admin, Author at Mission Promise Neighborhood

25

Volunteering to Make a Difference in San Francisco’s Mission

Socially driven visual designer Megan Malley has spent time volunteering across the globe. The Seattle native has landed on six continents, always donating her skills and time. Volunteer highlights include being a photographer with an artisan textile organization in the Peruvian Andes (photo), conducting design research on xenophobia and AIDS in South Africa, and working as a fair-trade product designer in Nepal.

Heading closer to home two years ago, Megan landed in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, one of the newer parts of town down by the ballpark. Megan immediately felt at home as she explored the unique neighborhoods of the city, including the culturally rich Mission District.

“Since moving to San Francisco, I have felt so welcomed into my new city by everyone I meet. I love the sense of community here, and the way that nobody is viewed as an outsider, even if they haven’t been around very long. It’s a city made from a patchwork of varied personal histories, which makes it a vibrant and diverse place to live,” explains Megan of her ardor for her adopted hometown.

With volunteering in her DNA, Megan sought a place to give back. She first heard about the Mission Promise Neighborhood at an annual pro-bono design conference that she attends, where visual designers donate two days of their time to work on collateral for nonprofit organizations. Last February, Megan’s team designed infographics, a website and a motiongraphic, all to refresh the Mission Promise Neighborhood brand’s visual identity.

Over the course of that weekend, Megan heard of the impactful work the Mission Promise Neighborhood was doing with the community to better the educational opportunities and lives of underresourced families.

The tutoring programs especially struck a chord with Megan. She immediately wanted to get involved.

That involvement comes via Reading Partners, a national nonprofit dedicated to transforming struggling young students into confident readers. The organization creates an on-site reading center at each school they serve, including Cesar Chavez Elementary in the Mission Promise Neighborhood. Room 24 now teems with engaging books for kindergarteners to 4th-graders, creating an idyllic atmosphere for one-on-one learning opportunities at an accelerated pace to get back on grade level in reading.

Megan meets up with student Jeremiah each week for an hour. For most of the kids at Cesar Chavez Elementary School, English is not the primary language spoken at home. When they read with a native speaker, the student hears the patterns and nuances of fluent reading, which helps them gain confidence in their own reading.

Megan knows that the experience is just as beneficial for her as it is for Jeremiah: “By tutoring I get to spend time with kids, which I love, and I also get to share my enthusiasm for reading. As a child, I would spend hours lost in books, and it makes me so happy to be able to encourage a youngster to feel the same way about reading.”

By returning weekly to read with the same student, Megan sees him gaining comprehension skills, recalling phonics and word patterns from past sessions.

“It’s so rewarding – for both of us – to see progress happening at such a consistent pace. I would encourage anyone who enjoys working with children to volunteer,” Megan explains. “It’s such a small time commitment, as little as one hour per week, but makes such a huge difference for the students. I’ve loved my time reading with Jeremiah – and I really look forward to our sessions every week.”

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A little or a lot. Give your time. Gain a community.

Volunteer today with the Mission Promise Neighborhood!

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About Mission Promise Neighborhood

The Mission Promise Neighborhood is a citywide community partnership that was created to support kids and families living, working and attending school in the Mission District. It brings together schools, colleges, community organizations and community leaders to help kids graduate and families achieve financial stability.

20

April

Volunteering to Feel Part of the Mission Community

April 20, 2016 Reading, Volunteer read to kids mission sf , school volunteer mission promise neighborhood , volunteer mission san franciso

“As a newcomer to the Mission, I want to know my neighbors and be part of a community,” states Sam Cooper, a friendly, engaged volunteer at Mission Promise Neighborhood’s Cesar Chavez Elementary School. That’s where Sam takes time out of his busy schedule twice a week to read for an hour to kindergartner Jasline – opening a new door to success for the youngster’s life.

Sam grew up in a suburb of Buffalo, New York. The adventurous young man headed overseas after college to Taiwan’s capital of Taipei, where he taught English to U.S.-bound high school students. Last October, Sam landed in the Mission. Joining Sam was his girlfriend and a roommate, the trio sharing a flat near the 24th Street BART station, with a vibrant neighborhood to explore right outside the door.

Sam immediately felt at home, but longed to feel more connected to his adopted community.

That’s when an Internet search found the answer to making that a reality.

“I had recently scaled down my job to have more time for entrepreneurial and political pursuits. I also wanted get to know my new community. While I was figuring out how to get involved, I watched an interview with Killer Mike, the rapper and activist, who made a compelling case for one-on-one tutoring and mentoring. When I found the Mission Promise Neighborhood website, it looked like a great organization. They made it very easy to get involved,” explains Sam.

