Arab-American Family Support Center

The Arab-American Family Support Center (AAFSC) provides culturally and linguistically competent social services to immigrants and refugees in NYC. AAFSC staff speak 27 languages to support NYC’s diverse Asian American communities, including Bangla, Urdu, Hindi, Mandarin, Japanese, and Nepali. AAFSC operates across four priority areas - promote, prevent, get ready, and communicate - to promote wellness, prevent violence and abuse, prepare immigrants to lead productive lives, and communicate community needs to partners and policymakers. Our programs include adult education, youth enrichment, mental health counseling, health insurance/SNAP enrollment, domestic violence case management, parenting classes, emergency financial assistance, and legal services.

About the Organization:

New Jersey • New York

The Issue:

The challenges of this past year have exacerbated pre-existing poverty, racism, and trauma faced by the Asian American communities our agency serves. Particularly, anti-Asian hate crimes in NYC grew 1900% in 2020. According to NYCCHR, incidents of discrimination “have serious consequences for mental health” and correspond with increased risk of depression. We have observed that immigrants we serve – already grappling with limited resources and acculturative stressors – are experiencing severe mental health struggles in this climate of hostility and discrimination.AAFSC witnessed a 350% increase in mental health counseling services in 2020, and 45% of surveyed clients reported feeling “down, depressed, or hopeless” at least “several days” in the last two weeks. AAFSC seeks funding to expand our capacity to meet this need. Due to the limited linguistic/cultural capacity of mainstream providers, AAFSC is often unable to refer clients elsewhere and has a significant waitlist for our counseling services.

The Solution:

With your support, AAFSC will address the increasing mental health needs of Asian Americans through our community education initiative, Reclaiming Our Health (ROH), and individual mental health counseling.

ROH unites members of NYC’s immigrant and refugee communities through workshops that destigmatize mental healthcare, create a platform for culturally specific stressors, and encourage the community to partner on innovative interventions. In these workshops, we will equip attendees to become mental health advocates who promote ideals of resiliency in their communities. Community advocates will be trained to assist others who are struggling with trauma, discrimination, and acculturative stress, expanding the impact of our work to the sprawling networks of the Asian American community members we serve.

AAFSC will supplement community-level education with direct mental health counseling for individual clients. As members of the Asian American community themselves, our clinicians provide unique culturally and linguistically competent support and build distinctive trust with clients.

Arab-American Family Support Center