ARP Support for Survivors Program supports culturally-specific, community-based projects supporting survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault from Asian and Pacific Islander Communities in the United States and the Pacific.
Today, NAPIESV will join over 40 organizations, both nationally and locally, in an effort to provide culturally-specific, community-based support for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault from Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities across the U.S. and Pacific. The $13.2 million dollar initiative from the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) under the 2021 American Rescue Plan (ARP) will be the first time API-GBV (Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence) and NAPIESV will distribute two years of funding to culturally specific organizations that serve sexual assault (SA) and domestic violence (DV) survivors in AAPI communities.
Under the ARP Support for Survivors Program, sub-grants will be distributed through the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Capacity Building Fund to assist organizations by providing DV and SA services in Asian/Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander (AANHPI), and Middle Eastern (ME) communities in the United States and U.S. territories.
“As a partner of APIGBV in this effort, the National Organization of Asians & Pacific Islanders Ending Sexual Violence (NAPIESV) is looking forward to working with the funded organizations focusing on sexual violence to increase the availability of culturally specific and trauma-informed services to victims/survivors of sexual violence from the Asian & Pacific Islander communities nationally and in the U.S. Territories in the Pacific through this funding. We also want to highlight the authentic inclusion of victim services for sexual violence that happens outside of the context of intimate partner violence. Victims of sexual violence outside of marital rape/intimate partner sexual violence from the API communities are usually provided services that are not specific to their needs as sexual assault victims/survivors.”
– Mira Yusef, executive director, NAPIESV/Monsoon
NAPIESV and API-GBV are honored and proud to welcome organizations who are at the forefront of sexual assault and domestic violence work amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The ARP Support for Survivors Program will address the emergent needs of survivors, and the programs that serve them, resulting from the COVID-19 public health emergency. The work will also promote strategic partnership development and collaboration in responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency on survivors of SA and DV.
“It is essential to have this kind of funding distributed to communities with organizations deeply rooted in their environmental and cultural awareness and expertise in supporting survivors. The AAPI community is often left out of the public narrative on sexual assault and domestic violence and through this important work we will have the opportunity to support organizations who directly support survivors in our communities.”
– Monica Khant, executive director of API-GBV