About Us

Asian Women's Shelter (AWS) was founded in 1988 to address the needs of women, children and transgender survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking, especially those who are immigrants and refugees. The survivors we work with every day embody the true meaning of courage, hope, and determination. They inspire our unrelenting commitment to end violence in our families, communities, and our world.

Mission/Vision

The mission of Asian Women's Shelter (AWS) is to eliminate domestic violence by promoting the social, economic and political self-determination of women.

While we have the cultural and language capacity to address the specific needs of individuals from Pan-Asian backgrounds, we welcome all survivors.  We provide language accessibility, educational programs, community-based initiatives and advocacy.  All of our services and programs seek to address an interplay of factors affecting survivors, including sexism, racism, ageism, classism, ableism and heterosexism.

Because AWS recognizes the abuse of power as the root cause of violence, all of our work is rooted in an anti-oppression framework. We are a non-hierarchical, consensus-based organization and operate in a shared leadership model.  We continuously seek to collaborate with other organizations in order to build a network of services beyond AWS.  These efforts not only help us serve our clients, but create a stronger voice for our advocacy and policy work.