Kalinga Kabataan: Caring for the Caregivers

If you grew up in a multigenerational household, chances are you have been told to “respect your elders,” help around the house, or to look after your grandparents when they’re not feeling well. For many of us, that’s just part of family life. But what happens when those responsibilities stack up — on top of school, work, and everything else a teenager is already juggling?

That’s the question I asked myself while growing up, especially as I witnessed my own grandparents’ health decline. My childhood was full of quiet hospital visits, language barriers, and unspoken fear — like when I’d sit outside my grandma’s hospital room, frozen in place, counting the beeps of the heart monitor and wondering if each breath would be her last. My grandma survived cancer three times, and I was lucky to have had her until she was 85. But the stress of navigating caregiving as a kid never really left me.

Fast forward to today, and I’ve spent years in health care and public health — working as an In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) caregiver, bilingual clinic scribe, and MPH student. Each step has shown me how overlooked young caregivers are, especially Filipino American teens who often carry a lot of weight on their shoulders but don’t always have the language — or support — to talk about it.

That’s why I created Kalinga Kabataan (“Youth Care”), a new caregiving education program I proposed for the 2025 UCLA Health Equity Challenge, in partnership with Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA), a nonprofit in LA’s Historic Filipinotown. The name reflects the dual mission of this initiative: to honor the caring nature of Filipino youth who selflessly support their families and elders, while also emphasizing the urgent need to care for these young caregivers themselves.

“Our systems don’t support caregivers — especially young, low-income, immigrant ones. That’s what Kalinga Kabataan is about. It’s about creating a safety net that reflects our culture, supports our youth, and honors the invisible labor that holds our families together.”

So, what is Kalinga Kabataan and why does it matter?

Simply put, Kalinga Kabataan is a 12-session hybrid curriculum designed for Filipino teens (ages 15–18) who are caregivers or may become caregivers in the future. The goal is to give them the tools, language, and support they need to care for others — without losing sight of their own health, education, or dreams.

We’re talking real-life skills like navigating the health care system, accessing resources like in-home respite care or advance care planning (ACP), and processing the emotional side of caregiving — something many of us never learn to talk about until we’re already burned out.

It’s also about culture. In Filipino communities, we’re taught to sacrifice and stay silent. Terms like paggalang (respect for elders) and utang na loob (debt of gratitude) can make asking for help feel like a betrayal. For young Filipinas especially, caregiving pressure hits hard — studies show that Filipina teens report some of the highest rates of suicidal ideation compared to other racial and ethnic groups. And yet, mental health support remains hard to find, often viewed with stigma or brushed off altogether.

Kalinga Kabataan flips that narrative. The program uses culturally grounded education — think book clubs with caregiving literature, short film screenings, and guest talks from Filipino health workers — to empower teens, not just instruct them. Participants get stipends (because unpaid caregiving is still labor), access to a Care Fund for supplies (like mobility aids or adult diapers), and one-on-one mentorship with professionals in the field.

They also get community. And that’s huge. These youth are often doing this work in silence, hidden from public health data and policy conversations. We’re changing that by giving them a space to connect, reflect, and even lead. The program ends with a youth-led community presentation — because their voices matter, and it’s time we started listening.

Why caregiving? Why now?

The caregiving crisis isn’t coming — it’s here. And youth are increasingly filling that gap, whether we talk about it or not. With over 370,000 Filipinos in LA County alone, many of whom live in multigenerational households, this issue hits close to home. Yet there are almost no formal support systems tailored to young caregivers in our community. Insurance doesn’t cover their needs, mental health services are scarce, and caregiving career paths feel out of reach.

This project also builds on my broader research through the UCLA HoPES lab and my Fulbright study in the Philippines, where I am examining how cultural taboos around death prevent families from planning for end-of-life care. Whether here or abroad, one thing’s clear: our systems don’t support caregivers — especially young, low-income, immigrant ones.

That’s what Kalinga Kabataan is about. It’s about creating a safety net that reflects our culture, supports our youth, and honors the invisible labor that holds our families together.

What’s next?

With funding from the Health Equity Challenge, SIPA will launch Kalinga Kabataan as a pilot this fall. We can track participants’ knowledge, confidence, and access to resources. With this data, we can even build a longer-term plan to expand the program to older youth (ages 19–22) and eventually other communities, like Latinx and Black youth caregivers who face similar barriers.

The dream? A world where no young caregiver feels alone, unsupported, or invisible. A world where caregiving is seen not as a private burden, but a public health priority.

And if we can start that change in Historic Filipinotown, I believe we can carry it across LA —  and beyond.