Transcript Document

Sexual Violence And
Undocumented Immigrant Women in NYC:
A Participatory Action Research Project
REPORT BACK TO THE COMMUNITY
MAY 9, 2006
Assessment, Monitoring and Evaluation II:
Participatory Action Research Methods
in Community Based Inquiry
The New York City Alliance Against Sexual
Assault (the Alliance)
Alliance Team - Debi Fry, Daisy Deomampo,
Kajori Chaudhuri
The New School for Social Research International Affairs Program (IAP)
Teaching Team - Katy Taylor, Alberto Minujin
New School Student
Researchers
• Team 1 - Farzana Ramzan, Kate Crowley,
Naomi Erickson
• Team 2 - Jen Zanowiak, Danielle Jacobs,
Sarah Cooper
• Team 3 - Monica Paz, Kim Hafner, Sara
Rowbottom
Research Objectives
Design participatory research tools that would
provide immigrant women:
• an opportunity to describe the impact sexual violence has
on their lives;
• a forum to reflect on the options women in their
communities have when seeking help for sexual violence;
• a forum to reflect on how sexual violence could be
prevented in their community; and
• a supportive and interactive environment to discuss a
long-silenced danger in their lives.
Course Objective
• To train students in participatory approaches
to community based assessment and
evaluation.
• Mentor student researchers to design and
pilot action research methods in NYC
communities
Participatory Action
Research
What?
“A growing family of research methods that enable communities
and their partners to analyze and enhance their own knowledge
and to plan, prioritize, and evaluate research to address local
concerns with a goal of community based action ”
• PAR shifts the normal balance from a closed to open, from
individual to group, from verbal to more visual and is meant to
foster partnerships and collaborations
Why?
• To empower and build capacity of organizations and
communities to solve problems together.
Research Process
• Literature Review / Desk Research
• Stakeholder Analysis
• Research Design and Tool Development
• Pilot Tools
• Data and Process Analysis
Overview How tools were applied
Tools
Team 1
Scope & Impact
Team 2
Intervention
Team 3
Prevention
Common
List and
Rank
List and
Rank
List and
Rank (different
variation)
Focus Group
Vignette
Strategy
Diagram
Unique
Common
Picture Survey & Picture Survey & Picture Survey &
Demographic
Demographic
Demographic
Survey
Survey
Survey
Stakeholder Research
• 57 stakeholders representing 30 organizations
• Stakeholders were drawn from diverse fields: law
enforcement/criminal justice, city agencies, legal,
community development, health and human
services, research/policy, immigrant and refugeefocused, women’s community-based, sexual
violence and domestic violence-oriented
organizations
• Feedback obtained through individual and small
group interviews, and research workshops
Preliminary Findings from
Stakeholders
• General agreement that sexual violence is a
crucial topic to address
• Intimate partner violence is most common
form of SV faced by immigrant women
• Reluctance to broach undocumented status
with immigrant women
• Division about who should facilitate in
different communities
Sexual Violence And
Undocumented Immigrant Women in NYC:
A Participatory Action Research Project
SCOPE AND IMPACT OF SEXUAL
VIOLENCE ON UNDOCUMENTED
IMMIGRANT WOMEN
Kate Crowley, Farzana Ramzan, Naomi Erickson
Mentor: Katy Taylor
Community Report Back
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
with the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault
New York, NY
May 9, 2006
Research Question
WHAT IS THE SCOPE AND IMPACT OF
SEXUAL VIOLENCE AMONG
UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT WOMEN IN
NEW YORK CITY?
STRUCTURE OF
PILOT GROUP SESSION
PURPOSE



Obtain information about scope and impact from the
group
Understand and listen to individual stories
Empower women in the group
FORMAT
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
List and rank
Transition questions about safety and security
Focus group discussion on scope and impact of sexual
violence
Wrap-up questions
Picture survey and demographic survey
DEMOGRAPHICS OF WOMEN IN THE
PILOT GROUP SESSION
BACKGROUND
Four women, aged 38-52 years old, from Central
America, the Caribbean, and West Africa
LOCATION
An organization that provides services for
immigrants
 Living in the United States from 2 to 20 years
 3 married, 1 separated
 Diverse religions and education levels (primary to university)
 3 unemployed
 3 of the 4 women meeting regularly to discuss domestic
violence
LIST AND RANK
IDENTIFYING KEY ISSUES
WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUES FACING
IMMIGRANT WOMEN IN YOUR COMMUNITY?
1. LEGAL STATUS
2. Work Permit 3. Studies 4. Medical
Other Issues
Disrespect, Job Training Programs, Exploitation, Housing,
Lack of Information
FOCUS GROUP
Findings
WE ASKED
 WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS AROUND SAFETY AND SECURITY?
 WHICH WOMEN FEEL LEAST SAFE?
RESPONSES FROM IMMIGRANT WOMEN
 POLICE WILL ONLY INTERVENE IN DV CASES IF THEY CAN ARREST THE
HUSBAND
 POLICE ARE THE ENEMY; DISEMPOWERING. ONE COMMENTED THAT
THE POLICE HAD HELPED HER
 HARASSED AT WORK DUE TO LEGAL STATUS
 SITUATION IS WORSE FOR GIRLS UNDER 15 WHO ARE NEW TO THE
UNITED STATES
"VICTIM OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE DOES NOT GET RESPECT BECAUSE
ONCE THEY HEAR YOUR ACCENT, PEOPLE ASSUME THAT YOU
ARE ILLEGAL AND DON’T PAY MUCH RESPECT TO YOU."
FOCUS GROUP
Findings
WE ASKED
 WHAT IS THE SCOPE OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE THAT YOU
HAVE ENCOUNTERED?

