Nihonmachi Little Friends | Programs

Organizations with this symbol are located in Japantown.

Affiliations

NLF is affiliated with the following organizations:

Asian Pacific Islander Family Resource Network (APIFRN)
SF CARES: Provides stipends for childcare workers to encourage them to stay in the field and continue their education
The City of San Francisco's Department of Children, Youth and Families: Provides quality childcare and mental health collaborative funding.
Family Service Agency of San Francisco, 1010 Gough Street, San Francisco, CA 94109, (415) 474-7310
APA Fund: Asian Pacific American Community Fund
TeamTech San Francisco: TeamTech San Francisco is assisting Bay Area nonprofits in effectively using technology to increase the impact of their work in the low income communities they serve. TeamTech, a collaborative effort on the part of Americorps*VISTA, IBM and United Way of America, as a response to America's Promise, is bringing nonprofits in sixteen cities across the country up to date technologically. America's Promise was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the President's Summit for America's Future in April, 1997, and is chaired by General Colin L. Powell. In each city, AmeriCorps*VISTA members work through the local United Way and it's affiliates with technology funding from IBM, to implement a plan that will enhance technology for selected community-based organizations in their area. TeamTech San Francisco has joined with the Northern California Council for the Community, through the United Way of the Bay Area, to strengthen the capacity of community based organizations to provide services throughout the Bay Area.

The organizations below are not affiliated with or endorsed by NLF but have been selected for their interest to our community.

Family and Parenting

connectforkids.org: Focused on parents and the community, Connect for Kids is a virtual encyclopedia of information for adults who want to make their communities better places for kids.
KidsHealth.org: Provides children's health and parenting information and was created by the pediatric medical experts at The Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, The Nemours Children's Clinics and other children's health facilities nationwide.
kidsource.com: Source for in depth and timely education and healthcare information that will make a difference in the lives of parents and their children.
Parent Soup: A community website where parents can discuss and learn about parenting, kids, adoption, family issues, dating, money, travel, entertainment, and more from the experts and each other.
ParentTime: A comprehensive parenting site providing help for the most important job in the world.
Parents Helping Parents: based in Santa Clara.
ParenthoodWeb: Award-winning resource for information regarding parenting, pregnancy, family, childcare, breastfeeding and infant/baby.
Asian Women's Shelter: A shelter program for abused Asian women and their children. It provides safety, food, shelter, advocacy, and other resources to assist women in rebuilding violence-free lives. Services are culturally appropriate and language accessible. Has an on-call pool of multilingual advocates to respond to the wide range of Asian languages spoken in the Bay Area.

Health

Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum: Information an advocacy on health related issues.
Asian Health Services
The National Asian Women's Health Organization
Northern California Council for the Community: Provides help in finding community resources, health care, employment, housing or substance abuse programs.
The San Francisco Department of Public Health

Arts, Cultural and Historical

National Japanese American Historical Society: A nonprofit membership supported organization dedicated to the preservation, promotion, and dissemination of materials relating to the history and culture of Japanese-Americans
Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC): Strives to meet the evolving needs of the Japanese-American community through educational, cultural, recreational and social programs and through preservation and promotion of Japanese culture and historical heritage.
Asian American Theater Company: A professional theater company dedicated to the production of plays by Asian Pacific Islander American dramatists and the development and support of Asian Pacific Islander American actors, designers and technicians.
asianimprov.com: online resource for new directions in music by Asian-Americans.
Brenda Wong Aoki: A unique synthesis of Japanese Noh and Kyogen theater, Commedia Dell'Arte, modern dance, and everyday life experiences.
Children of the Camps: Site related to PBS documentary on children during the internment camps in World War II.
The Japanese American National Museum: Celebrates the Japanese American experience; located in Los Angeles.
The Japanese American Resource Center / Museum: Collects, preserves, and disseminates the arts, culture and history of Japanese-Americans, with an emphasis in the Santa Clara Valley; located in San Jose
Japanese American Internment: During World War II, approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans and permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry were interned, relocated or evacuated from their homes in the United States because of their race. Nearly fifty years later the country apologized for this grave injustice, and the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 was signed into law, authorizing payments of $20,000 to each such person who suffered as a result. The Office of Redress Administration (ORA) was established to identify, locate and pay these individuals. ORA officially closed on February 5, 1999. This serves as an informational site regarding the final statistics of ORA and the settlement of the Japanese Latin American lawsuit, Mochizuki v. United States.
The Japanese Community Youth Counci l: Supports the needs of the diverse, multicultural population of children, youth and families throughout San Francisco.
The Japantown Art and Media Workshop: Offers design services and its site has a virtual tour, clip art, stories and community aspects to it.
Remembering Nagasaki: Exploratorium site featuring photographs of Japanese army photographer Yosuke Yamahata, along with a public forum on issues related to the atomic age.

