Counseling and Mental Health Center’s Voices Against Violence Program (VAV)

UT Program

Contact: Lynn Hoare LHoare@austin.utexas.edu

The Counseling and Mental Health Center provides a plethora of services to the University of Texas at Austin community. Among those services, CMHC has devoted itself to providing services for survivors of Interpersonal Violence and interpersonal violence preventionthrough the Voices Against Violence  (VAV)_ Program.

Programs and Services

Counseling

The Voices Against Violence program offers both individual and group counseling for survivors and allies of survivors of interpersonal violence. To make an appointment for individual or group counseling visit the CMHC on the fifth floor of the Student Services Building or call 512-471-3515.

Survivor Advocacy

Advocacy includes services like orchestrating housing changes or schedule changes so that survivors can more safely avoid their abusers, working with student emergency services, or coordinating a response to a campus situation.

Emergency Survivors Fund

The Survivors Fund offers financial assistance to survivors.  Survivor Fund money is available to those whose lives have been directly affected by interpersonal violence. In the past it has been used to purchase housing necessities, emergency supplies, clear financial bars, and other needs for survivors.

Training

VAV offers training on relationship violence, sexual violence, and stalking to programs on campus, specific populations and community organizations. VAV has trained Athletes, UT Police Officers, student organizations, Resident Assistants, Orientation Advisors, Greek Leaders and more. Trainings can be altered to encompass how these issues affect special populations like students with disabilities or the LGBTQQ populations.

Public Events

VAV also coordinates public events to encourage education around campus.  These include Domestic Violence Awareness Month activities, Theater for Dialogue performances, Sexual Assault Awareness Month events, “Take Back the Night,” “Panty Line” Project, “Red Flag” Project, Silent Witness Project, among others.

Theatre for Dialogue

Is an interactive theatre method that encourages people to participate in examining their understanding of relationship violence, sexual violence, and stalking in the context of power and control.  Performances also examine what behaviors get normalized in relationships and seen as “OK” when in actuality these behaviors might be warning signs of dating violence.

The Theatre for Dialogue program creates realistic scenes with clear roles of oppressor, oppressed and bystanders. The audience is encouraged to pause the scene to discuss the dynamics and to even step into the role of one of the bystanders to see how they can make a difference. Since most of us will be bystanders to some type of violence in our lives these examples of how to respond to survivors and hold perpetrators accountable are monumental opportunities.

Each semester VAV offers a class in Theatre for Dialogue.  Students who have chosen to be peer educators on relationship violence, sexual violence and stalking enroll in the course for the academic year.   The first semester is spent educating about the issues and building rapport between peer educators. The second semester asks the students to produce the aforementioned scenarios that educate on the VAV issues. The class challenges students not only to be able to educate others but to acknowledge their own growth.

VAV and the Austin Community

The Counseling and Mental Health Center’s Voices Against Violence Program often partners with outside agencies to educate or provide services. In the past they have worked with SafePlace, LifeWorks, Metz Recreation Center, Tarleton State University, Travis County Correctional Facility, Changing Lives Youth Theatre Company/ Theatre Action Project and other agencies.

Highlights and Successes

• In the previous school calendar the Voices Against Violence program conducted 27 performances and 19 trainings to reach over 1,800 staff and students.
• Since the creation of VAV in 2001 VAV has reached 8.910 professionals and over 115,000 students.
• VAV has extensively trained 140 peer educators who serve as campus leaders and change agents knowledgeable in interpersonal violence issues.

Voices Against Violence (VAV)

Since 2001 VAV has continued to serve the needs of the diverse UT population with information, education, training, advocacy, counseling, and referral services. For more information visit their website:  http://cmhc.utexas.edu/vav.html

Community Organization

Contact: Krista Del Gallo – kdelgallo@tcfv.org

Texas Council on Family Violence is made of multiple departments including policy, prevention, and support to service providers. TCFV Policy team promotes legislation, provides trainings, produces materials, and offers support to antiviolence efforts throughout the state of Texas.

Programs and Services

The policy department of the Texas Council on Family Violence creates more opportunities for victims of family violence.

One way is by enhancing the criminal justice and civil legal response to victims of family violence and by enhancing protections for victims of family violence within the Texas Family and Criminal Codes. The team also works to expand access to legal services for victims of family violence.

