About Us

A Message from the Executive Director

Over the past quarter century, AARS has served tens of thousands of youth and adults through a variety of education, prevention, and treatment services while garnering national recognition for our culturally competent model programs. Not long after AARS’ inception, we could proudly reflect on our accomplishments within the Asian and Pacific Islander community and also acknowledged the formidable challenges and opportunities of serving other disenfranchised populations. Our programs in San Francisco demonstrated that we needed to expand our reach to impacted communities living in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties as well as providing services to a significant number of clients outside the Asian American community. The result has been the development of a broad range of services to diverse populations, which in turn has strengthen our core belief that culturally competent services make a difference in the lives of individuals and families.

AARS has maintained a healthy and stable financial position and is recognized for its sound strategies. The AARS board of directors and staff has been engaged in strategic planning, revising our plans over the last three years responding to the lingering recession. The current economic recession has severely impacted many community non-profit organizations, and AARS is no exception. We have experienced drastic budget cuts to our federal, state and local contracts resulting in a reduction in staff and services. But our infrastructure and fiscal management remain sound, enabling us to efficiently operate and deliver services to those in need. More importantly, we have never lost sight of our core vision and mission thanks in large part to the competent and dedicated efforts of the AARS staff and management.

In order to continue forward to the next 25 years, we are working diligently to align the agency to the new models of service provisioning and funding due to the passage of the federal Health Care Reform and the Mental Health Parity Acts. While the impacts of these new laws on AARS’ service programs are still being analyzed, one thing is clear – there is now public recognition of the interrelationship between substance abuse, mental health and primary care. Like our founding members, we know that these connections matter to the success of our clients and are glad to know our work and experience position our agency for these coming changes. While future events are unpredictable, we are excited to continue our work in strengthening and building healthier communities.

Jeff Mori
Executive Director