Japanese-American News

Hokubei Mainichi: A Japanese-American Newspaper that covers national, international and community news, in a bilingual format.
Nichi Bei Times: contains general news for Japanese-Americans with sections in English and Japanese.
NikkeiWest:Informs English-speaking, Japanese-American community of Northern California about current events, news, sports, and articles of interest that are directly related to the Japanese-American culture and heritage.
Rafu Shimpo: Largest and oldest Japanese-American newspaper in the United States.

Immigration

Japanese Newcomers Services, Nobiru Kai: Offers social, educational, cultural and recreational activities to help newly arrived Japanese immigrants acclimate to their surroundings. They have a drop-in center that has employment, translation, and immigration services. A community board lists job opportunities and housing information.
American Civil Liberties Union: Provides information and aid with immigrant issues.
The American Immigration Center: Provides immigration information and solutions through a range of self-help Immigration & Citizenship products and services. We focus on Visas, Permanent Residence, Green Card, DV Lottery and US Citizenship. (This is not a government agency; there is a fee for this service.)
Immigration and Refugee Services of America: Helps refugees and their families build new lives in communities throughout the United States.
The International Institute of San Francisco: Enables immigrants, refugees, and their families to become effective, responsible participants in community life.
National Immigration Law Center: Sells informational materials.

Advocacy and Citizenship

The Action Networ: Connects you with the policy makers who shape your world. With a single click, you can weigh in when it counts, sending key messages to policy makers before they make their decisions. You pick the organization or organizations you want to work with and the issues you care most about.
Chinese for Affirmative Action: Defends and promotes the civil and political rights of Chinese and Asian-Americans within the context of, and in the interest of, advancing multiracial democracy in the United States.
equalrights.org: Covers immigration and equal rights for women.
grassroots.com: A political action network that has many articles on political subjects, and a special section on immigration.
International Institute of San Francisco: Offices in San Francisco, and San Mateo with many services for immigrants including English classes.
Japan Information Access Project: A Washington, DC based, independent, non-profit research center whose goal is to strengthen international understanding of Japanese science, technology, industry, security, and policy.
The Japanese American Citizens League: Fights discrimination against people of Japanese ancestry. It is the largest and one of the oldest Asian-American organizations in the United States.
Nihonmachi Legal Outreach: Combines the commitment of a nonprofit, community-based organization with the professional services of a law office; has worked against the long-standing barriers which have denied Asian and Pacific Islander people equal justice and equal access to the legal system.
See smartvoter.org and vote-smart.org for information on voting.

Japanese Language Resources

Kinmon Gakoen: A Japanese language school located in Japantown at 2031 Bush Street, San Francisco, CA 94115, (415) 567-4383.
Soko Gakuen: A nonprofit Japanese language school with teaching methods and textbooks geared towards English-speaking people. It is located in Japantown at 440 Austin Street, San Francisco, CA 94109, (415) 928-9608. Soko Gakuen is also a teacher training school that emphasizes quality in teaching.
Asia For Kids.com: Includes a catalog for teaching children Asian languages.
Japanese Online: A language resource website and a gathering place for anyone who has interest in Japanese language and culture. This site provides opportunities and resources to help you learn not only Japanese, but also a little bit of Japanese culture.
San Francisco Japanese Language Class, Inc.: A Japanese language school located at 760 Market Street, Suite 816, San Francisco, CA 94102.
Shodouka: Converts Japanese font characters into images for easy reading. This service lets you view pages containing Japanese characters (in the JIS, EUC, or Shift-JIS encodings) without requiring Japanese language support in your browser or operating system. If you can read Japanese but don't want to buy software to see Japanese websites, this service is for you. All the Japanese characters are turned into images that can be viewed in any graphical browser.

Resources for Learning ESL/EFL

Intrax English Institute: Offers in-person classes at two locations in San Francisco.

Dale Bay's ESL Japan: A resource for students of English in Japan and those interested in teaching English in Japan. Lots of links and forums.

It's English: Dedicated to the presentation of American English in a relaxed and entertaining format.

Peak English: Offers activities and resources for students and teachers of ESL. There are both free and paid membership levels.

The Yamada Language Center: At the University of Oregon has lots of links to ESL sites.

English at Home: Learn English for free. English grammar, speaking, vocabulary, learning games, an English FAQ and a free newsletter.

English as a Second Language: Rong-Chang Li: Lists on-line resources for students and teachers of ESL.

Maricopa Center for Learning & Instruction: Learn English electronically; offers an instructional CD-ROM for a nominal charge. The site also has lots of links for ESL learners.

101language: Sells a variety of materials for Japanese speakers who are learning English.

The University of South Dakota: Maintains an extensive list of links for ESL learners.