Another way is by supporting programs and services providers and advocating with funders of those programs to make sure they are responsive to the service programs and that the service providers understand funder expectations and governmental regulations pertaining to delivering services.

The last way is expanding economic opportunities for survivors of family violence. This can include networking with stakeholders in the housing, employment, and asset building arenas, understanding systems and legal protections that exist for survivors and learning how to grow resources in the areas that survivors need assistance to live independently.

Every other year TCFV develops a legislative agenda that promotes legislation that expands opportunities and protections for survivors. One main goal is to secure funding for service providers. This is accompanied by a substantive agenda developed by a public policy committee that pursues several types of legislation.

Last session the Policy Department was successfully in working with the legislature to pass a bill that forces those convicted of committing an act of family violence must pay $100 to the local family violence program. Another successful bill allows victims of family violence and sexual assault to terminate their lease without penalty. They also passed a bill making strangulation a felony.

Volunteers and Interns

TCFV Policy team doesn’t use volunteers in a traditional sense, they often used volunteers from DV programs to lobby or testify during legislative sessions. TCFV does utilize both paid and unpaid interns.  Interns work on specific projects, manuals and research.

TCFV Policy and UT

TCFV Interns are often acquired from the University of Texas community. UT School of Social Work, LBJ’s Public Policy school, and the Law School, have participated as interns for TCFV Policy.

Policy also works with the UT Law Professor Sarah Buel who has participated in public policy committee meetings. TCFV also uses her clinic to help when survivors are looking for direct services.  Professor Buel occasionally has encouraged her students to complete research relevant to the needs identified by TCFV.

TCFV also has a relationship with Noel Busch Armendariz and the IDVSA who have worked together for research, public policy and human trafficking issues.

Cynthia Bryant of the UT Law mediation clinic also has worked with the department on a special project training child support workers at the office of the Attorney General.

TCFV Policy staff has also spoken to classes in social work on family violence and policy.

Highlights and Successes

• TCFV Policy has been able to secure full funding for service providers for each legislations session.
• Respond to thousands of service provider calls every year.
• In the 2009 fiscal year TCFV as an agency, has conducted 93 trainings to over 2,300 individuals.

TCFV Policy

The Policy department is a unified voice speaking to the Texas Legislature to support and create laws that will assist victims and survivors of domestic violence.

Community Organization

Contact: Patty Conner: patty.conner@hopealliancetx.org

Hope Alliance is the only family and sexual violence program and shelter for women and children in Williamson County.  Hope alliance seekstodevelop partnerships and provide services that renew hope, highlight possibilities and change the futures of those whose lives have been affected by family and sexual violence.

Hope Alliance was originally a rape crisis center founded in 1984, but quickly expanded to include domestic violence services, and has provided services in Williamson and Travis counties for over 25 years

Programs and Services

Counseling and Support groups

Hope Alliance provides counseling and support groups for all survivors of intimate partner and sexual violence. They provide individual, family and group counseling.

In addition to emergency shelter, Hope alliance also provides transistional and supportive housing for survivors of domestic violence.

Supportive Housing

Supportive housing provides residence for 6 months for women leaving their abusers. Eligibility requirements do not include employment or childcare. Residents are provided counseling and help during their stay.

Transitional Housing

Residents in the transitional housing program must have secure employment, childcare and reliable transportation.

Legal Advocacy

Hope Alliance provides legal advocacy to clients including issues of protective orders, accessing crime victims compensation, and can connect clients to other resources for legal help with other matters like immigration, divorce, custody, landlord issues and more.

Primary Prevention

Hope Alliance has two primary prevention coordinators, one with a family violence concentration and the other with a sexual assault concentration. These coordinators spend time in schools educating at different levels age appropriate material on how to prevent such violence and to keep safe from such violence.

Volunteers

Volunteers are always needed and provide a plethora of services to Hope Alliance. Volunteers answer phones, clean closets, read to children, conduct hospital advocacy, conduct support groups and more.

Volunteers are trained based on services they wish to provide. These trainings can be from 1-hour to 40-hours. Client based services require a state-mandated 40-hour training. Hope Alliance provides this training four times a year in January, May, September and in a month convenient for volunteers that cannot make one of those months.

