SAPNA NYC

Thank you for an incredible night of #community & radical #joy! If you weren't able to make it, it's not too late to support our community through a donation (https://lnkd.in/gzNivNTh). All proceeds go directly towards our Mukti [freedom] and Ananda [joy] initiatives. Swipe ➡️ for more info on what your support makes possible. We are so grateful to everyone who made the evening possible - 🌟 @songsbyanika for doing double duty as an incredible host and singer 🌟 @spondonbafa, @ayanaartsny, & @itiseyeris for sharing their time and talent 🌟 @chefsurbhi & @tagmonyc for the incredible food 🌟 All the volunteers for lending their hands 🌟 Our sponsors who allow every dollar raised to go straight to our community 🌟 The companies who donated to make our auction possible 🌟 Last but not least, all of you for supporting Sapna as we grow! Stay tuned for more photos! #festivalofdreams #radicaljoy #bengali #dream #immigrants #strongertogether #supportwomen #sapnanyc

Our SAPNA NYC team was proud to walk with KAFSC (Korean American Family Service Center) at their 27th Annual Silent March to help bring awareness to the issue of gender-based violence & to honor survivors. Our executive director, Diya Basu-Sen, spoke at the press conference alongside elected officials like Linda Lee & Steven Raga and community leaders like Asian American Federation and Sakhi for South Asian Survivors Diya shared how we came to this work as well as the different types of support our survivors need. In her words, “Sapna NYC is newer to the gender-based violence space. And we entered it not because of some strategic plan but because survivor after survivor came to us for help and it was imperative that we figure out a way to meet the need we were seeing on the ground. During the pandemic there was a time when Almost every week a survivor would come to us needing support. Sometimes this is providing mental health support in Bangla. Other times it’s helping with an application. and other times it’s as simple as giving the child of a survivor a teddy bear.” She ended with a reminder that all of us have a responsibility to speak out and that is imperative, especially now, that “none of us remain silent when we see misogyny, hate, or gender-based violence in any form.” #dvam #silentmarch #gbv

Only 2 days away! Join us this Thursday October 10th at 7PM for SAPNA NYC’s Festival of Dreams ✨ to celebrate the incredible immigrant women in our community. For tickets go to link in bio or visit bit.ly/SapnaFOD2024 We have an incredible lineup of performers and a special menu curated by Chef Surbhi Sahni of Tagmo. Come celebrate South Asian culture, learn more about Sapna NYC’s work, & support women’s dreams! #sapnanyc #festivalofdreams

Two weeks away! Join SAPNA NYC for the Festival of Dreams ✨ celebrating the incredible women in our community, with food by @chefsurbhi and performances by @songsbyanika, @spondonbafa, & @ayanaartsny. Visit bit.ly/sapnaFoD2024 for tickets and more information. All proceeds go towards our Mukti and Ananda initiatives bringing linguistically accessible mental health counseling, women's support circles, domestic violence survivor support, & community events. Help us bring #joy to our #community! #mentalhealth #genderbasedviolence

And it’s a wrap! This summer we were excited to continue to build @sapnanyc’s youth programming through the GenConnect program in collaboration with the NYC DOE Department of Multilingual Learners. Over 8 sessions, parents and their children talked about everything from cultivating #community to redlining to celebrating our #culture & #language. We had 76 participants - 38 #Bengali parent-child duos - over two groups. What we heard from almost all the families is how nice it was to have a space to connect with their kids outside of all the pressures of everyday life. For parents it can be challenging to raise children in a culture that is so different from their own and for children it can be a struggle to balance fitting in with embracing the richness of your heritage. Through GenConnect we hope to have begun bridging that gap!

Exited to start off our summer yoga & wellness classes with a session in Central Park under the gorgeous summer sun ☀️ much gratitude to @hotchailady for sharing her practice with SAPNA NYC’s community of women 🙏🏽 #healthiswealth #mentalhealth

Congratulations to our summer 2024 Project DOT graduates! We’re grateful to our #youth for spending their summer with SAPNA NYC sharing their experiences and thoughts, embracing new ideas, & learning how they have the power to shift our culture forward. We talked about everything from healthy boundaries to gender norms/expectations to bridging cultures. The youth truly are our future! Thank you to @nycalliance for partnering to bring this program to our community 🙏🏽 #futureleaders

It was a beautiful day to be out fighting for #budgetequity with our 18% & Growing coalition partners Mekong NYC & National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) led by CACF: Coalition for Asian American Children and Families ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽 The Bronx is home to vibrant & rapidly growing AAPI communities from Bangladesh to Cambodia to the Philippines. We are here, we’re growing, & our communities deserve the investments needed to truly thrive. The 18% and Growing Campaign is calling for: 🔹 $7.5 Million for the AAPI Community Support Initiative (AAPI CSI) 🔸 $7.5 Million for the Communities of Color Nonprofit Stabilization Fund 🔹 $4 Million for the Access Health NYC Initiative In a NYC budget of over $100 billion, this isn’t a lot to ask for when almost 1 in every 5 New Yorkers is AANHPI. #bronx #aapi #community #sapnanyc

Our second group of level 1 students completed their course this week 🙂 These women worked so hard to learn the new material - balancing home, family, work, etc. but still making it to class each week! It’s challenging to learn something completely new as an adult and we’re so proud of these women for putting in the work. One woman took the final exam while literally holding her baby in one arm. We celebrated all their success today over biryani, kebabs, misthi, chai and so many more delicious treats ♥️ 🔸85% of the class only missed one session 🔸100% of women who came to class the first day actually finished the course 🔹 50% of the women enrolled had never ever used a computer before 🔹 79% had never taken any computer class before 🔹 Only 21% of students felt they had enough English to navigate daily life A huge thank you to The Bronx Foundation for supporting this program and to the WSQ NYPL for hosting us 🙏🏽 And a special thank you to Nargis, our babysitter, for keeping the kids entertained so their mothers could focus 💛 #digitalliteracy #bronx

Our team was honored & excited to be a part of the historic inaugural AAPI Summit in Albany last week! We had the opportunity to connect with people & organizations fighting for our diverse AAPI communities from NYC & Long Island all the way to Rochester & Buffalo. Gratitude to Assemblymember Grace Lee & Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani and the APA Legislative Taskforce for hosting this incredible event 🙏🏽 #aapisummit #aapiheritagemonth