Launch & Swearing in Ceremony
Year 1: Community Partner Organizations
CASE (Community Alliance for Special Education)
CASE is an organization that empowers students and their families with disabilities. Our staff helps families navigate special education services, including Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and Section 504 Plans. Our leaders empower students and their families in three areas of service:
- Hands-on learning - we provide training sessions to ensure that all people with disabilities know their rights; we literally wrote the manual!
- 1:1 support - we provide individual consultation and advice sessions with families, plus attend IEP and 504 Plan meetings
- Empowering Students - we prepare high school students to advocate for themselves once they go off to college or enter the workforce
Fellows will engage with students and their families. Fellows will participate in community outreach events, assist in the CASE intake process, and onboard new clients. Fellows will also develop training modules for students with disabilities and lead student sessions in areas such as “know your rights" for San Francisco middle school and high school students.
Junior Giants
The Giants Community Fund is the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of the San Francisco Giants. Fellows will serve as liaisons between the Giants Community Fund and targeted San Francisco communities. Fellows will play a major role in the implementation of the Junior Giants Schools Program in various San Francisco schools on the ground level during the fall and spring. Fellows will also have the opportunity to assist with the Junior Giants Summer program and work closely with both the Giants Community Fund Staff and the local Junior Giants league Commissioner to assist with league logistics, operations, communication, player recruitment, and more.
Fellows will deliver Junior Giants Schools' healthy lifestyle programming to students in various San Francisco schools. Fellows will focus on Social Emotional Learning (SEL) by implementing the following Junior Giants Schools Game Plan at each school site. Fellows will also deliver activities focused on healthy eating and physical activity, including emphasizing fruit and vegetable consumption, decreasing sugary snacks and beverages and increasing water intake, and promoting physical activity.
Our Kid's First
Our Kids First is a non-profit organization committed to providing academic, social, and cultural enrichment to young people by educating and preparing them to be successful, independent, and responsible members and leaders of society. The program’s priorities are to address the needs of the underserved Outer Mission community and provide the best quality program we can for our students.
Fellows will tutor and assist participants individually or in small groups to help with homework assignments and special projects. Provide one-on-one tutoring as needed and assist the Program Director in planning and implementing experiences that advance the intellectual, emotional, social, and physical development of children within a safe, healthy learning environment.
SF Students Back on Track
Located in the Fillmore district, SF Back on Tracks’ mission is to ensure every child in our afterschool program has access to free tutoring services and receives tutoring in math, reading, and homework assignments they receive throughout the school year. Our overall goal is to improve students’ reading and math skills in order to improve their academic aptitude and skills’ Back on Track’s goal is also to boost student motivations to read, generate more positive attitudes toward learning, increase self-esteem and connect the needs of children and families to the resources of their communities. The program serves children in grades kindergarten during each school year (10 months). The SF State Fellows are college-age young adults and recent college graduates, which play a crucial role in the SF Back on Track program. With the partnership of SF State Fellows, SF Back on Track hopes to provide nearly 100 underserved students in the San Francisco area with academic support in reading and math, on a weekly basis.
University of California Cooperative Extension
University of California Cooperative Extension serves as a local problem-solving center, part of a statewide network of UC researchers and educators who bridge UC research with the communities we serve. In San Mateo County, we work to improve the food security and diet quality of children and families through our community nutrition programs, including the Cal Fresh Healthy Living Program, and complementary technical assistance, evaluation, and research efforts.
Fellows will join a team of dedicated educators who help under-served communities in San Francisco and San Mateo improve their health by promoting awareness, education, and community change through diverse partnerships, resulting in healthy eating and active living. Fellows will partner with school sites to improve school meal participation and fruit and vegetable consumption by conducting series-based nutrition education classes, engaging students through Student Nutrition Action Clubs, and supporting a Healthy Living Ambassador program. Fellows will conduct education classes on food resource management and nutrition education and support policy, systems & environmental changes to promote healthy eating and active living, like supporting gardening and physical activity efforts.
Florence Fang Community Farm
The Florence Fang Community Farm (FFCF) is a community farm located in a food desert in the underserved Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco. FFCF's mission is to repurpose public land, improve food sovereignty, increase healthy living habits, practice natural and sustainable farming techniques, improve the environment, support neighborhood economic opportunity, and increase social connectedness from the young to the elderly and within and between communities of color.
Fellows will learn and share about growing their own food, and farming/gardening practices. Fellows will work the Compost Bins to make nutrient-rich compost for healthy soil, learn and share methods to grow food and farming/gardening practices, and attend to crops and learn farming/gardening practices to tend and care for crops. Fellows will support the youth (2nd thru 6th grade) in their gardening tasks and STEM learning, enhancing interest in environmental stewardship by teaching critical thinking skills-teaching youth about the food cycle, from compost to seeding to harvesting. Fellows will engage students in an integrated STEM/gardening curriculum where youth will learn science, technology, math, and engineering through small group discussions for sharing, reflection, collaboration, and related projects including evaluation and measures of achievement of goals.