Hope Alliance also host’s a Voice Night where community members can stop by and commit to completing projects provided by hope alliance. Voice night is typically the second Tuesday of the month. There will often be activities such as copying, packet stuffing, children’s welcome back creation, and putting together training materials.  Volunteers and potential volunteers can seek more information by contacting Britt Cox at brit.cox@hopealliancetx.org

Hope Alliance and UT

UT often provides interns from The Schools of Social Work, Education, Communication, and Business. Prominent members of the UT community also serve on The Non-Violence Task force along with Hope Alliance like IDVSA’s Noel Busch Armendariz and VAV’s Lynn Hoare.

Highlights and Successes

Hope Alliance is one of only five crisis centers in the state of Texas that have a formalized primary prevention program for family violence and Sexual Assault.

Hope Alliance has outreach offices in every quadrant of Williamson County, which is a necessary provision for a county with no public transportation.

In the past ten years Hope Alliance has assisted more than 4,255 women and children, and received over 23,000 hotline calls.

Hope Alliance

The nonprofit recently celebrated its 25^th anniversary and continues to provide services to the families in North Austin, and throughout Williamson County.

State Agency

Contact: Hilda Gutierrez  – hgutierrez@tcfv.org

Texas Council on Family Violence is made of multiple departments including policy, prevention, and support to service providers. TCFV Preventionoffers support, training, and programming to antiviolence efforts throughout the state of Texas.

Programs and Services

The prevention department of the Texas Council on Family Violence conducts local and statewide training to programs that incorporate anti-violence work and provide technical assistance to support the implementation of those programs.

Prevention requires engaging all communities including men. The TCFV prevention team has worked with practitioners to create a guide and materials on how to engage men in an effective and comprehensive way. Additionally, TCFV has been reaching out to Communities of Faith as they begin to consider the ways their faith can support violence prevention efforts. Several pilot programs targeting Communities of Faith in El Paso and Houston have been launched.  New programs in Austin and the Dallas – Forth Worth area are also being considered.

TCFV prevention also offers consultation services and trainings for different agencies throughout the state and different proactive anti-violence prevention programs.

Volunteers and Interns

Previous interns at TCFV prevention have completed research related to prevention including the way the prevention movement has changed and best practices for prevention.

TCFV Prevention and UT Austin

TCFV Prevention has multiple long-standing relationships with the University of Texas at Austin. The Counseling and Mental Health Center administrators and the center’s Voices Against Violence program have conducted trainings together. TCFV often utilizes the research from the Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, and has worked with professors Sarah Buel and Noel Bush Armendariz.

Highlights and Successes

The Prevention team is continually improving its methods to presenting anti-violence material. They have diverted from top down lecture only methods to include adult education principles and utilizing the existing skills and knowledge of a given population.  In the past year the prevention team has conducted more than 15 trainings across the state and reached over 400 individuals.

Texas Council on Family Violence  – Prevention

Prevention is a vital component of TCFV’s dedication to ending domestic violence. The TCFV Prevention team supports the prevention efforts of local programs across the state, and works to create an environment in Texas, in which people, organizations, and communities can act together to stop domestic violence before it starts.

Community Organization

Contact: Melissa Kaufman – Volunteer Coordinator for NTDAH

The National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH) and National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline (NTDAH) are 24/7 365 day a year non-profit telephone response centers that provide information to survivors, friends, family members, co-workers, supporters and batterers looking to discuss how to safety plan in a way that best applies to their situation.

NDVH was established in 1996 as part of the Violence Against Women act (VAWA) of 1994 drafted by Now Vice President Joseph Biden and signed into Law by then President Bill Clinton. The Hotline serves as the only domestic violence hotline in the nation with access to more than 5,000 shelters and domestic violence programs across the United States, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

NTDAH helpline (1866 331-9474) and chat service at loveisrespect.org is a helpline established in 2007 with help from Liz Claiborne of LizClaiborneINC. The helpline is also available twenty-four hours a day . The helpline chat is available 4pm to 2am 7 days a week via the web at www.loveisrespect.org. and provides a place for teens to discuss relationships, and ask questions about abuse and violence within relationships that they are in, or that they may witness

Programs and Services

NDVH provides crisis intervention, information and referral to victims of domestic violence, perpetrators, friends and families. The Hotline answers a variety of calls and is a resource for domestic violence advocates, government officials, law Enforcement agencies, and the general public.

NTDAH offers real-time one-on-one support from trained Peer Advocates. Peer Advocates are trained to offer support, information and advocacy to those involved in dating abuse relationships as well as concerned parents, teachers, clergy, law enforcement, and service providers.

