Working with an Advisory Committee of South Asian serving organizations, IWIN is developing a toolkit to establish minimum sectoral standards in the virtual delivery of GBV prevention services.​

 

The toolkit analyzes the virtual models adopted by organizations that serve South Asians and offer GBV prevention programs during the pandemic and how they would continue beyond the pandemic. The analysis is carried out through a community research model, which engages service users, service providers and community leaders. The goal is to understand the success, challenges and lessons learned from the virtual service delivery models to develop foundational standards in GBV programming for South Asian serving organizations.​

 

The work aims to ensure that no harm is done to those seeking GBV services. In addition, many small organizations that don't have full-time IT staff or are working with minimum resources would benefit from this work. Still, all other organizations can also learn from each other's experiences and work towards implementing more uniform foundational standards.​The toolkit can be used independently by service providers.

 

IWIN also plans to develop separate workshops for service providers and service users on how to use the toolkit.​The toolkit will standardize the sector-wide approaches for virtual service delivery among the organizations that offer services to South Asian survivors of gender-based violence. What makes this toolkit unique is the technical component of digital safety, which equips not only the service providers but also the service users to practice safety in their digital communications, especially when they are living in unsafe environments or planning on leaving their abuser.​

 

We will offer capacity-building opportunities for service providers and users to offer and receive gender-based violence prevention services virtually.