That involvement comes via Reading Partners, a national nonprofit dedicated to transforming struggling young students into confident readers. The organization creates an on-site reading center at each school they serve. In Cesar Chavez Elementary’s case, that setup is in Room 24. This classroom now teems with engaging books for kindergarteners to 4th-graders, creating an idyllic atmosphere for one-on-one learning opportunities at an accelerated pace to get back on grade level in reading.

Sam’s is the quintessential volunteer experience. He gets to spend time with a wonderful kid and shares in her excitement at learning. Working with an elementary student is new for Sam – with an entirely different set of challenges from his professional life as a self-employed private instructor for high schoolers – but he believes the additional perspective has made him a better teacher for his older students as well.

The great news is that Jasline has made significant progress reading and writing new letters, recognizing common words, understanding syllables and how to count the syllables in a word, learning how to rhyme and sounding out words. In addition to these concrete skills, Jasline now exhibits enthusiasm for reading, more often requesting to read out loud instead of Sam taking the active role.

That’s true impact via one community member’s volunteerism.

“I am honored to give back to the Mission community. It’s the right thing to do,” sums up Sam of his volunteer experience for Mission Promise Neighborhood.

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A little or a lot. Give your time. Gain a community.

Volunteer today with the Mission Promise Neighborhood!

____________________________________________________________

About Mission Promise Neighborhood
The Mission Promise Neighborhood is a citywide community partnership that was created to support kids and families living, working and attending school in the Mission District. It brings together schools, colleges, community organizations and community leaders to help kids graduate and families achieve financial stability.

18

April

Mission Promise Neighborhood Putting the “Fun” in Fundraising

April 18, 2016 Fundraiser, John O'Connell High School, Scholarships mission promise neighborhood college , mission promise neighborhood community , misson promise neighborhood scholarship fundraiser

by Mission Promise Neighborhood Family Success Coach Manager Amelia M. Martínez C.

Judging by the money raised last Friday night, the Mission Promise Neighborhood community is definitely committed to supporting San Francisco’s Mission District. Over 100 people came out for the “Tips for Tuition” fundraiser, with over $2,500 raised toward a college scholarship for students at John O’Connell High School.

At the end of 2015, when I brought up the idea of creating a Mission Promise Neighborhood Scholarship, I never imagined organizing a guest bartending event — or that it would be so successful. It means a lot to me to contribute to the college dreams of students from our school and to help promote our work through the Mission Promise Neighborhood.

The goal is to fund one-year scholarships, each ranging from $1,500 to $5,000. These one-time awards will be granted to a pair of first-generation, college-bound students from John O’Connell High School, with college enrollment in the 2016 – 2017 school year. The scholarship will go to one student who has been accepted to a four-year college and another student who will be attending a two-year college. Grantees are students who have participated in school programs and services from community organizations, been active in the community and achieved academically.

The exciting news is that to-date 94 percent of our four-year eligible students have been accepted to over 34 different two–year and four-year colleges!

A Mission neighborhood bar, Cease & Desist, generously donated the venue for Friday’s fundraiser. Volunteers served as guest bartenders, hailing from Mission Promise Neighborhood and its partners, Jamestown Community Center, MEDA, Mission Graduates and SFUSD. All tips from food and drink orders were donated to the scholarship fund. The rear bar area remained packed shoulder-to-shoulder for the entire 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. event, and the tireless bartenders never slowed down.

Other Mission Promise Neighborhood volunteers circulated through the crowd selling raffle tickets for an impressive array of prizes, including restaurant gift certificates, sports apparel and original artwork. The deal on raffle tickets was so popular that staff was constantly being asked to repeat their “Five for 20!” chant in exchange for more tickets. Many thanks to Little Baobob, Tartine Bakery & Cafe, Body Alignment SF, FAZE, the Exploratorium, ¡VIVA MEDA!, Cindy Clements and Zoe Farmer for their donations of raffle prizes.

Kudos also goes to Cease & Desist staff bartender, Mack, who provided an orientation and brief bartending lesson to volunteers and then spent the rest of the event backing them up with help from colleagues Olivia and Jordan. Special thanks to MEDA Board member and SFUSD Board of Education President Matt Haney for coming out on his birthday weekend to be a guest bartender. That’s true dedication to our students.

This Mission Promise Neighborhood event epitomizes powerful community partnerships and we look forward to similar events in the future.

There’s still time to help our students go to college. Donate today.

