mission promise neighborhood Archives - Page 3 of 3

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Mission Promise Neighborhood (MPN) works daily to provide wraparound services to strengthen families.

Fernanda’s story showcases this success.

Her mother renewed her Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), filing her taxes. The family was connected to low-cost internet. She obtained an internship as a medical administrative assistant at an MPN partner organization.

The story starts with an early learning training given at MPN early learning partner organization, Felton Family Developmental Center. Mother Sandra (photo, fourth left) and her 19-year-old daughter Fernanda (photo, third left), were recruited to attend the Abriendo Puertas parent leadership training, co-facilitated by MPN Family Success Coaches Ana Avilez and Dannhae Herrera Wilson, along with Child Development/ Early Learning Specialist Magali Valdes-Robles of Felton. Fernanda lives with her mother, father and two siblings, including her five-year-old little sister.

Fernanda wanted to attend the Abriendo Puertas training to help her mother get her little sister off to the best possible start. Abriendo Puertas supports parents in their roles as their child’s first, and most influential teacher, and has been a contributing factor — along with Felton’s high-quality early care and education services — in the improvements we’ve seen in the children’s developmental assessment scores and the percentage of the parents reading to their children. (Blog).

Fernanda, a native of San Francisco’s Excelsior District, was a waitress at the time, even though she had graduated from a medical administrative assistant training program at Mission Language and Vocational School in 2018. She was unable to begin her career as a medical assistant because she could not garner an internship that would give her the 160 hours she needed to begin her career.

Upon hearing this, Avilez immediately reached out to MPN partner Mission Neighborhood Health Center (MNHC) — and Fernanda had an interview with this community-based organization two days later. A couple of days after that successful interview, Fernanda started training and interning at MNHC. At the same time, Fernanda’s mother was connected to financial capacity-building services at MEDA, including ITIN renewal, tax filing and low-cost internet.

We are pleased to share that MNHC has now hired Fernanda as an employee.

This success story is a prime example of how our partners come together to provide a wraparound, two-generation approach to working with families and their children, and the persistence and desire to achieve that exists within our community.

MPN is proud to be part of Fernanda and her family’s success story.

29

January

¡Sí, Se Puede! Working Collectively to Increase Latino Family Leadership through Abriendo Puertas in the Mission District of San Francisco

January 29, 2019 Abriendo Puertas, Leadership abriendo puertas mission sf , mission promise neighborhood , promise neighborhoods collective impact

Co-authored by:
Associate Director Liz Cortez, Mission Promise Neighborhood
Early Learning Program Manager Ada Alvarado Freund, Mission Promise Neighborhood

Abriendo Puertas Professional Learning Community includes the following partners:
Felton Institute
Good Samaritan Family Resource Center
Homeless Prenatal Program
Mission Neighborhood Centers
San Francisco Unified School District – Early Education Department
Support for Families

Introduction
Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors’ mission is to “support parents in their roles as family leader and as their child’s first and most influential teacher in a home that is their child’s first school.” This two-generation approach builds parent leadership skills and knowledge to promote family well-being and positive education outcomes for children. It is the nation’s first evidence-based comprehensive training program developed by and for Latino parents with children ages 0-5.

Since starting in 2007, Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors has trained over 1,800 facilitators in more than 500 organizations, impacting over 80,000 parents/families across the country. The curriculum focuses on early childhood development, early literacy, health, social-emotional well-being, the use of media and technology, numeracy, school preparation and parent advocacy. In 2012, University of California, Berkeley’s Institute of Human Development identified that participants had made remarkable growth across all areas of assessment. In the analysis, the largest effects were found in the following areas: school preparation; health development; parenting; and advocacy.

Within the Mission District of San Francisco, a collective of Latino family-serving organizations that are part of the Mission Promise Neighborhood initiative (MPN) — and historically part of First 5 San Francisco’s Family Resource Center initiative — are working together to increase the number of families that access Abriendo Puertas at the neighborhood level.

MPN serves as a backbone organization that supports the collaborative efforts of partner organizations within the Mission District, all working to improve school readiness outcomes and support families. The population of Latinos in the Mission District is approximately 21,000 with 1,700 children ages 0-5. Latino families in the Mission have a median income of $25,000, compared to the San Francisco household median of $78,000.

After learning that turnover of Abriendo Puertas facilitators is a real challenge within our partner network, MPN and partner First 5 San Francisco hosted a community training to rebuild the capacity of these organizations. We also wanted to grow the number of organizations offering Abriendo Puertas. In early 2017, 14 facilitators, representing six organizations, participated in the training provided by Abriendo Puertas. We realized that to maintain the momentum and desire to offer more sessions to families, a one-time training was not going to be enough. So we created a professional learning community and started meeting every two months to share best practices and support each other in growing the work.

The group identified a few results and has mostly focused their collective work on two of them:

More families have access to Abriendo Puertas in the Mission District and San Francisco.
Families feel connected to their Abriendo Puertas family after the series.

Our collective impact
MPN serves as a backbone organization in many ways, including: coordinating the trainings for existing and new facilitators in the community; facilitating the professional learning community for facilitators; and collecting and analyzing the data from various partners to tell a collective story. We have been able to increase the number of organizations offering Abriendo Puertas by 133 percent (from three in 2016 to seven in 2017) and all of these organizations participate in the bimonthly professional learning community to share data and tell a collective story for the community. Our goals for achieving communitywide impact include breaking organizational silos to work together to ensure that more families are accessing Abriendo Puertas, and that when families participate they stay connected to other families and build a community of support.

