Sikh Family Center

Sikh Family Center (SFC) is a national nonprofit in the United States that promotes community well-being with a focus on gender justice. It gives trauma-centred support to survivors of violence and works to change the social and cultural conditions that allow gendered violence to happen. It says it has served hundreds of Punjabi Sikh survivors since 2009.

How it began: By its own account SFC first launched in 2009, with Mallika Kaur as co-founder, and was founded in response to the rise in anti-Sikh racism after 11 September 2001, when gender-based violence was pushed further into the shadows. It ran entirely on volunteers until 2017, when it began adding paid staff. Mallika Kaur is its Executive Director. It calls itself the only professional organisation in the US focused on gender-based violence in the Sikh American community, and says it is not a religious organisation in the Western sense and does not discriminate by religiosity or faith in its services.

What it does:

• A national non-emergency Punjabi-English helpline, 866-SFC-SEWA (866-732-7392), for people facing threats to their health, safety or security.
• Prevention education: bilingual, community-centred resources and programmes, including a Punjabi Sikh Women Power and Control Wheel and a guide to 20 signs of fiance abuse in English and Punjabi.
• Training and technical assistance for organisations working where faith, gendered violence and community-based solutions meet.
• Surveys of the community: its resources page refers to a mental wellness survey conducted between 2017 and 2019.

Where it stands: SFC is active and staffed, with an Executive Director and directors for intervention programmes and for culture and operations, a board of trustees and an advisory board.