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RESPONSES FROM IMMIGRANT WOMEN
MARITAL RAPE
WIFE’S DUTY TO OBLIGE IF HUSBAND WANTS SEX
CHILD MOLESTATION BY RELATIVE/FAMILIAR ADULT
HARRASSMENT AT WORK (fondling, sexual comments)
 Domestic workers particularly at risk
EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL
“MY HUSBAND WOULD RAPE ME WHILE I WAS ASLEEP.
I WOULD WAKE UP WITH HIM ON TOP OF ME.
I WAS UNSAFE EVEN WHEN I WAS ASLEEP.”
FOCUS GROUP
Findings
WE ASKED
 WHAT HAS BEEN THE IMPACT OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE ON YOUR LIFE?



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RESPONSES FROM IMMIGRANT WOMEN
SENSE OF ISOLATION
TROUBLE TRUSTING NEW MEN; BRINGING THEM AROUND CHILDREN
UNWANTED PREGNANCY
TERRIBLE FEELING; PAIN IN STOMACH
SUICIDAL
HIV/AIDS
TURNED TO RELIGION
“I WOULD RIDE THE SUBWAY TO GET AWAY
FROM HIM.”
INDIVIDUAL SURVEYS
Developing the Survey
 Quantitative data
 Policy and law impact
 Built on IRC and WHO surveys
Demographics of Interviewees
 Age range from 25-55
 Albanian, East African, South Asian, South African
 In US from 3 to 29 years
 2 married, 1 single
INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEW SURVEYS
FINDINGS
Scope Findings:
 Sexual violence at work
 Domestic violence
 Emotional abuse
Impact:
 Disowned by family
 Had to leave job
 Felt as though it was their fault
“I KEPT ASKING MYSELF - DID I DO SOMETHING
TO PROVOKE HIM?”
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
SCOPE


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

MARITAL RAPE
SEXUAL HARRASSMENT AND ASSAULT AT WORK
CHILD ABUSE BY RELATIVE/STEP-PARENT
STRANGER RAPE
EMOTIONAL DEGRADATION
IMPACT