Friends of Alemany Farm
Friends of Alemany Farm steward the largest and most productive agricultural space in San Francisco. The 3.5-acre site is located on the border of the Excelsior and Bernal Heights neighborhoods. Our mission is to grow free fruits and vegetables with and for low-income, historically disenfranchised communities and provide food system education. Together we sow the seeds of food security, food sovereignty, and food justice in the southeast region of the city. All of the food we grow is given away for free to neighbors, volunteers, The Free Farm Stand, and other groups.
Fellows will support all aspects of food production and community engagement at the farm. This includes hands-on training in ecological agricultural best practices from seed to harvest including greenhouse propagation, irrigation, bed preparation, soil fertility management, weeding, pest and disease control, harvest, post-harvest handling and distribution, fruit tree care as well as leadership training, and volunteer management. We will also dedicate time to understanding regenerative urban agriculture in the context of contemporary and historical justice movements, and as a tool for building community resilience in the era of climate chaos. Fellows will also help lead volunteer days, school group visits, food distribution at the local food pantry, and various other projects.
Garden for the Environment
Garden for the Environment is San Francisco’s teaching garden. Garden for the Environment teaches people about the environment - soil, water, plants, creatures, and climate - so together we can grow a resilient, more beautiful world. We do so by offering a variety of gardening and gardening-related classes, hosting volunteer hours, hosting field trips for youth, leading group work days, and maintaining a half-acre demonstration garden open to the public 365 days a year. We also grow and donate food weekly.
Fellows will learn about outdoor education by helping to plan and facilitate field trips at Garden for the Environment. Fellows will work closely with the Program Manager to develop skills in the outdoor classroom and small group management, sustainable garden maintenance, composting, and water conservation, all in relation to addressing climate action. Fellows will lead visiting students in outdoor, hands-on activities such as compost creation and vegetable garden care to educate and empower youth to help reduce climate change. Fellows will learn about creating and caring for restorative ecosystems and our compost systems which they will maintain while working closely with our lead gardener. Fellows will help with regular maintenance and upkeep of the garden, welcoming community members, and assisting adult volunteers with assigned tasks. Fellows will take part in developing a system to collect data on carbon sequestration, landfill diversion, and water usage to show Garden for the Environment’s positive impact on climate change.
Literacy for Environmental Justice
LEJ was founded in 1998 to help the diverse low-income and heavily polluted Bayview-Hunter's Point neighborhood of San Francisco achieve environmental justice. The opportunities are focused on promoting the environmental restoration of, and community access to the Candlestick Point State Recreation Area. We are transforming the brownfields of the Bayshore into a vibrant recreational and environmental green space that benefits the health and prosperity of Southeast San Francisco. We grow native plants and rehabilitate native ecosystems. LEJ has increased practices at both nurseries, Candlestick and Treasure Island, including rigorous pathogen testing on native plant stock to ensure higher quality plants and minimize the risk of potential pathogen release into natural areas. Our Candlestick Nursery is located near the Alice Griffith Housing Development and residents frequent our community gardens where they grow healthy fruits and vegetables. There is community engagement and LEJ provides Eco-Adventures for youth to enjoy urban parks at Candlestick Point which includes camping, kayaking, and coastal clean-up opportunities. Eco-Stewardship is encouraged as community volunteers are deployed to support eco-systems restoration and park stewardship.
Fellows will work with students who visit LEJ for field experiences in the nursery, and community gardens. These events are led by classroom teachers. Each fellow will work with approximately 5-10 students. Fellows will provide 600-1,000 predominantly low-income, disadvantaged youth in grades 3-12 with culturally relevant, half-day recreation and service learning Eco-Adventures designed to help youth build confidence, develop a personal connection with the San Francisco Bay and local ecology, and play an active role in their communities through local environmental stewardship. Student fellows will engage with Downtown High School and Balboa High School as they focus on sustainability, preservation, restoration, and environmental justice to build a healthy ecosystem and eco stewardship opportunities. Fellows support lessons and activities with K-12 students in school and community gardens, including some hands-on gardening and food preparation.
Nature in the City
Our mission is to connect everyone in San Francisco to nature by cultivating and conserving local habitats. As a grassroots environmental nonprofit, we empower local communities—people of all ages, ethnicities, and socio-economic strata by organizing habitat restoration stewardship projects; leading nature walks & events; offering habitat gardening services; and providing tools and educational resources for people to participate in citizen science and lifelong learning. Our open space advocacy work serves diverse San Francisco neighborhoods.
