Tiffany Phovixay: “I’m passionate because of lived experience.”
Photos by Kevin Richtik, Caroline Photography
Motherhood is a conundrum. It’s equal parts exhilarating and exhausting, fulfilling and frustrating. It can often feel thankless, an endless cycle of sacrifice and trivial tasks caring for tiny humans. But motherhood itself is anything but trivial; it is the source of life and basis of connection. From our maternal figures, all of us learn how to take care of ourselves and our families, and, by extension, our communities. A living being itself, our community thrives when it is nurtured.
And just as essential as mothers, there are those who step up to the task, tirelessly working to ensure the most vulnerable populations have the resources they need to thrive. The Family Resource Center is one such source of nurturing care. Its chief operating officer, Tiffany Phovixay, is a figurehead of resilience and strength, with a gentleness untarnished by the hardships she has witnessed and endured.
The Family Resource Center & 211 San Joaquin
“All I do is my job,” Tiffany said with a laugh that belies the resounding impact her job has had on her local community and beyond. Tiffany worked in the nonprofit sector her entire professional career. For more than two decades, her tireless work at the Family Resource Center has been an agent of change throughout the county. “Stockton has been my home since I was nine years old,” Tiffany said. “My roots are here.” Even though she moved to attend the University of San Francisco and lived and worked in the Bay Area for a while, she found herself moving back to Stockton to be closer to family when her two eldest children were little. “Life gives you different paths and you take them,” she said. Soon, the Family Resource Center reached out to her. She had been named as a reference for another employee, and they wanted her to come in for an interview. She began working with them and never looked back.
The Family Resource Center, a nonprofit in operation since 1980, has as its mission “to provide resources to parents and childcare providers to encourage healthy growth for the children in their care,” and they offer a wealth of information and resources to families and communities throughout San Joaquin County. Their offerings have only continued to expand under Tiffany’s work. “We have brought in, with my team, so many different programs serving families and parents and children and childcare providers,” Tiffany said. “I love what I do here.” She is especially proud of Help Me Grow, which offers developmental screenings for children under five at a crucial time in their development, and their oral health program, which directs families to dentists and dental health resources.
One of the center’s most essential community programs, 211 San Joaquin, is a confidential call center dedicated to connecting people with whatever service they need, from mental health services and healthcare to low-income housing and food banks. 211 San Joaquin works with over 4,600 different programs across the county, and they are constantly auditing and adding to their list. All a person has to do is dial 211 and they are connected with trained specialists who perform assessments to give the best referrals for a person’s needs. The nonprofit is multifaceted; they work with PG&E to ensure community members are safe and have access to resources in the event of a planned power outage, and they direct emergency and disaster preparedness. Family Resource Center was also a crucial component of keeping the community safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, working on the front line and helping schedule and coordinate everything from personal protective equipment to vaccines.
Recently, the Family Resource Center opened a new exhibit with the Children’s Museum of Stockton centered around 211 San Joaquin. It features an interactive floor display that guides children through different scenarios and puzzles, each designed to educate children and caregivers alike on the resources the 211 has to offer. They worked with the Canada-based company LumoPlay, which specializes in children’s programs and games, and multiple child psychologists to design the interactive exhibit. In it, children follow a pair of sibling kittens around the game board as they walk through their local community and help their neighbors call 211 to solve problems and meet different needs before those situations turn into crises. “It’s been quite an adventure,” said Tiffany. The exhibit is aimed at the Children’s Museum’s target audience of three to ten years old, but QR codes around the space are available for caregivers, offering more information about 211 San Joaquin and directing them to their app and website.
From Hardship to Open Hearts
When she was very young, Tiffany learned first-hand the power of sacrifice and hard work in the name of love. Her father was a medic in the Vietnam War who lost his leg and part of his hand to a land mine. He risked everything to escape with his wife and children by hiding them in his fishing boat and crossing the ocean to Hong Kong. Her youngest brother was only a few months old at the time, and Tiffany’s mother had to press him to her breast to keep him silent so they wouldn’t be discovered. Tiffany herself was only three years old at the time, but she grew up hearing stories of her father’s selfless bravery as their family traveled from Hong Kong to the Philippines, where they were sponsored by Catholic Charities and able to immigrate to the United States, landing in Monterey and eventually moving inland to Stockton.
Her parents and older siblings worked in the fields to support their family while Tiffany took care of her younger siblings and acted as interpreter for her parents, navigating the nuances of the Human Services Agency at nine years old. “I didn’t know anything,” Tiffany said, describing the phone calls and conversations she would have as her parents’ interpreter, even missing school to go to appointments. “That’s why I’m so passionate about the work we do here at the Family Resource Center and 211. I have the lived experience.” She worked incredibly hard, graduating high school and working multiple jobs, putting herself through both college and law school before she pivoted her career to social services.
She credits her parents’ teachings for her love of her local community; their teachings and sacrifices opened her eyes to the immense need for basic care in the most vulnerable populations. “We didn’t understand when we were younger, but now that we’re adults and parents, we understand what they did for us and the sacrifices that my parents made,” she said. Despite every obstacle that stood in their way, she and all of her siblings have their degrees; their parents worked hard to ensure they would have the chance for a better life. Though some might have become jaded and cynical, the hardships Tiffany and her family endured have only widened her embrace. “My heart has always been in nonprofit and giving back,” she said. Her family came to the United States to have the dreams and freedom that Vietnam could not offer them, and though the hardships were many and the price costly, their focus was always on gratitude. “My dad’s legacy has always been, ‘Take what has been given to you and make something out of it, you need to give back to the community that gave so much to you,’” she said.
The Legacy Continues
Tiffany’s passion for giving back is something she and her husband have both passed down to their three children, all of whom decided to go into healthcare-related fields. Her eldest works in optometry at California Eye Surgeons. Her middle child is graduating this year with her audiology and pathology degree to become a speech pathologist, and her youngest just began studying pharmaceutical chemistry with intention of becoming a medical researcher. “They want to give back, and I’m extremely proud,” Tiffany said. She encourages them to continue being a living legacy, taking whatever obstacles life hands them and turning them into stepping stones for success. “That’s what I teach my children. Make something of yourself. Seize what opportunities are given to you and see every challenge as a win. Find a win in every challenge. At the end of the day there is always a win.”
This mindset informs everything Tiffany does, both at home and at the Family Resource Center. She advocates constantly for those who have no advocate, helping them overcome obstacles while increasing the reach of the programs she loves. Currently, they are working with Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom for the 211 San Joaquin to receive state budget support with Bill AB1832, hoping to expand the impact that the program has on the local community.
But there is always work to be done. She encourages people to seek out opportunities with the Family Resource Center, helping children and their caregivers access the resources they need to thrive and finding ways to give back to their neighbors in any way they can.
Tiffany has taken the gifts her parents gave her, their sacrifices, their love and their legacy, and shared their blessings with everyone around her. “The legacy is from my dad. I want to make him proud; look what he did to get us here. That story does not end; his legacy does not end with him,” Tiffany said. Not only has she dedicated her life to giving back and nurturing her community, but she has raised her own beautiful family to share this legacy through their own careers. “It shaped me to be who I am today, and I hope it shapes my children to be who they are in the future,” she said. Her life’s work, both at the Family Resource Center and as a mother within the walls of her own home, continues to spread like a ripple in a pond, a beautiful reminder that even the smallest act of love can transform the world around us.