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HELPLESSNESS/ISOLATION
SUICIDAL
FEAR OF LOSS OF JOB
SCARED OF POLICE AT TIMES
FEAR OF DEPORTATION
HIV/AIDS
PROCESS/OBSERVATIONS
CONCERN
Would immigrant women be willing to
respond to our questions about sexual
violence in their lives?
OBSERVATION
Immigrant women want to tell their stories.
They want to be heard.
They want to be believed.
PROCESS/OBSERVATIONS
CONCERN
Would our research empower participants?
RESPONSES FROM IMMIGRANT WOMEN
“I USE MY EXPERIENCE TO HELP OTHER
PEOPLE.”
“HEARING OTHER STORIES - TELLING MY OWN
EXPERIENCE IS HEALING.”
“IT HELPS TO BREAK THE ISOLATION I FEEL.”
THANK YOU!
¡GRACIAS!
MERCI!
Sexual Violence And
Undocumented Immigrant Women in NYC:
A Participatory Action Research Project
PREVENTION
Kimberly Hafner, Monica Paz, Sara Rowbottom,
Daisy Deomampo, Mentor
Community Report Back
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
with the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault
New York, NY
May 9, 2006
Research Question
How can we end sexual violence?
Understanding
prevention
An ambitious set of goals:
• Identify social, cultural, economic and other
circumstances that enable sexual violence to occur
• Identify barriers undocumented immigrant women face
to reduce their risk
• Pinpoint moments in women’s lives when prevention
can do the most good
• Obtain results that go beyond the common responses of
education, outreach, and awareness
• Identify existing community resources that could put
prevention activities into practice
• Identify what potential prevention activities might be
Choosing individual and group
approaches
Participatory List & Rank and Strategy Diagram
List & Rank: Common tool to identify specific types of sexual
violence that are common in a community
Strategy Diagram: Previously been used to represent
information gathered in other participatory exercises, i.e.
causal flow analysis and problem trees (Moser and McIlwaine
2000)
Individual in-depth interviews: Identify causes of sexual
violence that prevention must address, critical moments for
prevention activities to take place, positive resources to
strengthen
Working with women
Where and when:
• Bronx Spanish-speaking group
April 20th 2006, 6 women
• Queens Spanish-speaking group
April 27th 2006, 11 women
• Queens English-speaking group
April 27th 2006, 4 women
• 3 individual interviews
1 Spanish speaking,
2 English speaking
Listing and Ranking
What are the types of sexual violence that women in your community face?
• Domestic Violence/Power
• partner forcing sex (linked to
alcoholism)
• mental abuse within the family
• intimidation by partner
• Child Sexual Abuse
“I live alone too. I have only just my
daughter, and now I have my boyfriend. I
have nobody. And, sometimes people
really want to abuse you because you are
alone.”
“…I am as strong when I am alone. .. I take
my decisions. I do whatever I need [to]
do…. When you are with a family, the
family is saying: No, do this. Don’t do that.
For me now, it’s more better for me.”
Thoughts on Listing and
Ranking
• Comfortable participating, even in
English
• Liked talking about the subject –
they don’t get to talk about this
much, there aren’t many people you
can trust
• Felt that this was the first step
towards prevention
“..What we learn here, we can share
with somebody else... I think we are
strong because we really start talking
about this. This is the first step…”
“…You feel that everybody
has [some problem]. It’s small
or big, it’s something.”
Strategy Diagram
Dangerous
situations
(listing and
ranking goes
here)
What would
you do first to
prevent
______?
To whom or
where could
you go for
help?
Overall, how
can we stop
this problem in
your
community?
How can we
implement these
strategies in
your
community?
Community Needs:
• Education of Men
• More support for women
(job training, education, etc.)
• Culturally sensitive
providers
• More resources in Spanish
• Harsher laws
“We are thinking about us – the women –
but, the men have to be involved in order to
for this to benefit the whole community…”
Thoughts on Strategy Diagram
• Women excited for opportunity to speak about a
sensitive topic –had never done that before
• Women liked the Strategy Diagram especially because it
allowed them to see the linear process of what was
happening
• Analyzing allows them to go deeper into the subject than
other exercises might
• The groups wanted us to come back to do more
participatory workshops!
“You know, everything sounds really
good. But it’s not going to happen the next
month. Not the next year. This is going to
take a very long time.”
Individual Interviews
Findings
• Education on all levels – school, family, community, government
– needed for prevention
• Positive role models needed
• Better socialization of men needed
• Reverse stigma - so men feel shame rather than women
• Workshops for men needed
Team Thoughts
• Some questions were repetitive and unclear, needed a lot of
prompting
• Too long!
• Definition of sexual violence too complicated
Final Thoughts by Team Three
• Babysitters needed!
• Organization Contact needs to be familiar with project
• Discussions were rich but important to monitor time to give equal
time for exercises
• Smaller groups of no more than 6 participants are ideal
• Participatory exercises worked to get beyond education,
awareness, and outreach!
• We felt empowered and the women felt empowered
“We have a lot to say!... We’re women!
Thank God!”
THANK YOU!
¡GRACIAS!
MERCI!
Sexual Violence And
Undocumented Immigrant Women in NYC:
A Participatory Action Research Project
INTERVENTION
Debi Fry, Sarah Cooper,
Danielle Jacobs & Jennifer Zanowiak
Community Report Back
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
with New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault
New York, NY
May 9, 2006
Intervention
Research Questions
What are the knowledge and attitudes
around services and interventions for
sexual violence?
•
Do immigrant women know about the services
that are available?
•
