OUR MISSION
KAN-WIN works to eradicate gender-based violence through comprehensive, survivor-centered services, education, and outreach to Asian American communities and beyond.
KAN-WIN’s vision is of healthy and safe communities free of violence and oppression.
As Asian immigrant women, we have heard many stories from our fellow sisters who have been subject to physical, emotional, and sexual violence with no place to go for safety and support. These painful stories cannot be ignored because these women could be our mothers, sisters, friends, daughters, and even ourselves.
In the late 1980s women's advocates and social service providers came together in response to the growing demand for domestic violence services in the Korean American community. Out of these discussions came the formation of KAN-WIN. KAN-WIN was officially founded on August 15, 1990 on the 45th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule. This historical date signifies KAN-WIN’s vision of a world free from oppression and violence.
Over the next three decades, we have grown to become one of the premier agencies in the U.S. with the expertise in serving Asian American & immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. Through a set of intensive wrap-around services, including a multilingual 24-hour hotline, legal advocacy, transitional housing program, etc., we help address complex and unique barriers that many immigrant survivors face as they seek to escape from abuse. All of our services are free and confidential, and we strive to provide them in the survivor’s own language.
Previously, KAN-WIN went by the name of “Korean American Women In Need.” In 2013, we decided to go solely by “KAN-WIN” because our clientele became much more diverse since it opened its doors. With the name change, we want to show our commitment to meeting the great diversity of cultural and linguistic needs in the greater Chicagoland area.
There is a folk wisdom from Asia that says: Happiness increases as we share it with others; pain decreases as we share it with others. We at KAN-WIN want to be sisters and a listening ear to share the pain and walk with survivors of violence through their journey toward freedom and healing.
OUR VALUES
-
Promote agency of survivors: We believe that each survivor can achieve and sustain independence. We look to survivors to decide their own journey to reach their goals.
Center the survivors: We place the rights, needs and safety of survivors at the center of focus of service delivery.
-
Use intersectional and holistic approaches: Oppression in all forms in inextricably linked, and therefore requires us to attend to all aspects of people’s identities and struggles. We help survivors overcome systemic barriers by providing culturally and linguistically specific services to our communities.
-
We value each person and will treat them with respect and dignity. We facilitate safe and brave spaces to enable people to be honest, to own intentions and impacts during dialogue, and express a variety of different and sometimes challenging opinions, all towards centering survivors’ needs and wishes.
-
Share Accountability: Holding ourselves accountable for our actions is vital to our vision of healthy and safe communities free of violence and oppression. Any and all of us can engage in harmful acts, either intentionally or unintentionally. We must learn to admit the impact of our acts, seek to address them, and change behaviors so as not to repeat.
Practice Cultural Humility: While we strive to be culturally aware and sensitive advocates for the survivors from diverse backgrounds, we know that we cannot learn every language and understand every custom and experience. That is why we embrace cultural humility, an ongoing process of self-exploration and self-critique while adapting the willingness and ability to learn from others. We take on a learning mindset, learning from survivors and from each other.
-
Seek community-based solutions: We believe in the strengths and gifts of our communities to find our own solutions that can best address our needs.
Work with communities: We build communities through meaningful partnerships founded on trust and solidarity.
-
We believe that this work requires continually growing and sustaining resilience, hope, passion and commitment to end gender-based violence. Thus we strive to create space, time and resources to heal and rejuvenate through intentional self-care and community-care practices.