Happy holidays graphic with greeting from SFAWS team “Wishing you and your loved ones a safe, joyful holiday season and New Year!”
Community Care That Carries Us Forward
This year brought real challenges for our communities—from increasing attacks on immigrants to uncertainty around how best to show up and support one another. And yet, together, we met the moment.
With the strength of our community, we provided 3,180 hours of language access services across 16 languages, ensuring survivors could access support in the language they feel safest using. We invested in collective learning and care through 438 hours of community training, while volunteers contributed 1,525 hours of service. When survivors reached out in moments of crisis, our crisis line responded to 1,133 calls, offering immediate support and connection.
Even during moments of heaviness and uncertainty, community continued to light the way forward. We celebrated the return of our beloved Jook Off, Cook Off at the Asian Art Museum, sustained our programs and services, and powered a month-long, community-fueled Domestic Violence Awareness Month campaign that IGNITED hope and welcomed new partners into our work.
This holiday season, we extend heartfelt appreciation to everyone who donated in support of IGNITE and throughout the year. In a time of funding cuts and uncertainty, your generosity ensures we can continue providing critical services to survivors. If you’re able, there is still time to make a year-end gift and help carry this work into the new year. With so much love and gratitude to our incredible community—Hearthkeepers, longtime supporters, and new friends alike—we are honored to do this work alongside you and grateful that survivors are seen, supported, and held with care.
IGNITE HOPE AND HEALING for SURVIVORS: SFAWS’s Community-Powered Campaign ͏
Screenshot of all staff with thank you messages during zoom meeting! Thank you from all of us!
On behalf of our entire SF Asian Women’s Shelter team, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. 💜 To everyone who showed up for us: whether you donated, hosted a Hearthkeeper gathering, attended an event, shared our campaign, or cheered us on, you helped make IGNITE a beautiful success! Because of you, we reached our $200,000 goal, fueling safety, healing, and hope for survivors.
One thing has always been true: our strength is our community. In a year of federal funding cuts and uncertainty, your generosity ensures we can continue sustaining our dedicated staff and the life-saving services survivors rely on. To longtime supporters who stretched their giving, and to new friends who joined us without hesitation — we are deeply grateful.
Your support fills the gaps when social services fall short. It keeps doors open, crisis lines answered, and families safe. Together, we keep the light of safety and hope burning bright. 🔥✨
SF AWS’s Korean talk line is open!
In addition to Asian Women’s Shelter’s multilingual crisis line for survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, and/or female genital cutting, SF AWS has launched its Korean Talk Line with support from the Korean American Community Foundation of San Francisco! The Korean Talk Line is a confidential phone resource for Korean survivors of violence and those supporting them. Click here to learn more on our new K-PEACE (Koreans Preventing and Ending Abuse through Community Engagement) page.
“Shame dies when stories are told in safe places. ”
Over half a million women, girls, and children assigned female at birth are affected by or at risk of being affected by FGM/C at any given time. Yet few resources exist to support survivors in their journeys toward healing and protecting future generations from this practice. With leadership from Sahiyo, AWS’s crisis line is open to support people affected by FGM/C (Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting) in Asian and other communities. Trained advocates staff the lines and are knowledgeable on FGM/C and the cultural and social connotations in which it continues. They are ready to provide a listening ear, care and support, and work with you to consider physical and/or emotional safety planning if needed.
“I was so happy to know that Sahiyo is collaborating with the Asian Women’s Shelter to support women who suffer from the trauma of FGC and need an empathetic ear. I have worked in the domestic violence (DV) space for a couple of decades, and this is the first time I am seeing recognition of this trauma in the sphere of DV. I am so proud of both organizations and hope collaboration expands with other organizations throughout the U.S. and abroad.”
- Sakina Sharp
“You women are a precious gift to me. Your faces are like a mirror reflecting myself, saying ‘I believe in you. You can make it. You do not deserve to live in fear and violence.’”