Throughout the years that KAN-WIN has been serving Asian American and immigrant sexual assault survivors, staff have uncovered numerous obstacles such as extreme shame felt by survivors and language barriers when dealing with law enforcement. Furthermore, while KAN-WIN has received numerous calls on its crisis hotline from sexual assault survivors, many callers struggled to follow through with services afterwards. There was a growing need to explore the barriers Asian immigrant survivors faced in receiving services and learn about the prevalence of sexual violence in the community. There has been, however, very limited research on sexual violence in the Asian American and immigrant community.
Thus, KAN-WIN launched this survey project with the goals to: 1) determine the prevalence of sexual violence within the target community; 2) explore how its community members understand the dynamics surrounding the issue of sexual violence; 3) examine barriers to seeking help and safety, and 4) identify more effective, culturally competent methods of prevention, intervention, and advocacy on behalf of sexual violence survivors. KAN-WIN hopes that this survey can encourage more studies and research to be conducted to improve assistance towards Asian American and immigrant sexual assault survivors.
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