What It Means to Be a Culturally Specific Gender-Based Violence Organization
What It Means to Be a Culturally Specific Gender-Based Violence Organization
By Yasmeen Hamza
Throughout my career, I have had the privilege of working at culturally specific organizations that serve immigrant communities, including Womankind and the Arab-American Family Support Center. While the communities I’ve worked with are distinct in their histories, cultures, and languages, I have seen many of the same challenges emerge again and again.
Survivors often carry fears that extend far beyond the violence they have experienced. They may worry about immigration status, financial stability, family expectations, community judgment, or whether anyone will truly understand what they are trying to say. These concerns can make it difficult to reach out for help in the first place.
Those experiences have shown me that effective support is about much more than providing services to a particular group. It is about building trust and understanding the cultural contexts that shape a person's experiences, decisions, and pathways to healing. It also means designing programs that are guided by community voices, experiences, and needs, while incorporating cultural practices and traditions that have been passed down for generations. Through this approach, Womankind provides services that are responsive, relevant, and grounded in the people it serves.
But what does that look like in practice?
At its core, a culturally specific organization is created by, led by, and trusted by the communities it serves. For Womankind, that means language access, cultural values, lived experience, and community knowledge are not added on as supplementary services; they are woven into every aspect of care. That commitment has been central to the organization since its founding.
In 1982, a student from Hunter College's School of Social Work rallied a small group of impassioned community activists to address the lack of services available to Chinese immigrant women experiencing domestic violence in New York City. History was made when the New York Asian Women’s Center was born—an organization for Asian women by Asian women at a time when nothing of its kind existed on the East Coast. What started as a single telephone hotline and lifeline has grown into an organization that continues to provide culturally responsive services for Asian survivors of gender-based violence while welcoming survivors of all backgrounds. One of the clearest examples of that commitment can be seen in Womankind's approach to language access.
Language Access and Fluency
One of the most visible aspects of culturally specific services is language access and fluency. Womankind offers a 24/7 multilingual helpline and counseling in more than 18 Asian languages and dialects. Being able to speak in one's preferred language can make an enormous difference for someone seeking support during a crisis.
Yet language alone is not enough. Over the years, I have learned that being understood is often just as important as being heard.
Culture influences how people communicate, how they view family relationships, how they process trauma, and whether they feel comfortable seeking outside support. In many immigrant communities, survivors may communicate indirectly about their experiences. Rather than describing abuse in explicit terms, they may speak through metaphors, physical symptoms, or stories about family conflict. Others may remain silent because they fear bringing shame to themselves or their loved ones.
These communication styles can sometimes be misunderstood by systems that expect direct disclosure. When that happens, survivors may not receive the support they need, or they may be misunderstood altogether. This is where cultural humility is essential.
Cultural Humility
Cultural humility means recognizing that every survivor brings their own lived experiences, values, and perspectives. It requires us to listen carefully, remain curious, and understand that culture shapes how people make sense of the world around them. It also requires us to reflect on our own beliefs and values and how they impact our work.
At Womankind, cultural humility informs every aspect of our work. Our Moving Ahead Positively (MAP) model is grounded in the understanding that culture deeply shapes a survivor's worldview, communication style, and comfort seeking help. Through training on topics such as high-context communication, family dynamics, stigma, family honor, and immigration realities, our team of multilingual, culturally aligned advocates build relationships rooted in trust rather than assumptions. By reducing fear and fostering understanding, this approach helps survivors feel more comfortable seeking support, particularly those who may mistrust mainstream systems. Yet even when trust is established, survivors often face a web of interconnected challenges that can be difficult to navigate alone.
Navigating Multidimensional Systems
I have seen firsthand how culturally specific organizations can help survivors navigate systems that may feel overwhelming or inaccessible. Many survivors face multiple challenges at once, including housing insecurity, legal concerns, immigration issues, economic hardship, and trauma recovery. Addressing these needs requires an understanding of how these challenges intersect.
Holistic, Culturally Rooted Healing
One lesson that has stayed with me throughout my career is that healing rarely happens in isolation. It happens in community, when survivors feel seen, respected, and understood, and when they do not have to explain every cultural reference, family expectation, or fear before they can begin receiving support. It also means recognizing that healing practices already exist within our communities and bringing those traditions into the services we offer. Womankind’s Pathways to Healing program integrates wellness practices grounded in Asian traditions, including movement, breathwork, somatic healing, expressive arts, and group connection, to address trauma that often manifests physically and support collective healing. Survivors are best supported when services recognize the cultural contexts that shape their lives.
As New York City becomes increasingly diverse, the need for culturally specific services continues to grow. Asian immigrants are among the most diverse populations in the city, making it difficult for survivors to find support in their language and challenging for organizations to meet the needs of such a linguistically and culturally varied community. Survivors deserve support that recognizes the full complexity of their experiences, not just the violence they have endured, but also the cultural, linguistic, and social realities that shape their lives.
For nearly 45 years, culturally specific organizations like Womankind have helped address these unique challenges and close critical service gaps, ensuring equitable access to safety, healing, and justice for survivors across New York City. For me, the importance of this work comes back to a simple idea: healing begins when people feel understood. That understanding is at the heart of everything we do.