The Hotline and Helpline can also answer question and help find resources and support for survivors of sexual assault, whether it is connected or unconnected to an intimate relationship. Often Domestic violence, includes coerced/forced sex and advocates are prepared to help with resources.

NDVH and NTDAH are completely anonymous and confidential ways to give information to those who call to seek it without judgment or criticism.

Volunteers

Full-time and part-time staffs respond to NDVH calls. The NTDAH, phone line and chat uses younger volunteers to serve as peer advocates to respond to calls and chats.

Those willing to volunteer can attend a 24-hour training and gain the necessary information to be able to advocate and inform through the chat and helpline. No experience is necessary, as all information needed to be a peer advocate will be relayed in training.

The experience gained, as a peer advocate is worthwhile simply as a compassionate human, friend or family member, but can also add diversity to a resume for next level education or occupation. NTDAH also offer internships for those looking to intern in a meaningful way.

NDVH, NTDAH and UT

The University of Texas at Austin often serves as a source for volunteers for NTDAH, students from all majors and colleges are welcome and can choose to volunteer.

Successes/Highlights

The Hotline and Helpline together receive, over twenty-thousand calls a month, around six hundred and fifty calls each day.  The Hotline received it’s 2 millionth caller in September of 2008 and each day gets closer to its next milestone. The Helpline receives close to sixty chats a night from those interested in learning about healthy relationships and how to support friends and teens who aren’t in a healthy relationship. The Hotline and Helpline has been mentioned on Nickelodeon, Oprah, Larry King, Channel One, and General Hospital, in the magazines Glamour and Cosmo, and the Joyful heart foundation and most recently on MTV’s Jersey Shore reality show. The two services continue to grow in popularity and be utilized all around the country.

Contact: Langa – SafePlace Volunteer Manager

Website: www.SafePlace.org/volunteer

Opportunities to Serve at SafePlace

Often individuals looking to serve at SafePlace are interested in direct services. To be adequately prepared to engage in direct services with SafePlace clients requires a 40-hour training. This is given to volunteers willing to make a six-month commitment.

Safeplace also offers opportunities for groups and individuals who cannot attend the 40-hour training.

Adopt A Family

Each year we head out to stores to make sure our families exit the holiday and enter the New Year with the newest and coolest items. Consider joining together as a workplace, organization or simply as a family or group of families to adopt another family and give them a worthwhile experience for their holiday.

Any group can participate. The larger the group the larger family they are able to provide for. Groups collect funds, purchase gifts from wish list that the family provides and drop off gifts at SafePlace. SafePlace delivers the gifts to the families.

Adopt a family every holiday season so that each year another family can receive the same way your family can.

To adopt a family contact Samantha Bellows at SBellows@SafePlace.org or (512) 356 1577

SafePlace Field Day & Festival

Taking place on Saturday, April 10th, 2010 from 11 am to 4 pm – a fresh and innovative spin on our annual spring event.  Families, friends and co-workers will gather at Fiesta Gardens West End Park, overlooking the beautiful Lady Bird Lake, to participate in an afternoon of Field Day games – reminiscent of our childhood including activities and awards in a lively festival atmosphere.  Additionally, there will be local live music and performances, games and crafts for the kids, a specially designated dog park area, tasty food and all-around fun for the whole family!  You can build a team of family members and friends and “go-for-the-gold!” Teams will rally to play games and win prizes and more while festival activities will be fun for all ages. Volunteers are needed for all aspects of the event. For more information about getting involved in Field Day contact Christina Hiett at chiett@safeplace.org

On-site facilities and landscaping projects

IMPORTANT NOTE : From February to mid-June 2010 these specific types of projects will be limited or not available, due to Langa’s maternity leave.

SafePlace strives to provide clients with the cleanest and safest facility. One way groups can volunteer is by providing services to improve the facility.  Groups can come in and disinfect children’s toys and surfaces. They can also improve designated outdoor landscaping areas.

SafePlace also has two onsite retention ponds that must be cleared periodically. Groups that volunteer to complete this task for SafePlace donate approximately $1500 in service. This money can then be used for greater direct services to SafePlace constituents. for more information contact Langa@safeplace.org

Meal –Prep, Life skills and Family Nights

Groups can prepare or purchase a dinner for 15 to 20 people attending a class. This gives families who are being introduced to a new situation one less thing to worry about. Group’s sign up on a calendar and on their day bring a meal to SafePlace.

