Updated: Jan 30
KILUSAN WELLNESS JOINS OVER 40 COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS SERVING SEXUAL ASSAULT AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SURVIVORS IN $13.2 MILLION AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN INITIATIVE
ARP Support for Survivors Program supports culturally-specific, community-based projects supporting survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault from Asian and Pacific Islander Communities in the United States and the Pacific.
Oakland, CALIFORNIA - Today, Kilusan Wellness will be joining over 40 organizations, both nationally and locally, in an effort to provide culturally-specific, community-based support for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault from Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities across the U.S. and Pacific. The $13.2 million dollar initiative from the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) under the 2021 American Rescue Plan (ARP) will be will be the first time API-GBV will be distributing two years of funding to culturally specific organizations that serve sexual assault (SA) and domestic violence (DV) survivors in AAPI communities.
Under the ARP Support for Survivors Program, subgrants will be distributed through the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Capacity Building Fund to assist organizations like Kilusan Wellness by providing DV and SA services in Asian/Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander (AANHPI), and Middle Eastern (ME) communities in the United States and U.S. territories.
“Our mission at Kilusan Wellness is to promote health, healing, and resilience in underserved communities. With this historic funding, Kilusan Wellness is honored to serve adult LGBTQ+ Filipinx survivors of SA and their dependents. In addition, we will also be able to provide wellness treatments, like acupuncture and neurofeedback, for the frontline non-profit workers who provide direct service for this population as well,” said Dr. Karen Villanueva, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Kilusan Wellness.
She states further, "We are guided by the principle of healing justice, a whole-person centered framework which is honoring of indigenous and ancestral ways of healing, especially with regards to the harm inflicted by systemic oppression and trauma throughout the generations. Kilusan Wellness is helping create the conditions where collective and individual healing and wholeness is interdependent and accessible. Within this framework, we uplift the practice of decolonization and health equity as foundational.”
The ARP Support for Survivors Program will address the emergent needs of survivors, and the programs that serve them, resulting from the COVID-19 public health emergency.
The work will also promote strategic partnership development and collaboration in responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency on survivors of SA and DV.
“API-GBV is honored and proud to welcome organizations like Kilusan Wellness who are at the forefront of sexual assault and dometic violence work amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It is essential to have this kind of funding distributed to communities with organizations deeply rooted in their environmental and cultural awareness and expertise in supporting survivors,” said Monica Khant, Executive Director of API-GBV. “The AAPI community is often left out of the public narrative on sexual assault and domestic violence and through this important work we will have the opportunity to support organizations who directly support survivors in our communities.”
The organization was selected by a committee of peer reviewers with extensive experience in the domestic violence and sexual assault fields, and working in AANHPI and ME communities in the U.S. Funding provided under the ARP Support for Survivors grant will advance and expand organizational capacity as well as establish the Kilusan Wellness Healing Justice Clinic.
Kilusan Wellness is among the 15 organizations serving Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities and 14 organizations serving Middle Eastern communities, including projects focused on prevention, culturally specific services for Queer and Trans survivors, virtual services and data security, culturally rooted practices in healing and resiliency, and engaging men and youth. For a complete list of grantees, visit this link: Kilusan Wellness ARP Grant PR.