Since launching in 2022 Sikh Family Center’s Community Advocate Training Program is bringing activists from across the country together: to learn, to share and to inspire each other in promoting holistic wellness, including gender justice, in their local sangats.

Your contributions allow Sikh Family Center to continue offering our unique training absolutely free of cost. The training is hosted on a virtual platform to meet accessibility needs, provide flexibility and access to range of resources to further the learning experience.

Our approach remains to engage trained Advocates, embracing the diversity in our community. This involves collaborating directly with gurdwaras where we have already established working relationships, as well as, developing connections with new gurdwara leadership.

With your support, we aim to expand community engagement efforts including providing outreach materials, training for new advocates and technical assistance to sangat who are working to uplift the needs of their local communities. This ongoing work takes time, and only made possible with your dasvandh.

Did you Know?

Sikh Family Center Advocates include: Public Health professionals, Court Licensed Interpreter, Community Organizers, Deputy Sheriff, School Psychologist, Social workers, Physician Assistant, Educators, Clinical Psychology PhD student, J.D. Candidate, Youth leaders, Education and Prevention Specialist + more!

Advocates support across Sikh Family Center’s two program areas: Prevention Education & Technical Assistance and Training. For example, advocates identify liaisons at their local gurdwara who would help champion Sikh Family Center programming and engage in prevention education initiatives that increase dialogue in the community on sensitive issues including listening circles.

Some of our trained advocates have taken their advocacy to the next level and are currently receiving Sikh Family Center’s specialized Peer Counselor Training to increase capacity of Intervention services through our National Helpline.

We love receiving messages of gratitude from volunteers who continue to raise awareness of Sikh Family Center programs and services in their local communities and beyond.

We are accepting applications for 2024:

**Open to individuals and organizations**

Learn More & Apply - https://bit.ly/3VYCnbz

Help us amplify our grassroots volunteer impact through outreach and training.

We kicked off Fall Training in August, completing group sessions with eight members from a Sikh youth organization. The training involved centering discussions about gendered violence, understanding what it means to be trauma-aware for oneself and for others, and learning ways to navigate difficult situations and conversations brought to the attention of organization leaders.  

“One question that I want to explore after these sessions is how to get involved in preventative measures in the future, in addition to supporting victims or potential victims.”

- Participant from an organization

We met & worked with Community Advocates in person!

During the months of August and September, trained Community Advocates in California, New Jersey, New York joined staff at outreach events happening near their local gurdwara and other community spaces. Some advocates drove over an hour and a half to join us and said they’d do it again! The in-person meetings provide pause, community building and momentum to sustain culture change work in their individual communities. Our programs would simply not exist without our volunteers and allies at the grassroots level.

Here are some pictures of our staff with Community Advocates in NY, NJ & CA!

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Sikh Family Center’s Board Chair, Deep Jodhka joined staff for a special meet & greet for our California based Community Advocates: beautiful sunshine, wholesome company & many smiles. During the meeting we discussed new and upcoming opportunities with Sikh Family Center and brought plenty of outreach materials for our growing volunteer network.

Community Advocates Arranged Outreach Events

What a great experience it was for us to travel to Michigan, where a Community Advocate had set up a tabling event and meeting with the Gurdwara Committee at Rochester Hills guru ghar.

Listen to the speech here.

Organize an important outreach and tabling event at your gurdwara - The Health of Any Nation Begins in the Homes of its People!

Please be in touch if you would like to see programming hosted in cities near you! We would like to meet with you so that you can easily organize a tabling event at your gurdwara-we will deliver materials to you in advance and share more about Sikh Family Center during a meeting! Email us: [email protected]

In September and October, we dove into our Fall training with 8 new Community Advocates!

This year we’ve received applications and interest from the following states: Michigan; Nevada; Illinois; New York; Georgia; California; Wisconsin; Arizona; Texas; Massachusetts; Indiana.

Interested in becoming a Community Advocate?

Learn more and Apply here.

We Continue to Incubate Activism, and even New Orgs and Initiatives!

About a year ago Sikh Family Center launched Community Advocates Training Program, to identify and support sevadaars committed to community empowerment. Our unique training centers diversity across the Sikh community; increases self-reflection around ability to support another person safely; and highlights the dynamics of trauma and healing. All these aspects better equip sevadaars to engage on 'sensitive' issues in their sangats, with the support of Sikh Family Center.

We’ve trained Advocates from across the U.S. including Georgia, Illinois, Wisconsin, California, New York, Maryland + more!

**Applications are open for individuals and organizations**

Learn & Apply - https://bit.ly/3VYCnbz

Our organizational trainings are open for Board members, staff and volunteers, ranging from 3-10 people based on organization size. The trainings are customized to fit the unique needs of local groups, organizations: for example, creating outreach materials with information about local resources (DV shelters, legal aid organizations); reviewing internal policies and protocols (engaging with survivors); or program- related support and workshops.

