POLICY ADVOCACY

TANF Re-authorization and its Effects on API Families
A policy paper by the Asian & Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence, October 2002

Recommendations

In order to be meaningful to Asian and Pacific Islander women, TANF Reauthorization must take steps to address barriers facing a significant number of recipients.  We recommend:

• Restoration of benefits for all legal immigrants, including survivors of domestic violence, and the provision of a safety net for all families. 
• Direct states to ensure they can effectively provide linguistic access and serve families with Limited English Proficiency (LEP).
• Focus on improving the English proficiency of TANF recipients and increase work opportunities for LEP individuals.
• Count work preparation activities and programs designed to remove barriers to work (ESL, vocational education, GED completion, domestic violence advocacy services, etc.) as work activities related to the participation rate.
• Support healthy families, not only marriage.
• Expand view of what constitutes marriage promotion activities, including activities to strengthen domestic violence interventions.
• Ensure that all TANF programs, including domestic violence interventions, are culturally and linguistically relevant.
• Provide safeguards and protections to govern grant-making processes with respect to marriage promotion.

Click here to view entire paper

Resources: National and Governmental Websites on domestic violence, immigration, etc.

Public Policy – National Domestic Violence Organizations

• National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) http://www.ncadv.org
• National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) Represents state Domestic Violence Coalitions http://www.nnedv.org
• Family Violence Prevention Fund
  Legislative Alerts http://action.endabuse.org/fvpf/home/
  Public policy - http://endabuse.org/programs/publicpolicy/
• For state domestic violence policy, contact your state coalition http://www.nnedv.org

Immigration Policy Resources

• National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild for policies about domestic violence, U visas and trafficking http://www.nationalimmigrationproject.org/domestic-
  violence/domvioindex.htm
• National Immigration Law Center for general information on immigration issues including access to public benefits: www.nilc.org
• California Immigrant Welfare Collaborative
  Fact sheet on immigrants and domestic violence in California http://www.nilc.org/ciwc/ciwc_ce/DV_CalWorks.htm

Governmental Resources

• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
  Fact sheet on access to HHS-funded services for immigrant survivors of domestic violence: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/immigration/bifsltr.html
• U.S. Department of Justice: Violence Against Women Grants http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/vawo/applicationkits.htm
• Trafficking in Persons: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/help/tip.htm
• Language Access: www.lep.gov

Other

• Center for Women Policy Studies http://www.centerwomenpolicy.org/index.htm
• Research Forum on Children, Families, and the New Federalism www.researchforum.org

Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum 

For policy issues affecting Asian and Pacific Islander health: http://www.apiahf.org/policy/

For the Asian and Pacific Islander Center for Census Information and Services http://apiahf.org/programs/accis/