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15

April

“Sixth Annual Walk Around the Block” Event for Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity

April 15, 2016 Advocacy, Preschool annual walk around the block , mission promise neighborhood advocacy , preschool pay inequity

Making a little over $35,000 doesn’t go very far in San Francisco, especially with housing costs through the roof. Imagine that meager pay level when you have already made an investment in post-secondary education.

Such is the case for the City’s 4,415 Early Childhood Education (ECE) professionals, who average $16.85 an hour and with 82 percent having attended college (one-third having achieved a Bachelor’s degree). ECE has the dubious distinction of affording graduates the lowest lifetime earnings of any college major.

This analysis comes from the San Francisco Child Care Planning and Advisory Council (CPAC). The CPAC is the state-mandated Local Planning Council (LPC), established to provide a forum for the identification of local priorities for child care and early education, and the development of policies to meet these needs. One of CPAC’s priorities for 2016 is advocating for increasing early care and educator pay to ensure a diverse and skilled workforce.

To let people know of this situation, folks today took to the streets around San Francisco’s City Hall in the “Sixth Annual Walk Around the Block.” There were parents and children. Community members. Plus plenty of early childhood educators showcasing homemade signs demanding fairness for their profession.

To support this advocacy, a contingent from Mission Promise Neighborhood took part in today’s event, with promotoras (community outreach workers) and parents from the Community Advisory Council part of the march. Mission Promise Neighborhood parents want their children to have the best early education possible, and for their children to graduate from college. Parents know that early childhood educators are critical to achieving this goal and that is why they showed up to support their teachers. Pay equity will help to attract and retain high-quality early childhood educators, and will allow them to stay in the City. Lourdes Dobarganes, promotora and mother of four, when asked why she is advocating for teachers stated, “¡Nuestros niños merecen maestros excelentes con sueldo digno!” (“Our children deserve excellent teachers that get paid fair wages!”)

“Birth to five is a critical stage of development, children deserve a high-quality early education, and this means that we need to invest in our early childhood workforce,“ explains Mission Promise Neighborhood Early Learning Manager Liz Cortez. Some cities have already been at the vanguard of overcoming this income disparity: New York City and Seattle now pay early childhood educators on par with K-12 educators.

In New York’s case, Mayor de Blasio two years ago announced steps to help community-based organizations attract and retain high-quality early childhood educators, as part of the historic expansion of full-day Pre-K programs for every child in the city.

Looking to replicate this model in equally pricey San Francisco, the hundreds who took to the streets today put forth a collective message that early childhood educators’ pay should be equal to that of K-12 educators.

Mission Promise Neighborhood is a collective of partners, many of them providing early care and education services to families with young children. These organizations experience challenges with attracting high quality early childhood educators because of the low wages and the high cost of living in San Francisco. High turnover is detrimental to young children who thrive on good relationships with their caregivers and teachers. Ada Alvarado, a former preschool teacher, left the early education field for many reasons, the principal reason being the low pay. She states, “There is a large disparity between the salary of early learning teachers and the cost of living in San Francisco. As a preschool teacher with a college degree and experience in the early learning field, I struggled to make ends meet with a preschool teacher salary. I invested so much in my profession and often asked myself, ‘Who was investing in me’?”

Children Services Division Director Dolores Terrazas of Mission Neighborhood Centers, a Mission Promise Neighborhood partner, knows the need in the community. Terrazas states, “A quality experience in early education is directly linked to the investment in the people that provide this service; attracting, compensating and retaining teachers is paramount to a successful early education experience.”

These thoughts are echoed by Division Director Yohana Quiroz of Felton Institute Children, Youth and Family Services, also an MPN partner, “Wage disparity for ECE teachers at Felton and across San Francisco is huge. Our teachers have dedicated their lives to serving our youngest learners and in making a difference in their school readiness and life trajectory.” Quiroz continues, “Despite being responsible for such a critical time in young children’s lives, the wage disparity between an ECE teacher and a K-12 educator is huge. These low wages make it difficult for them to afford living in San Francisco. Many actually qualify for public benefits.”

The cost of early care and education is increasingly high. An April 12 Wall Street Journal article titled, “States Where Day Care Costs More than College,” reported: ”In nearly half the country, it’s now more expensive to educate a 4-year-old in preschool than an 18-year-old in college, a finding that illustrates the rising burden many families face affording care for children.” Yet despite such increased costs, the pay for early childhood educators still lags.

It is time to close the wage gap between early childhood educators and K-12 educators.

To ensure that San Francisco elected officials and policymakers heard this message, Mission Promise Neighborhood promotoras and parents, along with their children, participated in various legislative visits after the march. They introduced themselves and the work of Mission Promise Neighborhood, plus spoke about the need to support early childhood educators. MPN families are committed to advocating for all young children in the Mission District.