Wordskills: Features English as a foreign language resource, distance learning courses and books for teachers and students

Pacific English Academy: Offers in-person classes at two locations in San Francisco.

offers instruction and TOEFL preparation in the heart of downtown San Francisco, between Market Street and Union Square.

UC Berkeley Extension: Offers an English Language Program in San Francisco.

Frizzy University Network (FUN): A relaxed and comfortable environment in which students learning English as a foreign or second language can improve their writing.

Transportation

MUNI: Bus and light rail system that runs within the city of San Francisco.
BART: The underground subway system throughout parts of the Bay Area, mainly the East Bay and parts of San Francisco.
San Francisco Bay Area Transit Information: Provides information on public transportation throughout the entire Bay Area.

Shopping

Kinokuniya Bookstore: Books on Japan in Japanese and English 75,000 titles plus magazines, music, videos and tapes. They are located in the Japan Center, Kinokunita Building, 2nd Floor, 1581 Webster Street, San Francisco, CA 94115, (415) 567-7625 and have a store in San Jose.
Japantown.com: Features shopping, community events and a bulletin board for Japantown.
Nichi Bei Bussan: Nichi Bei has been Northern California's premier Asian goods store for almost 100 years.
Japan-shop.com: Online Mall specializing in Japanese goods and services for people living outside of Japan.

Sites In Japan

Hachioji International Friendship Club: Publishes the "Rapport" newsletter monthly in English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Portuguese, and Spanish. Japanese classes for foreign residents in Japan. Homestays/homevisits. Introduces Japanese culture. Study other cultures & foods. Activities for mothers and children.
The Japan Information Network: Contains a variety of topics, (translated into several languages) much of it is business oriented but it also contains a site with activities for school-age kids.
Tokyo with Kids: Interactive online community for English speaking parents in Tokyo and all of Japan.

Professional and Nonprofit Organizations

Asian Business League of San Francisco
The Asian Pacific American Women's Leadership Institute (APAWLI): Only national, nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing and enriching leadership skills for Asian Pacific American women leaders.
Bay Area Chapter of National Association of Asian Professionals: A nonprofit, all-volunteer organization whose mission is to promote the personal and professional development of the Asian American community.
Japanese American Chamber of Commerce of Silicon Valley
The Japanese American Network (JA*Net): A partnership of Japanese-American organizations based in Los Angeles. A goal of this partnership is to encourage the use of the Internet and interactive communications technologies to exchange information about Japanese-Americans regarding art, culture, community, history, news, events, social services, and public policy issues.
The Japantown Business Association: A nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting Japantown as a unique ethnic neighborhood offering a rare blend of business, cultural, and historical resources; located in San Jose.
The Keizai Society: An organization in Silicon Valley of executives and professionals with an interest in the U.S.-Japan business relationship.
Kimochi, Inc. Kimochi, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that provides a multi-service program of culturally sensitive care for senior citizens, primarily serving the Japanese-American community. Translated as "feeling for the elders," Kimochi is run mostly by Sansei who see to it that their elders age with dignity, support, and friendship, and that they are able to access mainstream services despite language and cultural barriers. They are located at 40 Sutter Street, San Francisco, 94115-3220; Tel: (415) 931-2294
M Society West (MSW): The paramount membership organization for young Asian-American professionals of the San Francisco Bay Area.
The National Association of Asian American Professionals: A nonprofit 501(c)(3), all-volunteer organization whose mission is to promote the personal and professional development of the Asian-American community.

Help for Non-Profits

Community Wealth: Read case studies, models, tips and news about well-known and little-known entrepreneurial efforts to generate resources to promote social change.
Innovation Network:Dedicated to enabling public and nonprofit organizations to better plan, execute, and evaluate their structure, operations and services. InnoNet conducts research, provides consultations, conducts trainings, workshops, and provides Internet technical assistance.
The Learning Institute for Nonprofit Organizations: Award-winning educational programs designed to meet the needs of those serving the nonprofit sector.
One Stop San Francisco: A partnership of many public and nonprofit agencies. Together, these agencies provide the most complete collection of resources for people with employment-related needs in San Francisco.
Social Ecology.com: Helps non-profits keep up with changing information technologies. They provide communication systems that fit the needs and budgets, of nonprofit organizations.
Volunteer Match: Utilizes the power of the Internet to help individuals nationwide find volunteer opportunities posted by local non-profit and public sector organizations. A place to go when your non-profit needs volunteers or you want to volunteer for a worthy cause.

Neighborhood and City Government

City Span of San Francisco: Official website of the City and County of San Francisco; it provides many links to community organizations.
The Japantown Planning, Preservation and Development Task Force (JPPDTF): Planning the future of San Francisco's Japantown, to help preserve and enhance the community.
The San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau: Information about Japantown.

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		2031 Bush Street San Francisco, CA 94115 (415) 922-8898 nlfchildcare@yahoo.com