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| A LETTER FROM OUR PRESIDENT |
| | Dear Friends,
As we begin the 2019-2020 school year, we want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you who support City Youth Now. Without you, there is simply no way we could deliver all the help we do to young San Franciscans in need. This has been a wonderful and busy year for CYN with more than a dozen young people placed in internships and dozens more receiving support through our Personal Empowerment Program. All of our programming continues to have great impact in the lives of the young people we serve. Each year we have managed college visits for our students in the Juvenile Justice Center (Inside Out); engaging youth in extracurricular activities. We know keeping kids busy, engaged, and imbuing them with a sense of purpose are key ingredients to building a successful life.
While we continue to receive financial support from the City of San Francisco, which allows us to continue our Youth Internship Program, it is support from generous members of the community that really makes a difference. On May 31st, we celebrated our annual 2019 Rise Awards in the Presidio. This year's theme was "Shine a Light" and we turned the spotlight on our hard-working scholars, self-less volunteers, and committed donors who have supported CYN youth on their path to success.
We are delighted to announce Ronesha Jackson has taken on the role of CYN Program and Administrative Manager. Before joining CYN, Ronesha provided community-based wrap-around services to youth in foster care and on probation. She enjoys supporting youth to achieve sustainable improvement and helping families meet their goals. She is excited about continuing that work, in a different capacity, at CYN. Ronesha believes that CYN is a catalyst for the holistic development of youth in the SF community.
At the same time that we welcome Ronesha, we say a fond farewell to Yvette Ramirez who served City Youth Now with great dedication and talent. She was key in supporting staff, volunteers, and board members. Yvette was selected for a graduate program at Princeton University in September. We look forward to hearing more about her in the future.
Join us! The CYN Board is looking for people who are interested in a rewarding few hours per month serving youth in challenging situations from San Francisco's most under-resourced neighborhoods. It's okay if you have never served on a board before. It's a great way to share your skill sets and talents and develop some in return.If you or anyone you know might be interested in sitting on the CYN Board, please contact me directly.
We look forward to celebrating City Youth Now during the holidays with our annual holiday gift giveaway and party for our youth on probation and their families.
PS- Young people leaving the foster care system are more likely than their peers to experience homelessness. Research suggests that between 11% and 36% of youth that age out of foster-care, become homeless.[1] City Youth Now continues to exercise a commitment to both juvenile justice involved youth, and the San Francisco foster-youth populations.
Best regards,Didier Perez President, Board of Directors City Youth Now didier@cityyouthnow.org
[1] Dion, R. Housing for Youth Aging out of Foster Care (In Focus Brief.) Washington, DC: Mathematica Policy Research, 2015.
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| | | | | In May, City Youth Now hosted our annual Rise Awards. The ceremony highlighted the great work that the CYN community accomplished over the past year, and honored 6 scholarship recipients.
For years, City Youth Now, with the help of its donors, has provided scholarships to college bound youth that have been involved in the juvenile justice or foster care systems.
The Rise Awards would have not been possible without the support of our sponsors: The Presidio Ron Conway Family
Pankow
First Republic Bank
The Harbor Point Charitable Foundation
Farella Braun + Martell
Taube Philanthropies
Bruce Callander
Margaret Coyne
Deputy Probation Officers Association
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This spring break, City Youth Now partnered with JPD to provide a college tour for Youth who are on probation. These youth visited six college campuses over three days, two colleges a day. On day one the youth visited Skyline Community College and San Francisco State University, day two they visited City College of San Francisco and University of San Francisco, and day three they visited Laney College and California State University East Bay! Throughout the college tours, the youth showed great professionalism through participation and remaining focused. |
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| | Ronesha Jackson: Program and Administrative Manager
Ronesha has spent her career working with at-risk youth and families in the community. Recently, Ronesha graduated with her masters degree in non-profit and association management. She also earned her BA in criminal justice. Previously, she has worked as a case manager, wrap-around facilitator, juvenile probation officer and has been a volunteer CASA worker for over five years. Ronesha is excited to share her commitment and dedication to the at-risk population with CYN. During her free time she enjoys traveling, hiking and spending time at the beach. |
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| Jocelynn Esteban: Program Coordinator
Jocelynn began her journey with City Youth Now as a student intern from San Francisco State University. As a recent graduate, with a Bachelor's in Family and Consumer Sciences, Jocelynn emits strong passion and energy in working with justice involved youth and supporting them with the path to success. Jocelynn is a Southern California native and moved to San Francisco five years ago to pursue higher education. During her time as an intern, Jocelynn supported with recruiting internship sites for our youth in addition to tutoring inside of the hall. During her free time Jocelynn enjoys reading, walking her dog and watching movies.
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Personal Empowerment Program |
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During this time of the year, CYN receives many requests for Personal Empowerment Program Grants to support with the purchase of school supplies, clothing, extra-curricular activities, and tutoring services.
This program focuses on supporting the holistic development of our youth by funding individualized needs. We are so grateful for the school supply donations received, which helps us meet the need of many Youth.
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Youth Partnering for Education and Employment |
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CYN is excited to share that we have been able to recruit 5 new internship sites to place youth in the YPEE program. Each of these sites are very diverse in order to cater to each youth intern's specific interests.The new sites include: an auto body shop, Sprouts Cooking Club, Success Centers, a hair salon, and another San Francisco Park and Rec location!
In addition, we have created a new professional development workshop for our youth interns. In this career exploration workshop, Youth are able to take a quiz to find what two careers they can pursue. They then are able to research what it takes in order to pursue the career they have chosen and some information about their chosen career (education, salary, hours).