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11

April

Celebrating the “Week of the Young Child” in the Mission Promise Neighborhood

April 11, 2016 Early Learning, Events early learning mission san francisco , mission promise neighborhood events , mission promise neighborhood results

The “Week of the Young Child” — an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children — commemorates early learning, young children, their teachers, partners, families and community members. This year’s dates are April 10-16.

Mission Promise Neighborhood Early Learning Family Success Coach Ada Alvarado celebrates young children every week, acting as a connector to free services for kids ages 0-5 and their families. One of the goals of the Mission Promise Neighborhood is to inform families with young children of the connection between quality early care and education (child care and preschool) and school readiness. Mission Promise Neighborhood encourages more families to enroll their children in high-quality early care and education programs, and to be informed about the resources that are available to promote school readiness with their little ones.

As a country, we have become more aware of the importance of healthy development,high-quality early education and school readiness and this is a message that gets shared daily with the community in the Mission. Based on data collected in 2014 for the Mission Promise Neighborhood Survey, 29.5 percent of the families with a child 0-5 reported that their child attended a formal center-based or home-based program. We know that there are higher numbers of children ages 3 to 5 that are attending a pre-K program; the bigger challenge is the infant-toddler population. The Mission Promise Neighborhood community is working to address this challenge. An example of this is the Mission Neighborhood Centers Early Head Start and Head Start program. “They are responding to the need by increasing their infant-toddler slots,” says Liz Cortez, Mission Promise Neighborhood Early Learning Manager.

There are many resources for families in San Francisco. For example, San Francisco is a leader in universal preschool, or Preschool For All (PFA), which aims to expand preschool access and improve preschool program quality for all 4-year-old children residing within San Francisco County. Depending on whether the school is private or public, the costs are partially or completely covered by First 5 San Francisco.

In addition to formal programming, there are many resources available for families with young children. Funded through First 5 SF, the Department of Children, Youth and their Families, and the Human Services Agency, every neighborhood has a Family Resource Center (FRC), where families can access child development and family development resources. In the Mission, there are four FRCs: Felton-FSA; Good Samaritan; Homeless Prenatal; and Instituto Familiar de la Raza. Three of the four organizations are Mission Promise Neighborhood partners. Mission Promise Neighborhood Early Learning Family Success Coach Ada Alvarez is placed at two of these FRCs, where she provides a variety of services, but mostly focuses on connecting families to four main services of immigration, housing, workforce, and early care and education resources.

Alvarado, a former preschool teacher, brings vast experience to her work and is very passionate about informing families in the Mission about the many resources and opportunities for young children and families. She does this by connecting with families in various ways: by helping families to place their children on the San Francisco Child Care Connection (SF3C), an online system that uses a single application for families seeking subsidized care, by providing workshops, and by attending events that promote early literacy. A good example of this is a recent workshop she helped to coordinate with Good Samaritan staff on the importance of a preschool experience and how families can access the variety of programs that are available (photo). They partnered with two other Mission Promise Neighborhood partners — the SFUSD Early Education Department and Mission Neighborhood Centers Early Head Start/Head Start — to present to a group of parents on March 23.

A high-quality preschool experience can lead to readiness at kinder, critical to a child’s later academic success. Alvarado explains, “It is expected that a kindergartener will understand things such as being able to identify letters, numbers and shapes. If that is not the case, a child is already behind on Day One.”

Then there are social skills, with conflict resolution and being able to follow a routine expected upon enrollment in kindergarten.

Continues Alvarado, “Parents do not always have the tools necessary to get their child on the right track, especially if they are immigrants with circumstances that translated to them not being able to achieve a high education level in their homeland, or if they do not speak English well.” Good Samaritan provides ESL classes to many families, so they focused on this group of immigrant families to impart the importance of preschool.

Alvarado has come to realize that the families with whom she works experience many barriers in accessing high-quality early care and education programs in the Mission. Some of the barriers are the lack of infant-toddler capacity compared to the number/need of children under 4 years of age, families’ comfort level with accessing services, and the cost of high-quality care for children that do not qualify for a subsidy. Early Head Start/Head Start, for example, requires a family to meet the Federal Poverty Level Income Guidelines. For 2016, a family of three would need to make under $20,160 to qualify.

A high-quality preschool experience is critical to school readiness, and early care and education providers in the Mission are working hard to provide the highest quality possible to the children in their programs. Data on the Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) for Mission Promise Neighborhood sites from 2013 to 2015 shows a higher level of overall quality at 4.1, compared to the rest of the City’s 3.5 rating. (Data source: First 5SF.)

