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FFDY and YMCA to Assist Chinese Families with Disabled Children
Arcadia Weekly May 31, 2012
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As part of its ongoing commitment to broaden its support for the disabled children, Foundation for Disabled Youths (FFDY), a eight-year old non-profit organization that serves the Chinese special needs community announced today a strategic alliance with West San Gabriel Valley YMCA to jointly provide programs for the Chinese special needs kids in the San Gabriel Valley. This new alliance is called F.Y.I. and will be co-sponsored by both organizations.
“The Chinese community has traditionally been isolated from the mainstream society and their special needs children are even more sheltered because of their disabilities. By teaming up with YMCA, FFDY hopes to give the special needs children a place to enjoy themselves and their families a venue to be part of their community,” said Steve Huang, Program Coordinator for this new alliance. “No one represents the community better than YMCA and we are thrilled to be partnering with them. It is a groundbreaking watershed moment for all involved. ”
F.Y.I. provides a platform that mobilizes local Chinese families, bridging them to the mainstream. In the initial phase, regular workshops will be given at YMCA empowering families with special needs children to gain access to the services available to them. Various recreational and therapeutic programs will also be scheduled with trained therapists to assist these kids with their physical exercises. These programs will be developed and supervised by REACH Integrated Services, a licensed provider by the state of California to administer behavior management for autistic kids.
“YMCA is the integral part of our community,” said Valarie Gomez, CEO of West San Gabriel Valley YMCA, “We are constantly in search of better ways to bring everyone in our community to YMCA so that we can strengthen our community and bring everyone together. On an annual basis, we have over 100,000 people walking into our front door but we want to do more for our neighborhood. YMCA is not just a gym. With these new programs, we aim to become the resource center for families in our community.”
FFDY has been providing regular weekend programs to special needs children in Hacienda Heights area for the past 8 years. “This partnership with YMCA is a big step for the Chinese community,” said Ben Su, President of FFDY “For too long Chinese community are ignoring resources available in our very neighborhood. FFDY wants to remove that barrier. In the past, FFDY has organized trainings for Chinese parents but we realized that we were limited to what we could do because of our insular thinking. With this partnership, we have taken a major step forward. Our goal is not just to provide them a support network. We are showing them how to build a better support network. ”
Over the next few weeks, FFDY and YMCA will be announcing the implementation details of these exciting new programs. “F.Y.I. will be an evolving program because these families’ needs are constantly changing.” said Steve Huang, “We won’t be reinventing new wheels. Our strategy is to leverage off existing services and streamline the delivery mechanism. F.Y.I. aims to be a portal of service consolidator.”