By the numbers:

133 percent increase in organizations offering Abriendo Puertas while adding 14 new facilitators.
100 percent of organizations offering Abriendo Puertas are participating in the Professional Learning Community and sharing data to tell a collective story.
159 percent increase in Abriendo Puertas participation.

Building the professional learning community
Bringing people together to work on a common result takes coordination support from a lead organization; as such, we work to build relationships and develop trust. This helps with keeping a group engaged over time. Coordination support is critical to the planning of the meetings, the follow up on commitments and the collection of data to tell the collective story. People are busy and therefore appreciate effective meetings: We use the Results-Based Facilitation framework for planning and running our meetings, thereby ensuring that we are all clear on why we are coming together and what the next steps will be. We are also creative in our approach to communicating across the group. In addition to holding meetings every two-months for one-and-a-half hours — complemented by one-on-one check-ins — we stay connected via a Facebook group page. We ensure that all of our communication is consistently and constantly messaging the vision and agreements for scaling this work.

The MPN Abriendo Puertas learning community includes 100 percent of the organizations in the community that offer Abriendo Puertas, and the facilitators collectively developed group results or goals and how they will measure progress. At this moment, the data that is shared includes the number of participants and the number/percent that graduate from a series. In addition to having a collective goal of increasing the number of participants, the professional learning community is a space for facilitators to support each other and share best practices. We have seen organizations pair up to co-facilitate sessions and have also seen newer facilitators learning from more-seasoned facilitators. The group has developed a year-round community calendar that informs families of where a series is being offered across organizations.

Organizations in our community have a high level of staff turnover, making it difficult to stay aligned to reach our goals. In addition, facilitators have multiple demands on their time and therefore joining meetings outside of their own organization is often challenging. We find it key that supervisors — and the leadership of each organization which is participating — is fully supportive of the facilitators that attend the meetings and understand the goals of the group.

Results of working together
Since working together to increase capacity in facilitators and new organizations offering Abriendo Puertas in early 2017 and the creation of the professional learning community, we have seen a year-by-year increase in the amount of participants that are engaging in the program. As seen in Figure 1, we have seen participation increase by 159 percent since the beginning of 2017.

In addition to engaging in the program, we want participants to feel connected to their Abriendo Puertas family after they graduate, so we hosted our first “Fiesta Comunitaria Abriendo Puertas” in September of 2018. There were 289 family members who came out to celebrate family leadership and promote social connection among families. The professional learning community conducted a post-event survey to gather feedback from families. One parent shared, “I learned that the Abriendo Puertas program is more than a parenting program … it is also a movement at the national level.”

One story: Olga, Abriendo Puertas facilitator and professional learning community member
What is it like being part of this learning community? How have you felt supported as a first-time facilitator and the only one offering it through your organization?

“The provider learning group meetings have been really useful because they give me the opportunity to keep connected to providers of other organizations, to know what they are doing in the community, the classes they are planning to offer in the future and we can discuss relevant topics related to Abriendo Puertas and the scaling of the work citywide.

“Since it was the first time that I facilitated — and also the first time that our agency implemented this program — it would have been helpful to have had more staff trained within our agency. Being a part of the professional learning community was supportive and crucial, since any questions that I had, they were there to answer and, more importantly, to connect me with a facilitator from another agency that co-facilitated a series with me.”

Next Steps to Deepen our Work
Focusing on the pre-/post-assessment
We have learned that organizations use the participant pre- and post-assessment in different ways, and some not at all. Partner organizations have found the assessment too long, so participants find it difficult to answer. Some organizations have created their own pre- and post-assessment questions, while others have broken down the questions into separate pre- and post-assessments to give to participants by session. For example, one partner uses creative ways of capturing the increase in knowledge, using a learning tree with each leaf documenting a participant’s thoughts and learnings after a session. Not having the same pre- and post-assessment data across organizations has limited the kind of analysis that we can do. We will continue to find ways of aligning our assessments to demonstrate our collective story and impact.

Participation versus graduation
In addition to scaling so that more families access Abriendo Puertas, we want more families to complete all of the session, and at least enough sessions to graduate. In 2019, some partners will be focusing on graduating more families by developing more intentional strategies for retention and engagement of participants. We want all families to feel recognized for participating and we will promote certificates for participation and certificates for graduation.

Linkage to advocacy and leadership development opportunities after the series
We want to follow up with families after they have graduated to see how they are doing with their goal-setting and how we can support their advocacy and leadership goals. We have learned that some families are starting to take on advocacy and leadership roles within their schools and in their community. We want to document and celebrate how they are getting involved and putting their advocacy skills to practice.

We will continue to build the facilitator capacity in our community by offering additional trainings for our partners. This will allow us to continue to scale the work in the Mission District, and across San Francisco. Working collectively in a professional learning community allows us to support each other while trying to achieve these big goals of ensuring that more families participate and graduate from Abriendo Puertas, plus that they feel connected to their Abriendo Puertas family after they graduate.

_____________________________
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. MPN partners provide a network of support services to help families achieve economic stability and the tools needed to support their children’s academic achievement, creating a brighter future for the whole Mission community.

16

January

2019: The Mission and Beyond, for All California Kids

January 16, 2019 Partner Referral Tool, Promise Neighborhoods, Results ca promise neighborhoods , mission promise neighborhood , results mission promise

2018 could have been our final year.