As “Week of the Young Child” is celebrated in the Mission Promise Neighborhood, let’s honor all of the teachers, partners, families and community members that better children’s lives every day, meeting challenges and creating impact.

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7

April

Meeting Gathers Community Input on Mission Promise Neighborhood Needs

April 7, 2016 Affordable Housing, Community Event mission promise neighborhood affordable housing , mission promise neighborhood community meeting , mission promise neighborhood partners

Last night, hundreds gathered in the Mission Promise Neighborhood for the second community meeting on the Mission Action Plan 2020 (MAP 2020). The theme was “A Plan for and Community Discussion on Affordability, ” with the venue Buena Vista Horace Mann School on 23rd Street. A resource fair on tenants’ rights — and other issues of community importance — was part of the event presented by the City and County of San Francisco, Calle 24, the Cultural Action Network, Dolores Street Community Services, MEDA, Pacific Felt Factory and other community-based organizations.

The goal of MAP 2020 is to retain the socioeconomic and cultural diversity of the Mission neighborhood by providing solutions to help protect tenants at risk of eviction, increase affordable housing, stem the loss of social and community services offered to low- to moderate-income residents, and support and retain local businesses, including employers providing working-class jobs. The aim is to keep 65 percent of the Mission as low- or middle-income residents.

City officials on hand included District 9 Supervisor David Campos, Director of Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services Joaquin Torres and Jeff Buckley, who is senior advisor to Mayor Lee.

To welcome the attendees, City Planning Director John Rahaim took to the mic, explaining how San Francisco is trying to address the needs of Mission residents by being part of these community meetings.

Rahaim was followed by Director Antonio Aguilera at San Francisco Day Labor Programand Women’s Collective, who explained the need for the community’s voice to be heard.

Next up was Chirag Bhakta, of the Mission SRO Collaborative, who shared data from a PowerPoint. Bhakta’s dialog was peppered with these sobering facts: there were 989 eviction notices in the Mission from 2009 to 2014, with 1,174 Latinos compelled to leave the neighborhood between 2010 to 2013. He then explained that these numbers are probably conservative, as eviction numbers do not showcase buyouts and that undocumented people may be fearful of being part of a census.

Urban Planner Claudia Flores, from the San Francisco Planning Department, then continued on with the presentation. Flores spoke of the major accomplishments in the Mission community since the initial meeting one year ago. In that time, a set of community organizations and the City have been working to research and discuss the ideas collected, and implementing some immediate, short-term solutions.

There have been major wins, including:

Pushing for neighborhood-preference legislation.
Increasing resources for legal representation for tenants.
Expediting 100 percent affordable sites (more than 300 units).
Acquiring an additional affordable site at 490 South Van Ness.
Dedicating funding of $50 million for the Mission from the Prop A housing bond that voters passed last November.
Implementing higher scrutiny of market-rate projects through interim controls.
Launching a nonprofit and creative-space displacement program, with $4.5 million in funding.
Augmenting resources for PDR enforcement and technical assistance.

“We’ve already had some major victories in the past year, but there is much more to do. Mission Promise Neighborhood community input is vital to this process, so I am excited to see so many partners, city officials and neighbors here tonight,” stated MEDA’s Director of Community Real Estate Karoleen Feng.

Topics for discussion tonight ranged from how to preserve existing rent-controlled housing/SROs and increase job opportunities to stemming the loss of community-serving businesses and building more 100 percent affordable-housing developments. Attendees broke into groups, in English and Spanish, to discuss these weighty topics. The clear topic of interest was affordable housing — and how it could be funded. Community Engagement Manager Dairo Romero of MEDA acted as a facilitator for the Spanish-speaking tables.

The community’s valuable input will be discussed by organizations and the City, collaboratively working on solutions based on the ideas collected.

The final meeting will be in June, with the date and time to be determined.

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About Mission Promise Neighborhood
The Mission Promise Neighborhood is a citywide community partnership that was created to support kids and families living, working, and attending school in the Mission District. It brings together schools, colleges, community organizations and community leaders to help kids graduate and families achieve financial stability.

22

March

Mission Promise Neighborhood School Spotlight: Everett Middle School

March 22, 2016 Everett Middle School, School Spotlight everett middle school mission san francisco , mission promise neighborhood success , school spotlight san francisco

Everett Middle School, straddling the border of San Francisco’s vibrant Castro and Mission districts, is home to over 400 students. This pioneering school, under the auspices of Principal Lena Van Haren, is the sole middle school for the Mission Promise Neighborhood, a community initiative to help families succeed so that students achieve.

