NEW YORK (March 15, 2022) -- As communities across the country prepare to mark the one year anniversary of the murders of eight people — including six Asian American women — at two spas in the Atlanta metro area, the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) and our Members and Partners are urging New York State’s lawmakers to renew their commitment to combatting gender-based violence in our communities by passing the $64.5 Million NY State AAPI Equity Budget.

“In the year since the Atlanta tragedy, we’ve witnessed increased incidents of hate specifically targeting Asian-presenting women in our communities as well as a growing sense of fear amongst our community’s most vulnerable members,” said CACF’s co-executive directors Anita Gundanna and Vanessa Leung. “We must focus on supporting the life-affirming community-based services that are working every day to combat gender-based violence and to create safe and healthy communities.”

The AAPI Coalition is encouraged by the fact that the AAPI Equity Budget has been included in both the New York State House and Assembly budgets and applaud the budget’s champions, State Senator John Liu and Assemblymembers Yuh-Line Niou and Zohran Mamdani for their continued focus on making our city safer for women and other vulnerable residents.

“Little has happened this past year following the horrifying killings in Atlanta to set the minds of Asian Americans at ease. The AAPI community continues to endure attacks on an almost daily basis, and we now look to new solutions to combat the nonstop racial and gender-based violence with initiatives like the AAPI Equity Budget,” said State Senator John C. Liu. “By supporting our state’s intricate network of community-based organizations, we aim to empower those who are best suited to aid our struggling community during these perilous times.”

"One year ago, the AAPI community was devastated by another in the growing list of acts of anti-Asian violence, resulting in the deaths of eight people -- six of them women of Asian descent,” said Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou. "Since then, we have seen our communities respond to anti-Asian hate and the rising tide of violence against sex workers, but we have not done nearly enough to protect these vulnerable groups from attack. The $2.5 million included in the AAPI Equity Budget for programs dealing with gender-based violence is a start, but we must do more to ensure terrible acts of mass murder like Atlanta never happen again."

The Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community includes the East, Southeast, South, Central Asian, and Indo-Caribbean diasporic populations of New York, as well as Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations of New York. AAPI New Yorkers comprise 11% of the State’s total population and are the fastest growing racial/ethnic group and voting population in New York City, State, and the nation. Our unified coalition believes that anti-Asian racism is a concern of ALL communities, and we believe the only solutions to the complex challenges we are facing today will involve sustained solidarity and a commitment to investing in communities of color, which must be led by our State leadership — the Governor, the State Senate and the State Assembly.

Over the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in anti-Asian violence have left a devastating impact on the AAPI community by exacerbating systemic inequities that were facing our communities even prior to the pandemic. This AAPI Equity Budget will be the most significant action to date in the US to address the horrific surge in anti-AAPI violence, the disproportionate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the historic under-resourcing of the AAPI community.

“The rise in hate crimes against the AAPI community, particularly in New York City, has not diminished. Furthermore, although this violence affects folks of all genders, it heavily impacts female-identifying folks,” said Kavita Mehra, the Executive Director of Sakhi for South Asian Women. "Our AAPI communities are targeted because we are labeled as weak. Let us be clear: we are strong— stronger even in community with one another— and it is time for those in office to see our power. It is well past time for an investment that recognizes and responds to the breadth and depth of our AAPI communities, who are integral to making NYC the powerful, stand-out city that it is."

Immigrants and New Yorkers with limited English proficiency are particularly vulnerable during this time of increased gender-based violence. With the help of this pioneering budget, more than 50 AAPI community based organizations across New York State will be resourced and equipped to provide culturally responsive and language accessible services that are vital to understanding the growing needs of AAPIs during this challenging time. “During an extraordinarily challenging year marked by a spike in anti-Asian racism and violence, KAFSC has responded a 300% increase in calls to our 24-hour bilingual hotline as we continue to see a concerning growth in the number of gender-based and domestic violence in the most vulnerable community and community members,” said Jeehae Fischer, the Executive Director of the Korean American Family Service Center (KAFSC). “This financial commitment demonstrates the equitable representation of the diverse AAPI community and supports immigrant-led and serving organizations that provide critical support to AAPI survivors and their children during this painful time.”

