CAAAV

Founded in 1986, CAAAV (Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence) is an organization of Asian community to build grassroots community power across diverse poor and working class Asian immigrant and refugee communities in New York City. The organization works for all Asian communities including Bangladeshi community living in New York. Information and reading materials are translated and distributed in Chinese, Bangla, Hindi, Urdu and other language for maximum outreach to immigrant communty.  CAAAV organizes and works to build grassroots community power across diverse poor and working class Asian immigrant and refugee communities in New York City to fight for institutional change and participates in a broader movement towards racial, gender, and economic justice.

CAAAV’s community organizing model is based on 5 pillars:

1. Basebuilding
   CAAAV utilizes street outreach, door knocking, and regular new member meetings to build the base of community members involved in its campaigns. Basebuilding activities are tailored to the specific communities and campaigns are working on.
2. Leadership Development
   CAAAV is led by its membership–Asian immigrants and refugees. Therefore, a central component of our approach is developing members to make leadership decisions, influence key stakeholders, and ally themselves with coalition partners.
3. Direct Action Campaigns
   All of CAAAV’s campaigns include a direct action component, bringing community members to the street to make their voices hear against a specific target (e.g. a city agency, politician, corporations, etc.)
4. Alliance Building
   All of CAAAV’s major campaigns take place within the context of a broader network of organizations working in support of the issue. Alliance work may include groups that bring different strengths and abilities to the table (e.g. organizing vs. research vs. community planning vs. design & marketing) or groups that represent different community-based constituencies working to influence policy regionally and/or nationally.
5. Organizational Development
   From fundraising, coordinating volunteers, to database management, this is often the most invisible part of organizing work, yet crucial for successful organizing.