With a mascot that’s an owl, it’s a wise choice that Everett be a Mission Promise Neighborhood school, as it means many benefits. These include having a full-time nurse and social worker, community school coordinator and a family success coach acting as a connector to services.

How is Everett succeeding for its students? By offering its diverse student body a model for modern-day teaching. This includes incorporating a social-justice lens into the curriculum, ensuring student voices are heard and that critical thinking is employed, implementing restorative practices, offering additional academic assistance based on student need and having an after-school program that takes all sixth-graders.

These highlights exemplify the record of academic success:

Help for newcomer students
Everett offers additional class time for newcomers to help accelerate math and reading skills.

Safety
Everett features a Wellness Center that includes an Instituto Familiar de La Raza community mental health worker.

Communication with families
Everett sends out a monthly newsletter, plus offers an up-to-date calendar of the year on the school website.

School Loop to support students’ academic progress
Everett teachers are using School Loop, which integrates instruction, communication and intervention tools into one simple system so students and their parents know where they stand, what to do and how to do well.

Population changes
Everett uses targeted outreach to Latino families – 55 percent of the school population – and education around college preparation, with Everett’s Spanish-speaking population outperforming the district average.

Teacher Turnover
Everett gives teachers extra prep time, holds three retreats and lets teacher voices guide school leadership.

Help Applying for High School
Everett students all have an individual plan and assistance in applying for public, charter or private high schools. The Mission Graduates Beacon Center prepares youth mentally, physically and spiritually, nurturing young minds with education, support guidance and advocacy.

After-School Program
The Mission Graduates Beacon Center prepares youth mentally, physically and spiritually, nurturing young minds with education, support guidance and advocacy.

With all of the above in place, it’s no wonder that Everett is now the most-requested middle school in the SFUSD. Parents should note that Bryant, Cesar Chavez, Fairmount, Marshall, McKinley, Milk and Sanchez elementary schools get priority for their child getting into Everett Middle School.

Student Myrai’s experience showcases a typical day in the life of an Everett middle-schooler. Myrai’s story is best told in her own words.

“I’m part of the Black Student Union. We just did a really awesome Black History Month celebration where we didn’t celebrate only the famous people like Martin Luther King Jr., but also other people who aren’t known as well, but have done a lot. We have a lot of other clubs, too. I’m thinking of joining the book club because I read really well. I just passed level Z, so I don’t need to do the reading test any more since I passed the highest level.

“In my nonfiction studies class, we’re working on persuasive arguments. I’m answering the question, ‘Should animal poaching be illegal?’ We just finished learning about ethos, logos and pathos for that. If you asked any of my teachers – like Ms. Diaz or Mr. Garza – they would tell you that I absolutely love animals.

“Other than that, I have fiction studies, math, and there are other classes you can choose like Vocal and Computer Class. And PE is fun, but it’s hard. Even on our chill days we do work; we learn and take notes, and we just studied how to become a football player in college. Our teacher is really passionate about volleyball, so she doesn’t just exercise and do sports because she has to do it. She really loves volleyball, so we do a lot in PE.”

Despite her full days at Everett, Myrai also finds time to do a weekly swimming lesson. She also participates in Summerbridge, which provides tuition-free academic enrichment and advocacy to underserved middle schoolers, making the best educational opportunities available to students with limited resources.

Contact information:
Everett Middle School, 450 Church Street, San Francisco, CA 94110.
Website.

Email: raparicio@medasf.org; vegam3@sfusd.edu; brownt1@sfusd.edu.

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21

March

Meeting the Need: Fundraiser for Two Mission Promise Neighborhood College Scholarships

March 21, 2016 Community Event, Fundraiser, Scholarships cease and desist fundraiser , mission promise neighborhood fundraiser , mission promise neighborhood scholarships

What: Mission Promise Neighborhood Scholarship Fundraiser
When: Friday, April 15, 6pm to 9pm
Where: Cease & Desist, 2331 Mission Street (near 19th)
How: All tips and donations from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m will go toward the scholarships
Why: Two college scholarships for John O’Connell High School students!

One of the goals of the Mission Promise Neighborhood is to create a college-going culture at home. This is a vital step in the cradle-to-college-to-career continuum for optimum student achievement.

Research demonstrates that parental engagement in schools improves student engagement and is a good marker for academic achievement (Pagliarulo McCarron & Kurotsuchi Inkelas, 2006). The encouragement and involvement of a students’ family has been found to be one of the best predictors of postsecondary educational aspirations, with messages from parents being the main influencers of post-secondary attainment.