Our grant from the Department of Education had sunsetted and Mission Promise Neighborhood (MPN) was operating on carryover funds. We didn’t know if we would be here in 2019. We were among 12 Promise Neighborhoods across the country that were eligible for only three available extension grants.

Well, what a difference a year makes!

Our community was successful in winning a two-year, $6 million grant from the Department of Education (DOE) so we now have funding to take our initiative into 2020. Instead of downsizing, we doubled the number of schools and families we are working with in San Francisco’s Mission District and, on top of this, MPN lead agency MEDA is able to use this success to advocate for an increase in the number of Promise Neighborhoods in San Francisco … and across California.

How did we get here? It took a collaborative effort of expert partners.

Our numbers spoke for themselves. Over the six-plus years of our initiative, we used a shared case-management tool to connect 2,744 families with 5,590 different program referrals, ranging from housing and tenants’ rights to job readiness and health care. We were a collaborative of 20 community organizations, aligning our efforts to provide wraparound services to our students and families to work toward common goals. We broke through silos and shared data along the way. Together, we held ourselves accountable to turning the curve on community indicators.

MPN saw the following outcomes in our schools and with our partners:

Latino graduation rates increased from 63 percent to 88 percent
African American graduation rates increased from 46 percent to 93 percent
Ninety-four percent of elementary school families feel a sense belonging at their schools
Rate at which students change schools mid-year decreased from 13.9 percent to 7.9 percent
Eighty percent of all Latino 4-year-olds in the Mission are now enrolled in preschool
Social emotional development scores for 3-year-olds jumped from 24 percent to 82 percent

These outcomes are even more impressive when you take into account the extreme pressures our families are experiencing: unprecedented levels of housing displacement, growing income inequality, all coupled with a national political climate translating to an assault on our community. Our collective work of providing families with coordinated access to mental health services, legal representation, asset building, housing services and more has helped MPN stabilize the Mission by using schools and affordable housing as community anchors.

The U.S. Department of Education grant is an affirmation of the work our partners have done. Our second iteration of MPN is focused on aligning with the City of San Francisco and its School District’s Beacon Initiative, expanding from four to nine schools in the Mission District, increasing our presence at early learning centers, developing parent leaders and reaching out to Family Child Care providers to give their families access to our network of supports. We estimate that we will now be serving approximately 8,000 children and their families in the Mission. With our collective-impact approach, MPN is on pace to have the scale of the solution match the scale of the challenge.

Joining with other Promise Neighborhoods
Other Promise Neighborhoods across the state have seen similar outcomes. Together, the five Promise Neighborhoods in California created a network called CPNN. The results from the CPNN network, informed the development of a statewide plan to end child poverty. This plan includes a recommendation for the investment by the State of California into a total of 20 Promise Neighborhoods at $5 million per neighborhood, complemented by increased spending on child care, CalWORKS and much more. The plan estimates that the combination of these factors will result in benefits to state and local governments of more than $12 billion annually.

The plan lays out the seven unique characteristics of Promise Neighborhoods:

Cradle-to-college-to-career continuum to move families out of poverty
Place-based to focus on high-need geographies
Collective impact: collaborate with partners to provide solutions at scale
Align funding streams to achieve shared outcomes
Results-driven, with a focus on population-level results
Equity-focused and explicit in addressing disparities
Community powered to address local needs and build on local strengths

Data sharing, collaboration, accountable to results, good for the economy: Promise Neighborhoods are the embodiment of what we call “good government.” MEDA will be calling for these pilot initiatives to move beyond being simply boutique operations and for them to become the normal way that government delivers services. That’s why MEDA will be taking a busload of community partners and families to Sacramento on Tuesday, Jan. 22, to advocate for this good government. If you would like to join, you can register here, and call Lucia Obregon at (415) 282-3334 ext. 156 to get a seat on the bus (lunch, snacks and child care provided).

One community is not waiting for the State to approve funding for Promise Neighborhoods; instead, it is taking the lead in using its current budget to create Promise Neighborhoods. San Diego County has approved $4 million for a pilot Promise Neighborhood based on the success of its existing Chula Vista Promise Neighborhood. If the pilot is also successful, the plan is to create even more Promise Neighborhoods throughout that county.

Closer to home — and based on the success of San Francisco’s Promise Neighborhood in the Mission District — we believe it’s time for the City and County of San Francisco to begin asking itself if other neighborhoods in the City would benefit from a Promise Neighborhood, particularly during this time of widening income inequality and displacement of working-class families and people of color.

From School Board to Mayor, State Superintendent of Schools to Governor, all the way to the House of Representatives, we are seeing inspiring new leaders take the reins of government. As they highlight the need for a more just society, now is the time for bold equity initiatives based on proven models. Perhaps 2020 will put us on pace to end child poverty.

After all, much can happen in a year!

13

September

Una Familia Determinada a Sobresalir

September 13, 2018 Housing affordable housing mission sf , mission promise neighborhood , small sites program sf

por Adriana Jones Lima

(English follows Spanish)

La familia Arriola Hernández vino a los Estados Unidos en los noventas y es originalmente de la Ciudad de México. Refugio llegó primero a los EEUU a continuar sus estudios y luego mandó por su esposa, Elvira. A poco tiempo Refugio aprendió que la vida estadounidense cuesta mucho y se encontró con la necesidad de trabajar por tiempo completo.

