you guys aren't from here. well do we get points for trying?! fresh and natural chicken. california grown with no added hormones. from foster farms. simply better. hello, welcome to asian pacific america. i am robert handa. your host for the show. we focus the show on a serious topic in any community or neighborhood, domestic violence. why it is particularly important to address in the asian american and pacific islander communities and after that we will highlight an event at the fremont festival getting attention, lemonade alley. we will start segments on domestic violence with how the problem effects the community through the eyes of a unique group, national asian pacific

prosecutor's association. two leader from the district attorney's office. we move on to talking about how the community can help law enforcement. we examine cultural barriers that exist, how they can be overcome. and a crucial part of addressing domestic violence, helping the victim. joining us, a nonprofit group that helps survivors of domestic violence and especially south asian women. we will wrap up with lemonade alley at the fremont festival of the arts where children to young adults utilize the most traditional of all fundraising methods, the lemonade stand, to generate funds for charity, maybe stir up interest in becoming an entrepreneur. all coming up. domestic violence is certainly not a unique problem for the asian american and pacific islander communities, but it does have unique cultural characteristics and that means it is crucial to have an understanding, proper perspective in dealing with the situation. joining us now, paul gin, deputy district attorney in santa clara

county and president of the national asian pacific islander prosecutors association of also with us, charles wong, deputy district attorney in santa clara county, and co-founder. give us an idea of the start of it, how did it get started? >> a group of prosecutors got together, four, five years ago who shared the same cultural background, heritage and really identified with a lot of the common similarities and struggles we found within our job and within our community. through that and through the shared experiences, we decided hey, i think we reached critical mass, it is a good idea for all of us to get together, share our experiences, decide how to best serve the community. as prosecutors as well as using our knowledge of the criminal justice system to help educate a large part of the asian american segment who a lot are devoid of

the criminal justice system here. >> that's going to meld together. give us an idea of overview of domestic violence situation in the asian american and pacific islander communities. >> one of the things we noted particularly in santa clara county, there's a study with district attorney jeff rosen. in that study we found asian pacific islanders seem to be vastly underreporting the domestic violence that is occurring. and the numbers we've gotten is 35% of santa clara county is asian pacific islander descent, only 5% of felony domestic violence violence defendants are of asian pacific islander desce descent. there's a lack of reporting. >> as we talk about, they meld

together. you want to form this group because they have shared perspective. does that help you dealing with the situation in the community? >> absolutely. i think the idea of justice helps a lot, whether you're a defendant, victim, witness to crime, if you're a minority, see someone that looks like you, whether the prosecutor, defense attorney or judge, it gives you a stronger ability to trust the system. by doing that, having prosecutors that have backgrounds that understand cultural values that others may not because of different upbringing were able to relate to victims better and have victims understand when they look at us how they'll see a sense of reliance. we will establish a better rapport helping them. >> in prosecuting or following up these cases, how important is

cooperation in terms of successful prosecution to get that cooperation. >> we clearly want cooperation of all victims and witnesses. often times in domestic violence kinds of cases that doesn't happen. domestic violence victims often go back to their abusers and become less cooperative with what we're trying to do in the prosecution. but as soon as that initial statement is made to the police department, that's something that we can use in court, even if the victim comes in and refuses to testify or doesn't want to talk or lies about what happened, we can still use the prior statement to prosecute the defendant. >> so i imagine, i haven't heard that overview for all domestic violence cases, but still, it helps a lot if you can get cooperation and maybe people feel they can trust the system. >> absolutely. the number one goal is to make sure people understand and trust the criminal justice system, prosecutor, courts, et cetera. that's very important for all of

us to do. >> i was wondering in terms of the association itself, the group itself, do young people interested in law, are they interested in becoming prosecutors? does it help them? >> not yet. but napipa is trying to change that. it is a national organization. we have chapters in new york, chicago, northern california, southern california, and san diego, and we actively going to colleges and law schools and encourage students to consider careers in prosecution. we also offer mentorship programs for younger prosecutors. and the goal of the organization is to create a pipeline for future api leaders, prosecutor is often stepping stone to becoming a judge, a politician, or anything that you want to become because it gives you the skill set of being able to advocate for people or causes. in order to accomplish that goal, we recently created ccn for justice scholarship, it is

awarded to law students who have demonstrated interest in criminal prosecution as well as serving the api community. >> good progress on both fronts. congratulations. we will follow up, see how that program is going later. thank you for being here. >> thank you. coming up, before a domestic violence situation can be resolved legally in court, it has to be dealt with in the home by law enforcement. getting cooperation as we heard can be difficult. we'll explore that next.

