Domestic Violence Awareness

October 2019 Newsletter

Domestic Violence Awareness
October is National Domestic Violence Awareness month. It began in 1981 by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence as a Day of Unity to connect battered women’s advocates across the country. In 1994 Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Unfortunately, VAWA expired in February after 25 years, efforts to renew the Act has been stalled in the Senate.

Domestic Violence (DV) prevention is part of APA's mission. Under the Violence Against Women Project funded by the San Francisco Department on the Status of Women, APA/Asian and Pacific Islander Family Resource Network offers linguistically and culturally appropriate home visitation, prevention education, outreach, and intervention services to immigrant Asian and Pacific Islander (API) women, girls, and their families who are at risk for domestic violence and sexual assault.

APA's Breaking The Silence - See DV "Inside Out" is our annual event to promote awareness in the community we serve. This year it was held on October 18 at our 50 Raymond Avenue location. In the image above, a staff is explaining what domestic violence is and the different types which are described on the t-shirts on the clothesline.

APA is a partner with San Francisco Department on the Status of Women, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, the San Francisco Police Department, and La Casa de las Madres for the Bayview Domestic Violence High Risk Program funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Violence Against Women.

Through this project, APA assists partners with the development of an outreach strategy to API residents living in San Francisco’s Southeast neighborhoods, focusing on implementing outreach strategy to support Domestic Violence survivors in Bayview through community events and home visitation program.

Abusive behaviors can take many forms including physical, sexual, verbal, emotional, economic, elder abuse, and control over the victim. DV victims can be any gender, economic status, age group, ethnicity, culture or religion.

The red wooden figures represent victims of domestic violence, each displaying a story of the abused

We offer a SafeStart Program that provides case management, parenting classes and parent-child group to families with children ages 0-6 who has been exposed to violence in the home or community. ACT Parenting Class focuses on educating parents to create early environments that protect them from violence. Superheroes group teaches parent-child building skills for children aged 5 and 6, helping children build self-esteem and to identify and communicate feelings to a trusted adult.

On October 3, Mayor London Breed announced that San Francisco police officers will have available a new mobile phone application "Honest Assessment Response Tool" to identify survivors who are at a higher risk for being seriously injured due to domestic violence. The survivors would then be encouraged to immediately speak to an advocate with La Casa de las Madres, an organization that provides support for survivors. (Source: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/San-Francisco-Launches-App-to-Help-Domestic-Violence-Survivors-562039721.html)