Over 483,700 people live in the East County region of San Diego. The landscape spans approximately 1,830 square miles and contains urban, suburban, and rural areas. This mixed geography of mountains, desert, cities, and tribal land often presents challenges for service providers. Data collected from the 2000 Census describes the following profile for East County:
- Socio-economic status: In suburban and rural areas combined, 18% of households had an income of less than $20,000.
- Diversity: While the majority population in East County is white (78%), the projected population of non-white residents is expected to reach 45% in the year 2020. Females and males are equally divided in the population.
- Housing: Approximately 31% of housing types consists of multiple family units, and the majority of these units include children under the age of 18.
- Language: More than 19% of East County residents do not speak English at home, with the most common language being Spanish.
- Single Parent Families: Almost one quarter of households (22%), with children under age 18, are headed by single females.
- Educational Achievement: In East County, 10% of the population over age 25 has not graduated from high school, and almost 5% have had lower than 9th grade instruction.
Data from a multitude of sources demonstrates a significant problem with crime in East County.
- Violent Crime: In the city of El Cajon, the number of violent crimes rose in 2007 to 496 reported incidents (Arjis).
- Domestic Violence: In 2007, East County had the third highest rate of domestic violence in the county, and the city of El Cajon had over 1,000 incidents over a two-year period (DVFRT Report, 2008).
- Juvenile Crime: In 2006, East County had a higher rate per thousand (19.1) of juveniles on probation than the overall county rate of 1.4, and the rate of adolescent arrests was over 25 per one thousand population (County Report Card, 2007).
- Child Abuse: East County had the second highest rate of substantiated referral of child abuse and neglect in 2006 (County Report Card, 2007).
Problem:
The main problem we are trying to address is a lack of understanding between immigrant women dealing with domestic violence and their faith communities. Different ideas of the roles of family and religion, and the conceptualization of a united family as healthy can often prevent faith leaders and the members of religious communities from effectively working with people and organizations addressing issues of domestic violence. Specifically within Middle Eastern immigrant and refugee communities, cultural and religious challenges can force a woman to return to the cycle of violence, and fear asking for assistance, calling the police, or leaving her abusive situation. When her choice and freedom are removed and she is unable to escape an abusive or unhealthy situation, a woman is likely to suffer psychological (as well as physical) problems, and her family and society in general are harmed in turn.
Solution:
Through the Pursuing Justice and Happiness through Faith project, we hope to address this issue, and establish a lasting and collaborative relationship between the faith leaders and DV prevention organizations in East County, San Diego. The first step in this process is to build trust between our organization and the faith leaders, by inviting them to round-table meetings to discuss possible interactions between faith and domestic violence prevention. The idea is not for anyone to lecture the other on what they are doing wrong, but instead to build a bridge between the two approaches, listen to each others ideas and concerns, and work toward solutions. This project is roughly scheduled to be a twelve-month project, running from June 2009 to June 2010. In the first three months, we will focus on educating the faith leaders about the issues of domestic violence, including human effectiveness and active communication, the American justice system, and self-care. During the next six months, we will conduct monthly meetings in which we will invite people from the community to discuss issues related to domestic violence with the faith leaders. In this way, we will provide an open space where these issues can be addressed while respecting the culture and religion of the community. In the final three months, we will focus on evaluation and asking opinions on the impact of the program from faith leaders, people within our organization, and the wider community. At first, in the meetings between the faith leaders and the members of the community, there will likely be fear and distrust, because it is an unfamiliar collaboration and topic of discussion with faith leaders. However, as that kind of direct and open connection is established, it is our hope that people will become more comfortable sharing their ideas and concerns, and a greater understanding will develop.
The program will be implemented by the staff of License to Freedom, including Dilkhwaz Ahmed and volunteers, along with the faith leaders, such as the Imams, within the community. It will take place in the License to Freedom office and community space. While the most direct influence of the program will likely be on the members of the Muslim and Middle Eastern or Arab and Kurdish-speaking members of the area, the idea is for the spirit of collaboration and cooperation to spread to the wider East County and San Diego communities. Through this program, we seek to foster healthy families by providing education: the key to domestic violence prevention is ongoing education to the families, faith leaders, schools nonprofits, and all members of the community. This contributes to both the physical and mental health of the women and other community members. By building trust, we will help the faith leaders to make institutional change, which can be transferred to other faith communities and in the future, result in changes in policy to enhance womens rights. Additional potential community advocates for this project include: other domestic violence/dv prevention and refugee service organizations, other faith leaders/mosques around San Diego, the police, courts and other legal systems, universities and colleges, and other social service organizations and institutions.
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