Youth Center

When he was younger, Ildefonzo would occasionally visit the Boys & Girls Club in his Mission District neighborhood. He played basketball and took classes in poetry, sculpting, freehand drawing and architecture. But all the activity at youth centers and even public libraries was not necessarily conducive to studying or reading. "Youth are always looking for a quiet space." Today, Ildefonzo is a role model for youth in the community. He is active with the Youth Leadership Institute as the outreach coordinator for Youth Initiated Projects, a program that gives creative young people support and funding for projects that address critical issues in their communities. He leads educational presentations and workshops, serves on a youth board, and directs a video production crew called VP Productions (Violence Prevention Productions). Ildefonzo said that other youth always tell him that they wish they could have jobs like his. While many employers offer jobs for youth, youth feel their choice is limited to retail jobs that do not offer them a chance to make decisions, take leadership and show that they are responsible.

The youth of the Youth Leadership Institute plan such activities as poetry slams featuring young poets, intensive hip-hop workshops on how to spread positive messages, and out-of-town trips where they join other local and state youth leaders. "Youth want opportunities to see different faces and different places."

Raised by the Community
Fred Lau believes that some of his best youth experiences involved meeting people in different communities. The San Francisco Police Chief spent most of his childhood years in Chinatown before he began working for the community group Youth for Service in the 1960s. He was what was called a "street worker," doing outreach to gang kids "to help point them in the right direction." His job took him into the Western Addition, Potrero Hill and Hunter's Point. "I was one of the few Asians in Black neighborhoods. It was important for me as a young Chinese kid to be accepted young-person-to-young-person."

When he was growing up, there were few community centers for youth. Those that existed did not provide comprehensive programs, so young people would have to go to separate facilities to study, get social services, play ball, shoot pool, or just hang out. The multitude of community centers developed over the last 20 years have given families and youth more choices for activities, programs and services, he said.

"From my experience, I have learned that young people with opportunities are less likely to come in contact with the police department," he said. "I've spent my entire career trying to keep them out of the system." As a parent of a 5-year-old son, Lau is committed to improving life for children, all of whom need mentors in the community. "The Rec & Parks system raised me. I was there in the morning and there when it closed at night. The directors at the rec center were like surrogate parents. They were my role models as I was growing up."

In urban environments with limited open space, Lau said it is extremely important to have centers for youth to socialize and to keep them occupied, especially since so many parents are working and have less time to spend with their kids.

The growing number of parents and youth in the Tenderloin, the city's most visibly distressed neighborhood, welcomed a new center when it opened in May. Renovated by Asian Neighborhood Design, the Janice Mirikitani-Glide Family, Youth and Child Care Building houses family services on the first floor, child care on the second floor, after-school services on the third floor, a rooftop children's playground, and a basement creative arts center.

"For a child of the Tenderloin, this is an oasis," said Mirikitani, who is president of the Glide Foundation and executive director of programs.

Led by the Reverend Cecil Williams, Glide Memorial Church is nationally known for its unconditional spiritual healing services and food program for the poor since the 1960s. The greater Glide community consists of an eclectic group of people who live on and make their living from the streets, neighborhood and Bay Area families, local businesses and corporations, and such high-profile supporters as Mayor Willie Brown and actress Sharon Stone.

When designing the building, everyone's ideas were respected, from the youngest child to the most outspoken people, said Mirikitani, who stressed the importance of hearing children. "They will tell us what we can do if we listen. If we don't, we won't learn anything."

Glide began its youth work in 1971 when she and Joyce Hayes, director of the center's programs today, invited street kids into an office the size of a studio apartment.

"They were a tough group of young people who ran the streets and knew every back alley in town," said Mirikitani. The youth, between 8 and 15 years old, faced many of the same problems as the adults who sought Glide's help: homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse, and prostitution. They were also without parents and a school education.

"With a group of volunteers in this small room, we provided school supplies and tutoring. This place became a home to them. One day, supplies were missing. We told some of the kids that they could not come back until the supplies were returned. The next day, the supplies were back. The kids felt so strongly about this being a home for them. The kind of love they felt was more important than whatever they stole for."

Glide is proud to see its youth services grow into a comprehensive family program that addresses the needs of youth from many aspects. In the new center, inner-city youth can continue to get assistance through tutoring, counseling, peer groups and mentoring. They now also have a chance to learn on computers to increase their access to education and employment, as well as express themselves through art, music, dance and drama. For children, the rooftop playground offers one of the few supervised, outdoor spaces in the neighborhood. For parents trying to make the transition off welfare, the center offers licensed child care, counseling, support groups, nutrition and wellness workshops, parenting classes, and job skills training.

