Curbing Gender-Based Violence Through Prevention, Education & Healing

To address gender-violence and support survivors in 2020, the year of the pandemic, we hosted ten healthy relationships workshops addressing the qualities of a healthy relationship vs. a toxic relationship, how to connect healthily during COVID-19 (including establishing healthy boundaries), how to foster self-love and combat bullying, how to intervene when one witnesses street harassment (in collaboration with Hollaback! and L'oreal Paris),  how to have healthy intimate/sexual relationships (in collaboration with Babeland Toys), and self-defense (in collaboration with the Center for Anti-Violence Education). Additionally, recognizing the power of art to cope with trauma from gender-based violence, we hosted four in-person, socially-distanced arts as healing nights for survivors of gender-based violence, while simultaneously supporting a local woman-owned fitness studio that has had to shutter during COVID. Hundreds of community members were in attendance for these workshops.  We also certified over 100 community members in Mental Health First Aid offered by Thrive NYC as one of our first programs in 2020 and then again in 2021 courtesy of the Kate Spade Foundation. We are bringing this programming back in December 2023.

South Queens Women’s March provides many programs, educational resources, and healing spaces to combat gender-based violence.  Our workshops address topics, such as the qualities of a healthy relationship, establishing healthy boundaries, how to foster self-love and combat bullying, how to intervene when witnessing street harassment, self-defense, and safety planning. We bring in issue area experts, mental health professionals, and service providers to lead these workshops. We’ve additionally conducted classes to support physical and mental wellness utilizing dance and movement native to the various immigrant enclaves of South Queens including Bhangra, Socacize, Bollywood and yoga. Finally, to foster wellness, particularly among South Asians and Indo-Caribbeans, we partnered with the City of New York to host workshops on mental health in AAPI communities.

Survivors of gender-based violence do not have access to reproductive health services and resources. To bridge this gap, we offer workshops on birth control and reproductive health. During the year of 2021, we realized that survivors needed spaces to heal and practice self-care. We hosted several workshops, such as poetry healing night and pumpkin carving healing night. As part of survivors’ healing journey, we also focused on story sharing and building awareness about gender-based violence in our community. Survivors of gender-based violence participated in several chalk back against gender-based violence by sharing their stories and experiences as they chalk up the streets in our community. 

In the absence of equitable access to mental health resources, faith leaders are often asked to respond to intimate partner violence. However, faith leaders in South Queens have repeatedly voiced that they are ill-equipped with the tools necessary to be advocates for change. Moreover, Scripture has too often been used to facilitate patriarchy in our communities as opposed to dismantling it. In 2020, South Queens Women's March released our Interfaith Toolkit Against Gender-Based Violence to provide faith leaders with the resources they need.

An important goal for us at South Queens Women’s March is interrogating harmful gender practices that can contribute to gender-based violence. In order to tackle these harmful gender practices, we offered a safe conversations workshop that celebrated love between friends, siblings, and partners, while teaching the art of active listening. We also offered a toxic masculinity to untangle harmful practices of violence, but to also understand how systems, institutions, and societal structures reinforce harmful behaviors. 

Lastly, we offered our community tangible resources to combat gender-based violence. We partnered with The Center for Anti-Violence Education to facilitate a series of physical self-defense workshops.  Given the rise of harassment, community members have asked us to hold space for this and were so thrilled to be able to do this through the center for anti-violence education. We are also constantly sharing educational resources with our community members through numerous tabling events throughout South Queens. We are also constantly updating our social media with resources and educational information. 

Our members at South Queens Women’s March will continue to work tirelessly to eradicate gender-based violence in our community and support survivors. We will continue to use our platform to build awareness and ensure that the voices in our community are heard. 

Community Vision: Addressing Gender-Based Violence in the South Asian Diaspora through Creative Practice and Policy

SQWM founder Aminta Kilawan-Narine joined a panel of gender-justice warriors working tirelessly in NYC’s South Asian and Into-Caribbean communities to provide services and resources to survivors and victims of gender-based violence. The panel was organized by SAKHI for South Asian Women and the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence and featured First Lady Chirlane McCray and EndGBV Commissioner Cecile Noel, as well as representatives from Sakhi, Safe Horizon, Jahajee Sisters, Manavi and the Arab American Family Support Center.