CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities

History of CAAAV, Current Projects, Suggested Reading for CAAAV, Goals for Group 10, Resources/Links

CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities (also known as Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence) was founded by Asian women in 1986 as one of the first organizations in the United States to mobilize Asian communities to counter anti-Asian violence. CAAAV focuses on institutional violence that affects immigrant, poor and working-class communities such as worker exploitation, concentrated urban poverty, police brutality, Immigration Naturalization Service detention and deportation, and criminalization of youth and workers.

By organizing across diverse, low-wage, and poor Asian communities in New York City, CAAAV exposes and struggles against violence with the goal of building community capacity to exercise self-determination. Building coalitions enables CAAAV to contribute to a unified strategy for a broader, multi-racial and multi-issue movement for social change. CAAAV is a volunteer-driven organization led by members of low-income Asian immigrant communities.

CAAAV's programs include the Chinatown Justice Project, uniting low-income residents of Manhattan's Chinatown for decent and affordable housing, and fighting displacement caused by gentrification; the Women Workers Project, organizing Asian women workers in the informal service economy, particularly domestic workers who face long hours, low wages, no job security or health benefits; the Southeast Asian Youth Leadership Project in the Bronx, which organizes around welfare, public education and INS detention issues; and the Racial Justice Project, which organizes against police brutality in Asian communities throughout the city. Along with these projects CAAAV also organizes the Southeast Asian Catering Cooperative. (For more information about the coop please contact Sary Sam at 718.220.7391)

Main Office: 2473 Valentine Avenue / Bronx, NY 10458 / P: 718.220.7391 / F: 718.220.7398

This page was created by Theresa Hernandez, Lauren Shell, Alexis Stephens