Asian womens shelter (AWS) is proposing project amalna, meaning our peace in arabic, and standing for arabs magnifying access by leveraging nontraditional alliances

This Cooperative Agreement award of $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) under the Crime Victim Assistance/Discretionary Grants program (CFDA 16.582) will support Project AMALNA, an initiative by the Asian Women's Shelter (AWS) to engage non-traditional community partners in connecting Arab and Muslim victims of crime in the San Francisco Bay Area to victim services and resources. The project aims to increase awareness and access to government and nonprofit support for this underserved population, including immigrants, refugees, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Key activities include information sharing, training, and referral services delivered through partnerships with the Muslim Community Center of the East Bay, Faiza Beauty, and Nefertiti Salon. Expected outcomes include enhanced cultural and linguistic competency in supporting Arab and Muslim victims of domestic violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking.

Project amalna will engage nontraditional entities to help connect arab and muslim victims of crime inside and beyond SAN francisco to the systems and organizations that can support them. Arab and muslim victims of crime, including those who are immigrants, refugees, limited-english proficient, straight, or part of the lgbtq+ community are chronically underserved in the SAN francisco BAY area and in the state of california. AWS will work with the muslim community center (MCC) of the east BAY (a mosque and community center), faiza beauty and nefertiti salon to connect arab victims of crime to government and nonprofit sources of support. The proposed scope of work centers around four primary sets of activities: 1) engagement of nontraditional partners into information learning, sharing, and referral making; 2) provision of requested support and services to arab survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking; 3) provision of materials and trainings to arab community members (through nontraditional partners and stakeholders) on processes and resources available to victims of crime in SAN francisco and alameda counties; and 4) activation of language advocates in asian womens shelters multilingual access model (MLAM) program to engage new nontraditional community stakeholders in any of the over 40 language communities represented in the MLAM program. Expected outcomes include increased awareness and education within arab and muslim communities about how to access services for victims of crime, and increasedaccess for arab and muslim victims of gender based violence and other forms of violence to services that meet their specific cultural and linguistic needs for healing and justice.