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.

The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health makes grants in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties in two areas: protecting children ages 0 to 5 from injury, with an emphasis on preventing child abuse and neglect; and promoting behavioral, mental and emotional health in preteens.

The other San Mateo grantees and their awards are: 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.

Quỹ Lucile Packard vì Sức khỏe Trẻ em tài trợ cộng đồng hai lần mỗi năm. Kinh phí cho chương trình tài trợ, bắt đầu từ tháng 1 năm 2000, đến từ nguồn quỹ của quỹ. Một khoản tài trợ hợp tác từ Quỹ California Endowment giúp hỗ trợ các nỗ lực của quỹ trong việc phát triển thanh thiếu niên và giảm thiểu hành vi nguy cơ cao ở trẻ vị thành niên. Đến nay, 60 cơ quan đã nhận được tài trợ với tổng trị giá $6,9 triệu đô la từ quỹ.

Quỹ được thành lập như một tổ chức từ thiện công cộng vào năm 1996, khi Bệnh viện Nhi đồng Lucile Salter Packard trước đây độc lập trở thành một phần của Trung tâm Y tế Đại học Stanford. Sứ mệnh của quỹ là "thúc đẩy, bảo vệ và duy trì sức khỏe thể chất, tinh thần, cảm xúc và hành vi của trẻ em". Quỹ hoàn toàn độc lập với Quỹ David và Lucile Packard có trụ sở tại Los Altos.

Để biết thêm thông tin về chương trình tài trợ cộng đồng của quỹ, hãy gọi (650) 736-0676 hoặc truy cập trang web www.lpfch.org.