About Us

Through a continuum of six responsive programs for children, youth, adults, and families, IFR serves over 3,500 people a year. The circumstances and specific challenges facing the Chicano/Latino community continue to change, but our founding principles and unique approach to its health and well-being of our community remains intact.

Employing traditional, contemporary and conventional modalities, IFR’s programs have received national recognition for our unique cultural interventions. With a competent bilingual staff that includes mental health professionals, paraprofessionals, and community health workers, IFR regularly employs this key tenet: la cultura cura/culture heals.

IFR began as a small outpatient mental health clinic, and the need for La Clínica remains as urgent as it was when the organization was founded. IFR continued to grow as we recognized our ability to positively impact the Chicano/Latino community. True to our holistic view of health and wellness and in response to emerging community needs, Instituto began developing programs for children, youth, teachers and administrators, people with HIV/AIDS, and the indigenous/Maya population.

For over 40 years, IFR has established a leadership role in community violence prevention, school-based mental health consultations, family programming, culturally-based integrated HIV services, and indigenous/Maya wellness programs. Viewed a whole, our programs are designed to provide a seamless continuum of health and wellness programs for Chicanos/Latinos in San Francisco. We remain committed to this mission.