University settlement society of new york (USS) and the asian american federation (AAF) are proposing a project to address the rapid rise in anti-asian hate crimes that has persisted since the…

The University Settlement Society of New York (USS) and the Asian American Federation (AAF) were awarded a $400,000 Project Grant by the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance under the Community-Based Approaches to Advancing Justice (CFDA 16.047) program. The grant will fund a comprehensive, one-year initiative to address the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in New York City and across New York State. Key program elements include:

• Expanding the successful ROAR! (Rejoice! Organize! Activate! Reclaim!) festival into a 10-part event series focused on hate crime reporting, mental health support, and community healing for Asian American residents.
• Providing in-language workshops by AAF on situational awareness, conflict de-escalation, and bystander intervention techniques for community members.
• Convening an anti-Asian hate violence working group to develop a playbook of replicable best practices for community-based hate crime prevention approaches, which will also be shared with local law enforcement.

The program aims to reach over 400 Asian American community members annually, with a goal of increasing awareness of safety resources and hate incident reporting by at least 60% of participants. The three-year grant period runs from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2027.

University settlement society of new york (USS) and the asian american federation (AAF) are proposing a project to address the rapid rise in anti-asian hate crimes that has persisted since the pandemic, serving asian american community members in new york city as well as reaching asian serving organizations across new york state. USS will build upon its successful history of the rejoice! Organize! Activate! Reclaim! (roar!) festival that was held in 2022 and 2023. Specifically, roar! Will be expanded to a full year, ten part event series that addresses hate crimes through workshops on the importance of and how to report hate and bias-based incidents; connections to and information about mental health care; and facilitation of dialogue and opportunities for community healing. As a partner in this work, AAF will provide in-language sessions teaching community members on topics including situational awareness, conflict DE-escalation, and upstander intervention techniques. Additionally, to scale learnings beyond the local community, AAF will also bring together an anti-asian hate violence working group that will convene asian-serving organizations across the state to create a playbook of replicable best practices for community-based approaches to addressing hate. This playbook and other learnings from the proposed project will also be shared with local law enforcement to increase knowledge of how to support and address hate crimes in the asian american community. USS and AAF anticipates the following as part of the program: attendance of more than 400 asian american community members annually; engaging more than 20 organizations as part of the working group; ensuring 60 percent or more participants increase their awareness of available wellness and safety resources, as well as how to report hate incidents; developing a playbook of community-led approaches to addressing hate crimes; and, engaging local police to strengthen the communitys approach to addressing anti-asian hate.