For those who do know about the services and
do not access them, why aren’t they?
Intervention Pilot
Saturday, April 29th
NYC West African Women’s Group
Group Demographics
• 8 Women
• Average Age: 29, Range: 26-34
• 6 African countries represented
• 6 French speaking, 2 English-only speaking
• Had lived 5-13 years in the United States
Focus Group:
Vignette Design
Vignette:
A simple, open-ended story that is relevant across cultures. Names and
location can be changed to make it culturally specific. Participants were
asked to discuss different questions about the story.
We based our vignette design on:
• Research showing that people are more comfortable speaking about
sensitive issues in the 3rd person
• Open-ended stories are useful for exploring people’s beliefs and
opinions, and for identifying problems or solutions
• The importance of stories as a means of expression and communication
in many cultures
• Knowledge from stakeholder interview and the literature review that
intimate partner SV was the most common form across cultures
Focus Group: Vignette
Kadiatou’s Story
• [Kadiatou] lives with her husband [Bakary] in [Harlem] with their two young
children.
•Neither have legal papers.
• [Kadiatou] does not work and her husband controls the money.
• When [Bakary] comes home drunk, he insults her and forces her to have sex
even though she doesn’t want to.
• [Kadiatou] has tried talking to him, and has put up with this situation for many
years. She doesn’t know what to do.
Focus Group:
Vignette Scenarios
a. Kadiatou decides to ask for help
help-seeking behavior
b. Kadiatou decides to do nothing
c. Kadiatou decides to leave Bakary
knowledge & attitudes
about services; service
availability/accessibility
d. She asks someone to talk to Bakary
intervention of others;
help for men
Findings: Knowledge about
available services
Where does Kadiatou go to ask for help?
• Other women
• Someone who had a similar experience
• Husband’s friend
• Mosque
• African community based organization
• Healthcare professional
• Social service organization
• Elder
We asked participants to name specific places in their community.
“You keep asking who. I don’t know exactly ‘who’.”
Where should Bakary go for help?
“Bakary? Help? I don’t know, to be honest.”
Findings: Help-seeking
Behaviors & Attitudes
Resistance to seeking out formal services (i.e. social workers and police).
“In the African community, in general, if the wife will complain, the relationship would
spoil.”
«Elle ne doit pas aller à la police parce qu’elle n’a pas de papiers et aussi ça serait
une trahison pour son mari et sa famille à cause de la mentalité africaine. »
Elders are an important mechanism for intervention, but often they are not here.
“If the wife goes and tells the friends [that Bakary drinks], he’s gonna be mad…”
«Si elle n’a pas de parents ici, elle doit prendre ses responsabilités.
Moral responsibility to maintain family.
“Sometimes it’s hard when you have kids and the husband like that…”
Whether she stays or she leaves, the woman deals with the repercussions.
« Si elle reste ça risque de la tuer. »
« Tu ne peux pas le quitter parce que c’est lui qui t’a ramenée au US et il n’y a pas de
solution parce qu’elle n’a pas de papiers. »
Debrief: Vignette
Realistic story and happens in their communities.
• “It happens daily. They don’t know what to do because they don’t have paper.
Because most of African women and men don’t have paper. They are illegal.”
Women felt empowered; developed ideas regarding how to help or get help if
they encountered a similar situation.
They liked participating in the exercise.
• “[Discussing is] good. We know each other’s ideas. We share ideas.”
• “I think it’s a good idea because in this country you don’t get the chance to talk
with people and express your opinions.”
Women appreciated the opportunity to discuss the interplay of ways of life in
their home countries and in the United States.
Picture Survey
Scope: Experience with SV:
as a child? as an adult?
by an intimate partner? at work?
Help-seeking behaviors & attitudes:
Did you tell / would you tell:
no one? a friend or relative?
a member of a religious organization?
the police? someone at a hospital/clinic?
someone at a hotline?
WHO found higher reported prevalence
when anonymous surveys were used in
combination with interviews
Designed as a low literacy tool
Findings: Picture Survey
Scope & Help-Seeking
Of the 41 women we surveyed:
• 28 (68%) experienced sexual violence at some time
• 11 (27%) experienced child sexual violence (< 15 yrs. old)
• 21 (51%) experienced sexual violence as adult (> 15 yrs. old)
• 21 (51%) experienced sexual violence by an intimate partner
• 11 (27%) experienced sexual violence while at a job
In reality and in a hypothetical situation, participants were:
1) less likely to tell someone about their experience
2) more likely to tell a friend or relative rather than seek
formal services
Debrief: Picture Survey
• Participants wanted to be able to mark “mother” as a person
they had told about their experience.
• In our focus groups, women knew each other and were
comfortable completing the survey. Although it was meant to
be anonymous, many of them did it together.
• Explanation of the directions required a significant amount of
time, particularly due to confusion regarding the instructions
if participants had not experienced a form of sexual violence.
(hypothetical question: Would you tell…)
Recommendations
• Vignette gathered useful information about participants’ help
seeking activities and attitudes of sexual violence for forms of
intimate partner sexual violence.
 Design vignettes for other forms of sexual violence and target
questions at raising awareness about services.
• Use focus group session as a tool for empowerment and encourage
women to think about intervention solutions in their communities.
• A common theme was discussion around different senses of
“community” in Africa vs. NYC. Consider the various kinds of
“communities” to which participants belong and let the women
define them.