Asian Women's Shelter

Our Mission

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 and all survivors of violence and oppression.

AWS is committed to every person’s right to live in a violence-free home. AWS works with all survivors and has specific expertise to address the cultural and language needs of Asian and other immigrant and refugee survivors, as well as others who face barriers to accessing existing sources of safety and support. In order to address how domestic violence is compounded for survivors and communities as it combines with sexism, classism, racism, homo/bi/transphobia, xenophobia, ableism and ageism, AWS operates through a margin-to-center anti-oppression framework that can create holistic and lasting change toward peace. This perspective is reflected in our broad strategy that integrates culturally relevant and language-accessible shelter and transitional services, training and capacity-building programs, systems and public policy work, and community mobilization initiatives and advocacy.