About Us

CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities (also known as Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence) was founded by Asian women in 1986 as one of the first organizations in the United States to mobilize Asian communities to counter anti-Asian violence. CAAAV focuses on institutional violence that affects immigrant, poor and working-class communities such as worker exploitation, concentrated urban poverty, police brutality, Immigration Naturalization Service detention and deportation, and criminalization of youth and workers.

By organizing across diverse, low-wage, and poor Asian communities in New York City, CAAAV exposes and struggles against violence with the goal of building community capacity to exercise self-determination. Building coalitions enables CAAAV to contribute to a unified strategy for a broader, multi-racial and multi-issue movement for social change. CAAAV is a volunteer-driven organization led by members of low-income Asian immigrant communities.

CAAAV's programs include the Chinatown Justice Project, uniting low-income residents of Manhattan's Chinatown for decent and affordable housing, and fighting displacement caused by gentrification; the Women Workers Project, organizing Asian women workers in the informal service economy, particularly domestic workers who face long hours, low wages, no job security or health benefits; and the Southeast Asian Youth Leadership Project in the Bronx, which organizes around welfare, public education and INS detention issues.