In 1980, The New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project (the Anti-Violence Project) was born in the streets of Chelsea by community activists creating a response to a series of brutal attacks against gay men. In 1984, the Anti-Violence Project launched a more comprehensive program that provided professional counseling to victims of violence and broadened its focus to include other crimes, such as same-sex domestic/intimate partner violence, rape and sexual assault, pick-up crimes, HIV-related violence and police misconduct and abuse. This program growth at the Anti-Violence Project over the years was all in response to community needs expressed by victims and survivors of these types of violence. For more than 25 years, the Anti-Violence Project has remained an important lynchpin of the community and continues to educate, advocate and train society in the work needed to help all New Yorkers live … without fear.
Today, the Anti-Violence Project remains the only crime victims’ assistance agency specifically focused on the lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual (LGTB) and HIV-affected community in the greater New York metropolitan area. The agency provides free and confidential assistance to thousands of crime victims each year through its 24-hour, bilingual crisis intervention hotline - the only 24-hour service available to LGTB people in the area - and delivers professional short and long-term individual and group counseling; police, court and social services advocacy and accompaniments for clients, as well as legal advocacy and referrals. The Anti-Violence Project also provides extensive community training and education throughout the state, conducting training programs for law enforcement, criminal justice, victim service, social service, and educational and health care personnel. The agency operates one of only two programs for victims of HIV-related violence in the nation, and has created an innovative same-sex batterer’s intervention program- also one of only two such programs in the country.
In addition to providing critical direct services to victims, and delivering trainings and community education, the Anti-Violence Project seeks to change attitudes that tolerate or instigate hate-motivated violence through public education campaigns, by working with organizations serving other communities victimized by hate-motivated violence, and by organizing the LGTB and HIV-affected communities’ response to violence. The following is a summary of the impressive range of services and programs provided by the Anti-Violence Project’s dedicated staff, interns and volunteers:
Hotline: The Anti-Violence Project operates a bilingual, 24-hour, 365-day-a-year crisis intervention hotline that is staffed by trained volunteers and the Anti-Violence Project’s professional counselors and advocates. Callers receive immediate crisis counseling or are referred to a staff member for more intensive counseling or other services.
Bias Crimes: The Anti-Violence Project was created in response to anti-gay attacks, and the agency continues to have a strong focus on hate crimes and bias-motivated incidents. These cases range from discrimination and verbal harassment to assault and murder. Since 2003, as the LGTB community around the nation has come under increased political, cultural and physical attack, the Anti-Violence Project has seen anti-LGTB hate-motivated incidents in our region - often thought of as a “safe haven” - rise 24%.
Domestic Violence: Same-sex Domestic Violence is as serious a problem in LGTB and HIV-affected communities as it is in the heterosexual community and now constitutes the largest segment of the Anti-Violence Project’s client caseload. The Anti-Violence Project remains the only agency in New York State that provides services designed specifically for victims of same-sex domestic violence. Additionally, the Anti-Violence Project created the first-ever statewide Same-Sex Domestic Violence Network. The Network brings together Domestic Violence providers, activists and policy-makers from across the state to strengthen efforts to appropriately serve LGTB domestic violence and rape and sexual assault victims wherever they live. The Network focuses on program development, the dissemination of best and promising practices, developing or changing public policy, and acting as a clearinghouse on research, data, and resources. Furthermore, in a unique partnership with Safe Horizon, the Anti-Violence Project has designated placement for LGTB victims in a domestic violence shelter. This collaboration has proven so successful for our clients that we hope to replicate it in other shelters in NYC as well as export the model to other cities across the country.
HIV-Related Violence: Though many would not believe it violence against people living with or perceived to be living with HIV/AIDS still exists. The effects of violence on a person living with HIV can be devastating. A victim’s real or perceived HIV status can be a disturbing factor in a hate violence case, or used by a batterer as an instrument of power and control within a domestic violence situation. To address the distinct problems caused by violence in the lives of people with HIV, the Anti-Violence Project provides a unique combination of counseling, social and legal services, referrals, advocacy and activism to hundreds of HIV-positive clients every year, and our caseload in this area continues to increase.
Sexual Assault: The Anti-Violence Project provides the only counseling services in NYC designed for and specifically directed to LGTB victims of rape and sexual assault. Most mainstream rape crisis centers are unaware of, or insensitive to, issues affecting members of the LGTB community, particularly male survivors of sexual assault. The Anti-Violence Project not only counsels victims referred by other agencies, but also trains other agencies how to better serve LGTB communities.
Youth Anti-Violence Initiative: The Anti-Violence Project continues to expand its Youth Anti-Violence Initiative, which fosters better identification and provision of violence-related services for LGTB and questioning youth across New York City. In addition to helping the Anti-Violence Project augment its own services to be more accessible and sensitive to younger people, this collaborative project is developing unique training, curriculum development, and program evaluation assistance to principals in several partner agencies, including school-based youth service providers as well as agencies for homeless youth and youth in foster care.
