Sakhi For South Asian Survivors Inc

Anti-violence program: sakhi creates a safe place for south asian and indo-caribbean survivors who have experienced abuse. Sakhi affirmatively supports all survivors of all genders, races, ethnicities, religions, sexualities, castes, or any other identity markers. Sakhi's anti-violence program offers an array of culturally-responsive, linguistically-appropriate services, including crisis intervention, safety-planning, and ongoing emotional support.in 2024, sakhi's anti-violence program (avp) advocates supported over 600 survivors of gender-based violence and their families with intensive one-on-one support and fielded thousands of calls on its helpline. Once a survivor accesses the helpline, an avp advocate conducts a needs assessment, and, where appropriate, makes referrals to internal programs such as mental health counseling, legal justice, economic empowerment, youth empowerment and housing programs.

Housing program: the overarching goal of sakhi's housing program is to provide assistance, resources, and support to individuals who are homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness, while simultaneously building up their financial capacity and ability to provide for themselves and their families through the following programs:housing counseling and advocacy: sakhi's housing program provides survivors with highly personalized culturally and linguistically appropriate housing assistance to help them locate temporary shelter, apply for housing subsidies, find affordable housing programs, and access financial assistance for rent, utilities, security deposits, and moving costs.emergency short-term housing: sakhi provides short-term emergency rental assistance (1-3 months) to help survivors in danger to relocate immediately or to prevent eviction.transitional housing: sakhi offers survivors (and dependents) up to 24 months of rental assistance in a fair-market apartment of their choice. In addition, sakhi provides help with relocation, safety measures, security deposit payments, and initial utility payments.

Community engagement program (cep): systemic violence does not occur in a vacuum and it is not limited to the home. In the face of a culture that seeks to relegate gender-based violence to an obscure private life, sakhi seeks to make violence a public issue. As a gender justice organization, sakhi not only works one-on-one with survivors to address their individual needs and long-term safety, but also offers knowledge and tools for ending the cycle of violence through cep.sakhi aims to be an engaged, accountable, and visible presence in the south asian and indo-caribbean diaspora and the movement to end gender-based violence. Cep conducts grassroots outreach to:inform survivors about their rights and sakhi's services, raise awareness of violence within the south asian and indo-caribbean community, and conduct trainings on gender-based violence through a south asian and indo-caribbean lens.as the majority of the survivors with whom sakhi works hear about its services through word of mouth, cep participates in community events, and works with community-based organizations (cbos), religious institutions, and universities, by presenting in their spaces. Sakhi organizes and co-sponsors forums, meetings, conferences, marches, panels, and other outreach/education events. Sakhi also works with community-based partners, the south asian and indo-caribbean and mainstream media, schools, universities, religious institutions, and community and cultural centers to raise awareness about the issue of gender-based violence.sakhi seeks to increase awareness of gender-based violence and how to combat it. Sakhi shares tools and resources that equip community members to address violence and trauma in their own lives. Through these engagements, sakhi strives to educate on topics such as bystander intervention, trauma-responsive care, sakhi's services and history, and culturally- and linguistically-responsive programming. In addition to these workshops and trainings, sakhi maintains a robust calendar of community engagement events.

Youth empowerment program (yep): in 2016, sakhi developed yep as a way to support the healing of young survivors, recognizing that people of all genders and ages are affected by interpersonal and gender-based violence. In addition to supportive services for youth between the ages of 6-24, yep provides a safe space to freely explore issues around identity, family, relationships, and positive sexuality and gender. Sakhi seeks to support young people as they break cycles of interpersonal and gender-based violence through the following programs:individual youth mental health counseling: children who witness violence often show the same, if not more, severe symptoms of ptsd as a family member who experiences violence themselves. To support the needs of young survivors, sakhi offers individual mental health counseling for youth between the ages of 6-24 who have experienced interpersonal, domestic, or gender-based violence. These one-on-one, 45-minute sessions are typically held on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, depending on availability. Referrals & case management: for youth survivors of interpersonal, domestic, and gender-based violence, sakhi provides advocacy in the form of case management and referrals to housing, legal, and academic tutoring support services.youth programs: sakhi hosts a variety of programs for families who have experienced gender-based violence. Depending on the varying needs of youth survivors, sakhi hosts support groups for caregivers and youth to provide psychoeducation; strengthen communication, leadership, critical thinking, and conflict resolution skills; and build relationships and support folks in healing from trauma. Sakhi also hosts after-school peer support groups for teens and young adults to help them navigate survivorship; relationships with family, friends, and intimate partners; academic and career choices; physical and mental health challenges, and more. Youth support groups often feature guest speakers and south asian and indo-caribbean leaders from a variety of fields and agencies. In the past, such programming has included arts workshops, yoga workshops, summer programs, wellness programs, field trips, and ongoing support.

