Grand Opening of Asian American Family Service Center

Asian American Family Services is the only mental health focused social service agency providing bi-lingual and bi-cultural services for the ethnically and linguistically diverse pan-Asian population in the greater Houston area. Staff speaks more than 10 Asian languages including Burmese, Chinese, Korean, Hindi, Urdu, and Vietnamese and serves over 2,000 families every year.

The economic downturn has greatly affected the Asian community locally, particularly the thousands of immigrant and refugee families who call Houston home. With the proposed budget cut of $90 million in the State mental health budget, the impact will be more significant among those with language and cultural barriers.

“The Asian American Family Services is often the last place Houstonians can turn to when they have language, cultural and financial barriers in terms of accessing care, especially mental health care,” said Kim Szeto, executive director of the only non-profit community-based mental health focused social service agency serving the pan-Asian community in Texas. “AAFS was formed in 1994 to deal with the challenges of availability, accessibility and utilization of mental health and social services for the ethnically and linguistically diverse Asian community,” added Munir Ibrahim, president of the board of directors.

The Asian American Family Services has now relocated to the heart of Asia-town (on Belaire Blvd).