{"id":40677,"date":"2018-12-10T10:58:05","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T15:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=40677"},"modified":"2018-12-10T11:08:55","modified_gmt":"2018-12-10T16:08:55","slug":"cjp-grad-supports-arab-american-families-in-new-york-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2018\/cjp-grad-supports-arab-american-families-in-new-york-city\/","title":{"rendered":"CJP grad supports Arab American families in New York City"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\" class=\"clearfix\">\n<div id=\"post-8886\" class=\"hentry p1 post publish author-jzl2872 category-magazine untagged y2018 m09 d06 h07\">\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<aside class=\"highlight highlight-right\">Read more alumni profiles in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/issues\/2018-19\/\" rel=\"tag\">2018-19 issue of <em>Peacebuilder<\/em><\/a>.<\/aside>\n<p>In spring\u2019s weak sunlight,\u00a0<strong>Danny Salim MA \u201811<\/strong>\u00a0enjoyed some fresh air on the busy Brooklyn street outside the <a href=\"https:\/\/aafscny.org\/\">Arab American Family Support Center<\/a> (AAFSC). In the windows above him hung large photo portraits of the city residents his organization serves. Service is a key theme in Salim\u2019s life.<\/p>\n<p>Before becoming a Fulbright Scholar at CJP, the Syrian native spent one year with the Vincentian Volunteers in Denver, Colorado, and a second year in Manchester, England, working in a variety of social services positions.<\/p>\n<p>His first introduction to New York City was during a CJP practicum with the United Nations Development Programme. After graduation, Salim returned to the city to work for Nonviolent Peaceforce, an organization that advocates for the protection of civilians in violent conflicts through unarmed\u00a0strategies.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_40679\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40679\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2018\/12\/cjp-grad-supports-arab-american-families-in-new-york-city\/20180406-danny-salim-21-1000px\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-40679\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-40679\" src=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/is\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/12\/20180406-Danny-Salim-21-1000px-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/12\/20180406-Danny-Salim-21-1000px-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/12\/20180406-Danny-Salim-21-1000px-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/12\/20180406-Danny-Salim-21-1000px.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-40679\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Danny Salim with some examples of youth art projects from AAFSC&#8217;s afterschool programs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Eventually, though, he wanted to delve into the root causes of violence at a community level \u2013 at a family level.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo understand conflict, we really need to understand family dynamics because it\u2019s all interconnected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<h3>Partnering with NYC mayor<\/h3>\n<p>AAFSC, present in each of the five boroughs of New York City, offers many social, educational and legal services to new immigrants and citizens. In his role as director of the anti-violence program, Salim supervises a dedicated team of multilingual staff that works with victims of intimate partner violence, sex trafficking and sexual assault. He spends part of his time among the New York City Family Justice centers, which are operated by the Mayor\u2019s Office to Combat Domestic Violence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur partnership with the mayor\u2019s office is to offer culturally competent, trauma-informed services to victims of all backgrounds, because we understand the challenges of the community and have the resources to be cultural brokers between the community and mainstream service providers,\u201d Salim says.<\/p>\n<p>Founded in 1994, AAFSC is the first Arabic-speaking social services organization in New York. With 13 languages spoken among nearly 60 staff, it serves the Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian communities, collectively described with the acronym AMEMSA. Though culturally and linguistically diverse, these communities have been subjected to similar oppressions and prejudice in the United States.<\/p>\n<h3>Circles help parents learn, process<\/h3>\n<p>Salim started in the organization working on child protection issues, a space in which his conflict transformation training was helpful. One experience that \u201csticks in my head,\u201d he said, was when he facilitated a parenting workshop with three men and three women using the circle process as its structure.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_40680\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40680\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2018\/12\/cjp-grad-supports-arab-american-families-in-new-york-city\/20180406-danny-salim-10-1000px\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-40680\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-40680\" src=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/is\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/12\/20180406-Danny-Salim-10-1000px-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/12\/20180406-Danny-Salim-10-1000px-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/12\/20180406-Danny-Salim-10-1000px.jpg 667w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-40680\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Formerly working in child protection issues, Danny Salim now directs the anti-violence program at\u00a0 AAFSC.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThis had not been done before, and after the first two sessions, I thought \u2018What am I doing? Is this the right decision?\u2019 It took two or three sessions before the participants began to open up, but everyone attended every session. And in the end, one person said, \u2018I wish this was filmed or recorded because it could be a lesson to others.\u2019 In the end, they wanted more,\u201d he said. \u201cThey valued the experience to hear different perspectives and challenges the other person was going through and why that led them to where they were.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That position also allowed him to follow the families of the participants, and see, first-hand, how their dynamics improved.<\/p>\n<p>He repeatedly characterized his current work as \u201crewarding but challenging,\u201d with its transformative impact less visible. Salim educates victims about their rights and options, empowering them to make their own choices, and offering support.<\/p>\n<p>He deals with complex dynamics of gender, culture, language, power, relationship. Abuse, he said, comes from power differentials, \u201cwhen one person has power over another.\u201d Conflict is a power struggle. Thus transformation and resolution is more challenging in an abusive situation, \u201cbecause intimate partner violence is abuse, not conflict, and the abuser has to first acknowledge the wrong, which is challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet, he said, \u201cmy background in conflict transformation is still with me. It doesn\u2019t go away. Change happens over time but change can happen. It takes transformation and time. Justice can be challenging, because it takes time and effort. And justice can happen, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In spring\u2019s weak sunlight,\u00a0Danny Salim MA \u201811\u00a0enjoyed some fresh air on the busy Brooklyn street outside the Arab American Family Support Center (AAFSC). In the windows above him hung large <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2018\/cjp-grad-supports-arab-american-families-in-new-york-city\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"more-link\">... read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about CJP grad supports Arab American families in New York City<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,12503,17562,14145],"tags":[],"feature":[17427,17424,17426,17241],"class_list":["post-40677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-cjp","category-digest","category-peacebuilding-and-development","feature-emu-home-page-feature","feature-featured-graduate","feature-myemu-feature","feature-news-feature"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>CJP grad supports Arab American families in New York City - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2018\/cjp-grad-supports-arab-american-families-in-new-york-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CJP grad supports Arab American families in New York City - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In spring\u2019s weak sunlight,\u00a0Danny Salim MA \u201811\u00a0enjoyed some fresh air on the busy Brooklyn street outside the Arab American Family Support Center (AAFSC). 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