Programs

Programs

Every year, SAALT’s pro­gram­ming shift­ed to meet the needs of vary­ing com­mu­ni­ty ecosys­tems and demands. Take a look at how we’ve built pro­gram­ming historically.

SAALT’S PROGRAMMING INCLUDEd:

  • Hate Vio­lence Sur­vivors’ Project
    In 2023, SAALT launched The Hate Vio­lence Sur­vivors’ Project, the first in the organization’s his­to­ry that direct­ly engaged sur­vivors. Fif­teen sur­vivors had space to explore out­side the con­ven­tion­al lim­i­ta­tions of jus­tice that are often restrict­ed to pol­i­cy and law enforce­ment while being sup­port­ed by coach­es and peers in their per­son­al heal­ing jour­ney. The pro­gram was intend­ed to break open the par­a­digm that we can work only with­in a crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem that was inten­tion­al­ly designed to fail and pun­ish peo­ple of color.
  • Vis­it­ing Schol­ar In Residence
    From 2021–2022, SAALT worked with Dr. Khalid Anis Ansari, an inter­na­tion­al Pas­man­da Mus­lim schol­ar to begin engag­ing SAALT board and staff in prin­ci­pled learn­ing on caste.
  • Voic­es from the Community
    Com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers write for SAALT’s Medi­um series, Voic­es from the Com­mu­ni­ty, where SAALT fea­tures posts from com­mu­ni­ty ​mem­bers on key issues and their intersections.
  • Cam­pus Sessions
    A Cam­pus Ses­sion is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for a stu­­dent-dri­ven dis­cus­sion around issues that impact the South Asian community.
  • Cam­paigns
    SAALT engages in cam­paigns around the coun­try focused on areas with high-den­si­­ty South Asian populations.
  • Region­al and Local Initiatives
    SAALT leads cam­paigns and pro­grams in var­i­ous parts of the coun­try with a spe­cial empha­sis on areas with high-den­si­­ty South Asian populations.
  • PROCESS: 20 Years Since
    PROCESS: 20 YEARS SINCE is a mini-docuseries and inter­ac­tive dig­i­tal exhi­bi­tion which ampli­fies our young sib­lings’ calls to process — the past twen­ty years, and the next twen­ty years — in just, trans­for­ma­tive, and uni­fy­ing ways. On 10 Sep­tem­ber 2021, SAALT and the artists, allies, and sto­ry­tellers involved in the mak­ing of PROCESS: 20 YEARS SINCE cel­e­brat­ed the launch of the project at Jud­son Memo­r­i­al Church and Wash­ing­ton Square Park, bring­ing togeth­er com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers for an after­noon of col­lec­tive reflec­tion. See pic­tures, tak­en by Iqra Shah­baz, here. On 16 Sep­tem­ber 2021, SAALT, along­side co-hosts Jus­tice for Mus­lims Col­lec­tive and the Con­gres­sion­al Asian Pacif­ic Amer­i­can Cau­cus (CAPAC), host­ed a vir­tu­al Con­gres­sion­al Brief­ing on 9/11 and the War on Ter­ror, where mul­ti­ple sto­ry­telling sib­lings shared their sto­ries. Read their reflec­tions here, and watch the Con­gres­sion­al Brief­ing here. On 21 Sep­tem­ber 2021, SAALT held a vir­tu­al event cel­e­brat­ing “PROCESS: 20 YEARS SINCE” with the exclu­sive launch of a com­pi­la­tion video high­light­ing themes from the docuseries, with com­men­tary from pan­elists Shravya Kag, Saira Man­gat, Atif Akhter, and SAALT’s own Lak­sh­mi Sri­daran and Sim­ran Noor. Watch the com­pi­la­tion video here.
  • Polit­i­cal Edu­ca­tion: Nation­al Coali­tion of South Asian Orga­ni­za­tions (NCSO)
    From 2020–2021, SAALT worked with exter­nal facil­i­ta­tors to engage the NCSO in polit­i­cal edu­ca­tion work on issues of white suprema­cy, anti-Black racism, and casteism as part of the effort to become a more val­ues aligned coali­tion. Learn more about the NCSO here.
  • Mini-Series Guest Lectures
    Earth­Bound was a 2021 SAALT series explor­ing our com­mu­ni­ties’ con­nec­tions to lands cur­rent­ly and ances­tral­ly tied to our people.
  • Nation­al South Asian Summit
    From 2007–2017, SAALT’s Nation­al Sum­mit was a bien­ni­al gath­er­ing and plat­form for advo­cates and allies across the U.S. to con­vene in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., pro­vid­ing skill shares, crit­i­cal dis­cus­sions, and strat­e­gy ses­sions to advance civ­il rights and equi­ty for South Asian Amer­i­cans. For details on our pre­vi­ous Sum­mits, click here.
  • We Build Community
    The We Build Com­mu­ni­ty ini­tia­tive is designed to enable four groups in the Nation­al Coali­tion of South Asian Orga­ni­za­tions to deep­en their capac­i­ty and involve­ment in civic engage­ment that con­nect South Asian Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ties with broad­er move­ments for racial jus­tice, immi­gra­tion jus­tice, gen­der jus­tice, and/or LGBTQ justice.
  • Young Lead­ers Institute
    SAALT’s Young Lead­ers Insti­tute (YLI) is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for under­grad­u­ate uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents to build lead­er­ship skills, con­nect with activists and men­tors, and explore social change strate­gies around issues that affect South Asian and immi­grant com­mu­ni­ties in the US.
  • Be The Change, Day of Service
    Be the Change was an annu­al nation­al day of ser­vice hon­or­ing Gand­hi that was his­tor­i­cal­ly coor­di­nat­ed by SAALT to inspire and fos­ter civic engage­ment and stronger com­mu­ni­ties through vol­un­teerism and com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice. As of 2016, SAALT end­ed its role as the effort’s nation­al coor­di­na­tor in response to under­stand­ing the cri­tique of Gandhi’s prin­ci­ples, specif­i­cal­ly from non-upper caste, Indi­an, Hin­du populations.
  • SAALT Cir­cles
    A SAALT Cir­cle is a safe space for com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers to come togeth­er and learn about local and nation­al issues impact­ing the South Asian com­mu­ni­ty in the US, share their expe­ri­ences, and explore ways to cre­ate change.