cgil, Author at Mission Promise Neighborhood

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Teacher Jassy Grewal Volunteers for the Mission Promise Neighborhood and Gains a Community

Interview with: Jassy Grewal
Program: Early Learning

Why did you decide to volunteer with the Mission Promise Neighborhood?
I decided to volunteer with Mission Promise Neighborhood through LEE’s Summer Policy and Advocacy Fellowship. I chose to work with Mission Promise Neighborhood because I wanted to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the education system in San Francisco after finishing my first year of teaching in a middle school. I really wanted to work with the Early Learning issues because I wanted that hands-on experience to start to understand why the majority of my students were entering middle school with large math and literacy gaps.

What projects have you worked on as a volunteer for the Mission Promise Neighborhood?
As a volunteer, I have worked on several projects with Early Learning. The project that stands out to me the most would be redesigning the Early Learning Framework to help inform and build alignment across all partners on what our goals are for the Mission District. This framework will be used by Mission Promise Neighborhood partners to begin discussing solutions around some of the problems that the Mission faces, such as infant-toddler slots, early learning program subsidies and critical transitions from preschool to kindergarten.

What do you like best about volunteering with Mission Promise Neighborhood?
I really enjoyed my time working with the Mission Promise Neighborhood this summer; the individuals and their passion for improving educational inequality in the Mission District of San Francisco really helped to make this an unforgettable experience.

What have you learned from your volunteer experience?
I have been able to learn more about the Mission District and the struggles that our youngest students and their families face on a day-to-day basis. I have been able to gain a more in-depth knowledge around the problems the Early Learning community faces and how to address those problems through policy and advocacy work.

Tell us something we may not know about you. Any interesting facts you’d like to share about your life?
I found my way into education issues and policy because I was also a first-generation English language learner. My family and I had a hard time navigating the education system in California and were really thankful for family, friends, and amazing teachers who were able to offer us assistance and resources. I was the first person in my family to graduate from high school and college in the United States, and I hope one day to improve the education system for children like me so that they are able to access the resources and experiences I was able to growing up.

When I am not working on education issues, I enjoy spending my time traveling and hiking with family and friends. I have been to three different continents and hope to one day be able to travel to all seven. I am a huge elephant enthusiast and am currently planning my next trip to volunteer at the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand.

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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.

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March

A First-Class Undertaking: Mission Promise Neighborhood Teacher Buys a Home

March 30, 2016 Housing, SFUSD housing coach mission san francisco , mission promise neighborhood client success , teacher next door program san francisco

“My teaching newcomers to San Francisco is like I’m coming home. I was in classes like these when I emigrated from the Philippines at age 5. It’s like I am helping myself,” explains Mission Promise Neighborhood teacher Jan Michelle Bautista of why she loves her job, and of the empathy she exhibits for her sixth- to eighth-grade science students at Everett Middle School.

Raised in the Outer Richmond, Jan wanted to stay in the city she loved, but that created a major challenge on a teacher’s salary. In the summer of 2014, the 20-something was enjoying her new career while living solo in a $2,300 per month one-bedroom flat located Downtown. She tried coming up with ways to lower her rent, which ate up way too much of her take-home pay. There seemed to be no options – not in San Francisco, anyway.

Few of Jan’s contemporaries inspired confidence around housing possibilities. It seemed as if only her engineer friends had been able to move out on their own, with most still being compelled to head outside of San Francisco. Everybody else was still living with their folks.

Then Jan heard from Mission Promise Neighborhood Family Success Coach Roberto Aparicio, who is based at Everett and acts as a connector to free services in the community, that MEDA’s Housing Opportunities team was coming to the school to lead a First-Time Homebuyers workshop to avail teachers of how they could potentially buy a place in San Francisco. MEDA is the lead agency of the Mission Promise Neighborhood.

At the workshop, housing counselor Juan Diego Castro spoke of San Francisco’s Downpayment Assistance Loan Program (DALP), which offers up to $200K, and the Teacher Next Door (TND) Program, with $20K toward a first-time home purchase. For the latter, a teacher signs an agreement to remain with SFUSD for a decade minimum; if they do so, there is no need to repay the money. If the teacher leaves sooner, full payback of $20K is required for years one through five, with prorated amounts of repayment starting year six. (The good news is that the TND program is being restarted in May 2016.)

Jan then took advantage of MEDA’s free one-on-one homeownership coaching. Castro also filled this role, going over Jan’s budget and then counseling her to move home for six months to save up for the rest of the needed downpayment. While Jan loves spending time with her extended family (really!), she knew it would be tough moving back to her childhood home after having been on her own. Jan had a flashback as she once again shared a room with siblings, plus the home was crowded with three generations of the Bautista clan. Despite these drawbacks, Jan bit the bullet, hoping it would truly be temporary.

It turns out Castro’s advice was pretty much spot on, as Jan closed on her new Nob Hill condo in February 2015, with a March move-in date. While Jan’s place is just 450 square feet and could use a kitchen remodel, it’s all hers.

There is another price to pay: it’s very tough to come up with the monthly mortgage payment on a teacher’s salary alone, so the industrious new homeowner has taken a second job working at a local supermarket. The days are long, but she can now stay in the city where she teaches.

That is not the case for most.