Preventive Services: The Anti-Violence Project understands violence to be a public health problem as well as a criminal justice, human and civil rights issue. We work to protect people from hate-motivated violence, pick-up crimes and sexual assault before they occur by issuing press advisories regarding serial perpetrators targeting the community, distributing street-smart safety tips, and conducting general information and education programming for the community at-large. Our popular SafeBar Program in particular is designed to stop pick-up crimes and date-associated violence before it happens by working with bars and clubs to alert their patrons and staff of the dangers of pick-up crimes, distributing safety tips and encouraging reporting such incidents to the Anti-Violence Project and the police.
Police Misconduct: The Anti-Violence Project’s Community & Police Relations services focus on assisting those who have experienced police abuse or misconduct. Through these services, the Anti-Violence Project advocates for clients in the courts, before the Civilian Complaint Review Board, and counsels clients around police abuse, misconduct and brutality. Our work in this area also involves highlighting and changing inequities in the law and the inequitable application of the law. In addition to advocating for and counseling clients, we also work with the police at the academy, precinct and administrative levels to improve their response to LGTB crime victims and to improve the relationship between the NYPD and the community. The Anti-Violence Project now enjoys a very productive and respectful relationship with both the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force and its Domestic Violence Policing Units.
Training & Education Institute: Over the years, the Anti-Violence Project has devoted substantial resources to training police, district attorneys’ offices and other law enforcement officials, as well as staff at rape crisis centers, domestic violence agencies and other mainstream health and human service providers. In 2005 alone, the Anti-Violence Project provided 172 trainings reaching 8,916 people, nearly a 100% increase in both categories over the previous year. These trainings ultimately enable the agency to serve more individuals by ensuring that “mainstream” personnel trained by the Anti-Violence Project will provide appropriate services to the LGTB and HIV-affected victims of violence they encounter. The Training Institute also serves as a clearinghouse for the most up-to-date information, studies, articles and curricula on the issue of violence, and acts as a research resource for those interested in studying violence against or within LGTB communities.
Community Organizing & Public Advocacy: The Anti-Violence Project has an extensive community organizing, outreach and education program that has seen tremendous growth, particularly in the past few years. The Anti-Violence Project’s community organizing efforts extend to all of the diverse constituencies within New York’s LGTB and HIV-affected communities, and consistent with its grassroots history, the agency continues to organize local and citywide community responses to specific violent incidents. In addition, the Anti-Violence Project works to increase LGTB community visibility at events organized by other communities with related concerns, such as mainstream domestic violence conferences, and also works on an ongoing basis with other community-based organizations both within and outside of the LGTB community to raise the profile of the issues faced by our clients and the services we provide. In the public policy realm, the Anti-Violence Project is currently focused on documenting the tracking and enforcement issues surrounding the NYS Hate Crimes Law, and on legislative changes to the state’s definition of “family” to allow members of the LGTB community access to the Family Court system to obtain an order of protection rather than having to navigate the criminal court system.
National Work: Each year, in collaboration with the local groups and programs that comprise the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP), the Anti-Violence Project produces the National Report on Anti-Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Bisexual Violence and the National Report on Same Sex Domestic Violence-each of which is the definitive statement on bias-related violence and intimate partner violence, respectively. Since January 2003, the Anti-Violence Project has been “incubating” NCAVP to strengthen and expand its role and profile as a national organization taking the lead on these very important issues that directly or indirectly affect every LGTB and HIV-affected person across the country.
The need for a strong Anti-Violence Project has never been greater. While other forms of violent crime continue to decline throughout the city and nationally, bias-related crime against the LGTB and HIV-affected communities continues to occur at alarmingly high rates and is reportedly the most violent type of all categories of hate crimes. Further, domestic violence in same-sex relations continues at a rate (1 in 4 relationships) equal to that of heterosexual couples. Despite the continuing attacks against and within our community, many local, state and national political leaders as well as mainstream service providers continue to deny the existence of these problems, and without the Anti-Violence Project’s strategic and coordinated effort, our community will continue to be ignored. The Anti-Violence Project’s dedicated staff and volunteers continue to meet the ever-increasing demand for crisis intervention and counseling support for victims and their families.
For more than 25 years, supporters like you have helped to keep the doors of the Anti-Violence Project open and serving the members of our community. It is through the generosity of corporate partners, local businesses, foundations and loyal donors that the Anti-Violence Project remains a strong advocate for the community and is able to continue providing necessary services to people who have been victimized. We are grateful for your courage and your endless generosity, and we thank you for partnering with us to help all New Yorkers live…without fear.