Años después, Carmen la hermana de Elvira vino a San Francisco para reunirse con su ella y su esposo, y los tres compartieron un apartamento en 656-48 Capp St. Aquí en San Francisco, Carmen conoció a su esposo Mario Hernández y los dos se movieron a un studio debajo del apartamento de su hermana Elvira.

La familia Arriola le gusta vivir en La Mission por la cultura y se siente muy agusto porque puede hablar su propio lenguaje, y ir de compras en tiendas y supermercados que llevan productos como los que conoce en México. También viven en una locación perfecta, están localizados muy cerca de transporte público y no necesita coche.

Elvira y Refugio tienen dos hijas Gloria y Jessica. Gloria asiste John O’Connell High y Jessica en Cesar Chavez Elementary. Las dos escuelas son parte de La Comunidad Promesa de la Mission. En Cesar Chavez, la familia Arriola conocio a Yadira Diaz (foto, tercer derecha), Guia de Éxito Familiar de la Comunidad Promesa de La Mission. Elvira es una mamá voluntaria. Desde el 2006 Elvira es voluntaria en Cesar Chavez ayudando a las maestras en preparara sus materiales para la clases también es voluntaria en Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 y John O’Connell High School. También apoya a Diaz cuando ofrece talleres de servicios a los padres. Elvira también es la vice-presidenta de ELAC (English Learners Advisory Council). Jessica y Gloria aprecian mucho a Elvira y les gusta pasar tiempo de calidad con sus mama y recibir su apoyo en la escuela. La familia Arriola Hernandez tiene una gran presencia en la Mission. Refugio, Carmen, y Mario trabajan en limpieza en la ciudad. Carmen también vende sus ricos tamales en el corazón de la Misión, y su esposo le ayuda a prepararlos.

Después de 20 años de vivir en su hogar en la Mission la familia recibió una carta explicando que la dueña iba poner el edificio en venta. La familia Arriola Hernández es testigo del desalojo que está sucediendo en La Mission y tenía miedo que su futuro sería igual a los 8,000 Latinos que han sido desalojado de sus casas desde el 2000. La carta del dueño del edificio llegó como un golpe a la familia, rompiendo su tranquilidad con la realización que tal vez podría ser desalojado de su hogar.

Refugio recuerda ese momento muy difícil, “no podíamos dormir ni comer. Me despertaba cada noche a las 2 o 3 de la mañana pensando en el futuro de mi familia. Pensé que nuestra única opción era volver a México.” El gran miedo de Refugio y Elvira era de quitarles a sus hijas la única casa que conocían y empezar un vida nueva en México.

Elvira confió en Diaz durante ese momento difícil para encontrar una solución. Diaz refirió a la familia al equipo de Bienes Raíces de la Comunidad en MEDA. Después de su primera cita en MEDA la familia Arriola Hernandez empezó a trabajar con MEDA para comprará el edificio donde vivían. La familia organizaron a todos los inquilinos para pedirle a los dueños del edificio que vendieran a MEDA. Después de mucho trabajo escribiendo cartas y haciendo llamadas a los dueños el edificio se le vendió a MEDA, y se formó parte del programa “Small Sites.”

Juan Diego Castro, de MEDA, explicó que la familia tomó la gran responsabilidad de organizar a los inquilinos para que MEDA pudiera comprar el edificio y asegurarse que los inquilinos no fueran desalojados. La familia Arriola Hernandez les daba esperanza a los inquilinos en ese momento difícil y siempre estaban al tanto comunicando los procesos de la venta

Después que MEDA compró el edificio, Refugio todavía recordaba lo sucedido y cómo su edificio tenía un rótulo de venta. Refugio y Castro de MEDA quitaron el anuncio juntos. Al final, Refugio y su familia pudieron dormir sin miedo y pudieron seguir sus vidas. Necesitamos crear más oportunidades para familias como la familia Arriola Hernández en la Misión, esta familia forma un componente importante de nuestra comunidad.

A Determined Family is Strengthened

The Arriola Hernandez family moved to the United States in the 1990s from Mexico City. Refugio Arriola was the first one to move to the U.S., seeking to continue his studies. The newcomer quickly learned that life in his adopted homeland was very expensive, forcing him to spend much of his time working just to keep pace. Once settled, he was reunited with his wife, Elvira, in San Francisco.

A few years later, Elvira’s sister, Carmen, also moved to San Francisco to live with her sister and brother-in-law. The three shared an apartment at 656-48 Capp St. Carmen later met her husband, Mario Hernandez, and the pair moved into a studio on a floor below her sister.

The Arriola family enjoys living in the Mission because of the culture: They feel comfortable here because they have the ability to speak their native language, plus go shopping in stores and supermarkets that carry products found back home in Mexico. Their apartment is in a perfect location, as living within walking distance to public transportation allows them to get around the city without the expense of owning a vehicle.

Elvira and Refugio have two daughters attending Mission Promise Neighborhood schools: Gloria attends John O’Connell High School; and Jessica is a student at Cesar Chavez Elementary School. While volunteering at Cesar Chavez, Elvira met MPN Family Success Coach Yadira Diaz (photo, third right). Looking to give back to her community, Elvira has volunteered at Cesar Chavez elementary school since 2006, helping teachers prepare materials for class, plus supporting Diaz in the connection of families to free services. Additionally, Elvira also generously volunteers her time at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 (part of MPN’s planned expansion) and at John O’Connell; she even serves as vice president of ELAC (English Language Learners Advisory Council). Her daughters appreciate having their mom’s presence on their campuses, and all of the support she provides them in school. Refugio, Carmen and Mario work as janitors in the city, but on weekends Carmen and Mario also sell their delicious homemade tamales in the heart of the Mission. Clearly, the Arriola Hernandez family has big a presence in the community.

