enews

SAHELI has had an abundance of help over the year, and at this time, we would like to say a special thank you to a handful of those hard-working volunteers:

•    Earlier this year, at the Keep Austin Spicy Asian Food Festival event, we had well over 100 volunteers help us with this fundraiser. In particular, a special thank-you goes out to An Nguyen, Randy Ung, as well as to the family members of the staff; who were all such a tremendous help and were present from sun up to sun down, running around the grounds doing what was needed as it came up.

•    For our interpreter services, we have over 75 volunteer interpreters who cover over 24 languages. Anjali Lal, Divya Tuteja, Kyeonghee Jang, Lai Tran and Lang Hoang particularly stand out due to their willingness and promptness in doing translation work for us in addition to interpreting.

•    This past year Serena Chen was SAHELI’s Counseling Intern. She helped in a number of ways with direct services, with interpreting and translating services, and with general office work.

•    The helpline relies on the help of dedicated advocates, and a big thank-you goes out to Shaku Desai and Maria Huang for their continued help.

Thank you to these volunteers and all the others who have helped us throughout the year! We could not do the work we do without the help that you give us.

The data on the background of those seeking our assistance highlights the diversity and scope of SAHELI’s reach, which extends across communities and nationalities. The effect of our services is far-reaching and truly impacts the lives of women, children, and families throughout Central Texas every year. Consider these statistics (from September 1, 2007 to August 31, 2008):

•    SAHELI provided general crisis management and information to 194 families.
•    151 clients were provided information, referrals and/or one-time services, while 43 clients received extensive ongoing services.
•    100% of the clients spoke a language other than English at home and were foreign born.
•    The majority of clients served were Limited English Proficient and required the assistance of an interpreter. 
•    Ongoing clients came from Bastrop, Hays, Williamson, and Travis Counties. 
•    Approximately 70% of the calls came from Central Texas counties, and the rest came from other parts of Texas as well as from other states.
•    Clients’ country of origin ranged from the following: China, Iran, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Myanmar (Burma), Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. SAHELI has also been contacted by non-Asian victims from Angola, Ukraine, and Egypt.
•    Clients come to SAHELI for help on many things, such as issues relating to stalking, physical violence, immigration threats, financial abuse, emotional abuse, in-law and extended family abuse, rape, as well as assistance with employment, permanent housing, transportation, education, and financial literacy.
•    Roughly half of SAHELI’s clients came from calls on the hotline, and the other half came from direct calls to SAHELI staff, community interaction, and referrals from other agencies.

In 2007, SAHELI created an Economic Empowerment program designed to help guide clients in the path toward self-sufficiency.  In 2008, the Economic Empowerment program served 27 long-term clients by helping them with permanent housing, financial literacy, ESL classes, medical assistance, transportation assistance, and computer literacy, among other things. SAHELI also conducted workshops on resume writing, interviewing skills, and tax preparation. Currently, we are looking to expand the Economic Empowerment program to include more culturally appropriate job readiness trainings. We are also continuing to work on developing strong relationships with local employment resources and local businesses to help ensure our clients have access to employment.

By Catherina Conte, Family Advocate, and Rajani Ramachandran, Self-Sufficiency Specialist

Dear Friends,

The fall season signifies a busy and hectic time for most folks.  Kids are getting back to school, it’s a time of harvest and thanks, and families have the upcoming holidays on their minds.   You can feel the energy in the air and SAHELI is doing its part in gearing up for the season.   After a long session of preparing and planning, we’re ready to implement some new and exciting developments to our programs and agency.

Earlier in the year, we began carefully planning and strategizing on how to improve two of our very important programs: Community Education and the Survivor Assistance Program.  In Community Education, we will be launching the Community Ambassador Project which puts an emphasis on community building and mobilizing different Asian communities in addressing domestic violence that culturally resonates with each group.  The main component of the program is the recruitment of Community Ambassadors from different Asian groups and providing them tools to effectively provide their respective communities information and resources on domestic violence.   These Ambassadors actually play a dual role, not only will they convey important information to their communities, but they will play a crucial role in ensuring that SAHELI is aware of the emerging social services trends and needs in the different Asian communities.   This project builds upon our inherent belief that addressing domestic violence cannot be done by one entity and it takes the collective effort of compassionate and dedicated community members to make an impact.

On other exciting news for this season, we will be switching our message helpline to a live hotline.  This is a huge step for the agency by ensuring that victims in crisis get the information and support they need immediately.  Instead of waiting for a SAHELI advocate to call back, victims will instantaneously have a trained advocate on the line and if needed, patched to an interpreter immediately.  We plan to launch the live hotline in late October.   We thank the Lola Wright Foundation for this invaluable opportunity to improve our services.

In other news, SAHELI has been actively advocating with other service providers and the Texas Council of Family Violence on several policy issues that affect domestic violence victims.  Domestic violence victims emerged victoriously in the last 81st legislative session.  Some of the new legislation includes tougher penalties for batterers who strangle their victims, expanded rights for victims needing to break their leases to seek a safer haven, and the requirement for probationers to pay fees to domestic violence centers.   For more information on all of the legislative news, visit www.tcfv.org.

Of course, we are unable to make these strides in services without the help and support of the community.  We rely on the generosity of our volunteers and donors to help us ensure safety to our community and to those who are most vulnerable.  This past year has proven to be a hard one for us due to the economic climate.  Philanthropic giving and grant funding has drastically plummeted and it has affected everyone in social services.  SAHELI is no exception.  However, we will continue to serve with the same caliber of performance and ensure that all victims are provided culturally and linguistically appropriate services.   We thank you for your continued support of our programs.

In Unity,

Linda Phan
Executive Director