Read this important summary of recently released guidelines for the courts on providing interpreters to people who do not understand English:

Advocates are sometimes called volunteers, natural helpers, promotoras, and mentors.

Volunteers:

Volunteer advocates can be a bridge between our organizations and immigrant communities.  Volunteers who are a part of the community they serve know how to approach conversations about DV and SA and how to reach the seemingly unreachable.

Natural Helpers:

The Asian and Pacific Islander Women and Family Safety Center (API Center) uses a "Natural Helpers" model and works primarily with Philippine, Japanese, and Vietnamese communities.  Everyone can be a Natural Helper.  Emma Catague from API Center described these helpers as "volunteers with passion to end domestic violence.  They are trained and their role is to be the eyes and ears in the community that they know better (than we do).  They help the community and they refer victims to the API Center when needed."  For more information about the Natural Helpers model, check it out here.   

 

Mentors:

Russian Oregon Social Services (ROSS) in Portland has a mentoring program.  Their goals are to increase awareness and understanding of DV among the Russian-speaking community, provide assistance to DV victims, and offer cross-cultural education to law enforcement, legal and other professional services.  They work with Russian churches, offer workshops on American Family Law, and broadcast a weekly DV program on a local Russian-speaking radio station.

Learn more about ROSS.

Ankita Patel is a Program Specialist for WSCADV's Fatality Review Project.  Click Here for reflections on her experiences as a woman, an advocate, and an immigrant.

Read more from Ankita at WSCADV's New Blog.