Sexual assault program: the sexual assault program aims to provide trauma-, culturally-, and linguistically-responsive supportive services to nurture the healing process of survivors of sexual assault. Offerings include crisis intervention, safety planning, emotional support, accompaniments, access to mental and physical health care providers, and referrals to legal service providers and counseling.

Food justice program (fjp): sakhi's food justice program seeks to make more nutritious, shelf-stable, easy-to-prepare, and culturally familiar food available to survivors who face housing, food, and income instability. This program was born out of sakhi's understanding of how destabilizing it is to be without basic necessities, particularly while recovering from trauma. Fjp represents a crucial element of sakhi's trauma-responsive programming. As food offers a piece of home, sakhi seeks to ensure that survivors have access to the foods that they find nourishing and comforting.addressing the food insecurity of the pandemic, sakhi began distributing food to clients at their home, increasing the food quantities for the delivery of each order, and creating a rotation so clients could receive food regularly and safely. Eventually, as restrictions eased, sakhi began to offer food subsidies that enabled survivors to purchase their own groceries.

Legal justice program: the legal justice program was launched in 2024,as a standalone immigration legal services initiative that provides direct representation to immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. The program was developed in response to a growing gap in services: while survivor need increased, many of our longstanding legal partners scaled back or paused immigration referrals due to funding cuts. The program is staffed by a full-time doj-accredited legal representative and receives supervision through a formal partnership with co-counsel nyc.

Mental health counseling program: gender-based violence is a public health issue that affects all communities. Gender, patriarchy, and culture interact in complex ways that influence physical and mental health. As a result of their experiences as immigrants and people of color, south asian and indo-caribbean survivors often suffer from unaddressed complex trauma. Additionally, in many communities, addressing mental health, like addressing gender-based violence, can attract stigma, rejection, and further isolation.sakhi has long been a part of the movement to open a dialogue around mental health, especially as it relates to gender-based violence. As trauma-responsive service providers, sakhi understands the importance of having mental health services be available to the community. Mental health services are neither affordable nor accessible for most u.s. Residents. Furthermore, those services that are available are rarely culturally- or linguistically-specific. Therefore, sakhi's mental health program offers:individual counseling: in sakhi's counseling program, evidence-based practices (ebp) are uniquely honed to include south asian and indo-caribbean perspectives. Counseling services include mental health assessments, individual one-on-one counseling sessions, and referrals/follow up with outside providers if possible.peer support groups: sakhi counselors and program advocates facilitate chai and chat support group sessions open both to clients moving out of one-on-one counseling and clients who prefer a group setting. Some examples of the topics raised by participants/clients in session can include: loss of identity, sexuality and consensual interactions, emotional regulation, internalized shame, psycho-education and redefining boundariesfamily counseling: through the ramesh and kalpana bhatia family foundation south asian safe families initiative, survivors were able to connect with our family mental health counseling program and explore the complex relationships between children, parents, partners, and chosen family in their healing. In many south asian and indo-caribbean households, where mental health is rarely discussed and often stigmatized, this program provides a novel path toward collective healing. Through culturally-grounded, trauma-informed care, families began to ebuild trust, create pathways towards healthy communication, and shift longstanding dynamics. For some, it marked the first time mental health was named not with shame, but with care. Navigating healing in holistic, transformative ways allows survivors to imagine new ways of living.sakhi started providing in-house mental health supportive counseling in 2017, and hired a full-time mental health counselor in 2019. With a dedicated and growing team of trauma-informed mental health service providers, sakhi currently provides mental health services in english, hindi, urdu, bengali, punjabi, and gujarati.