Unfortunately, life in that Mission became more complicated when, after two decades of living in their apartment, the family received a letter explaining that the owners were putting the building up for sale. The Arriola Hernandez family was fearful for their future, as they had already seen the displacement taking place around them in the Mission. They hoped their lives would not change like the 8,000 Latinos that have been displaced from the Mission since 2000.

Refugio looks back on this difficult time and laments, “I couldn’t sleep or eat. I would wake up around 2 or 3 in the morning thinking about the future of my family. I thought our only option would be to return to Mexico.” The family’s biggest fear was being compelled to remove their daughters from the only home they had known to have them start life anew in Mexico.

Seeking a solution, Elvira reached out to Diaz, who connected the family to MPN partner MEDA’s Community Real Estate team. After their very first visit with MEDA, the Arriola Hernandez family took their first steps in working with MEDA so the nonprofit could buy the building via the City’s Small Sites Program. The family worked tirelessly to organize the neighbors in the building to ask the current owners to sell the building to MEDA. After much tenant hard work, letter writing and phone calls to the owners, the latter finally decided to sell the six-unit building to MEDA.

Community Real Estate Project Assistant Juan Diego Castro explained that the family took on the responsibility of organizing the neighbors so that MEDA could buy the building and ensure that the tenants would not be displaced. The Arriola Hernandez family gave hope to the tenants during this difficult time, and remained to committed throughout the entire process. Without their help, none of this would have been possible.

After MEDA bought the building, Refugio remembers taking down the large “For Sale” sign in front of the building — a sign that had caused everyone so much stress. Finally the Arriola Hernandez family could sleep without fear and continue their lives in the Mission.

The opportunity gap needs to be closed for families, like this one, in the Mission, for they are an important part of our community. We need families like the Arriola Hernandezes, the thread that keeps the Mission together. They give back to the community and help make the Mission a brighter place to live.

12

September

Doubling Down on Collective Impact

September 12, 2018 MPN Expansion collective impact mission sf , mission promise neighborhood , promise neighborhood results

by Director, Mission Promise Neighborhood Richard Raya (photo, right)

The most recent data from San Francisco Unified School District showed 2,144 homeless students in the district. The majority of these homeless students, 1,345, were English Language Learners, and 1,093 were Latino. In the face of this crisis, a school in the Mission District recently opened its gymnasium to its homeless students and their families to spend the night. Though some parents and neighbors didn’t like the idea, many other parents, the principal and 100 percent of the teachers agreed that it was the right thing to do.

I’m proud to say that Mission Promise Neighborhood (MPN) will now be expanding to support this brave school, Buena Vista Horace Mann, and four other schools, bringing our total to nine schools in the Mission altogether. Our Family Success Coaches will work closely with onsite providers Jamestown, Mission Graduates, Seven Teepees and Instituto Familiar De La Raza to help connect families at these schools to housing, jobs, health care, legal services and more. We are aligning with the City of San Francisco and San Francisco Unified School District’s Beacon Community Schools Initiative, because we believe that public schools are where we come together to care for each other’s children, provide resources to the entire community and build the society we would like to see.

In addition to this K-12 expansion, we are increasing our investment in Early Learning by expanding our parent capacity-building programming at Felton Institute, Mission Neighborhood Centers, Good Samaritan, Support for Families, Homeless Prenatal and San Francisco Unified School District. We’re also taking our Family Success Coach model to 20 family child care providers in the neighborhood. Finally, we’re partnering with lead agency MEDA’s real estate program to build early care and education centers for MPN partners that can effectively close the gap in early care and education slots over time, especially infant-toddler slots which are the highest need in our community.

We are able to do all of this because of our recent two-year, $6 million extension grant from the Department of Education to continue and expand MPN.

As our Mission District community faces more pressures than ever before, we are working together to keep our families in place and to support their success. The partners of MPN are using our new grant to double down on our collective impact approach — collaborating and building relationships across silos and service system barriers, and using a common database to share information and provide wraparound services.

We are still in the early stages of this new grant, but over the past two months, more than a dozen MPN community providers and school principals have come together to work through the on-the-ground implementation details and remind each other of our ambitious goals. We are committed to ensuring that implementation of the next version of MPN will continue the progress we have made: more students graduating, higher assessment scores, and parents that have the tools to provide and lead.

It’s only fitting that we host our community celebration at Buena Vista Horace Mann, our brave new partner school that exemplifies the spirit of Mission Promise Neighborhood. Join us next week to celebrate this investment in our community, along with Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Leader, plus San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Supervisor Hillary Ronen and Commissioner Mark Sanchez, plus volunteers from Google leading children’s games. “Keeping the Promise,” Wednesday, September 19, 4 p.m., Buena Vista Horace Mann Community School. Food, music, dignitaries, games for the kids and more.

RSVP here.

13

July

Familia Apoyada Con Los Servicios Colectivos de la Comunidad Promesa de la Mission

July 13, 2018 Affordable Housing mission graduates sf , mission promise neighborhood , promise neighborhood results

La misión de la Iniciativa Comunidad Promesa de la Mission vive en la familia Lourdes Velazquez – ya que son un ejemplo de lo que pasa cuando una comunidad trabaja colectivamente para apoyar y abogar por una familia. Juntos con La Raza Centro Legal, MEDA, Causa Justa, Mission Graduates y con otros recursos disponibles en la comunidad, hoy en día, la familia Lourdes Velazquez está sobresaliendo.

