In 1960 a group of Puerto Rican Social Workers led by our Founder Agustin Gonzalez established a service program to help prevent the disintegration of Puerto Rican migrant families who lived in New York. Their vision became a reality by obtaining a demonstration grant from the Office of Economic Opportunity, which established their first program.

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Since then, PRFI services have become available to clients of all backgrounds who live in New York City’s five boroughs and who are served by forty-six early education centers located in Puerto Rico. Numerous programs were developed to promote care coordination, parenting skills, advocacy, crisis intervention, and residential services for developmentally delayed individuals.  Dedicated and qualified bilingual staff provide all services.

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PRFI offers person-centered care which treats everyone as an equal partner in his or her treatment process. The goal is to provide personalized, coordinated services that recognize and utilizes each client’s strengths and community resource affiliations. We strive to develop a detailed plan of action by identifying our client's individualized needs and implementing care strategies that focus on their strengths, abilities, potential, and opportunities. 

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PRFI started a collegial agreement in 1974 with the Hope for Families and Children Foundation with the main goal of leveraging private, corporate, and individual resources to facilitate financial support for PRFI’s programs. Through their generous support, PRFI has secured multiple grants and endowments, developed innovative programs, funded continuing education to employees, purchased toys for children at Christmas, and the list goes on.

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PRFI continues to grow and requires ongoing resources to expand our reach and increase the number of families we can impact. Our work could not be accomplished without the help of fundraising events. Many of our program’s budgets provide basic funding for mandated programming but unfortunately does not provide for other supportive and much-needed interventions.

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Fundraising is one of the most crucial activities for all nonprofits. By contributing to PRFI, you are supporting the very dream of our founders which is to help the most vulnerable people in our community. It is people like you who help change the world little by little. Thank you for caring, thank you for supporting our clients.

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PRFI’s standards reflect how we interact with our clients, our colleagues, and our communities. We hold each other accountable for creating an Institute we can all be proud to work for. Our staff take pride and ownership in the jobs they perform and are experts in their fields, bringing a strong service ethos to everything they do.

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PRFI endeavors to ensure our client's personal, psychological, and medical needs are achieved with the highest level of capability and assurance. Our methodologies ensure that evidence-based treatment is delivered to all. PRFI’s clients come to us with confidence that we have the experience and expertise to deliver the highest-level outcomes and that we can help them meet their goals.

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I hope this introduction provides you with a few reasons to get to know PRFI better. Whether you are a potential customer, a small business partner, or a future employee, we look forward to finding ways to work together to bring service to life.