Building Community Bridges for Healing

Raksha, a Georgia-based nonprofit, proposes the "Building Community Bridges for Healing" project to address the significant barriers faced by the local South Asian and larger AAPI community in accessing victim services and compensation. These barriers include cultural stigma, linguistic challenges, and mistrust of authorities, which contribute to underreporting and underrepresentation in victim compensation statistics. The project aims to increase awareness of and access to culturally and linguistically responsive victim services through strategic collaboration with nontraditional and underserved organizations such as cultural associations, religious institutions, South Asian and AAPI professional and retail associations, community development corporations, and small businesses. Raksha will complete key activities including conducting planning and implementation meetings with a range of collaborators to guide the development of specialized PSAs, workshops, and training sessions tailored to community needs. Raksha will enhance advocacy services by hiring a  multilingual advocate to handle the expected increase in service requests due to expanded outreach efforts.Raksha will provide training to staff at collaborating organizations on identifying victims of crime and referring them to appropriate services. Raksha will also work with collaborators to develop and distribute linguistically appropriate outreach materials.By documenting lessons learned and creating a library of resources on their website, Raksha aims to ensure its sustainability and provide materials and tools that can be used in similar projects.

The expected outcomes include increased community awareness of victim services, improved access to these services, and stronger community collaborations. The service area encompasses the entire state of Georgia with a focus on the Metropolitan Atlanta Area and surrounding counties with significant South Asian populations. The intended beneficiaries are South Asian and AAPI individuals, particularly victims of crime.