Oscar Moreno Sánchez (papá) fue víctima de un asalto violento en La Pulga de San Jose, sufriendo heridas críticas en el brazo. Lo transportaron desde San Jose al hospital general de San Francisco para su tratamiento, donde lo encontraron su esposa e hijo. Allí, operaron a Oscar y lo apoyaron con terapia física y emocional para superar su trauma.

Las heridas físicas y emocionales no eran lo único que estresaba a Oscar y su familia en ese momento. Oscar fue que incapacitado después del asalto, sin seguro médico, y como no tenía documentación migratoria, no podía recibir seguro de descapacidad. La familia estaba en crisis.

En ese entonces, Oscar (hijo) estudiaba en John O’Connell High School y recibió apoyo de la Gerente de Educación de MEDA. Oscar (hijo) le comentó a la Gerente lo que había sucedido, y ella los refirió a La Raza Centro Legal.

En La Raza Centro Legal, Oscar (papá) aplicó para una visa humanitaria por el asalto violento que sufrió.

Después una Gerente de Apoyo Familiar les ayudó a aplicar al California Victim Compensation Board, un programa federal que provee un ingreso mensual en situaciones como la de Oscar que fue asaltado violentamente, hasta que el pueda trabajar nuevamente.

Con las conexiones a La Raza Centro Legal y al California Victim Compensation Board, Oscar (papa) empezó su proceso para tener documentación legal migratoria y a recibir los recursos financieros necesarios para la familia.

Pero no paramos allí. Ya que salieron de una crisis económica, Ana Avilez, Guia de Éxito Familiar, conecto la familia con el departamento de Oportunidades del Vivienda en MEDA, para ayudar a la familia establecer crédito y aplicar para un apartamento de BMR (Below-Market-Rate). Ana también refirió la familia a Causa Justa para ayudarles a resolver un conflicto con un dueño y explicarles sus derechos como inquilinos.

Y finalmente, sabiendo que la educación es lo más importante para asegurar un futuro mejor para Oscar (hijo), Mission Graduates está trabajando con él, ayudándole a aplicar a varias universidades, becas y asistencia financiera.

Para Avilez, su trabajo es muy personal. Ana dice, “a mí me gusta mi trabajo porque sé que estoy ayudando a mi comunidad. Años atrás, mi familia ocupó los mismos servicios, y alguien nos ayudó. Y ahora yo quiero ayudar. Saber es poder. Si ellos saben sus derechos, pueden llegar a alcanzar sus metas.”

Actualmente, Avilez sigue comunicándose con la familia regularmente. Ellos saben que el proceso inmigratorio toma tiempo, y se sienten confortable porque Ana les ayuda, no están abandonados, tienen una comunidad de organizaciones con la Comunidad Promesa de la Mission que aboga por ellos a diario.

4

April

A Promise Delivered for our Mission Students

April 4, 2018 Graduation increased graduation rates mission sf , mission promise neighborhood , promise neighborhoods

by MPN Director Richard Raya

All San Franciscans should be dismayed by the Chronicle story [“A child left behind: SF student failed every class in high school,” March 28, 2018 ], which showcased a student who Booker T. Washington Community Service Center agency staff claim garnered straight F’s over many years — without intervention — while attending Washington High School in the Outer Richmond District. We implore the populace to demand students and parents of our most-underserved schools be given the tools they need to succeed. That means equitable allocation of funding, staffing and family support dollars, with a prioritization of our children’s futures in San Francisco’s robust $10+ billion annual budget.

The 20 community partners of the Mission Promise Neighborhood — an education initiative working in a quartet of Mission District schools — know of the endemic challenges our primarily low-income students face. But we vehemently disagree with the statement in the article that: “Nothing has changed in years and years. There’s no help. There’s no intervention.”

Our students’ narrative is different.

With Mission Promise Neighborhood’s network of support, our students are definitely not slipping through the cracks. That is because each school, a family success coach and neighborhood partners lock arms to serve as a supportive community for students and families who are most in need. We work collaboratively to identify at-risk students — and focus our resources to meet the needs of those students and their families. Individualized action plans are developed to meet students’ academic goals, including connecting these youth and their families to health care (mental/physical), housing, child care, employment and more. Most importantly, we meet regularly to set goals, measure our results and hold ourselves accountable to getting the work done.

During our five-year initiative in partnership with SFUSD, John O’Connell High School graduation rates for our Latino students increased from 62 percent to 88 percent, and graduation rates for our African American students increased from 46 percent to 93 percent. These are dramatic numbers, showcasing the fact that something “has changed.”

The article mentioned that communication between the child’s school and parents was limited. In contrast, Mission Promise Neighborhood provides trauma-informed, culturally responsive programming. Surveys indicate that more than 94 percent of our parents feel welcome at our elementary schools. At our middle and high school, the percentage of parents who feel welcome is 92 percent and 93 percent, respectively.

All kids are resilient and want to succeed: This belief in the ability of our children is part of the foundation of the national Promise Neighborhood movement. The first Promise Neighborhood was started in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood by Geoffrey Canada, when he made a promise that every child in his community can graduate prepared for college.

In San Francisco Unified’s Promise Neighborhood, we’re keeping that promise, and it’s only the beginning.

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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.

