Domestic violence disproportionately affects the Black community. Forty-five percent of Black women and 40% of Black men have experienced intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner sexual violence or intimate partner stalking in their lifetimes, compared with 25% of women and 11% of men across all races, says the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
NASW Michigan member Kalimah Johnson, a clinical social worker, founded the SASHA Center (Sexual Assault Services for Holistic Healing and Awareness) in Detroit 13 years ago to provide support group services for members of the African American community who have experienced sexual assault, says a Detroit News article. “A lot of times, sexual assault goes hand in hand with domestic violence,” Johnson said. “We try to gather and get Black women together to lower the isolation of being sexually assaulted or domestically abused.”
Among the services provided are therapists, educational workshops and “conversations between and with Black men,” she said.