The timeline of engagement can be extended, but we know patient, slow engagement can lead to lasting impact and change.

In 2022, we were invited to train an East Coast gurdwara committee. The first initial steps involved virtual meetings with women on the gurdwara committee to hear about local needs in the community, and what challenges they faced internally and externally. 

In early 2023, Sikh Family Center staff met in-person with these Kaurs who, while employing our Family Violence Resource Guide, have developed an internal protocol and small organization to provide local support--groceries, clothes etc.—to survivors of trauma. This meeting also involved trouble-shooting/problem-solving regarding a case where the person they supported was not able to maintain boundaries and thus overwhelmed the sevadaars. We reminded them our National Helpline is always a referral, providing backup, and often cocooning local grassroots sevadaars as well as the members they support.

In June, these Kaurs completed their Community Advocate trainings and feel better equipped to continue supporting through the local gurdwara committee and their new organization.

Incubating new ideas, even organizations, is a privilege. We believe in a collective empowerment approach.

Community Advocates have been sharing resources with their sangats across the U.S. Our Helpline flyers, and stickers can be placed in common community spaces which can be accessed discretely (photos below).

We want to send outreach materials for community members to post in their local sangat/gurdwara/circle! Just email [email protected] with a request.

We are grateful for your ongoing contributions that help strengthen the power of grassroots efforts nationwide and create lasting change.

From February to April we began training two cohorts of 14 new Community Advocates. Thus far, 7 Advocates have completed the training program. We are so pleased to share our learning, experiences and principles in providing trauma-centered and human-centered advocacy and support, always aimed at increasing individual empowerment! 

Did you know?

The training is open for individuals and organizations! We have been invited to train an East Coast gurdwara as well as a Sikh organization. Organizational trainings are open for Board members, staff and volunteers, ranging from 5-10 people based on organization size. 

How are trained Community Advocates supporting their local sangats?

Advocates have helped drop off care packages of winter clothes and toiletries for a survivor in need, searched for rental assistance options for a survivor and her child, as well as, starting conversations with a domestic violence agency to learn how survivors can access services. 

Interested in becoming a Community Advocate? 

Learn more and Apply here. 

Training participants sharing about their experience:

Your ongoing support continues to makes a difference! Our advocates strive to create the change they wish to see in their communties. 

During Fall 2022, Sikh Family Center grew our grassroots network of trained Community Advocates:

• 8 individuals across the U.S. completed the training program.
• 6 individuals are in the process of completing training.  
• 5 Sikh community organizations have engaged with the program.

Our Community Advocates share some key takeaways following the training:

• “Building a community that doesn't use words [such] as vachari or think that DV only affects certain people.”
• “Relationships with local gurdwaras are key to getting information out.”
• “Connect victims with resources, don't try to fix their issues.”
• “Often the means of keeping a person in a sphere of abuse is more than just physical or mental.”
• “The entire family system goes through violence and not just the parties involved.”

Become a Community Advocate!

Community Advocates help fill several critical needs in their communities.

• They answer basic questions on sensitive issues, e.g. impact of trauma on survivors of violence.
• They organize their local sangat to drive change on a range of intra-community needs.
• They connect local sangats with Sikh Family Center, a national resource center and the only Sikh organization focused on gender justice.
   

We are accepting applications for 2023 and especially seeking more applicants from middle America!

“This was so wonderful to cover as a team in our org, because it helped us bond together in realizing these issues in our community and realizing our responsibility together as an org within it.” 

**Open to individuals and organizations**

Learn More & Apply - https://bit.ly/3VYCnbz

Sikh Family Center is excited to share the following project about our ongoing project.

Since opening applications for our Community Advocate Training Program, we have reviewed over 27 applications from sangats across the United States. As part of the application process, we conducted individual interviews to get to know our applicants better, answered their questions about the training, and set appropriate expectations. As of October 1, 14 of these applicants have completed the first of three modules of Community Advocate training.

These trainings and one-on-one conversations have left us feeling inspired and ready to grow a collaborative network committed to wellness and safety of all Sikh families.

We are also working with 5 Sikh community organizations who we will be training as a group. Our training helps them:

• Build shared understanding and norms
• Develop internal procedures and protocols to respond to gender-based violence
• Recommit, collectively, to a spirit of Fear None, Frighten None

Note: Organizational trainings are open for Board members, staff and volunteers, ranging from 5-10 people based on organization size. 

Apply & Help Spread the Word!! 

Know a Sikh in the U.S. who would make a great sevadaar and liaison for the Family Center, that is, a Community Advocate? 

We are training at least 2 Advocates from each state.