Announcement of Intended Merger with API Safety Center

Chaya and The Asian & Pacific Islander Women & Family Safety Center (API Saftey Center) and are proud to announce we are taking the next steps towards an organizational merger. At the end of June, after several months in an exploratory pre-merger assessment phase, the boards of both organizations signed an agreement to merge our organizations. We believe moving towards a formal unification will bring short-term and long-term benefits to all of our clients and the communities that we serve.

Like many nonprofits, Chaya and the API Safety Center have explored many options over the last two years to sustain our culturally specific and relevant services while insulating our programs from current economic challenges. Although community support for our organizations has remained strong, significant declines in government support combined with shrinking foundation funding have challenged our long-term sustainability as separate entities. The boards concluded that the best way to achieve sustainability and expand the services we offer would be to combine our operations.

Both organizations were founded in the mid-1990s and serve Asian women experiencing domestic violence and sexual assault. Both organizations, Chaya and the API Safety Center, are deeply rooted in their communities and have long supported each other. By combining resources, we will able to provide robust services for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. We will serve a broader Asian and Pacific Islander community - including East Asian and South Asian women.

This is a new chapter in all of our lives, and you have been a vital part of the process for this partnership. We truly appreciate the remarkable dedication and trust you have placed in our organizations.

Thanks go out to all our staffs, community members, ally organizations, and funders, who provided their perspective and advice on how to move forward. Your input was invaluable and helped us gauge support, identify key concerns, and shape our next steps. Over the course of the summer, we will be examining the nuts and bolts of integrating our staffs, programs, and boards. In addition, we will continue planning our fall fundraiser event on October 15th. We hope to see you there, where we hope to bring you more good news about the progress of our merger.

Sincerely,

The Boards of Chaya and the API Safety Center