Filipino Youth to Benefit From Grant to Asian American Recovery Services

PALO ALTO – The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health has awarded $200,000, over two years, to Asian American Recovery Services (AARS), for a program that will foster resiliency in Daly City’s Filipino youth.

The grant is one of 17 awards totaling $2.2 million announced Dec. 18 by Stephen Peeps, foundation president and CEO.

AARS, which was started in 1985 with a mission to reduce substance abuse in the Asian and Pacific Islander communities of the San Francisco Bay Area, will use the funds to develop and implement “Project Lakas,” meaning inherent strength, at three middle schools in Daly City. The program is based on research by the Search Institute that identifies 40 critical factors necessary for young people’s growth and development. The 40-asset model will be modified so that it is culturally and linguistically appropriate for Filipino youth.

In focus groups conducted by AARS earlier this year, Filipino high school students in Daly City acknowledged exposure to drug sales, alcohol, tobacco and drug use, and violence in middle school or earlier. In Daly City, Filipino youth have the second- highest dropout rates.

“We believe very strongly that strength-based, youth development models may work even better after they have been modified to a specific ethnic community’s sensibilities and values,” said David Mineta, program manager at AARS.

La Fundación Lucile Packard para la Salud Infantil otorga subvenciones en los condados de Santa Clara y San Mateo en dos áreas: proteger a los niños de 0 a 5 años de lesiones, con énfasis en la prevención del abuso y la negligencia infantil; y promover la salud conductual, mental y emocional en los preadolescentes.

Los otros beneficiarios de San Mateo y sus premios son: Bay Area Community Resources, $150,000, over three years, for its New Perspectives Middle School Youth Enrichment and Leadership Program; the Cleo Eulau Center, $100,000, over three years, to evaluate the effectiveness of a program that reaches troubled youth through teachers; the Edgewood Center for Children, $200,000, over two years, to expand its San Mateo Kinship Support Network program for children being raised by grandparents or other relatives; Friends for Youth, $100,000, over two years, for its Mentoring Assistance Program; Pacific Islander Outreach, $100,000 over three years, for its Parenting Program which targets Pacific Islander parents living in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park who are at risk of abusing and neglecting their children; Samaritan House, $102,000, over two years, to support the hiring of a full-time community worker who will focus on outreach to families with children, ages 0 to 5, who are at risk of abuse and neglect; Shelter Network of San Mateo County, a two-year, $100,000 grant to support the “0 – 5 Children’s Program” for homeless children and their families; the Community Learning Center, $100,000, over two years, for an after-school program that takes place at the South San Francisco Public Library; United Cerebral Palsy Association of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, $100,000, over two years, to gather data on the maltreatment of children with disabilities, ages 0 to 5, in San Mateo County.

La Fundación Lucile Packard para la Salud Infantil otorga subvenciones comunitarias dos veces al año. Los fondos para este programa, que comenzó en enero de 2000, provienen del fondo de dotación de la fundación. Una subvención de la Fundación de California apoya las iniciativas de la fundación en el desarrollo juvenil y la reducción de conductas de alto riesgo en preadolescentes. Hasta la fecha, 60 agencias han recibido subvenciones de la fundación por un total de 1,4 millones de dólares.

La fundación se estableció como una organización benéfica pública en 1996, cuando el Hospital Infantil Lucile Salter Packard, anteriormente independiente, se incorporó al Centro Médico de la Universidad de Stanford. Su misión es «promover, proteger y mantener la salud física, mental, emocional y conductual de los niños». Es totalmente independiente de la Fundación David y Lucile Packard, con sede en Los Altos.

Para obtener más información sobre el programa de subvenciones comunitarias de la fundación, llame al (650) 736-0676 o visite el sitio web, www.lpfch.org.