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A Fresh Look...

APA was approved for a facility enhancement grant funded by First5 San Francisco for our Chinatown YMCA location. This service site has been there since 2016. The project theme specified by First5 is “Connection to Nature.” With this project, we were appointed a design consultant who listened to our needs, looked over our spaces, and gave suggestions on how to design the rooms.

APA staff rolled up their sleeves and went to work repainting the Enhanced Visitation room (shown above) and the reception area, installing the nature murals, and reorganizing the space. Once Shelter-in-Place is over, we will welcome families in the redecorated reception area.

 

One of the rooms we made over was our Enhanced Visitation (EV) room. This space is for kids currently placed in foster care to have a safe space to visit their biological parents. With the mural and the color of the wall, we want the room to have a calming effect and warm feeling when you first step inside.

 

We are currently providing in-person EV at our Visitacion Valley Strong Families, Excelsior, and Chinatown YMCA locations. EV is considered an essential service because it is court-mandated. Even with the current stay-at-home order, we can still provide two hours maximum of in-person supervised visitation while the rest of the hours will be virtual visitation.

Year End Giving Appeal: If you are in a position to donate, please consider supporting our work and our causes: Domestic Violence & Child Abuse Prevention; Connect Families to Health & Wellness; Behavioral Health Counseling & Therapy. Your support is vital for our work.

 

Jessica, a recent immigrant temporarily staying in a domestic violence shelter after getting out of an abusive marriage, is grateful to APA’s case manager for providing her with translation, guidance, emotional support, and resources. Our support helped her gain a new outlook on life. She is motivated to look for a part-time job and learn a vocation.

 

APA's Behavioral Health program is expected to serve 54 clients before year's end. We continue to receive more referrals than we can accommodate -- directly from families, from agencies that did not often refer to us before (e.g. Foster Care Mental Health Program). We received more requests for services in Spanish, Chinese and additional languages besides English.

 

Online: at www.apafss.org/donation-form.html 
By Mail: make check payable to

APA Family Support Services

10 Nottingham Place, San Francisco, CA 94133-4523

 

APA Family Support Services is a 501(c)(3) non-profit agency. Your contribution to support APA is tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. 

 

Whether you itemize your taxes or not, special tax law changes made earlier this year will allow more people to easily deduct up to $300 in donations to qualifying charities this year. Cash donations of up to $300 made before December 31, 2020 are now deductible when people file their taxes in 2021. (See IRS.gov, Special $300 tax deduction...)

Thanksgiving Meals To-Go

 

Our Chinatown staff wanted to do something special for their Chinatown/North Beach client families. The Monday before Thanksgiving, they prepared turkey meals and placed the food boxes in reusable to-go bags.

 

During a two-hour period, 40 clients came at appointed times to our 10 Nottingham Place main office to pick up their meals in bags that also contained hand sanitizers, wipes, masks, dishwashing detergents, and craft supplies for the kids. 

 

Before COVID-19 Thanksgiving was always celebrated at our various family support centers with turkey meals, craft making, and lucky drawing. We also shared our stories about how this American tradition is celebrated.

Photos...

Financial Literacy Workshop

We invited Dora Lau, First VP and Relationship Manager of Preferred Bank, to present a workshop on “How to Prevent Financial Fraud & Identity Theft” on December 1. We had a total of 25 participants – clients and others who heard about this event through social media.

 

Even though questions were submitted in advance, attendees raised more questions during the Q&A session; most were related to online payments such as Venmo & Zelle and on identity theft. Some shared their stories of stolen credit card woes and stolen SSNs. The workshop was very informative and well received.

Workshops for the Community

An informative workshop on "Life Insurance" was recently presented to participants from our family support centers' client base as well as social media contacts. Topics included why life insurance is necessary, how to prepare for retirement, how this product has evolved over the years, and other options besides buying life insurance.

Financial Literacy workshops

presented by Cathay Bank's team  
December 14 - "Your Savings" 

December 16 - "How to Buy A Home"

3:00 - 4:00 pm

Online Safety workshop in Cantonese presented by

APA's Financial Economic Success team
December 18 - "How to Recognize and
Avoid
Phishing Scams" 

1:30 - 3:30 pm

Domestic Violence - Mother Support Group

December 21 - 23 (3 sessions)

1:00 - 2:00 pm

Sessions are mainly focused on self-care activities to help families ease their stress during COVID-19; the tensions at home; and worry about family/relationship problems. Participants will learn how to stay positive and relaxed, practice yoga and mindfulness, and engage in fun activities.

Virtual workshops for the community will continue in 2021. In January, there will be workshops on environmental health/ hazard topics: mercury in fish/seafood and nutrition; and indoor air quality awareness especially with the pandemic pushing people to stay indoors.

Holiday Care Boxes...

 

Shout-outs to Comerica Bank for their two donations funding for our Holiday Essential Care Box Drive and Moms Against Poverty for donating essential supplies for the care boxes. Thanks to all the donors who have responded to this holiday drive!

 

Our Care Box and Toy Drive continues...You can still contribute to this cause until DEC 31 before midnight.

 

Online: at www.apafss.org/donation-form.html
By Mail: make check payable to

APA Family Support Services

10 Nottingham Place, San Francisco, CA 94133-4523

APA Family Support Services is a 501(c)(3) non-profit agency. Your contribution to support APA is tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

(See IRS.gov, Special $300 tax deduction...)

Looking Forward to 2021...

 

During this challenging and unprecedented year, APA Family Support Services would like to express our heartfelt appreciation for your support. We are deeply grateful to our donors and grantors for their funding, enabling us to expand services to address our community's needs. We are thankful for our partners’ collaboration and our volunteers’ time in serving those severely impacted by this dual health and economic crisis in our community.

We look forward to resuming our in-person programs and seeing you at our Gala in 2021.
All good wishes to you & yours,

Rick Yuen, Executive Director

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Our mission is to promote healthy children and families by providing family support services to prevent child abuse and domestic violence. We also advocate for culturally competent services for Asians and Pacific Islanders through education, community building and leadership development.
 
APA Family Support Services is a 501(c)(3) non-profit agency. Your contribution to support APA is tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Chair  Rose Chung  Asian America Foundation

President  Cary Chen  Recology  
Vice President  Jacqueline Huie First Republic Bank

Secretary  Julie Hoxie  Human Resources Administration
Treasurer  Joyce Tso, CPA/ABV  ASAM, LLP

Mai-Sie Chan, M.D.  Private Practice
Van Diep  KTSF-TV, Channel 26

Fanny Lam  Lam Wing Ah Real Estate Investment Broker

 

Kory Lam  HSBC Bank (USA)

Jennifer Ng, M.D.  Kaiser Permanente San Francisco
Susan Sung, Ph.D., Professor Emerita  

San Francisco State University

Sonya Trac  Comerica Bank, Northern California

Dean Yao, Ph.D.  Mode Analytics


EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR  

Rick Yuen, MSW

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