>> she taught me it is okay to love my mom. >> the tail of the alcatraz exhibit, that's what i see when i see young people. i see young people everybody has told are not going to be successful. >> when the parents are incarcerated, you struggle with so much and resiliency means

your more capable. welcome back. trying to unravel what really happened in a domestic violence situation can be difficult in any community. but as we heard, there are numerous cultural barriers in asian american and pacific islander communities that can be hard to overcome. paul gin has remained with more expertise as prosecutor and president of napipa, and joining us, officer tara james.

someone with a lot of experience dealing with these situations. thank you for joining us. >> pleasure to be here. >> give us an idea in terms of when calls come into dispatchers and early responders, are they prepared to deal with some of the cultural obstacles we have been talking about? >> absolutely. the dispatch center is set up in a way, we try to make it as culturally aware as possible. highly diverse backgrounds, multi lingual, and if they can't communicate well, we have a very diverse community. 45% is api member communities. they do their best to get the initial information to first responders to keep them safe. >> and they're very well aware of the kind of -- >> absolutely. they're trained to read between the lines, be sensitive to different cultural and ethnic, social, cultural barriers they may deal with. >> reading between the lines would be extremely important.

that cooperation is crucial? >> absolutely. the cooperation we get without people reporting domestic violence crimes would never get prosecuted, we would never be able to help the victims. these are crimes that occur within households and so we're not going to know unless the victim, him or herself, reports it, or the children report it or something along those lines. we need that cooperation. especially initially to get the ball rolling. >> we have been talking culturally, generally on broad lines. what about immigrants and undocumented workers. how does that factor in? >> the big issue there. there are several issues. as far as undocumented dv victims, you deal with fear of deportation, dealing with language barriers, dealing with fear of lack of support. as far as deportation, we want to make it clear prosecutors and police aren't here to deal with

deportation issues, we are here to protect the community. we want to be sure that people understand they don't need to be that scared of it. in fact, there's something called a uv, victims can request and that allows them to temporarily remain in the united states and they're able to then apply for permanent resident alien status. in santa clara county to do that you'd have to be cooperative with the prosecution of the case and wait for the case to conclude, and at that point you would be able to apply for that visa. >> tara, do you have many examples, have that kind of run-in with people, what's the reaction of people? >> absolutely. the first responders when they get there, they have to try to build trust immediately, you know, it is a tall task. in order to get that cooperation, get talking, understand that we are there to help them. >> do you have an example? have you had a case like that?

>> just last week had a family unfortunately i had to arrest their father and i was speaking to the children who are all second generation, born and raised here. as much as they would like their mother to cooperate with us, she was a little reluctant to talk to us. one of the children literally said to me, you know, i don't see the point. she's going to take him back. that's what we do. it was heart breaking because, you know, trying to convince them, they knew we were there to help them. trying to convince their parents, first generation that we're not out to get anyone, we are there to help, working in partnership with district attorneys and sometimes a tall task for us to take on. >> ways to go then. >> absolutely. >> do you feel as though you're making progress? >> i think so. it is always hard to tell. crimes are currently always on-going, but we are i think making progress getting the word out to victims of domestic violence. >> all right.

thank you both for being here. that looks like a situation we can keep track of. you come back, tell us how it is going. >> absolutely. >> thank you. >> thanks, robert. as we've heard cultural barriers can be obstacles in every aspect of domestic violence. one of the most important situations that needs to be resolved is the dilemma of the victim. how one bay area group is helping them coming up after this.

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and free of stuff i don't like. and in my castle we only eat chex cereal. chex cereal. it's full of delicious crunchability. no artificial flavors, and it's gluten-free. and that's something even my brother ... sister can understand. mom, brian threw a ball in the house! as we have been emphasizing, domestic violence is a problem in every community, equally prevalent in every strata of society. there are unique cultural characteristics and different obstacles for victims in asian american and pacific islander groups. a group trying to do something about it for south asian women is noreca. with us the director of operations, and the client

services coordinator. thank you both for being here. >> of course. thank you for having us on. >> first of all, let's get an idea how your organization got started and why. >> it started in 1992. we have been around a long time. it was started by four women who saw a need for services and started it in a garage. we need this in the community, how do we get them in, survivor or victims call in, it was set up in a cultural context to get trust and harness everybody together in the community, in a family way. now it is evolved into a formal organization where we are following mainstream protocol. but very grass roots level. looking around, don't see these services for women that need that cultural context to come in. >> and that trust. >> and the trust, absolutely. >> give us an idea in terms of

the kinds of problems that you see in the community as well as what programs you have to kind of target those. >> the problems pretty much what we see is very different from what we see outside. we see a lot of control, a lot of intimidation tactics used to subdue the women. they perform accordingly because of years of practice because they're used to that. they don't protest, they don't know that they have to protest. they don't even know they're being abused. >> how do you target that? >> what happens, it is only after years of that exposure and years of this happening when they get so frustrated. sometimes even after children have grown when they're saying enough, i've had it, that's when we start to get the calls. they call us mostly for support. they're saying because they're hearing about us more and more,

