 1972, the mission of Search To Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA) is to enhance the quality of life in Los Angeles’ Historic Filipinotown and for Pilipino Americans throughout Los Angeles County. As such, SIPA provides a wide range of health and human services and community economic development programs aimed at improving economic self-sufficiency, educational attainment, cultural awareness and civic engagement. Youth and family services (counseling and case management, afterschool programs, etc.) are the core of SIPA’s programs, but in the 1990’s housing, small business and consumer assistance and civic engagement and advocacy were added to more comprehensively address the needs of our clients. Additionally, SIPA has expanded its capacity to serve a diverse population and currently provides services in English, Tagalog (Filipino), Spanish and Armenian.

In the next few years, SIPA’s goals include promoting community economic development in Los Angeles’ culturally rich but economically distressed Historic Filipinotown neighborhood. This includes leading cultural tourism and revitalization projects, supporting community-based entrepreneurs and redeveloping its own 23,000 sq, ft. property into a state-of-art community, recreational, social service and arts/cultural center to be known as the Historic Filipinotown Community and Cultural Center (HiFiCCC).