2021

2023

2024

History

The global pandemic amplified structural inequalities.

People of color were becoming traumatized secondary to housing issues, loss of family and friends, and their own mental and physical health crisis. MR conducted virtual support circles to support BIPOC across genders as well as specialized monthly circles for BIPOC men and AAPI men. MR began to work more specifically with sexual assault survivors. We partnered with the National Organization for Asian American and Pacific Islanders Ending Sexual Violence (NAPIESV) and developed a handbook for Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) sexual assault survivors. 

2022

MR partnered with NAPIESV to provide 3 day workshop for The Guam Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Family Violence (GCASAFV), facilitated for indigenous service providers of SA survivors in Guam.

People of color were becoming traumatized secondary to housing issues, loss of family and friends, and their own mental and physical health crisis. MR conducted virtual support circles to support BIPOC across genders as well as specialized monthly circles for BIPOC men and AAPI men. MR began to work more specifically with sexual assault survivors. We partnered with the National Organization for Asian American and Pacific Islanders Ending Sexual Violence (NAPIESV) and developed a handbook for Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) sexual assault survivors. 

MR Received 501(c)3 status effective in September

2015

The primary vision was creating safe spaces for people of color to engage in movement-based inquiry. As trust deepened, participants began disclosing experiences of trauma, including sexual violence. In response, we pursued specialized training to better support survivors & address the role of masculinity in preventing harm. 

2020

Received the first ever American Rescue Plan Support for Survivors of Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault from Culturally Specific Populations grant.

MR has been developing funding partnerships & strategies for continuing our meaningful work, while transitioning away from the American Rescue Plan Grant. We added a Director of Development & an Outreach Coordinator, and received specialized consult on marketing & communications. We are re-imagining the way our programs reach our people, & developing new programming, including a card game - to bring the MR framework to life in new ways. 

Founded as Parcon Resilience by Andrew Suseno, an Indonesian-Chinese American movement educator.

Renamed Moving Rasa in 2020 to reflect a commitment to embodied transformation through movement & cultural consciousness.

The National Education Association hired MR to design & implement summer programming in somatics to mourn losses from COVID-19 & train in embodied approaches to anti-racist organizing. The organization curated & managed a team of facilitators to create both general & culturally specific based programming for Black, Asian, Latinx & Indigenous people. The New Jersey Education Association engaged MR to co-lead an 8 month project. In this project, MR trained teachers to facilitate community healing programs & provided coaching support throughout.

MR collaborated with the Daloy Dance Co of the Philippines to provide workshops as part of their Full Moon Gatherings. We established AAPI & SEAA affinity spaces & collaborations to better understand the socio-political context of these communities as well as to connect to his cultural roots. The Ensemble Studio Theater Co. sought out MR to provide culturally appropriate coaching for an all Cambodian cast & mediation with a white director, during the rehearsal process of a play highlighting intergenerational trauma in the Cambodian community. MR also hosted various networking dinners for SEAA performance & visual artists in NYC.

One participant shared:
"When we give in to just movement & community, like what happens in moving rasa, we are able to push against the idea of the outsider perceiving us and we can be who we are and embody our own masculinity."

The ARP grant was a capacity building federal grant to support organizations providing culturally specific direct services for AAPI survivors of sexual assault, in response to a confluence of the COVID pandemic, increased racial awareness with the Black Lives Matter Movement, & a risk in anti-Asian hate, the ARP grant was offered as a means to provide culturally specific populations with services for survivors. While this grant is no longer offered, because of its support through 2024, we expanded our capacities by adding organizational softwares & a CRM tool to expand our care of participants and community, as well as fundraising capabilities. During our time supported by the ARP grant, our understanding about the experiences of sexual assault survivors in America was greatly expanded due to our in-session scaffold for listening & care practice, & thorough post-event feedback processes, including focus groups & listening sessions, which help us improve our offerings. 

The work of our grassroots organization also supports community organizations experiencing burnout by offering culturally specific programming to strengthen their capacity and sustain their work. Beyond direct programming, we foster cultural connection through initiatives like our movement and dining event, Taste of the Archipelago, where communal meals become a pathway for deeper conversations on identity, resilience, & healing from gender-based violence. This initiative, hosted in NYC & Philadelphia, brings together food and movement as tools for embodied learning and community building.