domestic violence and social work

Domestic Violence and Social Work:


No one wants to talk about “Domestic Violence,” even those working in the field and deal with it everyday. They would rather use an array of words to describe “problems in the family,” where physical, verbal and emotional abuses may have happened. Privacy issues always arise and everyone wants to shove that problem under the rug somehow, even those brave social workers dealing with this on daily basis. To talk about this issue, the Arab American Family Support Center is the right place when it comes into this type of discourses and problems regarding this issue among the Arab Americans in the New York area. But, discussing it would bring talk about social work in general and in the Arab American community in particular.

According to Census 2000 there are 120,370 Arab- Americans in New York and there are lots more that did not count if we take into consideration the trust people have in government agnecies, but how many social service agencies in the city service them and speak their language? The answer is well known: Not too many and the Arab American Family Support Center is probably the only one with active cases dealing with “Domestic Violence,” in the Arab-American community, and where some social workers would be able to speak and communicate in Arabic. The Center, located on Court Street in Brooklyn, provides lots of needed services to a community that needs help. It was established in 1994 and has been providing help, referral and intervention ever since.

Yasmeen Hamza, the program manager of Social services at the AAFSC described the mechanics of work at this much needed social service agency. She said that their mission is to “Strengthen the family as a crisis intervention” agency. She said that the AAFSC deals with around 60 to 65 cases distributed to 5 caseworkers. She also said that among the center’s caseworkers the languages spoken are Arabic, English, French, Bengali, Urdu and Hindi. French is needed to deal with people from North Africa. She also said that the center was asked to take the non-Arabic cases like the Urdu, Bengali, and Hindi. She also said that although the Center is located in Brooklyn, the shortage with language made them take cases from the five boroughs of New York City something that is stretching their already thin resources.

The cases come to the center from different sources; hospitals, schools, other social work agencies, Agency of Children Services (ACS) and walk in. For walk ins, an assessment interview is conducted to determine if that particular case is to be taken or not. ACS is the main backer of AAFCS and refers to it many of its cases and provides supervision also. Most of the cases starts with the children, and from gathering more information about the family an array of problems arise and “domestic violence” pops out. Yasmin Hamza speaks of housing, immigration, welfare, schools and domestic violence as some of those need immediate attention in most of the cases. She speaks of the burden her case workers are dealing with when working with ten or more cases on daily basis. She also said that they deal with this shortcoming by helping each other and she spoke about “team effort.” Each case stays open for 12 to 18 months depending on the problems in that particular case. “It is more about who have the skill,” Yasmin Hamza puts it in her own words.

Caseworkers from the Arab American Family Support Center pay visits to families or regular bases depending on the specific need of the case. There should be at least 2 to 3 visits and at least one home visit per month. Families are asked to visit their caseworkers at the Center and to participate in the events the Center always organizing. Coping with living in the United Stated and with the language barrier are always some of the main problems facing the parents in most of the cases. Language is one major problem and one of the city’s shortcomings when it comes into services into the Arab-American community. That shows in the non-existance of many services in Arabic around the city.

Yasmin Hamza stressed that it is the risk for the children is the main focus of their work. She said that by doing this the Center is helping the family be stronger by dealing with many problems stemming from their ability to survive in the city. The Center concentrates on the children and it shows from any visit from the bustling commotion in the activity rooms. There is a long-list of activities and events the Center help put together and create. The Center provides after school programs for ages 8-12, Saturday program that includes trips and activities, teen program for ages 13-18, Saturday prep classes ages 15-18 and Arabic language classes to all ages.

The Center also provides women with support groups and help them with information about parenting and work related advices. Also, the Center helps with the healthcare system and organizes some workshops and seminars dealing with the issue. Some legal help is also available at some points in the Center dealing with immigration and other issues. Among all of this help “domestic violence” still pops out.

Domestic violence is not the main work of the AAFSC, but it is for sure a problem they face and a problem that need to be dealt with since that it will keep on showing up with the type of work the Center deals with. Yasmin Hamza spoke of the things needed regarding domestic violence while stressing on the issue of the privacy of the issue. Privacy and confidentiality are the basis of the work of the Arab American Family Support Center, according to Yasmin Hamza. She said that they at the Center never like to discuss this with anyone taking into consideration the sensitivity of the issue. But still, she complained about the lack of services in domestic violence matters in Arabic like Anger management classes for men and batterer groups for men also.

One of the most interesting finds is that it is mostly women who deal with all of this huge work at the center. Yasmin Hamza stresses that the gender of the caseworkers does not matter and what matters the most is the training, experience and will. She spoke about the on going training that her case workers attain while working at the center since that some of them are not graduates with major in social work. There are some agencies around the city that provides training as well. It is a well-known fact that social workers do not earn lots of money and that is one of the reasons of its unpopularity in this material world especially among men.

The women of the Arab American Family Support Center are in the trenches in the fight for the help for the Arab American community, and that community should take notice of that and provide as much help as possible. They are leading in the advocacy field for the community that would rather “deal” with issues “internally,” as many think. There are no comprehensive statistics for “domestic violence” in the Arab American community in the greater New York region, nor it is a problem within that community alone. But, the cases of abuse are their and well documented and to deal with them in the right way the community should follow the lead of organizations like the Arab Family Support Center that through its limited means still manage to help many families and advocate for many others too while also trying to reach out through their pamphlets and flyers in Arabic. The community should also encourage their sons and daughters into venturing into the world of social work because without the human resources their will be no real solution for these issues.


Written by ......المشاكس
3- 24-08