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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Naima Dahir, Budget Advocacy Manager at Arab American Family Support Center
2:34:37
·
3 min
Naima Dahir from the Arab American Family Support Center urgently requests support from the NYC City Council to continue serving vulnerable New Yorkers in the face of anticipated federal funding cuts. The organization faces a potential shortfall of $1.1 million, which threatens their domestic violence and mental health services.
- AAFSC has seen an 80% increase in mental health referrals and a 20% increase in legal service requests since the inauguration date.
- They request increased funding for their anti-violence program, SNAP enrollment program, mental health initiative, and immigrant support initiative to offset potential federal cuts.
- Recent federal actions have led to fear and uncertainty in the communities they serve, with families opting out of benefits like food stamps due to enforcement concerns.
Naima Dahir
2:34:37
Good afternoon council members.
2:34:39
My name is Naima Tahir, and I'm here on behalf of the Arab American Family Support Center.
2:34:44
The Arab American Family Support Center provides trauma informed, culturally competent services to over 20,000 individuals annually from Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, South Asian, and other immigrant communities across New York City.
2:34:58
Today, I am here with an urgent request.
2:35:00
Community based organizations like AAFSC need your immediate support to continue serving some of our most vulnerable New Yorkers.
2:35:09
Due to anticipated federal funding cuts, including reduction to the Office of Violence Against Women, we are facing a potential shortfall of 1,100,000.0.
2:35:18
This directly threatens our domestic violence case management and our mental health services, programs that are lifesaving.
2:35:27
If this funding disappears, we may have to forelow 14 staff members and reduce support for over 4,000 survivors of domestic and gender based violence.
2:35:36
At the same time, need is rising dramatically.
2:35:40
Since inauguration date, we've seen an 80% increase in mental health referrals and a 20% increase in legal service requests.
2:35:49
Our clients are terrified.
2:35:51
Our students are afraid to leave shelters.
2:35:54
Families are opting out of benefits like food stamps due to fear of enforcement.
2:35:58
Recent federal actions revoking temporary protection status, fast tracking deportations, and mandating surveillance of undocumented individuals or deliberately targeting our communities.
2:36:10
In response, we've expanded our services, strengthened safety protocol, and trained our staff for potential ICE encounters.
2:36:18
But we are operating without financial safety net.
2:36:21
This work is urgent and underfunded.
2:36:24
As members of New York City City Council, we are you are uniquely positioned to protect community based organizations like the Arab American Family Support Center and the communities we serve.
2:36:36
We urgently need the city's support to sustain our critical programming, especially our high risk services such as our domestic violence case management and our mental health support, which are essential to meet the growing need of our immigrant communities and our communities of color.
2:36:51
In addition to our full slate of f y 20 20 six funding requests, we want to underscore the urgent need to increase funding for programs that are at risk due to anticipated federal funding cuts, which like I mentioned are our anti violence program and our SNAP enrollment program.
2:37:08
To this end, we respectfully request an increase to 400,000 for our anti violence program through Dove funding, an increase to to a hundred and 50,000 for our SNAP enrollment program to offset any anticipated federal funding cuts and reductions we may see, and a renewal of a 50 for our mental health initiative, and our first time investment of 885,000 for our immigrant support initiative.
2:37:36
Now is the time for bold action.
2:37:38
Our community members are scared, our resources are spread thin, and the challenges ahead are immense.
2:37:44
Thank you so much for your partnership and allowing me to testify today.
2:37:48
Thank you.
Lincoln Restler
2:37:49
Thank you.