Mirikitani is enthusiastic about how the new center can further Glide's mission. "We can provide services comprehensively, with compassion and care, consistency and integrity."

Challenge and Reach

For the more than 5,000 children who live within a 10-square-block radius of the Tenderloin, Columbia Park Boys & Girls Clubs will soon bring one more opportunity. Asian Neighborhood Design is currently assisting them in designing a 15,000-square-foot building that will include a theatre and dance hall, fine arts studio, computer lab and teen center. Located at the corner of Jones and Golden Gate, the entry would replace what has been an adult porno theatre.

"People are very interested in helping us move ahead with this project," said Jim Richards, Columbia Park's executive director. "The neighborhood sees this as a catalyst for change."

A local affiliate of the national Boys & Girls Club of America, Columbia Park is one of the city's most established youth-specific organizations focusing on youth development. While they offer activities and services that youth have been traditionally able to get at other recreation and teen centers, their emphasis is on providing all of the experiences that would assist school-age children and youth in becoming healthy, productive adults.

"You can program kids up to about age 12 with the gym-and-swim concept," he said, "but our older members need to experience art, technology and community service. If at 18 they are not job-ready, we have failed."

Like all youth groups, Columbia Park has challenges with helping to raise today's children, many of whom come from single-parent households. For less than the price of one evening movie, a child can get a full year's membership at Columbia Park to enjoy new experiences. A girl who thinks she is limited to crafts will get to build something out of wood and play competitive sports. A youth proficient in street language will see how he can learn business English. A child from El Salvador who grew up playing soccer will have a chance to learn basketball.

Columbia Park operates on a "challenge and reach" philosophy that encourages kids to succeed. At their Guerrero and Excelsior clubhouses, there are no signs of that infamous circle symbol with the diagonal line across it. "We believe that there are no limits to what kids can do. They will perform to the level of expectation."

The Guerrero Street Clubhouse, currently being renovated by architects Robinson Mills & Williams, will offer youth a gymnasium, computer center, café, and a crafts shop to learn woodworking, painting, printmaking, screen printing, photography, ceramics, jewelry making and lapidary. The Excelsior site began serving youth last year by giving them a gymnasium, play field, computer lab, teen center, learning center, games room and recording studio.

For both sites, major community involvement during the design process was key to learning what children, teenagers, parents, educators, and neighbors wanted.

Part of the creation of the Guerrero club involved 40 focus groups. From these discussions, Columbia Park made a number of accommodations. They learned that kids are usually told not to sit on steps, but kids like to hang out on them; so they created non-traffic staircases for kids to gather and sit on. They created a separate learning center for the teens, so they can avoid the uncool act of being seen with 10-year-olds. They shortened the legs of a couple of the pool and foosball tables so that smaller and taller kids would have games appropriate for their body and size.


