Mission

The Women In Need Center’s mission is to serve the community as a social services center and shelter for Asian women in bicultural family crisis. We advocate for the women’s right to enhance her sense of dignity and self respect, to help end oppression from sexism, racism, and classism.

Vision

Established in 1993 as the only non-profit organization in the country founded specifically to address the needs of interracially married Korean women, the Women In Need Center has long inspired and has been held as the archetype for many Korean-American non-profit organizations. While its core constituency was Korean women married or once married to U.S. military servicemen, the Center has since expanded its services to serve Asian women and their children of the greater NYC metropolitan area.

Values

As a faith-based, women-led initiative, the Women In Need Center of New York is a crisis social services and shelter that serves Asian American single/divorced mothers with children in crisis of domestic violence, sexual assault, mental/physical disability, and homelessness. More than 50% of those admitted into the shelter are domestic violence victims, holding neither permanent residency nor U.S. citizenship. Therefore, our services reach out to the most vulnerable of the Asian community in the New York metro area the women and children who are marginalized and voiceless victims of violence at home, silenced due to language barriers and fear of deportation.
 

History

The early beginnings of the Women In Need Center began through the joint support of the Rainbow Church, a United Methodist Mission, and Free France Chong Campaign in 1993. The Rainbow Church existed as a faith-based community for a handful of the estimated 200,000 Korean “War brides” married to former U.S. military servicemen. These women were the foremost pioneers of the Korean immigrant history but due to the cultural stigma held of interracial marriage, became ostracized and marginalized by both Korean and American society. The political campaign of Free France Chong was a perfect example of this existing problem- that interracially married Asian women often suffered abuse, incarceration, and economic exploitation with no outlet to seek for help in way familiar to them.

Board of Directors

Eun Sook Bang Chair, Physician
Mihwa Kang Vice Chair, Newbank Branch Manager
Dohyung Kim Secretary, Physical Therapist
Jong Won Yom, Chiropractor
Grace Ji, Beauty Salon proprietor Consultant
Daniel J. Park, Realtor
Daniel Park, IT Specialist
Do kyung Kim, Lawyer
Jung Seok Chang,Insurance Agency
Chul Kim, CPA
Chiuk Kwon, Digi Plus Electronic, Store manager
Ji-Yoon Lee, Vitex LLC, Administrative associate
Mimi Hwang, Elmhurst Hospital Nurse
Ki Nam Han, Honest & Quality Corp. President

Staff

Eun Kyung Kim, Executive Director
You hee Lee, Case Worker
Ji Eun Lee, Financial Director
Susanna Kim, Shelter Manager
Heeyoung Kim, Art therapist
Moung sook Seo, Food Coordinator
Gahee Kang, Full-time Intern
Grace Hann, Part-time Intern