Coalition for Hispanic Family Services (CHFS)
CHFS is a nonprofit community-based organization located in Brooklyn, New York. They serve the North Brooklyn communities of Bushwick, Williamsburg, and East New York and the Queens communities of Ridgewood, Elmhurst, and Corona. Established in 1990, CHFS provides services to Latino children and families as well as other populations in communities where significant numbers of families struggle with meeting their basic needs.
Mission: CHFS ensures children, youth, and families have essential resources needed to empower themselves. They also help immigrants enforce their cultural identity. as well as helping people coming from immigrants reinforce their cultural identity. A comprehensive, culturally competent, family-based approach is used to achieve their mission.
Services offered: Foster care, family mental health services, after-school and summer programs, parenting support programs, as well as child abuse prevention.
Languages: Most services are available in English, Spanish, and other languages.
Contact information:
Address: 315 Wyckoff Ave 4th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11237
Phone: (718) 497-6090
Email: info@hispanicfamilyservicesny.org
Below are introductions to a few social services offered by CHFS. To learn more about the family-focused services offered to their target communities, please visit their website https://www.hispanicfamilyservicesny.org/
After-school and Summer Programs
Arts & Literary After School & Summer Program:
The Arts and Literacy After School and Summer Program provide children with a range of educational activities which are designed to help them develop creative thinking and problem-solving skills.
Activities offered: creative writing, visual arts, theater, photography, creative movement, music, martial arts, media literacy, gardening, and Yoga. Their curriculum is tailored to suit children's interests and strengths. The program also offers a wide range of family-based activities including monthly Family Arts Nights, family literacy workshops, and family educational trips.
Foster Care
Creando Raices Familiares/Creating Family Roots Foster Care & Adoption Program:
This program offers community-based foster care, adoption, home finding, and independent living for teens, as well as additional services such as housing advocacy, education, and training for youth, birth parents and resource parents. These services are offered in both English and Spanish.
Treatment Family Foster Care:
This program offers community-based placements for seriously emotionally disturbed children who have also been abused or abandoned. They offer therapeutic activities and care with the aim of helping address these children’s mental health needs. This program also works closely with birth parents to facilitate reunification.
Services for Family Development
Child Abuse Prevention and Family Treatment and Rehabilitation Services:
Preventive Family Support Services is a free counseling and referral assistance program for families in crisis. It seeks to empower families during family crises by connecting them to community-based services and providing general counseling and support throughout their participation in the program.
Preventive family support services offered by this program:
Counseling and support during a family crisis, including domestic violence counseling
Assistance in meeting your child’s developmental needs, including organizing group activities for mothers and infants
Information on community services you may be eligible for
Referral assistance to access a variety of programs such as public assistance and other benefits, education/vocational services, prenatal assistance, child care, and Head Start programs
Assistance in getting mental health services and/or substance abuse services
Locations services are offered:
- Bushwick
- Brooklyn,
- Ridgewood
- Maspeth Queens communities
. To be eligible, families must:
have children from birth to 21 years old
be pregnant, or be a family in which someone needs help with substance abuse and/or mental health issues, or
be a family at risk of having a child placed in foster care
Clients also are accepted through referrals from local community providers, daycares, schools, or mental health providers. Referrals can either be made by phone or walk-ins. Referrals are accepted from City agencies, ACS, NYCHA, and DHS. Local community providers; daycares, schools, or mental health providers, to name a few, can also make referrals by phone. Family walk-ins are also accepted.
First Steps/Primeros Pasos:
This is a supportive parent-infant program focusing on educating parents through a group experience.
Eligibility: All parents who have children aged from birth to 2.5 years of age are eligible to participate in this program.
This program aims to facilitate a positive, nurturing relationship between parents and children, as well as help parents better prepare themselves for the experience of parenthood through a series of group activities. Parents can also participate in adult groups that facilitate the personal development of parents. The types of group experience offered by this program include mothers-Infant groups, parents-infant groups, prenatal groups, and personal development groups.
Social Services offered: Home visiting services, case management services, advocacy and referral services, and counseling services.
All staff are competent in Spanish and trained in parent-child development. If you are interested in participating in this program or learning more about it, please call (718) 497-1955 or visit CHFS’s office at 315 Wyckoff Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11237.
Mental Health Services
Bonding Links/En Lazos Familiares Mental Health Services for Children & Families:
This program offers clinical services to enable children to grow up to become healthy adults.
Services offered: Psychiatric evaluation, group psychotherapy for children, resource parents (foster parents) and biological parents, as well as crisis intervention services.
They also established a behavioral health program licensed by the New York State Office of Mental Health which aims to address various mental health and emotional issues experienced by immigrant families. It strives to offer culturally sensitive services for children and youth. The outpatient clinic is composed of licensed bilingual clinical staff and certified child psychiatrists prepared to help children address emotional and behavioral issues.
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