With real estate site Zillow today showing a median rent of $4,425 and home price of $1.12 million, a teacher’s salary just won’t cut it in San Francisco. Jan knows that many of the teachers at Everett now live in Oakland or other East Bay locales, meaning a long commute.

This can translate to not be able to attend student games, after-school events and educational meetings.

“I look forward to my Professional Learning Communities meetings, which are held after school hours. These meetings are where I share resources with other English Language Development teachers. Because I live in San Francisco, I can come to these meetings. Fellow teachers who live in the East Bay are forced to make a choice each day about getting home at a reasonable hour or staying for these kind of events. This is especially difficult for those with children,” states Jan.

Then there is keeping a connection to the community in which you teach — important to Jan, and other teachers like her. For instance, Jan takes the bus to work, sometimes seeing parents and students also on the way to Everett. “I ask them if homework was done last night,” Jan kids. She also can relate to her students’ daily life experiences, heading to the same eateries, parks and museums.

Jan knows that some dual-household-income Mission Promise Neighborhood teachers do not qualify for DALP or TND, as they make too much money to qualify, but do not earn enough to compete in San Francisco’s pricey market. This often means moving from the city.

“SFUSD puts plenty of money into training teachers, but if they leave the city, that knowledge is lost. If teachers don’t leave because they went back to grad school, then they most likely had to move away because they were evicted or wanted to buy a place and could do so only elsewhere. That’s quite the loss for San Francisco,” concludes Jan, grateful to the Mission Promise Neighborhood for helping her be one of the enviable few who can actually live where they teach.

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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.

28

March

Give Credit Its Due in the Mission Promise Neighborhood

March 28, 2016 Financial Capability fix credit mission san francisco , free financial classes mission san francisco , national credit awareness month mission san francisco

by Family Success Coach Manager Amelia M. Martinez C.

March is “National Credit Education Month,” and while staff at Mission Promise Neighborhood – and partner agencies — recognize the value of a good credit score, it is important to get out the message of the free services available to better the financial education of our low-income families.

That message is getting out: in 2015, 332 Mission Promise Neighborhood families received one-on-one financial coaching to reduce debt, increase income and savings, and better credit. The latter is vital and should receive special attention during “National Credit Education Month.”

Financial Seat Belt
Bad stuff happens … to pretty much everyone. It’s often not even your fault. You may lose your job, suffer an injury or illness, need a major car repair or face an eviction. Establishing a good credit score (ideally combined with an open, but largely unused, credit card) provides resilience, the ability to get through the hard times and bounce back. Think of it as a safety net under a circus performer – something you don’t need until you REALLY need it. You don’t need much income to buckle up and begin establishing or improving your credit score. The bad stuff still hurts, but not as much as it could.

Credit Reports Can be Wrong
It’s not intentional, but many credit reports are wrong. According to a 2012 Federal Trade Commission study, “one in five consumers (20 percent) had an error that was corrected by a credit reporting agency after it was disputed.” Those corrections alone can notably improve your credit score. Plus, no money is needed to fix these errors.

Find That Better Home
Whether renting or buying, moving into a new, better home will require a credit check. Landlords or mortgage brokers want to know if a tenant can be trusted to reliably make monthly housing payments, so they look at your credit report as the best predicator. Knowing what’s on your credit report allows you to address any concerns before a potential landlord or banker rejects you, and you may be able to make improvements before even applying. Good credit often reduces move-in costs, such as a security deposit, or the need for first/last month’s rent to be paid in advance.

Cheaper Car, Home or College Loans, and Cheaper Credit Cards
Improving your credit scores makes life less expensive. That same FTC study found that many people were charged much higher interest rates on loans and credit cards due to errors in their credit reports. Even when everything is accurate, a financial coach can help you increase your credit score and thereby decrease interest rates. So, you can pay less on those monthly bills.

Get Out of Debt Faster
Clients with significant credit debt can be immobilized, but ignoring the issue only makes it worse. Remember: the first step to getting out of a hole is to stop digging. A credit coach can help identify “good debt” versus “bad debt,” prioritize which accounts to first pay off and even discuss options for settling to debts for less than what is owed. In the worst cases, the coach can begin the difficult conversation about whether bankruptcy is a good idea and refer clients to legal counsel offered by Mission Promise Neighborhood partners who deal with such issues.

Immigrants Off the Radar
At MEDA, the lead agency of the Mission Promise Neighborhood, many immigrants who have been off the radar in this country have no credit score. Yes, none. How is that possible? They have neither had recorded monthly payments of any kind nor taken out a loan that would have been paid off in a timely manner, so the individual is off the grid when it comes to credit scores. Some clients are undocumented, with nothing but an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). That’s where a Secured Credit Card comes in. With this innovative card, the client puts their own money as a line of credit and pays off an automated bill each month, with a good credit score possible within a year.

When clients see even a single, concrete way in which credit directly impacts them — and they see that they have the power to change that impact — they are much more likely to take advantage of the free services available to them. The Mission Promise Neighborhood doesn’t need to convince families of all the benefits of credit coaching up front. By focusing on one benefit that is immediately applicable to their real life, every family will succeed so that every student achieves.

That’s an important thing to keep in mind this “National Credit Education Month.”

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