Community-based Approach to Prevent and Address Hate Crimes against the Asian-American/Pacific Islander Community

University Settlement Society of New York (USS) and the Asian American Federation (AAF) are proposing a project to address the rapid rise in anti-Asian hate crimes that has persisted since the pandemic, serving Asian American community members in New York City as well as reaching Asian serving organizations across New York state.

USS will build upon its successful history of the Rejoice! Organize! Activate! Reclaim! (ROAR!) festival that was held in 2022 and 2023. Specifically, ROAR! will be expanded to a full year, ten part event series that addresses hate crimes through workshops on the importance of and how to report hate and bias-based incidents; connections to and information about mental health care; and facilitation of dialogue and opportunities for community healing. As a partner in this work, AAF will provide in-language sessions teaching community members on topics including situational awareness, conflict de-escalation, and upstander intervention techniques. Additionally, to scale learnings beyond the local community, AAF will also bring together an Anti-Asian Hate Violence Working Group that will convene Asian-serving organizations across the state to create a “playbook” of replicable best practices for community-based approaches to addressing hate. This playbook and other learnings from the proposed project will also be shared with local law enforcement to increase knowledge of how to support and address hate crimes in the Asian American community.

USS and AAF anticipates the following as part of the program: attendance of more than 400 Asian American community members annually; engaging more than 20 organizations as part of the Working Group; ensuring 60 percent or more participants increase their awareness of available wellness and safety resources, as well as how to report hate incidents; developing a “playbook” of community-led approaches to addressing hate crimes; and, engaging local police to strengthen the community’s approach to addressing anti-Asian hate.