CENTER FOR THE PACIFIC ASIAN FAMILY INC

CPAF serves Asian and Pacific Islander survivors of domestic and sexual violence. By providing crisis intervention, shelter, and other supportive services, CPAF's goal is to increase the safety, wellness, and resources of survivors to support them to live a life free from violence.

CPAF believes when individuals have healthy boundaries and alternatives to violence, they can break the cycles of gender and family violence. CPAF's programs are designed to prevent violence by promoting healthy relationships, and when necessary, intervene to provide alternatives to violence.

CPAF's strategies for the families who participate in its intervention programs include:

1) Safety and survival: Survivors increase their knowledge and ability to protect themselves from violence.

2) Wellness: Survivors improve their physical and emotional health, including developing healthy boundaries.

3) Resources: Survivors gain knowledge and access to services, benefits and opportunities for self-reliance, apart from their abusers.

4) Strengthening family: Survivors learn to break the intergenerational cycle of violence, including non-violent parenting skills.

5) Community integration: Survivors build a safe network of social support.

CPAF's strategies for community engagement and prevention programs include:

1) Breaking the silence around domestic and sexual violence: Leading the API community to speak out against domestic and sexual violence and support survivors through media campaigns.

2) Breaking the intergenerational cycle of violence: Supporting parents and caretakers to nurture and model healthy relationships through non-violent parenting.

3) Building healthy boundaries and relationships: Providing community education and mentoring to shift behaviors to establish a safer and healthier API community.

For 40 years, CPAF has been a pioneer in creating services to empower underserved and marginalized Asian and Pacific Islander (API) survivors of domestic and sexual violence. In 1978, CPAF established the first multilingual hotline assisting API survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in the United States. In 1981, CPAF opened the first multilingual and multicultural emergency shelter in the United States to specialize in serving API survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. In 1998, CPAF opened the first multilingual and multicultural transitional housing shelter in the nation, focusing on the needs of API survivors who seek to establish independent and violence-free lives. CPAF opened a community center in 2010 to provide non-residential services and expand its education, outreach and prevention programs. In 2016, CPAF relocated its community center to a larger facility location to increase access to services and expand its partnerships. Asian Pacific Women's Center and CPAF integrated in March 2017, with the unified organization continuing under CPAF's name and infrastructure. As a result, CPAF operates a second transitional shelter facility, nearly doubling the capacity of its transitional housing program. Staff and language bank volunteers provide interpretation in 30 API languages.

As CPAF expands partnerships with Asian and Pacific Islander organizations, demand has increased for services and CPAF's capacity to respond to survivors has increased as well. More and more community members are learning how to recognize the signs of domestic and sexual violence and how to access resources for support. While it is heartening to see an increased awareness, CPAF's heightened profile brings several challenges along with it, including an increased need for expanded prevention activities, especially with youth and parents, and the creation of community-based, culturally relevant accountability strategies to address abuse in smaller ethnic communities.