To help put an end to the proliferation of anti-Asian hate and harassment, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles (Advancing Justice-LA) is offering free virtual bystander intervention trainings in the native Filipino language.
Starting last fall, Advancing Justice-LA began offering trainings in Tagalog as well as other Asian languages. Jeanette Sayno, Advancing Justice-LA community legal advocate, said these workshops are aimed at empowering everyone to build a world that is free of all types of harassment.
“Our work focuses on turning the care we have for each other into simple, creative and effective action, and we really would like to reach Tagalog speakers and other Asian language speakers with these resources,” Sayno said, noting that training participants will be able to learn to intervene effectively as a bystander without compromising their safety. The 1-hour training covers the core concepts of the 5Ds (Distract, Delegate, Document, Delay, Direct), providing concrete tools for those who choose to intervene when they witness someone else being targeted by harassment.
Advancing Justice-LA welcomes everyone to join their next free Tagalog training, which is scheduled to take place via Zoom on Thursday, April 21 at 6 p.m., Pacific time. To sign up, please visit https://aaajla.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5zVC7soWRhu4K3j-q2Oybg or call their Tagalog helpline at 855.300.2552.
By spending just one hour on this training, participants will join the legions of people who have been trained since April 2020. Since the Advancing Justice affiliates in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., in collaboration with nonprofit partner Right to Be (formerly known as Hollaback!) launched their first training, they have trained over 150,000 people. Of all people who reported witnessing harassment after completing the training, 75% reported intervening, a best practice in reducing trauma and de-escalating violence.
Indeed, the bystander intervention training program itself was launched in direct response to the sharp increase in anti-Asian hate crimes and hate incidents since the pandemic began. The Advancing Justice national affiliation has been documenting these hate crimes and hate incidents since 2017 at www.standagainsthatred.org. Thousands of incidences have been logged there since early 2020, but the organization is certain that many more that go unreported. Some of the highest numbers of hate incidents happen in California. During the start of the pandemic in 2020, hate crimes against Asians jumped 107% in the Golden State.
This bystander intervention training program is needed as Advancing Justice-LA continues to regularly receive calls on their Asian language hotlines and online reports, relating to hate incidents and harassment.
According to Christina Yang, General Counsel and Pro Bono Director at Advancing Justice – LA, “It is essential for us to train directly in Asian languages and make bystander intervention trainings more accessible to broader audiences, especially those who are still under attack and scapegoated for the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Sayno said the organization also encourages training participants to tell at least 10 of their friends and/or families about the training program – whether English, Tagalog, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, or Korean. More free training sessions are posted at https://advancingjustice-la.org/bystander-intervention-trainings.
Advancing Justice-LA is one of California’s largest legal and civil rights organization for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI). Founded in 1983 as the Asian Pacific Legal Center, Advancing Justice-LA serves more than 15,000 every year. Through direct services, impact litigation, policy advocacy, and more, Advancing Justice-LA focuses on the most vulnerable members of AAPI communities. Advancing Justice-LA is based in downtown Los Angeles, and also has staff located in Anaheim and Sacramento.
Right to Be, meanwhile, is a non-profit global organization formed to raise awareness about and combat to harassment, both online and in-person, through intervention trainings and grassroots initiatives.
Advancing Justice-LA will offer these bystander intervention trainings as long as there is a need for them in the community, and as long as funding is available to continue the program. The trainings are free to the public, but donations are also welcomed in support of this program and to further expand awareness within Filipino and other AAPI communities. To donate, go to https://donate.advancingjustice-la.org/give/345175/#!/donation/checkout Any questions may be directed to Christina Yang at [email protected]. (Donnabelle Gatdula Arevalo/AJPress)
