About Us

Our Vision

A world where each family enjoys physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing and each individual is supported to achieve their true potential.

Our Mission

Sikh Family Center is a nonprofit organization in the U.S. that promotes community well-being with a particular focus on gender justice. We provide trauma-centered resources for victim-survivors of violence while organizing to change the social and cultural conditions that allow gendered violence to occur in the first place. Our training, outreach, and advocacy are grounded in cultural tradition, grassroots power, and intergenerational healing.

Guiding Values

In striving for equity, Sikh Family Center actively opposes discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions), gender, gender expression, neurotypicality, formal education, immigration status, age, national origin (ancestry), caste, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation.

History

Since 9/11, when Sikhs again and very visibly became targets of deadly racism due to unique cultural and faith identities (including turbans, long unshorn hair, beards), the community organized to create powerful civil rights organizations and initiatives. But issues of gender-based violence were further forced into the shadows. The external racist threats had put the health and wellbeing of women and sexual minorities on hold, yet again, — and few, if any, organizations actively addressed these matters within the Sikh community.

It was in this environment that Sikh Family Center first launched in 2009 and began making the case that our immigrant community, too, needed specific, linguistically accessible, and culturally aware prevention & intervention services. Today, Sikh Family Center is the only professional organization in the U.S. focused on addressing gender-based violence in the Sikh American community. Through grassroots activism and community-based solutions, we provide intervention, violence prevention, and education services, while paying particular attention to the cultural background and immigration experience of the people we serve.

Up until 2017, Sikh Family Center was entirely volunteer-run. We believe in the power of community organizing and we do not wish to ‘professionalize’ services to the detriment of our grassroots base. But, we also recognized the need for organizational growth and sustainability and have prioritized incorporating paid staff in our model, including an Executive Director with decades of experience in the gender justice movement.

Please note “Sikh” refers to a faith-community, but we are not a “Religious” organization, as understood in western culture. Sikhs are a people, a culture, and Sikh Family Center reflects and serves a very diverse community. Our services never discriminate on the basis of perceived or actual religiosity, or against people of any or no faith.

In striving for equity, Sikh Family Center actively opposes discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions), gender, gender expression, formal education, immigration status, age, national origin (ancestry), caste, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation.

Our Team

Staff

Executive Director

Mallika Kaur is the co-founder (2009) and Executive Director (as of

Director of Operations

Harmit has nearly a decade of professional experience working in the

Director of Programs

Sanjog Kaur brings over 13 years of experience working with her

Fellow

Mental Wellness Fellow

Suman is currently a psychology doctoral student. She was born and

Board Members

Prebhdev Singh is a native of Central California and brings over

Deep Kaur Jodhka (she/her) is an attorney by training and worked

Bitika (she/hers) is a Sikh, a lifelong learner, a daughter, sister,

Board Chair

Amrita Kaur (she/her) is a first-generation Punjabi-Canadian, a practicing Sikh, and

Secretary

Simran Kaur is Director for the Center for Community Health at

Pawandeep Kaur (she/her) is a public health practitioner and clinical researcher

Jasvir Kaur is the co-founder of the Sikh Healing Collective, a

Board Member Emeritus

Advisory Board

Dr. Rathore brings over 10 years of experience spearheading healthcare initiatives

Nitasha Kaur Sawhney is an equity partner in the San Francisco

Nancy K.D. Lemon, the John and Elizabeth Boalt Lecturer at UC

Dr. Jalmeen Arora is a licensed clinical psychologist who has been

Beckie creates her best contributions to race + gender justice through

Mandeep Singh is passionate about starting, building and scaling organizations that

Satjeet is a non-profit executive focused on civil and human rights

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