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    New Year, New Ventures  apafss.org  |  January 2018

         We are going bi-monthly with six issues starting January. 

BEST WISHES to you for a great beginning to a healthy and prosperous new year! 
Thanks to donors of our Toy Drive Happy Hour, online fundraising campaign, and new toy/gifts, we met our goal of procuring 500 holiday gifts, with a combined value of $10k, for APA children.

SAVE THE DATE - APA Annual Gala, July 22, 2018
What's New, What's Happened
CHILDREN'S ORAL HEALTH PROGRAM:  February is National Children's Dental Health Month. 
APA was selected to facilitate the District 10 Children's Oral Health Task Force to address the silent epidemic of cavities in young African American children (40-50%). APA joins the work of addressing this health challenge with two other community task forces focused on Latino and Chinese children. APA assisted with the development of the Chinatown Oral Health Task Force and participates as a member. The work involves engaging the community along with dental and medical resources to avoid this 100% preventable condition.
 
FOOD PANTRY CAMPAIGN:  More residents in the Sunnydale housing neighborhood should be taking advantage of the year-round, weekly Food Pantry at the Sunnydale Community Center to get fresh food and save on their grocery bill. As a community service awareness promotion, and in conjunction with Early Literacy promotion, three banners are installed on light poles close to the community center on Sunnydale Avenue. Flyers were distributed to 750 area residents door to door to encourage Food Pantry enrollment.
EARLY LITERACY CAMPAIGN:  According to First 5 California's website, talking, reading, and singing, when done daily, can help boost a baby's brain development. In January we launched a "Learning through play" Early Literacy promotion in Visitacion Valley. Our family center Visitacion Valley Strong Families offers a year-round, weekly parent-child interactive group called "Play & Glow." Three light pole banners each are installed at Leland and Bayshore and on Sunnydale Avenue in the proximity of the Sunnydale Community Center. We distributed flyers with information on talkingisteaching.org, text4baby.org and Play & Glow to 750 households door to door in the community.
 
REMODELING COMPLETED AT VISITACION VALLEY STRONG FAMILIES:  Our 50 Raymond Avenue office, located on the second floor, got an upgrade in late Fall of 2017. Thanks to a grant from San Francisco Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development, we were able to install a vertical platform lift. The office space was modified to maximize space efficiency and restrooms are now wheelchair accessible. On our wish list is a sink with running water in the small kitchen/food pantry.
 
MANAGEMENT REORGANIZATION:  APA Family Support Services is growing fast and moving forward. This year APA restructures its program and staffing to adapt to the changing social and cultural environment – to better address the needs in the community and the priorities of our funder.

The program management team includes Farmmary Saephan, Program Director for the API Family Resource Network (APIFRN), Program Manager, Susan Dip (Child Welfare - Family Violence) and Program Manager, Jack Siu (Family Support). Herbert Dong, Associate Director, leads the Family Economic Success program, and Lillian Lai is the Behavioral Health Program Director. The program leadership team has a combination of over 30 years of experience at APA and advocating for San Francisco’s families and communities. We currently have a staff of 47 and 10 interns, and over 100 volunteers throughout the year to help us keep moving forward.

We strive to strengthen APA’s infrastructure, leverage resources and build community partnership. Our focus is to strengthen families to empower communities. Thank you for your continuing patience, support and commitment to our agency, programs, and services.
 
Program Success Pregnant, Homeless, and Single

During our Community Family Day in June 2017, we encountered three women among our participants who were pregnant, homeless, and single. These women were high risk and have not received any prenatal health services. After intake, our staff immediately helped enroll them in health insurance and connected these expecting moms to temporary housing. We then scheduled them to stop by our family center so staff can accompany them to a free clinic for check-up. To further support the mothers, we provided information on our parenting and health classes, schedules for free baby diapers, clothes pick-up and baby boxes. 

The good news is all three women continue to participate in our New Mother Support Group. Two of them have given birth to healthy babies while the third mom is due at the end of January. We are glad to have played a role in changing the life stories of these moms and babies.
 