The impact of KAFSC and the work of other community-based organizations can be seen in Sarah’s story. Sarah, a pseudonym, was stuck in a cycle of domestic violence and abuse at home. She was trapped in an environment where she felt like she had no power, was stripped of a voice, and lacked a sense of identity. But one day, she learned about the Korean American Family Service Center's 24-hour hotline while listening to the local Korean radio. She dialed the number seeking refuge, and that was when KAFSC's 24-hour hotline became a lifeline. From there, she was connected to one of our Bilingual Counselors to receive proper treatment and care.

Sarah received KAFSC's wraparound services including culturally affirming counseling services and the Transitional Housing Program, and even gained occupational skills through the Economic Empowerment Program. She found a safe home at KAFSC where she feels at Chin-Jung, a Korean phrase meaning a home where mother is. Sarah is physically, mentally, and emotionally stronger, and is leading a healthy and independent life. The passage of the AAPI Equity Budget would allow our CBOs to assist countless other Sarahs throughout the city and equip them with the tools they need to be safe and successful.

“AAPI survivors of gender-based violence deserve to be heard and to feel and be safe in New York. We recognize that many of those being impacted are women from historically underserved communities. Womankind calls on our elected officials to rise above racism, misogyny, and violence by committing to real community support,” said Yasmeen Hamza, CEO of Womankind. “Provide increased funds and other resources that build the capacity of culturally-specific gender-based organizations like Womankind, who has been working in the trenches with New York's vulnerable communities for 40 years. Advocate for survivors as we do every day and rise to the challenges embattling our city with clear and committed action."

During this painful and troubling time, our community-based organizations have had to step in to provide critical resources, in-language information, and culturally responsive support to our most marginalized community members who are often excluded or siloed from mainstream sources of public support. “Despite its size, the Muslim community, in particular the vast South Asian Muslim community of NYC, is one of the least resourced when it comes to professional social services. Instead, a patchwork of mosques, faith-based organizations, and volunteer-based entities provide services that often lack professional grounding. In the case of domestic violence prevention, the lack of resources can be devastating to women and their children, perhaps even deadly,” said Robina Niaz, the Founder and Executive Director of Turning Point for Women and Families. “Turning Point for Women and Families is the first community based non-profit organization to directly address domestic violence in NYC's Muslim community. We support Muslim women and girls through individual counseling, support groups, leadership and anti-bullying workshops for youth, ESOL and citizenship prep courses for senior women, and outreach and education initiatives in the community all from a culturally sensitive standpoint and in the languages spoken by the community. The passage of the Equity Budget would make it possible for us to expand on the essential services we provide to survivors and meet the growing needs of the South Asian Muslim community.”

But despite the fact that New York City’s community-based organizations have played vital roles in supporting residents as they faced increased gender-based violence and services such as unemployment assistance, counseling and addressing a rise in food insecurity in our neighborhoods, these vital neighborhood institutions remain underfunded.

“Our organizations have been stretched incredibly thin and the additional resources that the $64.5 AAPI Equity Budget would provide, means that we finally would be able to really meet the need we are seeing on the ground,” said Diya Basu-Sen, the Executive Director of Sapna NYC. “Through this funding we would also be able to invest in increased outreach so that the most vulnerable New Yorkers who never make it through our doors also receive the help they need. One of our domestic violence survivors who recently began receiving counseling and case management help at Sapna NYC shared, ‘Earlier I did not know I can contact places like Sapna, Womankind - they have literally saved my life.’"

“While anti-Asian hate crimes have spiked beyond anything we've seen before, hate crimes against our communities aren't new,” Basu-Sen continued. “We have seen anti-Muslim hate crimes and discrimination for decades, not to mention the huge increase in domestic violence, meaning that the women we serve experience threats both inside and outside the home. Through this funding we will be able to address anxiety and fear through both mental health services and through other programs like self-defense, bystander/upstander training, and support circles which are essential in maintaining the safety of our community.”