people are talking word of mouth, and they know if they target us, they're going to get somebody who's going to be hearing with nonjudgment and also give them the support without forming any preconceived notions. >> i am sure word of mouth is crucial. >> word of mouth is very crucial and support from community is very crucial because when it comes from a friend, you think that you're already trusting the source. you read it in the newspaper, 800 number, who calls that and tell their problems. our friend comes in, says call this, there's a live person waiting for you. makes all the difference. and the live person speaks the language, there's more trust, and they understand it is not just your husband or intimate partner, it is the whole family. we pick up on the nuance before they have to say it. that cuts the story down in terms of the number of excruciating details you have to go through and retell the story for someone to understand your context. >> still in a sense i would

think the problems you're dealing in the community here, you have to deal with the whole family. >> one thing about the violence is portrayed, it is not intimate partner, it is the whole family gangs up against a woman, not only that, there's another additional perspective which is children, girls, young girls going through problems which forced marriages, arranged marriages against their will, they're taken, transported back to the country for that. another segment we see is abandonment, kidnapping of children from overseas. we see a lot of things different from what you see in domestic violence elsewhere. >> quickly then, how do people get the information to start that word of mouth. >> our website of course, narika.org. call the help line. but i think the most important

part is the word of mouth where you are going to a cultural fair, we are there. you have a house party, you can talk about -- nobody wants to -- >> word of mouth is the important thing. and we will put that information on our facebook page as well. thank you both for being here. >> thank you so much. >> an important issue. let's shift gears a little. coming up, a lemonade stand may be most kids' entry into the world of business. can it still be that way? let's find out with a trip to lemonade alley next.

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i see lemondade stands on street corners, they haven't changed over the years. a stand, a sign, and the sellers, no matter how young, they know better, they have good tasting lemondade. everything turns out ride. joining us the organizer for lemondade alley. people in the area, nbc bay area

is sponsoring them at festival of the arts. steve, chief lemon head of lemondade alley. impressive title. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> give us an idea of the history and how it started. >> lemondade alley got started in honolulu. i am a person that is all about entrepreneurship. started a lot of businesses for other people, write software that helps people start businesses. that is being used in local high schools in honolulu. one day we thought wouldn't it be cool to put on a competition where kids get hands on, do real business. teens and kids come together, create a lemondade recipe. now we have workshops that teach kids or chefs how to do great recipes that are healthful. we do those things with kids. they create a lemondade stand, use people like architects and

retail people to teach them better business practices, how you put together a physical business. then they go on to a one day competition and sell lemondade head to head. what's cool about it, you get 30 lemondade stands selling head to head, all the friends and family come out. every teen chooses a charity to play for. many are humane society or make a wish. in honolulu, we have a lot of military, so wounded warrior, so when the kids choose a charity, all of the money they make in lemondade alley goes to their charity. >> besides being able to make great lemondade, what do you think kids learn the most? >> life skills. nowadays people don't have 30 year careers so much. most kids have four, five, six careers. what that means, you are now your own business unit. you have to figure out how do i remarket myself every time you change your occupation or job. so the idea of how do you do

marketing, how do you brand yourself, how do you learn new things, open your ears and listen to what's around you and have value. the idea of having value is what business and entrepreneurship is about. they learn it fast in lemonade alley. the kids are smart. the first question they ask is what else can i sell. we have rules that are open. you have to read them. but they're limited because of health code issues with serving safe food because lemonade is a food and beverage. but they all figure out i can sell something else like duct tape wallets, or play a game. there's ways to upsell. you see at the grocery store the bubble gum on the racks and magazines. they know that. it is business. >> you get kids that are anxious and enthusiastic, is there a need to stimulate that business interest in kids these days?

>> absolutely. what is america, it is a place of innovation, that's what the rest of the world looks to us for. we have so many occupations down sized and up sourced around the world. what it comes back to, what can we make that's unique and original. if that's our specialty as culture in the united states, and asian, right, where did we come from. in hawaii, the restaurants, dry goods, how many don't have somebody in their background that didn't have a restaurant. we all ran from it in our generation, but it is part of our dna. why are we not doing that. why are we just becoming engineers. engineer is a great occupation but you can do more. >> getting business interest and applying it. >> yes. >> that's interesting. and you're at the prima festival of arts, looking for people to promote in other ways. we will help them do that. again, lemonade alley program and jim foundation present lemonade alley at the fremont

festival of the arts. paseo padre and walnut avenue in fremont. go to our web page for more