Equity collaboratives funded for game-changing work

Press release

$800,000 private grants awarded to San Francisco initiatives will provide wrap-around supports to African-American students and families in public housing

September 18, 2015 (San Francisco) – The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and HOPE SF have been awarded $800,000 by the Hellman Foundation to help disrupt systemic inequality in San Francisco. The 2015 Hellman Collaborative Change Initiative announced the competitive awards were given to initiatives that “are poised to make real change in the areas of education and poverty.”

“The Hellman Foundation in their generous award to support our city’s underserved and disenfranchised communities are helping our residents and families share in the prosperity of our city,” said Mayor Ed Lee. “Through public-private partnerships like these, we have the unprecedented opportunity to help our most disconnected youth advance and succeed in our city in the 21st-century economy.”

San Francisco’s economy has prospered in recent years and the city is working to make sure all communities benefit from this rising prosperity, particularly families in public housing and underserved communities of color.

“We want African-American students and our most underserved families to thrive in our city so we are building a community of support that is more robust and coordinated than ever before,” said SFUSD Superintendent Richard Carranza. “If we strengthen how we work together to serve youth and families and use effective strategies, we can have a much greater impact.”

The San Francisco awardees, comprised of multiple community organizations and city agencies, will use the $800,000 over two years to strengthen their partnerships and experiment with new solutions that have the potential for game-changing impact.

The African-American Postsecondary Pathway will prepare African-American students in San Francisco public schools to graduate college and career ready, enter the workforce and be part of the city’s growing prosperity. During its first year partners focused on the more than 234 African-American students in the class of 2015 to ensure each student received individualized academic support and advising, workforce exposure and training, and mentorship. Recognizing that education doesn’t end with a high school diploma, the African-American Postsecondary Pathway will continue to work with SFUSD alumni to monitor and support their progress through the age of 25.

The HOPE SF “Little 5/Big 5” project led by the Department of Public Health in collaboration with multiple organizations, including SFUSD, will begin with a small number of families living in San Francisco public housing to pilot an aligned service delivery method potentially capable of breaking the cycles of poverty and trauma across generations. The project’s name is a description of the collaboration’s intention to start small (the “little 5”) and scale up to support systematic policy changes (the “big 5”) necessary to impact 500, let alone 5,000 families. Little 5/Big 5 will coordinate a single, integrated, and family-centered case management plan that builds on HOPE SF, San Francisco’s signature public-private neighborhood development and anti-poverty initiative. Through targeted, responsive, trauma-informed supports that put family at the center of care, the team will create aligned social, educational and economic opportunities for these families, and help them make better use of support services and family and community assets currently available.

In the spirit of the collective work the city is tackling, the Mayor’s Office, Superintendent’s Office, San Francisco Alliance of Black School Educators, Mo’MAGIC, and the Bayview Association for Youth will host the Black Family Cradle to College and Career Day featuring the U-CAN Historical Black College and University (HBCU) Fair, on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015. Partners expect nearly 500 black families in attendance to celebrate the start of a new school year, learn about resources from the City, SFUSD, and community-based organizations partners and participate in PK–12 workshops, and apply for admissions and scholarships to HBCUs.

More information about the 2015 Hellman Collaborative Change Initiative: www.hellmanfoundation.org

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Page updated on 09/18/15