Asian Women’s Shelter (SFAWS) has a youth leadership program that promotes safe and healthy relationships and friendships to prevent intimate partner violence. It is called YAAAS! (YAAAS stands for Youth Are Aware, Active, and Supportive!)

YAAAS! initiatives open pathways to learning, connection, mutual support, and initiative in young people who want to prevent and reduce violence, whether they call it dating violence, domestic or relationship violence, gender-based violence, sexual violence, or toxic or narcissistic relationships. Violence is preventable!

Our program starts with a mandatory orientation training from July 28-30, 2026, and then runs on an academic calendar that starts in August and continues until May. We meet using a hybrid modality - a mixture of in-person and Zoom meetings. Youth who participate in this program are expected to attend YAAAS! meetings and work on their own final leadership project with the support and guidance of the Youth Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Prevention Coordinator and team. For more program information, visit youth leadership opportunity

Applications for Fall 2026 - Spring 2027 are now LIVE

Interested in joining the YAAAS leadership team?

💬 Click here for more info: https://bit.ly/yaaas-opportunity

📝 Apply through this link: bit.ly/sfaws_yaaas2627

⏳ Deadline: April 27, 2026 at 11:59pm

HISTORY

Youth have been part of Asian Women’s Shelter (SFAWS) since we opened our doors in 1988, as the children of adults participating in Asian Women’s Shelter’s programs and services. From 1988 until our present day, SFAWS has welcomed families into shelter that include children of any and all ages, genders, ethnicities, abilities and more. Youth who have witnessed and/or been targeted by domestic violence or human trafficking work with their Shelter Advocates to advance their healing, safety, education, family relationships and next steps.

2016

In 2016, several families living in the shelter at the same time had teenagers who wanted to do more together. This founding group of teens came from different countries of origin. They spoke limited English when they met each other. And they came to lead the shelter household with their cross-cultural, multilingual communication and friendship building. Eventually, they worked with their SFAWS Children’s Advocates to launch YES, or Youth Empowerment Station. They named their own initiative because they wanted to learn more, do more, and change more. They met regularly as a group; they made their own anti-violence messaging and outreach materials; and when it was time for each of their families to move out of shelter into their own new housing, the YES teens stayed connected and active. They said: "There aren’t any other spaces like this in our lives where we can talk openly and honestly about relationships and how to keep them healthy.”

For years, SFAWS Children’s Advocates supported these and other youth who had direct experience with domestic violence in their families and wanted to prevent violence in their and their friends’ lives going forward. They met online. They went on an annual camping trip.

Over time, the YES youth showed SFAWS the unique opportunity that an organization like Asian Women’s Shelter can provide when it partners with young people and supports their leadership in preventing gender-based violence. YES activities were not open to youth in the general public. So we grew YES into YAAAS!

2020

Asian Women’s Shelter received its first funding to prevent intimate partner violence through innovative, informed, and inclusive programming for youth. YAAAS! focuses on supporting youth to learn, grow, and take action together. It honors that youth come from different backgrounds and experiences, and live in different families and neighborhoods that model disparate norms for individuals, relationships, and families. We can be united in eradicating violence and abuse while being diverse in our practices of care, connection, and joy. Thus, to grow this opportunity for individual and social change, SFAWS took the lead from a group of teenaged immigrant survivors and preventers of violence, and created Youth are Aware, Active, and Supportive or YAAAS!

Need classroom presentation?

We have limited capacity at the time for classroom presentations. You can reach out and inquire about them at info@sfaws.org.