3 to 5 volunteers can volunteer to lead family night activities on the third Wednesday of the month from 7-8:30pm. This includes bringing an inclusive game like bingo, or a family movie for those families with children to enjoy. Volunteers interested in this specific opportunity may contact Mary Laake, House Support Manager at mlaake@safeplace.org for more information.

Need List Drives:

SafePlace has a continuous list of items that clients need. Businesses or groups looking to help can hold a donation drives for items on SafePlace’s wish list. Often competitions between floors or different teams or classes in school inspire successful drives.

Miscellaneous

Groups of five to thirty-five people willing to volunteer between 9am to 5pm on weekdays can contact the volunteer coordinator and often be given a project that best fits the amount of people and the time that the group can come. SafePlace is willing to work with groups who are willing to spend their time to help.

Volunteering

Volunteering is a worthwhile responsibility that those with a heart for others choose to complete. It is not done with hierarchy in mind. When one volunteers with a true heart they will never use statements like “we must go help the poor, or the sick or the hungry or simply them. Instead they will fight to end poverty, disease, hunger, or to help Us.

Thank you for considering volunteering I hope you commit to help end domestic and sexual violence by volunteering at SafePlace.

The urgency of ending domestic violence is not to be downplayed. Every day people live in homes and relationships made unsafe by the choices of their partners however, I take a necessary digression to devote efforts to our neighbors in Haiti. Recently the earthquake has compounded and exacerbated the poverty and unstable infrastructure of the country.

In this time it’s necessary to meet such a disaster with compassion. As we witness through media the suffering and demolition it’s time for our wallets to synchronize with our hearts and pour love into Haiti in  a way that meets their need at this time.

Please consider donating to reputable sources and please send money as opposed to supplies, which may not meet the needs Haitian people especially since they may in fact be detrimental instead of, helpful in this time.

The University of Texas at Austin community will be coming together in solidarity to support those in Haiti on Thursday January 21, 2010 at 12:00pm to 1:00pm on the West Mall of the tower. There will be an opportunity to donate at that time as well.

As we keep Haiti in our thoughts and prayers and continue to help in whatever way we can reflect on what we can do in every area of our lives to make a difference at home and abroad.

Community Organization

Contact: Candace Kugel

Migrant Clinicians Network (MCN) is a national not for profit organization founded in 1984 by clinicians working in migrant health. With over 5,000 constituents, the organization is a force for justice in healthcare for the mobile poor. MCN is governed by and utilizes services of a wide array of clinicians with expertise in direct care and health center administration in settings serving special populations.

MCN also has a family violence initiative aimed at ending interpersonal violence in the migrant and immigrant community through community and educational interventions.

MCN Family Violence Initiative Program description and Services:

MCN’s family violence initiative works to eliminate sexual and intimate partner violence in the Latino migrant farm working community.  The Initiative has received multiple state and federal grants for services to address intimate partner violence in migrant communities.

The initiative’s Familias Con Voz (Families with a Voice) program coordinates the efforts of health promoters in rural areas and border communities to conduct outreach to the men and women of the area. The program also provides workshops for youth and presentations on everything from defining partner violence to being able to spot it in even subtle behaviors.  MCN conducts trainings on how individuals can respond to partner violence including where to go for local resources, like rape crisis centers and shelters.

Unfortunately, rape crisis centers are often centralized, and in rural areas may need to service as many as 14 counties.  As a result these centers aren’t as easily accessible to victims and survivors in rural areas as in major cities. The Familias Con Voz training serves to equip individuals with ways to respond to and help prevent violence.

A five-day training is conducted by MCN to promotores or community leaders who can distribute information on different practices to prevent violence and make families safer.

Programs conducted by the promotores are less formal. Women are invited to shorter workshops. Men often meet in well-traveled places like hardware stores or gas stations to converse with the men in town about the issues.

MCN is being progressive about emphasizing prevention and stopping violence before it occurs and teaching alternative ways to responding in tense situations.

Another major effort of MCN’s Family Violence Initiative is the Hombres Unidos contra la Violencia Familiar program.  It began in 2005 and is the first project aimed at the primary prevention of both sexual and intimate partner violence in the Hispanic migrant community in the United States.  Male facilitators around the country have been trained to use the bilingual Hombres Unidos curriculum to facilitate workshops with Hispanic migrant men in order to prevent violence before it starts.