8

February

Director, Mission Promise Neighborhood Richard Raya Championing a Community’s Collective Vision

February 8, 2018 Leadership, Mission Promise Neighborhood Partners mission promise neighborhood , promise neighborhood collective impact , promise neighborhood partners

In December 2012, MEDA worked with city agencies and 25 neighborhood partners to replicate New York’s successful Harlem Children’s Zone in the Mission District of San Francisco. The goal of the Mission Promise Neighborhood (MPN) is to guide students on a cradle-to-college-to-career continuum, while helping their families achieve economic success.

Director, Mission Promise Neighborhood Richard Raya (photo, lower right) is now spearheading this innovative initiative.

What background do you bring to leading the Mission Promise Neighborhood?
I’m a third-generation Bay Area native who grew up in one of California’s largest Section 8 housing complexes. After dropping out of my predominantly Latino high school, I went to community college, then transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, where I earned a bachelor’s in English and a master’s in Public Policy. I dedicated my life to helping transform lives the way my life was transformed. The Promise Neighborhood initiative is the embodiment of why I went to college: to help low-income families and communities of color maximize their extraordinary capacity to survive and thrive.

Over the past two decades, I’ve worked with elected officials, administrators and community leaders on data-driven, interagency collaboratives focused on improving program results in low-income communities, as well as on equitable development efforts resulting in affordable housing, below-market retail space and local-hire goals. My positions included director of administrative services for the Alameda County Public Health Department, executive director of Youth Radio and chief of staff for an Oakland city councilmember.

What is the greatest challenge of the Mission Promise Neighborhood?
The greatest challenge of the Mission Promise Neighborhood is that we are trying to solve a problem that no single organization can solve on its own — the challenge of getting every kid in the neighborhood to graduate prepared for college or career. Our collective impact approach of working with partners to provide wraparound services requires a great deal of trust between partner organizations, data sharing, coordination and communication. An additional challenge is that we’re doing all of this while also attempting to prevent these students from being displaced by the massive economic forces reshaping the face of San Francisco, and national policies threatening some of our immigrant families. Lastly, our initial federal grant is in its sunset phase; although we will be applying for an extension grant when it is released in the next few months, this award is not guaranteed. Our challenges are many, but we have the team, partners and infrastructure to meet these challenges.

What are the greatest successes of the Mission Promise Neighborhood to date?
A lot of people say they are working on collective impact, but few are pulling it off. The partners of the Mission Promise Neighborhood are pulling it off — collaborating and building relationships across silos and service system barriers, and using a common database to share information and provide wraparound services. In addition, MPN is also working with families to help them develop the assets to control their destinies, and preserving and building affordable housing to keep families in place and stabilize our community.

The high school graduation results are in: Rates increased dramatically for Latino and African American students. Over the five years of the MPN partnership, Latino graduation rates increased from 62 percent to 88 percent at John O’Connell High School, and African American graduation rates went from 46 percent to 93 percent.

It’s always going to be difficult to take direct credit for outcomes in a collective impact approach. The greatest success may be the relationships built among providers — the schools, the community agencies — and the buy-in to use a common referral system and share data.

MPN created a referral tool for partners to use to provide wraparound services to students and their families. After 2.5 years of collecting referral data (January 2014-August 2017), the MPN partners generated 4,389 referrals and impacted 2,303 individual families. (Read data brief.)

MPN has also built an awesome team. Our family success coaches have gotten to know students, families and school principals, and are responsible for making the referrals to community partners. Combined with our administrative and evaluation staff, this forms the backbone of the collective impact work. I’ve heard it said that with the right team you can accomplish anything. I feel that way with this team.

What is your vision for Mission Promise Neighborhood for 2018 and beyond?
The Mission District is one of the greatest neighborhoods in San Francisco, which itself is one of the greatest cities in the world. It’s an honor for San Francisco to host a flagship initiative such as a Promise Neighborhood. San Francisco has an opportunity now to decide what the next version of its Promise Neighborhood will look like. My vision is that we will double down on the collective impact infrastructure built by MPN, build on the relationships developed with partners, and expand services to more students and their families. This vision is not mine alone; it was developed by the MPN partners in a sustainability planning session last summer. Our vision is that we will continue sharing data across agencies as a means to make program decisions, while holding ourselves accountable to measured results, all framed by the agreement that we are responsible for each other’s children. In addition, we will strive to be guided by authentic community voice, and strengthen the ties of MPN to our broader MEDA asset building, affordable housing and parent leadership work. It’s an exciting time.

In my first four weeks, I’ve met dozens of partners, and I’ve visited all four of our Promise Neighborhood campuses: John O’Connell High School, Everett Middle School, and Bryant and César Chávez elementary schools. Our schools are the centers of our community, the fulcrum of our collaboration and the best places to meet our young people and their families. There is a lot that happens before children even enter school, so I’ve also toured the Felton Family Development Center, one of our early learning partners. This outreach will continue throughout the next few months, culminating in a report this spring sharing the considerable accomplishments of our collaborative over the past years, and where we hope to go from here, together. Please email rraya@medasf.org if you’d like to arrange a meeting with me.

There is so much going on in a Promise Neighborhood, so many moving parts, that communication is key. Our team will be redoubling our efforts in using this blog to provide you with regular updates on the great work that our schools and partners are doing.

