Introduction

Asian and Pacific Islander (API)[1] resistance to violence against women has historical roots extending before the start of the anti-domestic violence movement in the U.S.  Survivors of domestic and sexual violence, family members and community have long spoken out against these personal and societal injustices.  Their words and actions, however, have often remained in the shadows of history.

In the U.S., specific API organizational responses to domestic violence[2] have their beginnings in the early 1980's, when programs such as Manavi in New Jersey, New York Asian Women's Center in New York City, Asian Women's Shelter in San Francisco and others lent momentum to the movement.  During this era, API women, many of whom had already been involved in the mainstream anti-domestic violence movements in the U.S., began to question their own communities' lack of access to mainstream programs.  In response, many founded API specific programs, at times adopting existing models and adjusting them to meet the needs of API communities.  The results are a variety of API programmatic responses, many of which developed innovative practices and policies by necessity or by design.

Documentation of our attempts, our challenges, our successes and failures are scarce.  Aside from program brochures, grant reports, and an occasional paper appearing in an anthology,[3] assessments of our work and questions regarding their value and meaning remain the topics of staff meetings, conferences and side conversations among the enthusiastic and the frustrated.

Purpose and Scope of the Innovative Strategies Project

The Innovative Strategies Project is an attempt to document our accomplishments and innovations as well as our limitations.  The project goes beyond narrow notions of “cultural competence” and “language accessibility” which have thus far characterized discussions of our work and that of other communities marked by difference whether it be race, ethnicity, language, sexual identity, disability, and their intersections.  It examines more deeply the underlying assumptions and principles which guide our intervention[4] strategies and those that define them as innovations rather than simple cultural accommodations.  It explores the edges of innovation and asks where to retreat or where to move forward.

Discussions held by the Interventions/Services Working Group of the Asian and Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence provided a rare national forum for API women to meet and address these concerns.  API women working for years as advocates, activists, counselors, attorneys, community educators, organizers, directors and allies in the struggle to stop violence against women in API communities asked each other about the successes and failures of the mainstream movement as well as those of their own programs.

Various themes and issues arose during these discussions.  What do we do when not only the abuser but the entire family is participating in the violence?  How do we reach women who do not see leaving the relationship as an option?  How can we mobilize communities to ban the abuser from community spaces - rather than the survivor as is more often the case?  What do we do for women who are so mentally or emotionally disabled from abuse that they cannot meet our program criteria or requirements?

These are among the questions which defy answers generally provided by standardized domestic violence interventions.  Our questions and others challenge the very assumptions which have been handed down by the larger movement and which, in many cases, have been adopted by API specific programs.  These are also questions which many of our programs have attempted to address, at times with success and at times, with failure.

Because of the great diversity of API experiences in the U.S. and the breadth of intervention strategies which can be addressed, the goals of the API Innovative Strategies project essentially requires a series of reports in order to document and analyze the contributions of the API domestic violence movement.  This is the first one.

Goals of This Report

Innovative Strategies to Address Domestic Violence in Asian and Pacific Islander Communities: Examining Themes, Models and Interventions,  sets the agenda for future project endeavors.  It is an initial inquiry into the broad universe of API experiences and reflections regarding our work towards addressing domestic violence in API communities.

What emerged from interviews with key informants in the API domestic violence movement was the need to contrast API strategies with long-established models of intervention - colloquially referred to as mainstream models.  This report answers some preliminary questions about API domestic violence interventions and presents a map for further exploration.  Its goals are to:

1. Define the characteristics of the standard or current model of domestic violence intervention;
2. Specify the limitations of the standard model of intervention for API communities;
3. Begin the identification of and analysis of the experiences and strategies of existing API programs; and
4. Identify and prioritize areas of API innovative strategies for future documentation and analysis.

Methodology

This report features the results of interviews with 10 Asian and Pacific Islander women working in the anti-domestic violence movement.  These women all have at least 5 years of experience working directly with API survivors of domestic violence and sexual violence.  Many have experience extending 15 years or more. All respondents have also played central roles in the creation of community-specific, pan-Asian or pan-immigrant and refugee programs addressing violence against women.

These 10 key informants were selected because of their extensive and varied roles in the development of the API anti-domestic violence movement as well as their contributions to program development, policy formation and analysis within their specific communities and of the national domestic violence agenda.  There was also an attempt to reflect diversity in terms of geographic location, ethnicity, sexual identity, roles in domestic violence work, experience as survivors and witnesses of domestic violence, and experience in pan-Asian versus ethnic-specific organizations.

Most of the interviewees are immigrants.  And all have provided advocacy and services to domestic violence survivors in the primary language of their Asian or Pacific Islander constituency[5].

Interview questions are both quantitative and qualitative.  However, most findings are based upon the rich anecdotes and reflections presented by these women in their interviews.  All interviewees were asked the same questions although the order in which the conversations flowed varied widely.  Interviews ranged from 1 to 2 1/2 hours with the average interview lasting approximately 2 hours[6].