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The Lower East Side Family Union (LESFU), a community-based organization, preserves, strengthens and empowers families by delivering culturally-sensitive, multi-lingual services. To implement our Mission, we: Address the needs of families in New York City neighborhoods. Deliver programs and services to our clients in their primary language and in ways that reflect their culture. Advocate on behalf of the families we serve to ensure that they have appropriate access to available resources. Establish partnerships with government agencies, corporations, foundations and other community-based organizations in order to fully implement our mission. We were founded in 1974 to stabilize families and reduce the high percentage of Lower East Side children that were being sent into foster care. In collaboration with the Columbia School of Social Work and local Settlement Houses, LESFU pioneered the "integration of services" model of casework practice to prevent children from entering the foster care system unnecessarily. This model has now been successfully replicated locally and nationally.