Kavita Mehra details increased demand and under-resourcing at Sakhi
Mehra says 80 percent of Sakhi survivors identify as Muslim and 12 percent are undocumented. She reports a 14 percent increase in survivors served, 50 percent increase in food justice, and 1,000 percent increase in legal justice, and calls for reframing gender-based violence as a public health matter.
Tara Frias, I think one of the things that I didn't hear through the course of this testimony is that this is...
Ultimately the leading public health issue in our city.
And it needs to be addressed as such, and unfortunately it is not.
When we put NGBV in this scope of community safety, we are not examining the fact that it is a public health matter that is ultimately preventable and solvable.
And that is really critical.
What we are seeing, particularly for culturally responsive organizations at this moment in time, is just a really critical need, right?
Like the federal ecosystem that is impacting immigrant communities.
80% of the survivors that we work with at SAKI identify as Muslim.
12% are undocumented.
We are seeing a really challenging moment between the result of HR1, the changes in
and the expansion of public charge.
We've seen a 14% increase in survivors served over the course of this year, a 50% increase in our food justice program, a 1,000% increase in our legal justice program when we compare the same numbers from last year to this year.
Ultimately, we are under-resourced, we are completely treading on water, and also we are seeing a diminishment of the impact of this issue across the city.
So I think the framing of the matter ultimately needs to be examined, which is that it is a public health matter that needs to be examined across the city.