Womens Division Christian Service Gum Moon Residence Hall

Gum Moon and its neighborhood outreach program, Asian Women’s Resource Center, help address the issues immigrant women and children face by offering programs that support them. Our parent and child programs help parents become confident caregivers who are connected to each other and the community, while simultaneously helping their children develop socially, physically and academically.

Gum Moon also provides transitional housing and supportive services to women who have survived domestic violence, sexual assault or human trafficking. Each women can stay for up to eighteen months, and pays only what she is able to afford. Gum Moon provides an onsite mental health counselor, and connects each women to a variety of community resources to meet her individual needs, including additional trauma and counseling services, legal support, employment and job readiness training, ESL classes, higher education, and enrollment in government benefits.

Gum Moon also provides permanent low-income housing to seniors and other members of the immigrant community who would otherwise be unable to afford housing. And, when space is available, women served in the Transitional Housing Program are able to move into Gum Moon’s permanent affordable housing.

The Early Childhood Development and Parent Support Program (ECD-PSP) was created using evidence-based best practices in early childhood development and parenting. The curriculum used is HighScope, which promotes parent-child bonding and SEL.

ECD-PSP also adheres to the Five Protective Factors Approach:

1) Caregiver Resilience is cultivated by connecting caregivers to each other during the program, and the ongoing support they provide to one another outside of class. Caregivers learn that they are not alone with challenges related to long hours of childcare, housework, or working while raising children. Through these networks, caregivers learn best practices, develop support systems including friendships, and find more happiness in their lives.
2) Social Connections: In addition to connecting caregivers with their peers, ECD-PSP connects them with their communities--informing them of events/activities that will further develop their social circles.
3) Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development is achieved directly through evidence-based curriculum, which includes guest speakers for specific topics.
4) Concrete Support in Times of Need is provided in class, and through Gum Moon’s holistic family services that can continue even after ECD-PSP. These include mental health counseling, case management and information and referral services.
5) Social-Emotional Competence of Children is nurtured as caregivers strengthen their bonds with their children through class activities and as their children play with other children. Each teacher is trained in SEL for the age of the children they serve; SEL is a major curriculum focus.

The curriculum also incorporates the Positive Parenting Program to help caregivers reduce their stress and build their parenting confidence, and Keys to Integrative Parenting, to promote and assess healthy parent-child relationships. Caregivers are taught how to engage in play that encourages bonding, SEL, and early literacy--and guided on how to replicate these activities at home. This programming cultivates caregiver knowledge, skills, and confidence to reduce mental health issues and emotional and behavioral problems in their children.

ECD-PSP also provides:

1) Quarterly pre-natal workshops covering pregnancy-related depression, breastfeeding, referrals, discussion time for peer bonding, and enrollment in the infant class for seamless support.
2) Formal speech and mental health assessments for each child at intake to identify/support any learning obstacles.
3) Professional mental health counseling, the need for which is often identified in its early stages by the program’s teachers.
4) Case management as needed
5) Additional services:
- Infant Massage
- Benefit enrollment
- Access to free/discounted diapers
- Warm referrals to childcare and other community resources

Gum Moon has a 150-year legacy of serving women and girls, survivors of violence, and underserved newcomers to America. The Affordable Transitional Housing for Women Who Have Survived Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault or Human Trafficking Program has operated for 20 years.

Cultural and Linguistic Competence

All of the Transitional Housing Program’s staff are female Asian immigrants who have experienced the difficulties of being an immigrant. They are able to relate to the female, mostly Asian immigrant clientele and use their own experiences to develop rapport. To successfully support all clients, Gum Moon is a partner in the Asian Women’s Shelter’s Multilingual Access Model Project, which enables staff to utilize 200 Language Advocates who can provide translation assistance for languages other than English, Chinese, or Vietnamese (which are fluently spoken by current staff), and can also guide Gum Moon in providing culturally appropriate services.

Community Partnerships

Gum Moon also has longstanding partnerships with over a dozen community agencies to maintain a continuum of care for our clients, including API Legal Outreach, Asian Women’s Shelter, Cameron House, Chinatown Public Health Center, and the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium.

Experienced Staff with Shared Life Experiences

All program staff are Asian immigrants. The Executive Director, Gloria Tan, has led the agency for 34 years, and successfully manages all agency programs, including the Affordable Transitional Housing for Women Who Have Survived Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault or Human Trafficking Program, which she helped establish. Gloria is fluent in English, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Toishanese. The Program Associate, Eliza Wong, served survivors of abuse at Asian Women’s Shelter for 16 years before coming to Gum Moon. She provides the majority of the program’s services including intake, referrals, and day-to-day support of the residents’ needs. Eliza is fluent in English, Cantonese and Mandarin. The contracted position is the program’s Mental Health Counselor, Cynthia Tam. Cynthia is bilingual and is also a licensed therapist with the Chinatown Department of Public Health. The Evening Program Associate, Eva Luong, has been with the agency for 34 years and is fluent in English, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Vietnamese. She assists with project operations and oversees the program on weekends and evenings. In addition to decades of field experience, her background includes extensive training in working with survivors of abuse. The residence is cared for by Wei Kun Su. Wei has been providing janitorial services at Gum Moon for 10 years.

Each year for over 20 years, Gum Moon has provided transitional housing and programming to a minimum of 15 women, and has consistently achieved 100% of the program's goals. The Permanent Affordable Housing Program has existed for the past 80 years, helping low-income Asian women avoid homelessness and live within a residence that is culturally and linguistically supportive of their needs.

Examples of the overall Transitional Housing’s Program’s short term impact in 2018 include helping 65% of clients apply for General Assistance, enroll in CalFresh or Covered California.

Examples of the program’s long-term impact for these clients includes:
• 95% improved their English or other workforce skills
• 100% obtained safe, long-term housing after the program
• 70% enrolled in higher education
• 30% found employment (many women served do not have a legal immigrant visa; Gum Moon supports them as they pursue a visa)

What's Next

The Transitional Housing Program’s short-term objectives are to provide safe and affordable housing with culturally and trauma-appropriate support services for women, most of whom are Asian immigrants, who have experienced domestic violence, sexual assault and/or human trafficking. The long-term objectives are to provide clients with the education, employment training, mental health services and life skills they will need to live emotionally healthy and financially self-sufficient lives.

The Permanent Affordable Housing Programs objectives are to keep seniors and other women with low-incomes from becoming homeless or be forced out of the City and away from their networks of family, friends and supportive City services.