by MEDA Director of Community Real Estate Karoleen Feng Contributed to by MEDA Senior Project Manager Elaine Yee, Mission Promise Neighborhood Program Manager Liz Cortez and MEDA Financial Capability Coach Teresa Garcia Most parents know that finding quality care and education for your child is not easy. For immigrant, working families of the Mission Promise Neighborhood, it’s even […]

Julio Alvarado chose San Francisco’s Mission as his adopted home when he emigrated from Guatemala back in 2000. He felt immediately welcomed in his new community, so much so that when he married and had two kids, the family planted roots in the neighborhood. That comforting sense of place became tenuous when Alvarado and his […]

Luz Bourne-Ruiz is an energetic, single mother of 7-year-old Nathan, who attends Alvarado Elementary School in San Francisco. The immigrant from Mexico operates her own business, the New Alternatives Cafe, a cozy, neighborhood eatery serving breakfast and lunch on Guerrero near 28th. Featuring a convivial environment, there’s even a piano, guitar and congas for musically […]

by Director, Mission Promise Neighborhood Raquel Donoso On a fluke, I attended a Barack Obama rally in Oakland back in 2006. The affable senator from Illinois was not yet running for president, but he drew an impressive crowd. Obama was magnetic. His audience was electrified. I left that day filled with incredible hope. That feeling […]

You’re invited to be a “Part of the Promise” this year, as we collectively work improve the lives of our students. It’s easy. Just donate to a cause in the Mission in lieu of purchasing gifts, or ask your friends and family to make your holiday gift a tax-deductible donation. There are many impactful Mission-based […]

The importance of reading can never be underestimated. The staff of the Mission Promise Neighborhood always keep this fact front of mind when speaking to our families, whether at community-based organizations or in the four schools that comprise this federal education initiative. To ensure that everyone in our community has the books they need to help […]

Everyone’s got a long shopping list for this Thursday’s Thanksgiving meal, but for some that list cannot easily be met … if at all. The habitually underresourced sometimes cannot fit the added expense of this holiday meal into their tight budget. This is true of a number of Mission Promise Neighborhood families, with household incomes […]

Bridget Early has been a social worker at the Mission Promise Neighborhood’s Everett Middle School in San Francisco for the past nine years, following in the footsteps of her parents, who were both educators. Raised a few hours north in Chico, Early relished her childhood outings to the Bay Area with her folks. These trips […]

As the aim of the Mission Promise Neighborhood is family economic success translating to student achievement, the 20+ partner agencies are always collaborating to devise ways to best serve families. This can mean bringing services directly into the quartet of Mission schools served by the initiative. One idea for this fall was to tackle immigration […]

Community engagement was one of the aspects of the Promise Neighborhood grant written back in 2012. One of the Mission Promise Neighborhood’s answers to that piece of family success was the creation of a parent leadership group, known as the Mission Parent Council. This group is spearheaded by Laura Olivas. Parent engagement Olivas has been […]