Recognizing the rapid growth of the South Asian American community in Southern California and the inability of other organizations to address its issues meaningfully, community activists founded SAN in 1990. Through 25 years of outreach, education, service provision, and advocacy, SAN has established trust and credibility within the South Asian American community. The organization has successfully
addressed the very issues that typically divide South Asian immigrants - religion, nationality, language, gender and sexual orientation - recasting them as necessary elements of a progressive South Asian American community and a multi-ethnic Southern California. The AWAZ Voices Against Violence unit is committed to the health, safety and empowerment of survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. The Community Health Action Initiative (CHAI) works to ensure access to quality health care services. The Civil Rights Unit focuses on advocacy on issues related to citizenship and civic engagement. Together with the community, the SAN board and staff have created multilingual, culturally appropriate approaches to community outreach and education, direct service and policy advocacy in the focus areas of public health, violence prevention and intervention, immigration and civic engagement. Over the past decade, several thousand South Asian Americans in Southern California have participated in one or more of SAN’s diverse activities. SAN receives in-kind support from a network of about 50+ volunteers across its programmatic units in the form of pro-bono attorneys, law clerks and MSW interns.
