About Us
Our Purpose:
This corporation is organized exclusively for charitable, educational, preventative, and empowering purposes.

Our Mission:

Strong Smart and Kind Foundation's mission is to encourage and empower individuals to redefine the stigmas of mental health, especially in the Asian communities.

Our Vision:

SSK foundation aspire to understand, support, and encourage better lives by:

A) Bringing awareness on mental health and providing resources for the individual and community.
B) Educating and inspiring a healthier lifestyle through life workshop, coaching, and mentorship.
 C) Empowering individuals to inspire others with their lived-experience stories of mental illness.
D) Assisting those less fortunate with food, clothing, and financial aids.

WHO WE ARE

SSK Foundation is the first Vietnamese non-profit in Northern California that focuses on mental health in the Asian community.

WHAT WE DO

Some of our local activities are:
- Host mental health awareness/training sessions
- Life/purpose/happiness coaching and mentorship
- Beach clean up             
- Visit Nursing Homes
- Feed the homeless   
- Youth Camping Trip
- Volunteer with various local organizations to help the community and promote volunteerism. 

Some of our International activities are: 
- Annual charity trip to Vietnam. We visit the orphanages, children shelters, the disabled, the abandoned elders, and poor villages to provide food, clothing, medicines, workshops, and financial aids.
- Annual volunteer trip to Canada to support Ao Dai Canada and Better Future for Kids Foundation, to bring awareness and stop children trafficking.

* Our goal is for SSK Foundation to do charity mission trips around the world.

How SSK Idea Was Formed

The founder, Teresa hoang, passion in life is to protect and empower the abused survivors, especially the children. During her time living at the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters, a Catholic Convent, she dedicated almost 4 years working with the survivors of sexually and physically abused by listening to their stories, empowering them to heal and renew their lives, and assisting them in learning various skills to join the society again and be financially independent. 
Teresa started and led various youth groups during those years to promote volunteerism, created "dance-therapy" to release the stress and anxiety that the community youths were going through.
The phrase that Teresa constantly repeated over and over to herself and those she mentored was to be "strong, smart, and kind" to yourself and others. Easy words to say but hard to do and be when you have gone through trauma in your life. 

"Everyone is different, but the least we can do is respect each other."   
-Teresa Hoang

For many years, our Founder, Teresa, lived and worked with people from all over the world, with different economic background and lifestyles. With all those different mindsets, she wanted to spread the message that if everyone works on their mental wellness, then it's easier to experience happiness and balance in life. We ALL have mental health issues at one point or another, just different degrees of it; some are higher functioning than others. Regardless of how "different" people may be, everyone deserves to be loved and respected. "We are all made of bones and blood, and although everyone is different; the least we can do is respect each other." 

Share by: