| Last updated on September 11, 2008 |
CUAV is an anti-oppression, multicultural agency whose mission is to prevent and respond to violence against and within our diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning communities. We work to accomplish this mission through support services, advocacy, organizing and education.
Description:
OUR PROGRAMS
Client Support Services
Crisis Intervention
Diverse volunteers and staff operate a 24-hour Crisis Line for survivors, their families and friends. This direct lifeline to our communities receives over 1,200 calls every year from LGBTQ people who are being harassed, threatened, attacked, or abused by strangers, neighbors, family members, co-workers, the police, partners, and former partners. Through our participation in the Asian Women's Shelter's city-wide Multilingual Access Model, we are able to provide assistance in over 20 languages.
Hate Violence Survivors Project
This project serves approximately 400 survivors of hate violence annually through peer counseling, advocacy, criminal justice system orientation, court watches, emergency assistance, and other services. With support from staff Advocates and the larger LGBTQ community, survivors heal from the impact of hate violence and advocate for themselves.
Domestic Violence Survivors Project
This project serves over 400 survivors of domestic violence each year through peer counseling, advocacy, restraining order assistance, court accompaniment, emergency and shelter assistance, and case management. The survivors we assist often face multiple forms of violence, and have few economic resources. Our support services aim to address the unique needs of survivors in culturally respectful ways, and to assist survivors in attaining increased physical, emotional, and economic well being.
Community Advocacy
As a lead participant in the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects, each year CUAV releases a local findings report in conjunction with the national release of the Report on Anti-LGBT Violence and the Report on LGBT Domestic Violence. Local press conferences held at the time of the release of each report receive widespread media attention.
Through radio and television programs, and through training for law enforcement agencies, community groups and social service agencies, CUAV staff raise community awareness, train people to better handle LGBTQ domestic violence and hate violence cases, and build community responses to prevent violence. In late 1998, CUAV and Bay Area Police Watch founded TransAction, a grassroots group dedicated to exposing and ending police abuse against transgender and transsexual women and men.
In larger anti-violence movements, CUAV has been a strong--and often the only--LGBTQ voice. CUAV is a steering committee member of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium, and a member of the Bay Area Hate Crimes Investigators Association, and the Civil Right Coalition.
Community Outreach, Education and Training
Speakers Bureau
CUAV's longest standing program, the Speakers Bureau, speaks to over 4,000 people annually in the SFUSD, Bay Area schools, colleges and universities and other community-based organizations. Volunteers make presentations (or 'gigs,' as we refer to them) that challenge bi/trans/homophobic stereotypes of LGBTQ people, encourage respectful dialogue, and promote an end to hate-motivated violence. CUAV has also provided intensive sensitivity workshops for Americorps, MUNI and other agencies and businesses which deal with the public, to help provide safer work environments and communities.
LGBT Domestic Violence Outreach and Education
This project focuses on outreach to LGBT communities through domestic violence education and awareness. Staff organizes culturally relevant focus groups and educational workshops to discuss violence and oppression in our communities. This program has made presentations to community groups, social service and city agencies throughout Northern California.
Love and Justice Project
The Love and Justice Project, a collaboration between CUAV and Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center (LYRIC), focuses on awareness of LGBTQ relationship violence in an effort to promote healthy self-esteem and relationships free of violence. Through outreach and education, youth involved in Love and Justice have worked on a variety of projects, including a workshop series, theater-performance projects, and development of resource guides and other printed materials. This peer-based, peer-run program provides survival, organizing, educational, and job skills training to LGBTQ youth ages 13-24. Youth interns have conducted outreach and advocated for a number of issues impacting queer youth.
History:
A non-profit agency and the first program of its kind in the country, CUAV was formed in 1979 in response to the increasing incidence of violent acts perpetrated against gays and lesbians as the movement for gay rights came into the forefront of American society.
CUAV was born in the wake of one of the worst incidents of hate-motivated, anti-queer violence in San Francisco history. When former San Francisco Supervisor Dan White was convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter for the murders of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone, two nights of rioting and clashes with the police ensued, often referred to as 'White Nights.' A celebration of Harvey Milk's birthday, in memory of the slain Supervisor, was planned for the next day. Individuals from gay and lesbian communities took responsibility on their own to train safety monitors to reduce the potential for renewed violence. The success of that experience led to the creation of CUAV. Over the years, our programs have broadened dramatically and changed with the needs of the communities we serve.
Contact people:
Main office number: (415) 777-5500
Office fax number: 415-777-5565
Address:
 |
170A Capp Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(See a map) |
Web Site: http://www.cuav.org
Directions:
|
16th & Mission BART. Walk 1 block East to Capp Street and turn Right. We are 3/4 of the block down.
Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: 16th & Mission,
Walk distance (in minutes): 3
Nearest Bus Stop: 14 Line / 33 Line, 3 minute walk |
Miscellaneous Information
| Besides English, which languages are spoken at your agency? |
|
Cantonese, Spanish
|
| What is the minimum age for volunteers at your agency? |
|
19
|
| Is your agency wheelchair accessible? |
|
Yes
|
| Does your agency have the capacity to host groups of more than 10? |
|
Yes
|
| Does your agency have the capacity to host groups of more than 20? |
|
No
|
User Reflections
Post Your Own!
Overall Experience 
I have gained so much insight into crisis-line counseling and have developed such a sense of connection to my LGBTQ community through CUAV!
|
CUAV is a multicultural, anti-violence agency founded in 1979 to prevent and respond to domestic and hate violence in the nation's LGBTQ communities. I started volunteering with them when I moved here as a crisis-line counselor and now I am also volunteering as a Speaker who goes to SF schools to talk to students about my bisexual identity and open up discussion on what it means to be bisexual and dispelling stereotypes. I really value all the volunteering I do with CUAV. The staff makes you well aware that you are making a difference in the LGBTQ community as well as the community as a whole by being a part of the organization. The training programs are phenomenal and so are the staff!
posted on April 4, 2007 |
|
|
|