While a December 2014 Mission Promise Neighborhood School Climate Survey showed that 90 percent of parents think it is important for their child to go to college, only 81 percent actually talk to their children about doing so. Also, when broken down by ethnicity, the survey found that only 78 percent of Latino students were confident that they would attend college, eight percent lower than non-Latinos. Why the gap?

“We work with many families who immigrated here as adults, so they have not experienced college in the U.S. It is difficult for them to describe and support the steps to get to and through college without that experience,” explains Mission Promise Neighborhood Education Manager Laura Andersen.

A community of support
Mission Promise Neighborhood partner Mission Graduates meets this need: the organization is committed to getting more youth from the Mission District into college, as a means to achieve economic equity and strengthen the fabric of the community.

Mission Graduates has an embedded College and Career Team at John O’Connell High School. The nonprofit has worked with all sophomores through seniors on everything from transcript reviews and internship applications to completing the FAFSA and successfully applying to college.

To foster a college-going culture with an even younger audience, Mission Graduates will hold its Parent University at Everett Middle School on March 24. The goal is to map a path to college, and to ensure that families can remove any potential obstacles. The understanding is that it is never too early to whet students’ appetites for higher education.

There are other community-based organziations providing college prep in Mission Promise Neighborhood schools, including Seven Teepees, 100% College Prep, First Graduate and PIQE at Everett Middle School, plus FACES for the Future and Jewish Vocational Services at John O’Connell High School. This collaboration provides many levels of support for families looking to successfully guide their children through the college process.

Financial need
Even with all of this support, financing a college education can seem daunting. That’s why a fundraiser is being held on Friday, April 15; the venue has been generously donated by Cease & Desist, a popular Mission bar.

The goal is to fund one-year scholarships, ranging from $1,500 to $5,000 each.

These one-time awards will be granted to a pair of first-generation college-going students from John O’Connell High School, one who has been accepted to a four-year college and another who will be attending a two-year college, with enrollment in the 2016 to 2017 school year. Grantees are students who have participated in services from community organizations and school programs, been active in the community and been academically successful. Financial need must also be demonstrated.

At the fundraiser, volunteers will serve as bartenders: Gabriel Medina and Nathanial Owen from the Mission Economic Development Agency; Laura Andersen from the Mission Promise Neighborhood; and Gabriela Navarro from Jamestown Community Center.

Even the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) has generously offered to volunteer, with Jonathan Garcia and Matt Haney taking part. Haney serves as president of the Board of Education.

All tips from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., at both the front and back bars, will go toward the scholarships. Donations will be accepted (credit card or cash). There will also be raffles.

Please join the community for a guaranteed fun time as we make two college dreams come true in the Mission Promise Neighborhood!

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18

March

A New Park Means the Greening of the Mission Promise Neighborhood this St. Patrick’s Day

March 18, 2016 Affordable Housing, Community Planning & Policy affordable housing mission san francisco , folsom and 17th street park mission san francisco , new park mission san francisco

A long-awaited vision became reality today during a groundbreaking ceremony for a new park at the corner of Folsom and 17th streets in the Mission. What is currently a large swath of concrete serving as a parking lot will now be transformed into a green space for the community, with a scheduled opening in 300 days.

A hundred students from nearby Cesar Chavez Elementary, a Mission Promise Neighborhood school, joined in the festivities.

This park was years in the making.

The history
For over a decade, the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition fought for this park, with People Organizing to Demand Environmental & Economic Rights (PODER) spearheading the movement. MEDA has supported this advocacy, which was done as part of the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan of 1999.

As a grassroots movement, hundreds of neighbors have been participating in community design meetings and making their voices heard at City Hall. This included Araceli Lara (photo, seventh right) – a mother, grandmother and great grandmother – who was on hand at today’s dedication to be honored for her work to ensure the community looked out for its interests.

This met with success.

Construction of the park will be funded in part by a $3 million grant from the state of California. Features will include a playground, a fountain to honor Mission Creek (which is underneath the area) and a community garden.

Explained PODER’s Oscar Grande of the neighborhood’s work to create the park: “This was a community effort. Una corazón. One heart.”

The need
According to city-data.com 2013 stats, 64 percent of the Mission’s 72,218 denizens are renters, all sharing a crowded 2.3 square miles. Renters often do not have an outdoor space, meaning parks are vital for residents – especially children – to have a place to exercise and get some fresh air.

A 2014 Mission Promise Neighborhood Survey found that the percent of children who participate in at least one hour of physical activity each day was as follows:

Ages 0-5: 69 percent
Kindergarten to eighth grade: 62 percent
Ninth to 12th grade: 50 percent
Out of high school: 43 percent

To better these numbers, the lack of open space in the neighborhood must be addressed. It is clear that having parks be easily accessible to Mission families is a major component of creating a culture of health in their urban environment.

