Executive Summary:  Defining API Innovative Strategies

API domestic violence intervention strategies within the U.S. have arisen both as accommodations and alternatives to mainstream domestic violence programs.  They have adopted mainstream assumptions and approaches.  And they have crafted innovations based upon necessity and, in some cases, vision and intentionality.

Emerging themes as discussed by the API women interviewed in this report highlight a number of areas which capture our attention for further exploration.  While the findings of this report bring up broad, diverse and, at times, contradictory policies and practices among API programs, the following categories summarize themes brought up in this report.

Where We Start:  Viewing the Survivor within the Context of Her Community

API programs were started with API communities and API survivors of domestic violence in mind.  Even those programs which began as community education projects inevitably came into contact with survivors, abusers and witnesses of domestic violence who needed interventions.  Safe access, effective interventions and expanding options became concerns for any API individual or organization addressing the issue of domestic violence.

Although the "helper" versus "client" or "us" versus "them" separation appears to characterize many API domestic violence programs, the divisions become less clear as workers and survivors in small ethnic enclaves in the U.S. often share the same cultures, languages, and even neighborhoods and families.

The importance of community and the complexities of community as a place of abuse and entrapment as well as familiarity and resources has led to innovative approaches to interventions and options. 

Reshaping Intervention:  Expanding Options

While the creation of API shelters has greatly expanded the options for API survivors of domestic violence, API intervention responses have created a variety of innovative strategies which de-center shelters as the primary intervention.

The importance of community as an emotional and material resource has shaped these interventions.  Furthermore, the lack of access to resources for immigrant communities can make financial, educational and employment interventions at least as significant as those traditionally offered by domestic violence programs such as emergency shelter or restraining orders.  In some cases the latter option may have a negative impact.

Community-based non-shelter programs often provide a complement of options for women who do not desire shelter, who may be unable to access shelters, or who may not be ready for shelter.  Options may still follow standardized approaches such as legal advocacy or public assistance advocacy.  Programs have developed innovative approaches for women regardless of their choice in terms of leaving or not leaving abusive relationships.

Intervention Approaches:  Family-Style

Many API programs view their intervention approaches as "family-style."  Despite the negative connotations of "family" within the context of domestic violence, API programs have embraced positive aspects of "family" to imply a greater level of intimacy and care in their interactions with survivors.

Generalist approaches are favored over rigidly defined roles and areas of expertise.  Greater flexibility in terms of time, level of accompaniment and advocacy, and distribution of resources also characterize many API interventions.  In some cases, boundaries around personal disclosure, gift giving and receiving, and social contact may be more fluid.

At the Edge of Safety:  Redefining Survivor/Abuser Boundaries

The conceptualization of the survivor within the context of her community and the expansion of options to reach her where she's at has also pushed the edge of safety for API intervention efforts.  Interventions reaching not only into the community, but into the home have led to the questioning of mainstream boundaries between danger and safety, abuser and survivor.

While many API programs have accepted mainstream notions of safety and interventions which explicitly separate survivor from abuser, some are exploring options which transcend these lines, combining traditional programmatic approaches of batterer treatment and survivor support with complementary programs which include both survivor and abuser.

Community Accountability for Abusers

Community accountability for abusers as a complement or alternative to the criminal legal system is an area of great promise as well as challenge.  Community accountability strategies may be contained within formalized community-based organizations.  Or they may be led by community-based domestic violence organizations with the collaboration of community individuals, families, leaders or other institutions or organizations.  Many instances of community accountability take place outside of formal domestic violence interventions.  For example, family threats towards and confrontation of abusers have continued historically outside of formal legal structures and inside socio-familial ones.  Some communities have meted out remedies through recognized structures of authority such as clan leaders.

Community Organizing

Many API domestic violence programs have rejected conventional service-delivery models for approaches which actively engage the community.  While community contact has been key to many programs, the levels of community participation have varied.

Redefining Domestic Violence

Effective domestic violence interventions require expanded definitions of domestic violence.  Participants in relationships of violence may extend beyond an individual survivor and individual abuser.  Extended members of the family, community members, and community institutions can be directly and actively involved in dynamics of abuse.  Furthermore, relations of power and abuse such as racism, classism, homophobia, and imperialism intersect with gender oppression and sexism in ways which need further exploration.

Redefining the Vision

Visions guiding our work shift with experience, evaluation of results, and responses to changing conditions.  Many API programs have adopted mission statements which claim goals such as ending domestic violence, increasing survivor safety, increasing independence, and promoting women's self-determination.  Practices may or may not concur with such stated goals.  In this report, no consensus emerged regarding a vision which most effectively captures the overall spirit and everyday motivations for our work.  However, questions regarding the relevance and effectiveness of previously established assumptions and goals revealed the need to reflect collectively and redefine the vision for individual organizations and for the movement.  

Other Areas of Innovation

These definitions of innovative strategies are based upon the anecdotes and reflections of 10 API advocates and activists.  While common themes emerged, each individual lent a unique area of concern and enthusiasm.

Organization of a Pan-Asian Response

Organizations represented by these respondents reflected a broad range of local or regional responses to diverse pan-Asian or broader immigrant and refugee domestic violence communities and needs. Some were able to create ethnic specific or pan-Asian domestic violence programs.  Others required more creative collaborative efforts due to scarce resources or to perceived efficacy.  

Children in API Domestic Violence Interventions

The issue of children and youth in the API domestic violence movement and in domestic violence interventions remains largely invisible in this report.  It thus remains the task of the API Innovative Strategies Project to prioritize the documentation of existing work in supporting the health and safety of our children and youth.  It must also address the gaps which this absence implies.

API Men in Anti- Domestic Violence Movement

The issue of men's participation in the API anti-violence movement and in domestic violence interventions was raised by respondents.  Some API programs include men as clients, allies, and active members.  Participation of men may be, in some cases, formally structured and proscribed.  The role of men remains an area of contention in the anti-domestic violence movement, in general and is not unique to the API community.