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Alliance: ARISE (Action Research for Immigrant Social Empowerment)

ARISE (Action Research for Immigrant Social Empowerment)

Introduction

Action Research for Immigrant Social Empowerment (ARISE) consists of several community based organizations (CBOs) focused on immigrant services in New York City, a research-led advocacy organization and a research, policy and advocacy organization. ARISE seeks to engage immigrant women in effective ways to reduce sexual and domestic violence and promote awareness through education, research, and advocacy in order to effect policy changes at the local and national level. The coalition includes the NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault, Sauti Yetu Center for African Women, Sakhi for South Asian Women, Garden of Hope, the Arab-American Family Support Center and the Immigrant Outreach project of Planned Parenthood of New York City.

ARISE plans to:

Build on its coalition of CBOs to create awareness of domestic and sexual violence among recent immigrants.
Conduct Participatory Action Research (PAR) in immigrant communities. PAR brings together researchers and community members to identify problems and create solutions.
Disseminate findings to policy makers, government leaders and community activists.
Advocate for policies that aim to prevent domestic and sexual violence in diverse communities and provide improved services to survivors.

Project Goals

ARISE exists to generate culturally appropriate policies aimed at reducing and preventing GBV, as well as providing improved services to survivors of these crimes in New York City’s immigrant communities. In order to achieve this goal, ARISE will:

1. Build a citywide coalition of CBOs dedicated to preventing GBV against immigrant women.
2. Strengthen the relationship between the CBOs and the communities they serve, providing a safe haven for women to be involved in the PAR process.
3. Utilize the PAR methods to empower participants to further define the objectives and activities of this project.
4. Utilize the PAR method to connect researchers and community members, who will identify the problems faced by the community and create solutions.
5. Provide research data on GBV to community members, member CBOs, policy makers, the media, and other key stakeholders.
6. Increase awareness of GBV in the local and national policy arenas.
7. Establish a networking opportunity between CBOs to exchange knowledge, research methods and data, and solutions.
8. Provide linkages between member CBOs and policy makers at all levels.
9. Increase the capacity of immigrant women and men to address problems in their communities and find culturally sensitive solutions.
10. Empower women to become researchers and advocates for their communities.

Our PAR project aims to answer several key questions:

How do immigrant women perceive GBV?
How do immigrant women define sexual violence and domestic violence?
How does violence intersect with immigrant women and what is the relationship of immigration and violence in women’s lives?
What are the public health impacts of GBV in immigrant communities? What services do survivors need? What are the reliable sources of help available to survivors? What services are survivors accessing already? What are the knowledge and attitudes around services and interventions for sexual violence?
What communication practices can be developed that address varying cultural sensitivity needs that promote disclosure of violence?

ARISE is symbolic of New Yorker’s resolve and supporting our project bolsters New York City’s diversity. Our partner organizations have established themselves to be trusted and reliable sources of assistance, services and information for the various immigrant communities in New York City. We are ready to take our efforts to the policy level in order to greater affect change.

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