Thanks to our grant from the City and County of San Francisco, we are looking forward to engaging even more youth with paid internship opportunities and professional development workshops.
If you would like to refer a youth on probation to our internship program or our college tours, please email our Program Coordinator, Jocelynn Esteban: Jocelynn@cityyouthnow.org. |
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| It is with much excitement that we share that another youth intern has successfully completed the 110 hour internship through YPEE. Isaac completed all of his on-site hours, as well as all of CYN's professional development workshops. It has been a pleasure working with Isaac and seeing him grow professionally and as a young man! He has been a great example of the impact this program makes on the lives of youth. |
| Where did you intern and what was your role? IB: "I interned at HOMEY and on 18th and Mission. I got to do so much stuff there like cleaning up, greeting customers, designing, run errands for staff, folding shirts, packaging items and using a debit machine system." |
| Do you think this internship helped prepare you for an actual job? IB: "Yes, because I got to learn about arriving on time, figuring out a work schedule, and managing my time. It really helped me understand that I need to get up on time to be able to use the bus. Basically, I learned a lot about responsibility." |
| What were some of the skills you learned at your internship? IB: "I learned how to make shirts using screen print and using the heat-press, I learned about filing dates and using a debit card machine. The people were so nice to me, I learned about working good together with other groups of people." |
| Did you find the professional development workshops with CYN to be helpful? IB: "Yes, the resume workshop was my favorite and I used the resume I did at an interview recently. The people who interviewed me said that I had a really great resume. The how to dress workshop was really good, it helped me learn to look pretty professional." |
| What did you like best about your internship site? IB: "I loved meeting new people and all the people I worked with. Everyone was connected and it helped me understand about networking and making good impressions." |
| What are some things you would say to others about the program who might be considering it? IB: "Take advantage of the programs at CYN. It is really helpful and it will help you be more independent. I had a great experience and you all are great." |
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| Bread and Roses Performance
The youth inside the Juvenile Justice Center received another great performance from Bread and Roses. A huge thank you to Francesca and Matt for coming out and making this happen. Matt, who is a singer/songwriter from San Francisco, performed his own songs acoustically. The youth really enjoyed the performance and began to open up to him by asking questions about his journey and life in general! Thank you Bread and Roses Presents for always connecting us to amazing artists. |
| | Tree Frog Treks
For Earth Day, City Youth Now partnered with the Juvenile Justice Center to facilitate a visit from Tree Frog Treks! The girls and boys had lots of fun learning about the animals and even got to hold them. The animals were very social and kept crawling back for more interaction with the youth. Thank you again Tree Frog Treks |
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| | | | When you were a teen, how did you spend your summers?
Zara: "When I was a teen, I spent a lot of time outside and playing sports such as golf, volleyball, and basketball. When I became a bit older I began working at my local movie theater where I sold movie tickets and popcorn. I also loved to read and on average read 10 books a summer."
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| This summer, you are spending time volunteering at CYN, what has your experience been like?
Zara: "I love my experience so far. Everyone that works for CYN and for JPD is extremely friendly and caring. I've also spent time helping the youth doing math which has been incredibly eye opening. The youth I have interacted with are really sweet kids that happened to get lost along the way. It's cool to see so many people in our program want to help and make them successful."
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| | CYN's Volunteer internship has a variety of oppotunities avaiable. What advice would you give to someone who is looking to intern?
Zara: "My biggest piece of advice would be to go into an internship at CYN with an open mind. There are going to be some really interesting projects, such as helping research job opportunities for the youth, or tutoring various school subjects, but there's also going to be some heavier moments throughout the time interning. Remember that it is our job to offer support for at-risk youth and the workers who make that possible."
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| If you had to describe CYN in three words, what would they be?
Zara: "Compassionate, generous, influential."
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| | Young Professional's Board |
| This summer, the Young Professionals board hosted their annual retreat. During the retreat they were able to establish fundraising goals and ways to become more involved with our population. The Young Professionals Board, formally, the Development Advisory Board is a group of young professionals that strive to support CYN through fundraising, spreading awareness, recruiting volunteers, and actively supporting the organization.
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| | Left to Right: Ben B., Mike M., Jessica L., Silvia V., Sarah L |
| | Soda Popinski's Fundraiser The Young Professionals board put on another successful guest bartending fundraiser for City Youth Now through Soda Popinski's! It was great to see so many people come together in support of San Francisco's foster and justice-involved youth. The attendees also got to participate in a raffle, and four lucky winners were able to take home a bottle of Prosecco! A big thank-you to the Young Professionals Board for putting together this event. Thank you, to Soda Popinski's for allowing us to guest bartend again! |
| | The Young Professional's Board is recruiting!
Email info@cityyouthnow.org for more information on how to join! |
| | | | | | | City Youth Now is in need of backpacks and select school supplies to support our Youth with having a successful school year.
If you would like to donate school supplies, |
| | | Do you have fresh, sell-able clothes that you are trying to get rid of? City Youth Now has partnered with Savers for a clothing FundDrive! Donate bags of clothes and City Youth Now will receive funds in return for our Personal Empowerment Program. The more bags of clothes we get, the more money we raise for CYN!
Bring your bags of clothes to our office at 375 Woodside Ave, San Francisco, CA 94127. This fundraiser is going on now until Friday, September 14th. For more information or questions, contact our Program Coordinator, Jocelynn at jocelynn@cityyouthnow.org |
| | | | Before you go, don’t forget to follow us on social media for local news and updates on foster care and juvenile justice.
Visit us online http://www.cityyouthnow.org/ | Follow us at: |
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