Our Call For Investment in Community Space to Stem Youth Violence
Participants in one of the popular youth programs at Cameron House. Cameron House has been serving the Chinatown neighborhood for nearly 150 years.
Neighborhood Centers Call For Investment in Community Space to Stem Youth Violence and Strengthen Community
APRIL 1, 2023 - SAN FRANCISCO -
San Francisco Neighborhood Centers Together (SFNCT) is a coalition of eight Neighborhood Centers throughout the city that collectively serve more than 10,000 families every year.
Our Neighborhood Centers have been on the front lines serving youth and families throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve seen firsthand how the compounding impacts of the pandemic have given way to continued stress and hardships on young people in particular. Recent high-profile instances of youth violence and distress have only underscored the challenges that we see every day in our work.
As trusted institutions in their respective neighborhoods, our centers have an important role to play in supporting youth and families. Our centers' physical presences in their communities matter. When neighbors are in need, they can walk into our centers and find a source for support, whether it be for childcare, after-school programs, or recreation.
We know that we can do more. We are requesting $150,000 in funding for a Community Convener Program that would allow our centers to greatly expand their hours that their doors are open to use by the community. With this funding, our eight Neighborhood Centers could fund hours for a staff person to host community groups at our centers and cover additional insurance for these events. This would enable community meetings, safety workshops, and town halls to be held at our neighborhood centers and bring communities together to build resilience and unity.
Currently, our centers are typically closed after 5pm and on the weekends. This leaves a hole in our community - literally. Our Neighborhood Centers serve as “third places” in their communities. This type of place, which offers welcoming spaces for the community to gather outside of home and work, has been consistently shown to increase community safety.
A 2020 study showed that the presence of a YMCA or Boys & Girls Club - models similar to our Neighborhood Centers - reduced the risk of assaults in a community by 24% and 28% respectively. Additionally, a study from the University of Illinois indicated that an increase in the number of “spaces for informal contact between neighbors” results in a greater sense of safety.
The Community Convener program was last funded by DCYF in 2008, leaving a decade-plus gap in which our neighborhood centers have not been able to serve their communities to the fullest extent possible. Our request builds on identical funding requests that we submitted in 2021 and 2022.
Funding the Community Convener program would also support goals within the Mayor’s Children & Family Recovery Plan. We can be a partner in strategy 2A, Safety & Healing, which emphasizes the need to create neighborhood cohesion and belonging. This strategy calls for spaces for neighbors to come together, for community volunteering, and culturally relevant neighborhood events. These programs all have a common need: space. With this funding, our Neighborhood Centers can be this place that lifts up communities.
The communities that our centers support, from Chinatown to Ingleside and the Western Addition, disproportionately lack community space in the form of parks, community centers, and libraries. This makes the presence - and the open doors - of our Neighborhood Centers even more critical. By reinstating the $150,000 funding for the Community Convener funding, the Mayor’s Office and DCYF will be making a direct, tangible investment into our most vulnerable youth and families. We look forward to carrying out this critical work with your support.
In community,
Danny Sauter
Executive Director
San Francisco Neighborhood Centers Together
Member Centers:
Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center
Booker T. Washington Community Services Center
Cameron House
Good Samaritan Family Resource Center
I.T. Bookman Community Center
Potrero Hill Neighborhood House
Richmond Neighborhood Center
TEL HI Neighborhood Center