EVENTS
Upcoming
Lunar New Year Celebrations in February: APA Chinatown Family Support Center's event will be planned by parent leaders with the support from the Parents Club. The funding comes from First 5 San Francisco to support parent empowerment. Parent leaders have to work within a budget and negotiate with vendors on food items and supplies for activities. The event will be held during Discovery Land. Some participants will bring home cooked new year dishes to share. We are grateful that a couple of donors will supplement our food budget. Celebrations will also be held in our family centers in Excelsior and Visitacion Valley.
Chinese New Year Community Street Fair: As part of our year-round outreach, APA participates in community events and street fairs. This year, the Chinese Community Street Fair is on February 24 and 25. Our team will be there at APA's booth on Grant Avenue. Come visit if you are going to the street fair.
Recent
Thanksgiving Celebrations 2017: The Visitacion Valley community held its 6th Annual Healthy Thanksgiving event on November 18, sponsored by CPMC and APA's Visitacion Strong Families with 18 participating agencies. River of Life Church prepared traditional Thanksgiving meals to serve the attendees. There were lots of activities for children including the ever-popular petting zoo. CLICK for photos.

Also on November 18, our Chinatown Family Support Center organized a Thanksgiving program for clients. Over 40 families attended this event which was held at our main office at 10 Nottingham Place. Both children and their parents enjoyed a bingo game after a buffet lunch with turkey. We are thankful to have several volunteers help our team with set up, food serving, children's activities, and clean up. Click for photos.

Holiday Gift Wrapping, Toy Drive: A heartfelt thank you to all who contributed their time, money and resources to make the holidays brighter for the children at our client families.

On December 3, members of NAAAP-SF and Nakayoshi Young Professionals convened at our main office to wrap presents donated by NAAAP. Two other volunteers also came by to wrap the gifts they brought along. CLICK for photos. And on December 14, Urban Fam, APA's young professionals group, got together with friends and family to wrap holiday presents for the children of APA client families.

On December 7, Urban Fam, organized a Toy Drive Happy Hour at Mr. Tipple’s. Funds were raised from raffles and drink proceeds as well as donations to purchase toys. We also received toy donations from MAP’s Holiday Helping Hand, Toy Drive at HSBC Daly City branch’s holiday event, and holidays donation event at Marsh and McLennan Insurance Agency LLC. CYC's Newcomer Club donated some oversized stuffed animals for our family support centers.

APA Families Holiday Parties:  111 children and their parents, 20 volunteers, and APA staff gathered on December 17 for our annual holiday event and dinner at Chinatown YMCA. Representatives from NAAAP-SF presented their gifts for K-5 students. Our very own Santa was at the photo booth station to pose with families. The children had fun with various activities. Several lucky raffle winners took home cookware, baby strollers, and scooters. We also held separate in-program holiday parties in Visitacion Valley and Tenderloin. Parents unable to attend the parties also had the opportunity to pick up gifts for their children at any one of our sites. We provided over 700 gifts and toys during the holiday. CLICK for photos.

 
APA Board Holiday Lunch:  Board members, families and friends gathered for a holiday lunch at 10 Nottingham Place to celebrate a year of service to support APA. The children enjoyed fun activities: arts and crafts and bingo, led by board members Fanny Lam and Kory Lam.

Board trivia: current board members have a total of 13 children aged 8 and under, plus one birth anticipated in February!
SUPPORT
Your donation will help APA continue our work in providing services to the low- and moderate-income families in San Francisco. GIVE online.
Examples of the ways in which your cash donation impact us:
$50 - A child receives backpack & supplies for school readiness and success
$100 - Provides one session of Accelerated ESL Class for new immigrant & refugee families  
$250 - Provide four sessions of case management to a Domestic Violence family
$350 - Supports a month of parent-child interactive group  
$500 - Allows for 10 isolated families to join our annual Family Excursion Day

 
To donate by check, please mail to:
APA Family Support Services
10 Nottingham Place, San Francisco, CA 94133
 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS   
Chair  Rose Chung  Miss Asian Global Pageant  |  President  Cary Chen  Recology  
Vice President  Jacqueline Huie First Republic Bank  |  Secretary  Julie Hoxie  University of California, Berkeley
Treasurer  Joyce Tso, CPA/ABV  ASAM, LLP  |  Mai-Sie Chan, M.D.  Private Practice
Van Diep  KTSF-TV, Channel 26  |  Stephen Koh, CLF  MassMutual Financial Group
Fanny Lam  Paragon Commercial Brokerage  |  Kory Lam  HSBC Bank (USA)
Susan Sung, Ph.D., Professor Emerita  San Francisco State University  |  Dean Yao, Ph.D.  Jinfonet Software 
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR   Amor Santiago, DPM, MPH
APA Family Support Services
10 Nottingham Place, San Francisco, CA 94133  |  apafss.org  |  info@apafss.org
 
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