MCN and UT

Noel Busch-Armendariz, Associate Professor at UT’s School of Social Work and Director of the Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, serves as an advisor to the Hombres Unidos program. Her knowledge, experience, and perspective has been richly integral to the creation and refinement of MCN’s programs, specifically as MCN strives to use research-based, promising practices in their Family Violence projects

Volunteers

MCN utilizes volunteers for many different tasks including writing, editing, interviewing, conducting accountability studies, and narrative database updating. In return volunteers can gain skills like grant writing and group facilitation while working for a great cause. For anyone with a special interest in supporting MCN’s family violence efforts, please contact Ann Marie Wilke at awilke@migrantclinician.org to discuss possibilities for an internship.

Successes/Highlights

MCN has a database of narratives from multiple individuals who have utilized their services and they include positive feedback about the life changing impact that the family violence programs have had. Quotes from the program participants highlight and articulate in a beautiful way the successes of the projects:

• “This program needs to continue, you can’t abandon it. It is a fundamental theme in society; every family is affected. Family violence is an ongoing problem; it needs ongoing support to change.”
• “Working together we can unite the community.”
• “I never had the language to talk about this before.”
• “A lot in this culture supports family violence. We have a lot against us, but we know that there is someone who can help us—the others that wear this shirt (the workshop t-shirt.) They know what it means and they care.”
• “I like what I have learned; I can be a better person in my family.”

Migrant Clinicians Network

It often takes a special group of people to look after a special group of people MCN is no exception. It involves a compassionate group of clinical and public health professionals who use their skills to better the lives of some of the nation’s hardest working individuals. It works to empower people with the knowledge and skills to prevent family violence. The MCN has been based in Austin for 25 years and has satellite offices around the country to meet the needs of migrants throughout the United States.

Community Organization

Contact: Raman Sandhu – Communications Specialist:

Saheli@Saheli-Austin.org

SAHELI For Asian Families is a non-profit agency in Austin, Texas that provides assistance to Asian and other immigrant families dealing with domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking. SAHELI specifically addresses the cultural and language needs of Asian and other immigrant families affected by domestic violence. Their values and mission are reflected in their programs, which integrate culture and language, specific direct services, educational programs, and community-based initiatives..

SAHELI was founded in 1992 and now has five paid employees and over 200 volunteers that carry out advocacy for the Asian community.

Programs and Services:

SAHELI provides both direct and indirect services for members of the Asian community.

The SAHELI helpline is one way to connect with SAHELI, and both staff and volunteers respond to messages from the helpline.

SAHELI’s Family Advocate is generally the first direct point of contact for clients and provides immediate crisis management, resource information, creates safety plans and often counsels clients directly.

SAHELI has a Self-Sufficiency Specialist who helps clients return to a stable lifestyle. She assists clients with understanding the process involved with looking for a job and helps them with everyday important needs, like finding affordable housing and healthcare.

Volunteers

Many people volunteer for SAHELI, and those who are interested in helping can find out more by contacting the Volunteer Coordinator at <vluu@saheli-austin.org> or visiting the website for more information.

Volunteers must complete a 4-hour training and an additional hour of training for Direct Services or Community Education. To be an advocate, volunteers have to also complete the SafePlace 40-hour training.

SAHELI and UT

SAHELI has many relationships with The University of Texas at Austin. The Center for Asian and Asian American Studies work with SAHELI with material production and design, and also community programs.

SAHELI also partners with Voices Against Violence (VAV). Often their target groups overlap and SAHELI and VAV team together to educate against violence.

SAHELI also works with various organizations on campus including sororities and other student groups.

SAHELI receives interns from UT often from the School of Social Work.

Highlights and Successes

The process of growth has been a great success. After being founded in 1992 as an official non-profit, SAHELI grew to receive support from Americorps to utilizing paid staff and now receiving federal grants to help contribute to their work.

In 2007, the most recent data year, SAHELI served approximately 124 families with direct services and received 512 helpline calls.

SAHELI

Today, the word SAHELI represents the following: to Support, Advocate, Heal, Empower, Listen, and Inform the Asian American community. As SAHELI continues to grow, it looks forward to the continued support of the community in helping to stop domestic violence and also in letting survivors know that there is help available.