Organizations

There are many national and local organizations that provide services to immigrant survivors of domestic violence, train domestic violence service providers, and provide information about domestic violence in immigrant communities. The following list includes national level organizations or associations only. These organizations have close connections to local agencies serving immigrant and refugee communities and should be able to make specific referrals, if necessary.

American Immigration Lawyers Association
The American Immigration Lawyers Association is the national association of immigration lawyers established to promote justice, advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy, advance the quality of immigration and nationality law and practice, and enhance the professional development of its members.

Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence
The Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence (formerly, Asian Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence) is a national resource center on gender-based violence against Asians, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. It analyzes critical issues, provides technical assistance and training, conducts research, and informs public policy.

Asian Women's Shelter
The mission of the Asian Women's Shelter (AWS) is to eliminate domestic violence by promoting the social, economic, and political self-determination of women. AWS is committed to every person's right to live in a violence-free home. It specifically addresses the cultural and language needs of immigrant, refugee, and U.S.-born Asian women and their children.

ASISTA
ASISTA's purpose is to centralize assistance for advocates and attorneys facing complex legal problems in advocating for immigrant survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. ASISTA's clearinghouse offers samples and best practices and its consultants' training services are available to enable service providers to more thoroughly fulfill their purposes.

Battered Women's Justice Project
The Battered Women's Justice Project offers training, technical assistance, and consultation on the most promising practices of the criminal and civil justice system in addressing domestic violence.

Casa de Esperanza
Casa de Esperanza's mission is to mobilize Latinas and Latin@ communities to end domestic violence. Casa de Esperanza operates the National Latin@ Network for Healthy Families and Communities (NLN), which exists to advance effective responses to eliminate violence and promote healthy relationships within Latin@ families and communities. The NLN addresses four primary issues: increasing access for Latin@s experiencing domestic violence through training and technical assistance; producing culturally relevant tools for advocates and practitioners; conducting culturally relevant research that explores the context in which Latin@ families experience violence; and interjecting the lived realities of Latin@s into policy efforts to better support Latin@ families.

The Hague Domestic Violence Project
The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction was completed in October 1980 and put into effect in the U.S. through passage in 1988 of the International Child Abduction Remedies Act (ICARA, 42 U.S.C.A. § 11603). The Hague Convention establishes international law for handling cases in which children are abducted from one country to another. States party to the Convention are expected to help quickly return abducted children to their "habitual residence" where other issues, such as custody, can be resolved by local jurisdictions (Hilton, 1997). The Hague Convention website is devoted to providing information to battered mothers, their advocates and attorneys, and judges hearing Hague Convention cases involving adult domestic violence.

Interpretation Technical Assistance & Resource Center (ITARC)
The Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence houses the Interpretation Technical Assistance & Resource Center (ITARC), available to provide technical assistance on developing, improving and maintaining the delivery of interpretation services for victims of domestic violence. ITARC is a national language access resource for OVW grantees, victim advocates from non-profits, non-governmental agencies, Services, Training, Officers, and Prosecutors (STOP) technical assistance grantees and programs providing culturally and linguistically specific services.

Legal Momentum's Immigrant Women Program
Legal Momentum advances the rights of women and girls by using the power of the law and creating innovative public policy. The Immigrant Women Program is a national leader in understanding and addressing the rights and services available to immigrant victims of domestic and other violence. It shares this expertise through comprehensive materials and trainings for lawyers and advocates nationwide, and leads advocacy for legal protections, social services, and economic justice for immigrant women.

National Immigrant Family Violence Institute (NIFVI)
The National Immigrant Family Violence Institute is dedicated to eliminating domestic violence in immigrant communities. The organization provides individualized technical assistance and training, as well as specialized resource materials on the unique issues faced by immigrant communities in combating domestic violence. NIFVI serves a variety of organizations, including domestic violence agencies, immigrant serving agencies, law enforcement and legal practitioners.

The National Immigrant Women's Advocacy Project (NIWAP) 
NIWAP is a national provider of training, legal and social science research, policy development, and technical assistance to advocates, attorneys, pro bono law firms, law schools, universities, law enforcement, prosecutors, social service and health care providers, justice system personnel, and other professionals who work with immigrant women, children and crime victims. NIWAP provides training and technical assistance on a broad range of issues of importance to immigrant women and children, including VAWA immigration and confidentiality, family law, protection orders, public benefits, language access, cultural competency, and access to services, including shelter, transitional housing, health care, and education.

National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights is a national organization composed of local coalitions and immigrant, refugee, community, religious, civil rights and labor organizations and activists. It serves as a forum to share information and analysis, to educate communities and the general public, and to develop and coordinate plans of action on important immigrant and refugee issues. It works to promote a just immigration and refugee policy in the United States and to defend and expand the rights of all immigrants and refugees, regardless of immigration status.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline
The National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH) was established in 1996 as a component of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) passed by Congress, NDVH is a nonprofit organization that provides crisis intervention, information and referral to victims of domestic violence, perpetrators, friends and families. Assistance is available in English and Spanish with access to more than 170 languages through interpreter services.

Tahirih Justice Center
The Tahirih Justice Center is a national, multi-city organization providing both policy advocacy and leadership and direct, on the ground legal services to immigrant and refugee women and girls fleeing violence. Tahirih monitors policy shifts that impact women and girls fleeing violence and advocates for the U.S. to honor its legal obligations to protect those fleeing human rights abuses.

Tapestri
Tapestri is dedicated to ending violence and oppression in refugee and immigrant communities, using culturally competent and linguistically appropriate methods. As advocates for refugee and immigrant families affected by domestic violence, sexual assault and exploitation, Tapestri is committed to using education, community organizing, direct services and advocacy to effect change in the lives of these families.

WomensLaw.org
WomensLaw.org provides access to up-to-date, plain language legal information that can assist refugees, immigrants, victims of trafficking, and asylum seekers, including information on VAWA self-petition, U visas, T visas and asylum. Additionally, WomensLaw.org provides legal resources for organizations that specialize in immigration law and international cases.