Kapwa Kultural Center

The mission of Kapwa Kultural Center (KKC) is to integrate culturally affirming programming for Filipina/x/o youth that combines leadership skills, workforce preparedness, entrepreneurial mentorship, and ethnic studies to support positive cultural identity formation and mental health education.

Our approach

KKC is committed to cultivating a culturally-affirming and community responsive space that supports positive cultural identity formation. Through offering educational programs that honor cultural traditions, practices, and rituals (e.g. mural making, art creation, poetry, spoken word, dance, movement, and other art forms)., youth and community can achieve wellness.

While KKC is founded in the core values of Kapwa and Ginhawa, it is also an intergenerationally engaging health and wellness center delivering services to the general community. KKC intends to serve the broader public, but most specifically, providing a culturally affirming space for the Filipino/a/x community.

With Daly City as one of the highest concentrations of Filipina/x/os in the United States, establishing a historical landmark as one of the first social enterprise means that community will have access to innovative health and wellness services to ensure optimum mental health and wellbeing.

How We Came to Be

Kapwa Kultural Center was birthed from the Filipino Mental Health Initiative San Mateo County chapter. The mission of FMHI SMC is to improve the well-being of Filipinos by connecting community members with culturally relevant resouces and services. The work of FMHI SMC emphasizes community collaboration and strengthening our network through intentional collaboration.

Stephanie Balon, LMFT and Christi Morales-Kumasawa, AMFT, both Pinay mental health clinicians, serve as FMHI SMC Co-Chairs. Stephanie became a co-chair in 2011, while Christi started as a volunteer in 2012 and stepped into the role in 2017. In 2018, they wrote a Request for Proposal to announce their development of an innovative mental health project in San Mateo County. In due time, the Mental Health Services Act Innovation approved their social business enterprise model to be carried out in five years with the awarded $2.5 million in state funds to carry out the project.

KKC is a department of the Daly City Partnership, a non-profit offering social services to promote over well-being. This includes basic safety-net services such as food, clothing, housing (rental assistance), diapers, and school supplies.