A Family Violence Intervention Program for Immigrant and Refugee Men

In 1999, after years of work in the domestic violence field, we began to work with men when the women from our communities told us that in order for their lives to be free of fear, it is the men who need to change.  Hearing the voices of our women, we organized a training on transformative anti-violence work with men and invited men, whom we knew to be our allies, to participate.  Six of the refugee and immigrant men who participated in this training continued to work on anti-violence issues after the training and developed the Tapestri Men's Program. This program is based on the philosophy and curricula developed by CECEVIM in California and Caminar Latino. Since its inception the Men's Program has worked with immigrant and refugee men from over 18 countries.

The fundamental belief of our Men's Program is that the violence of men is not individual pathology amenable to counseling but rather a social malaise where men learned through modeling, at home and in society, that the use of violence against women is an acceptable way of resolving their differences.  We believe that true transformative and re-education work takes place not by experts imparting information top-down, but through a process where men themselves critically explore, in an atmosphere of mutual respect and horizontal relationships, the antecedents, dynamics and effects of their violent behaviors, values, and expectations.

Governing principles of our program:

• Women's safety is a priority.

• Tapestri’s women advocates provide leadership, mentoring and supervision for facilitators of the Men's Program.

• Tapestri’s women advocates maintain regular contact with partners of men attending Tapestri Men's Program, build trusting relationships with them, and provide them with information and support.

• Mutual Respect

• We do not work one-on-one with men.

• We do not provide anger management, because we believe that men's violence against women is not about an angry man who is out of control, but a man who chooses to be violent to control his partner.

Who can join this group?

• The group is open to refugee, immigrant and American men.

• Both court mandated men and men that chose to voluntarily work on their violence may join the group.

• Only men who agree to participate in the entire 24-weeks program are admitted to the group.

• Group fees are based on a sliding scale schedule.

• The group meets every Saturday morning.

For more information, call 678.698.3612.