There are also issues of mental health. Gregory Bratman, a Ph.D. student at Stanford, ran a study last year to see how nature can benefit mental health. The research team first gave healthy people from the Bay Area a questionnaire, coupled with a brain scan, designed to evaluate how susceptible they were to repetitive negative thoughts (a.k.a., brooding). Splitting the group in two, half took a 90-minute nature walk in the hills near Stanford’s campus, while the other group walked for the same amount of time down a busy commercial strip. Once back in the lab, the survey and brain scans were repeated, with those who walked in nature now less prone to persistent negative thoughts. For those who walked down the busy street, there was no perceptible change.

This study showcases the power of being in nature – and of having urban green spaces.

Anchoring an affordable-housing development
This new park at Folsom and 17th streets will also serve as an anchor for a new affordable-housing development in the Mission Promise Neighborhood.

In September 2015, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) awarded MEDA, the lead agency of the Mission Promise Neighborhood, and Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC) the right to co-develop, own and manage the neighboring site at 2060 Folsom Street.

The development will solidify a collaboration of longtime nonprofits: Larkin Street Youth Services running residential programs; Good Samaritan Family Resource Center offering preschool assistance; Jamestown Community Center running youth-development programs; MEDA’s Business Development team training prospective entrepreneurs; Mission Neighborhood Centers providing infant and toddler care; and PODER, continuing the fight for environmental rights. Jamestown Community Center and PODER will be housed on-site, relocating from their current spaces in the Mission.

“This park perfectly complements our 2060 Folsom affordable-housing development, offering recreation opportunities for Mission Promise Neighborhood families right outside their door, so that they can be healthy,” states MEDA Director of Community Real Estate Karoleen Feng. “This park is the result of year’s of community advocacy. By 2017, nobody will remember that this was once a place to park your car.”

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March

Digital Literacy Classes in the Mission Promise Neighborhood

March 14, 2016 Tax Services, Technology & Internet free tax prep mission promise neighborhood sf , free tax services mission san francisco , taxes for free mission san francisco

As the largest free tax preparation site in San Francisco, Mission Promise Neighborhood partner MEDA now does over 4,000 returns a year – with millions returned to the low-income community.

It doesn’t stop there.

As clients come to MEDA’s Plaza Adelante to get their taxes done, they are availed of the scope of the nonprofit’s free asset-building services. MEDA can help with housing rentals and purchases. There’s small-business development, including a community loan fund. Those needing a jobcan get a polished resume, training and connections to opportunities. There’s also financial capability, the thread that ties together this service-integration model.

There are also digital literacy classes offered, starting with a basic class where clients learn about internet security and setting up an email. This is certainly surprising, being that the Mission is action-central for all things tech. While it would be easy to conjecture that the Mission is 100 percent connected, too many Mission Promise Neighborhood families use a smartphone solely to make calls.

The data shows the need: a 2014 Mission Promise Neighborhood survey revealed that 46 percent of area residents did not have a computing device and high-speed internet in their home. This inequity needs to be addressed, as a connection at home is vital for doing everything from looking for a job to kids studying for tests.

The good news is that this week starts a new cohort of computer trainees at MEDA’s Digital Opportunity Center. There are two levels – Basic and Intermediate – with placement based on skill level, as determined by Technology Training Coordinator Leo Sosa.

Explains Sosa, “It is exciting to see the faces of our Mission Promise Neighborhood clients as they learn about computers, some for the very first time. It’s like they are coming out of the shadows, with MEDA a safe place for this to happen, surrounded by other community members in the same situation, plus a supportive staff.”

Taking the helm to teach both groups is Five Keys Charter School’s Ivan Hurtado, who has been a familiar face around MEDA’s Plaza Adelante the last few years. (Five Keys maintains a presence in MEDA’s Digital Opportunity Center, with the organization’s Marlon Altan offering GED and ESL classes).

Hurtado teaches these eight-week classes in Spanish, helping his students understand computer terms, which do not always translate well. As Mission Promise Neighborhood clients explore the power of computers, Hurtado helps them understand how the digital world is a way to better their families’ lives. Many clients are immigrants, so they need to understand that tech is for everyone.

For anyone looking to better their skills, there is an open lab on Mondays and Fridays for those without access to a home computer.

As class participants typed away on their keyboards on their first day, it was clear that their lives were in the process of being changed.

If you are a Mission Promise Neighborhood family interested in free computer training, please contact MEDA’s Leo Sosa at (415) 282-3334 ext. 146; tech@medasf.org.

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