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About Mission Promise Neighborhood

10

March

Community Lends Its Support to the Mission Promise Neighborhood Scholarship Fund

March 10, 2017 Fundraiser, Scholarships mission promise neighborhood , mission promise neighborhood scholarship fund , promise neighborhoods

At crowd-filled Cease & Desist last night, the community came together to Start & Donate at the first of a trio of planned 2017 fundraisers for the Mission Promise Neighborhood Scholarship Fund. This initial event was called “Tips for Tuition.”

The result? A terrific start, with $3,000 raised. (Donate on Razoo.)

The need
The Mission Promise Neighborhood Scholarship Fund started a year ago, helping send four deserving John O’Connell High School seniors to college. All matriculated in fall 2016, their college dreams and career aspirations now within reach.

This scholarship fund is now entering its second year, as we look to send more Mission youth on to postsecondary education.

There is a definite need for such a fund. The education initiative has worked hard to create a college-going culture at home, plus provide mentoring via partners such as Mission Graduates; however, 77 percent of Mission Promise Neighborhood families earn less than $35,000 a year household income (survey, page 11). That translates to paying for daily necessities being a struggle in an expensive city like San Francisco, leaving little to nothing to set aside in a college fund.

The fundraiser
With the throng filling the back-bar area, tip jars quickly showcased 10’s and 20’s as guest bartenders, donning Mission Promise Neighborhood T-shirts, poured for attendees. A special shout out to those guest bartenders, including: Jill Marinelli of Mission Graduates; Amy Abero from John O’Connell High School; Lucia Obregon and Ernesto Martinez of MEDA; Juaquín Sims, a MEDA Junior Board Member; and DoubleDutch’s Claire Sands, who is also a MEDA Junior Board Member.

Plenty of money was raised via raffles, with generous donations from Tartine Bakery, Mateo’s Taqueria, Giordano Bros., Mitchell’s Ice Cream and Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. A bevy of volunteers circled the room to meet the demand of those looking to engage in a game of chance, all for a great cause. Our lucky winners — Darius, Ryan, David, April, Cat and Abraham — are going to be eating well real soon.

Stay tuned for news of upcoming fundraisers for the Mission Promise Neighborhood Scholarship Fund, and thanks to all in the community for the ongoing support of this worthy cause.

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Can you make college dreams come true for another deserving Mission Promise Neighborhood student?

Please donate today on Razoo.

____________________________________________________________

About Mission Promise Neighborhood

24

June

MEDA Best Practices Showcased in New PolicyLink Guide on Integrating Family Financial Security into Promise Neighborhoods

June 24, 2014 Asset Building, Best Practices latino asset building , mission asset building , mission promise neighborhood , promise neighborhood asset building

When MEDA received a federal grant in December 2012 to start a Promise Neighborhood at a quartet of low-performing schools in San Francisco’s Mission District, the four-decades-old agency remained at the vanguard of nonprofit best practices by implementing a comprehensive service integration strategy, whereby the families of students are offered free asset-building services. The aim is that every family succeeds and every student achieves, as these two outcomes are intricately linked. Staff know that the stressors of a family in economic distress create obstacles to a student’s academic success.

MEDA is proud to announce that its Mission Promise Neighborhood efforts have been recognized as part of a just-released, 50-page guide from PolicyLink, the Oakland-based, national research and action institute advancing economic and social equity. Entitled Integrating Family Financial Security into Promise Neighborhoods: A Resource and Implementation Guide, this influential work “aims to describe the programs, policies and practices that set families on a path to financial security while achieving prescribed Promise Neighborhoods results.” This guide is part of the Growing Assets Program—generously funded by The Citi Foundation—with the goal of incorporating essential asset-building strategies into the network of Promise Neighborhoods across the nation.

The Citi Foundation offers the needed support so that myriad programs can allow community partners to test, deliver and scale innovative approaches to asset building. These programs are designed to provide consumers with the tools and support they need to achieve their fiscal goals, morphing financial ken into efficacious action. Financial coaching and counseling programs abet consumers to implement financial plans, make payments, increase their savings, reduce debt and build their credit.

The report was co-authored by Alexandra Bastien and Solana Rice. Bastien, the current program associate at PolicyLink, conducts research on policy solutions to address the racial wealth gap and maintains a compendium of resources on strategies to achieve financial security for all. Rice was an associate director for over five years at PolicyLink, where she directed research on asset building and other strategies focused on enhancing economic security in financially challenged communities, particularly communities of color.

Bastien explains the guide’s purpose as follows: “There is substantial research that shows that low-income families can save. Savings and assets are the tools that allow families to withstand financial crisis and invest in their future. In addition, children with a savings account in their own name are 2.5 times more likely to enroll in college than children with no account.”

Pages 30-34 of the guide showcase the case study of MEDA’s best practices relating to the nonprofit’s innovative service integration model that aims to create assets for its low-income, mostly Latino families, who are often immigrants. The guide advises that this insightful case study should serve as an example other Promise Neighborhoods should follow.

One powerful quote from the MEDA case study claims: “Bringing financial education ‘in-house’ to select schools and hubs is filling a significant gap in clients’ knowledge and services. This approach of ‘meeting people where they are’ is proving to be a valuable one and is facilitating MEDA’s entry into new areas of the community and the recruitment of families into the MPN pipeline.“

To start sharing this report’s important data, MEDA’s Director of Asset Building Programs, Christi Baker, has been tasked with leading a presentation on this PolicyLink guide at the Promise Neighborhoods National Network Conference, being held this week in Arlington, Virginia.

Also, PolicyLink will be conducting a Webinar July 10th at 11am PT, with information in the guidebook being delved into further. Check back for details.

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