PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Sept 8, 2009
Asian American Family Services Receives Major Funds for Children Mental Health
Houston, TX – The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health has announced that Asian American Family Services has been awarded totaling $498,979 to implement Project SHINE (Support Health, Inspire Neighborhood Everyday), making it the first and the largest children mental health program focusing on Asian population in Houston.
War, displacement, unemployment, poverty, language barriers, lack of a support network, low socioeconomic status, housing unaffordability and neighborhood violence are magnified stressors contribute to higher risk of mental illness. Each year in the U.S., more Asian American women ages 15 to 24 commit suicide than any other ethnic group. Community education about the nature of mental health and early intervention are the keys to effective mental health promotion. Project SHINE encourages parents and caregivers of at-risk Asian children in obtaining and using the skills and knowledge needed to reconnect families and assist in mental health promotion approaches with their children.
Project SHINE addresses the mental health issues among the at-risk children in the Asian communities. This 3-year project is built upon a strong foundation of collaboration with Alief Independent School District and Houston Independent School District, and focuses on the four linguistically distinct Asian sub-ethnic groups: Vietnamese, South Asians, Chinese, and Burmese. The purpose of the Project is to provide prevention, mental health promotion and treatment for 680 at-risk Asian children, predominantly low-income immigrants and refugees, ages 11 to 19.
About AAFS
Asian American Family Services is the only mental health focused social services in Texas providing bilingual and bicultural counseling and family support services for the mostly indigent immigrant Asian Americans. Project SHINE will make possible a giant step forward in meeting the mental health challenges in the Asian communities whose multi-lingual and multi-ethnic make-up is a challenge in itself to accessing mental health care.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Dion Or
Director of Development and Communications
Tel: 713-339-3688
Fax: 713-339-3699
Email: dion.or@aafstexas.org
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