Fellows will supporting volunteer programs through irrigation, seed collection, invasive species removal, and other habitat maintenance tasks. Fellows will establish policies around nursery and stewardship work for volunteers and run the annual Backyard Native Nursery pickup. Fellows will outreach, working with community members, pulling weeds, planting San Francisco native plants, collecting seeds, growing plants from seeds and cuttings. Other tasks include site and workday monitoring include collecting data on the health of plants, collecting data on biodiversity, and collecting data on volunteer participation.
Good Rural
The Good Rural is a nonprofit that advocates for the emotional, academic, and economic success of urban and rural communities across the United States. Our mission is to provide an infrastructure of programming to promote emotional, academic, and economic success for urban and rural communities across the United States. The technological divide continues to widen as metropolitan cities advance further in infrastructure, technology, and funding, thus outpacing their counterparts. We aim to bridge this gap of access by mobilizing human capital in order to support the basic needs of families in these areas.
Food Fellows will help run “Good Food”, which is The Good Rurals weekly food distribution by providing 9,000 meals/produce boxes to the community. Fellows will distribute food to low-income and vulnerable populations, assist with preparations for weekly Pantry Day, and be responsible for implementing Food Pantry policies and procedures.
Climate Fellows will provide gardening, watersheds, and native plants to maintain several schoolyards and their surrounding areas. Fellows will provide weeding, watering, mulching, and planting. Fellows will be working with children and adults and learning ways to maintain gardens.
K-12 education Fellows will assist the Program Director in planning and implementing the success of K-12 education by providing experiences that advance the intellectual, emotional, social, and physical development of children within a safe, healthy learning environment. Fellows will support children with homework needs with reading, writing, and arithmetic and provide tutoring services for after-school children.
I.T. Bookman Community Center (Southwest Community Corporation)
A non-profit resource base for community-driven programming in the Oceanview, Merced Heights, and Ingleside communities, striving to recognize and address the needs of community members through the development of sustainable programs and services.
Food Fellows will help address food insecurity issues by assisting with preparing nutritious meals and creating/ helping with quality control of brown bags to provide food-insecure people with fresh produce and protein. Fellows will assist with the creation of nutritional health notes/values, especially for those with special dietary needs, and help to serve those with issues such as mobility-impaired individuals to get their meals in the cafeteria. Fellows will help to ensure individuals have appropriate meals on-site and assist in activity programming, facilitate workshops, and coordinate speakers for Health/Nutrition Education workshop.
Climate Fellows will provide service coordination by assisting clients with climate services by supporting the various functions, activities, and workshops of the Wellness Hub to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis on underserved populations. Fellows have the opportunity to learn new experiences related to the issues of the climate environment and act as Covid-19 HUB attendants by conducting surveys and distributing resources. Fellows will help clients know about heat stroke, heat exhaustion, and potential ways to treat them properly.
Catholic Charities SF
Catholic Charities’ OMI Senior Center, assist seniors and disabled adults to maintain their independence by providing a program of activities, socialization, a hot meal, assistance, and support in a safe and engaging environment to prevent isolation and institutionalization. The OMI Senior Center help the consumer at every point in the spectrum of care, whether it is for outreach or resource information, they receive guidance and support. The food pantry focuses on serving approximately 200 to 250 seniors and adults with disabilities from the OMI community.
Fellows will support the setup, distribution, and cleanup of the food pantry program. Fellows will prepare, distribute, and maintain the functions of the food pantry. They will provide meals for seniors and assist with temperature checks and some attendance keeping. Fellows will have a leadership role and support other food pantry volunteers. Additionally, Fellows will assist with nutrition education workshops and activities in regard to food insecurity issues. Research and develop educational information and/or presentations to increase the knowledge and resources around nutritional services within the OMI community, to ensure a healthier and nutritionally balanced life for seniors.
Health Promotion & Wellness, SF State
Health Promotion & Wellness is a unit within Student Affairs & Enrollment Management that provides health education and actively promotes a culture of wellness. We create opportunities for students to enact healthy behaviors through advocacy, campaigns, programming, events, workshops, and peer health leadership programs.
Fellows will provide in-person and virtual one-on-one assistance at the Cal Fresh Help Clinic to support students with applying for Cal Fresh, getting the documents they need for their application, and navigating any questions or barriers they may encounter. Fellows will provide community outreach, education, and enrollment assistance at the AS Food Pantry and/or the AS Farmers Market. Fellows will develop a marketing strategy to inform the campus community about the Cal Fresh Help Clinic and educational materials to provide to students at the Cal Fresh Help Clinic, Cal Fresh virtual workshops, and Cal Fresh one-on-one appointments.