Outreach & Visibility

AWS is committed to breaking the silence that perpetuates violence against women. Building public awareness is the essential first step in encouraging communities in prevention and intervention. We strive to make our response public, so that our visibility emboldens others in our communities to take a stand.

Many survivors who are marginalized cannot access support and services, so we make a concerted effort to make ourselves an accessible resource. We do this in a variety of ways:

1.  We make outreach and visibility an organizational commitment; all staff, volunteers, language advocates,relief workers and interns contribute to this core effort.

2.  We table at community fairs where people do not automatically expect a connection to domestic violence.

3.  We participate in community events like Dyke March and San Francisco Pride to build the visibility of AWS's Queer Asian Women & Transgender Support program.

4.  We participate in marches and actions that reflect our values. For example, AWS participated in the anti-war marches in 2002-2003 and created a banner in order to show that AWS as an anti-violence organization was showing up to call out for peace and a de-escalation of violence.

5.  We speak at events, conferences, to media outlets, via print media, etc. to spread our messages to our communities.

6.  We create accessible educational and resource materials and then distribute them broadly to the places where our community members are.