APA Family Support Services
APA Family Support Services
APA Family Support Services is San Francisco's foremost advocate and service provider for at-risk Asian and Pacific Islander children and their families. Created with the goal of providing culturally competent services for new Asian immigrants in the community, we have since branched out, our services are made available to families of all ethnicities.
We have expanded from our San Francisco General Hospital location to 7 offices in 5 neighborhoods throughout the city. Between our main location in Chinatown and our three locations in Visitacion Valley, APA is able to reach and provide services to over 8,000 families annually, in different languages and dialects -- Cantonese, Mandarin, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, Thai, and Spanish.
Our agency's team of experienced and passionate professionals share the common goal of promoting and maintaining a safe and happy home environment for our families.
Company Information
About Us
APA Family Support Services (the Organization) serves over 8,000 children, youths, and families annually throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. We provide culturally and linguistically competent integrative support services to prevent and if necessary, treat problems that may occur as a result of stress, barriers, and challenges of language, finances, and lack of resources. We advocate for underserved families through Community Development, Domestic Violence & Child Abuse prevention, and Self-sufficiency & Empowerment.
The Organization, formerly Asian Perinatal Advocates, was founded in 1987 at San Francisco General Hospital and incorporated in 1992. Today, we have expanded our services to all ethnic communities including Latinx and African American underserved communities. Growing from a small office at the San Francisco General Hospital, we now operate in seven branches in the City of San Francisco with staff speaking seven different languages and dialects. Our missions are
a) to advocate for comprehensive, linguistically and culturally appropriate prenatal care and pediatric follow-up health care;
b) to promote good infant-parent relationships through perinatal education, role modeling, and paraprofessional home visitation; and
c) to prevent domestic violence, child abuse, and neglect in the community through education and counseling.”
We offer six programs to support our clients:
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Three Family Resource Centers (FRC) in Chinatown, Excelsior and Visitation Valley areas - providing parenting classes, parent-child interactive groups, parent peer support groups, resources workshops, differential response, family support day and summer programs, diaper bank, and food pantry.
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Home Visitation - supporting pregnant moms and new parents by promoting infant and child health, fostering educational development and school readiness, and helping to prevent child abuse and neglect by bilingual and bicultural staff.
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Enhanced Visitation - being one of the designated agents to handle cases by Child Protective Services, our Visitation Supervisor makes sure the parent is interacting appropriately with the child and provides guidance/coaching when needed.
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Youth Development - working to build youth assets and strengths that result in improved academic performance and lower-risk behaviors with two main programs: The Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program (MYEEP) and Youth Education, Leadership and Advocacy (YELA) Project.
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Behavioral Program - offering intervention and mental health counseling to children and families. By utilizing a formal counseling internship program, we partner with over 10 universities to train the next generation.
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Family Economic Success Program - providing Financial & Digital literacy classes, employment and workforce development programs with the goal of supporting families to achieve financial independence.
For 24 years, APA Family Support Services (APAFSS) has been serving as the lead agency for the Asian Pacific Islander Family Resources Network (APIFRN). This is a successful collaboration of 20+ nonprofit agencies serving 12 API groups citywide. Through collaborations, APAFSS acts as an incubator for grassroots agencies serving San Francisco’s smaller API communities, such as Laotians, Cambodians, and Vietnamese — communities that might otherwise be left underserved.
APAFSS also hosts a collaborative multilingual hotline service available in seven different languages and dialects. This API Parental Stress Line is free and geared towards those who have language barriers. Often monolingual API parents do not know where to turn to for help. Through our hotline, they receive information and referral services as well as a lending ear. Our hotline workers are trained to listen and offer appropriate emotional support.
Company History
Through the years, the community that we serve has changed. In the early years of APA, our clients were almost all new immigrants who came to the United States through arranged marriages or as refugees from Southeast Asian countries. Today, our client base not only includes these immigrants but also all families who face the challenges of parenthood. When parents face hardships such as financial insecurity, and familial problems, incidents of domestic violence and child neglect are more likely to occur. That is why APA’s mission is to create healthy families by providing domestic violence and child abuse prevention services. We do this not only through case management but also through services at our family resource centers. By providing parents a safe and welcoming place outside of their home, they increase their social circles and have a forum to gain their voice.