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By Janice Lee SAN FRANCISCO - ON A SUMMER MORNING, MORE THAN 50 KIDS ARE BURSTING WITH ENERGY in the games room of the Excelsior Youth Center. Two pool tables in different heights accommodate the different ages of kids, so everyone who wants to play, can. At the moment, there is not an adult in sight. There does not need to be. All the kids know the rules. "Don't run! Don't run!" pleaded a 7-year-old African American girl out in the play yard. Dressed in brand new overalls, she is trying to chase a very fast walking Latino boy, but she is not catching up. "I'm going to kick your…" At a loss for a word she is permitted to use, she drops her thought and the two of them sit down and look at a book together instead. Happy, healthy inner-city children exist. They are products of communities that care. Youth need choices and challenges. Community groups are providing new recreational, cultural, educational and practical experiences to enrich their lives. Parents need affordable assistance. Community groups are providing child care and family self-sufficiency support. An increasing number of community centers are focusing on giving children a healthy start or restart so they can avoid the problems of teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol addiction, gang activity, youth unemployment and school delinquency. Kids have a lot of stress in their lives. For some, it is peer pressure to attain material goods. For others, it is playing the second parent in a single-parent household. One of the greatest stresses that kids face is the pressure to belong. For the children of Jonesboro, Springfield, Littleton and Conyers, depression caused by rejection was one of the apparent motives for the kids to turn to acts of violence. Not only do youth centers offer a sense of belonging in a positive environment, they encourage young people to be active, to participate, to become a part of their community as a volunteer, and to get involved in making changes to their society by becoming an advocate. What Youth Want Jared Ildefonzo, 19, says that safety, jobs and space are the top concerns of youth today. He feels that youth centers play an important role in society, particularly because they are one of the few safe places for young people to go to and a good source for youth to find out about job and internship opportunities. When he was younger, Ildefonzo would occasionally visit the Boys & Girls Club in his Mission District neighborhood. He played basketball and took classes in poetry, sculpting, freehand drawing and architecture. But all the activity at youth centers and even public libraries was not necessarily conducive to studying or reading. "Youth are always looking for a quiet space." Today, Ildefonzo is a role model for youth in the community. He is active with the Youth Leadership Institute as the outreach coordinator for Youth Initiated Projects, a program that gives creative young people support and funding for projects that address critical issues in their communities. He leads educational presentations and workshops, serves on a youth board, and directs a video production crew called VP Productions (Violence Prevention Productions). Ildefonzo said that other youth always tell him that they wish they could have jobs like his. While many employers offer jobs for youth, youth feel their choice is limited to retail jobs that do not offer them a chance to make decisions, take leadership and show that they are responsible. The youth of the Youth Leadership Institute plan such activities as poetry slams featuring young poets, intensive hip-hop workshops on how to spread positive messages, and out-of-town trips where they join other local and state youth leaders. "Youth want opportunities to see different faces and different places." Raised by the Community Fred Lau believes that some of his best youth experiences involved meeting people in different communities. The San Francisco Police Chief spent most of his childhood years in Chinatown before he began working for the community group Youth for Service in the 1960s. He was what was called a "street worker," doing outreach to gang kids "to help point them in the right direction." His job took him into the Western Addition, Potrero Hill and Hunter's Point. "I was one of the few Asians in Black neighborhoods. It was important for me as a young Chinese kid to be accepted young-person-to-young-person." When he was growing up, there were few community centers for youth. Those that existed did not provide comprehensive programs, so young people would have to go to separate facilities to study, get social services, play ball, shoot pool, or just hang out. The multitude of community centers developed over the last 20 years have given families and youth more choices for activities, programs and services, he said. "From my experience, I have learned that young people with opportunities are less likely to come in contact with the police department," he said. "I've spent my entire career trying to keep them out of the system." As a parent of a 5-year-old son, Lau is committed to improving life for children, all of whom need mentors in the community. "The Rec & Parks system raised me. I was there in the morning and there when it closed at night. The directors at the rec center were like surrogate parents. They were my role models as I was growing up." In urban environments with limited open space, Lau said it is extremely important to have centers for youth to socialize and to keep them occupied, especially since so many parents are working and have less time to spend with their kids. Listening to Children The growing number of parents and youth in the Tenderloin, the city's most visibly distressed neighborhood, welcomed a new center when it opened in May. Renovated by Asian Neighborhood Design, the Janice Mirikitani-Glide Family, Youth and Child Care Building houses family services on the first floor, child care on the second floor, after-school services on the third floor, a rooftop children's playground, and a basement creative arts center. "For a child of the Tenderloin, this is an oasis," said Mirikitani, who is president of the Glide Foundation and executive director of programs. Led by the Reverend Cecil Williams, Glide Memorial Church is nationally known for its unconditional spiritual healing services and food program for the poor since the 1960s. The greater Glide community consists of an eclectic group of people who live on and make their living from the streets, neighborhood and Bay Area families, local businesses and corporations, and such high-profile supporters as Mayor Willie Brown and actress Sharon Stone. When designing the building, everyone's ideas were respected, from the youngest child to the most outspoken people, said Mirikitani, who stressed the importance of hearing children. "They will tell us what we can do if we listen. If we don't, we won't learn anything." Glide began its youth work in 1971 when she and Joyce Hayes, director of the center's programs today, invited street kids into an office the size of a studio apartment. "They were a tough group of young people who ran the streets and knew every back alley in town," said Mirikitani. The youth, between 8 and 15 years old, faced many of the same problems as the adults who sought Glide's help: homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse, and prostitution. They were also without parents and a school education. "With a group of volunteers in this small room, we provided school supplies and tutoring. This place became a home to them. One day, supplies were missing. We told some of the kids that they could not come back until the supplies were returned. The next day, the supplies were back. The kids felt so strongly about this being a home for them. The kind of love they felt was more important than whatever they stole for." Glide is proud to see its youth services grow into a comprehensive family program that addresses the needs of youth from many aspects. In the new center, inner-city youth can continue to get assistance through tutoring, counseling, peer groups and mentoring. They now also have a chance to learn on computers to increase their access to education and employment, as well as express themselves through art, music, dance and drama. For children, the rooftop playground offers one of the few supervised, outdoor spaces in the neighborhood. For parents trying to make the transition off welfare, the center offers licensed child care, counseling, support groups, nutrition and wellness workshops, parenting classes, and job skills training. Mirikitani is enthusiastic about how the new center can further Glide's mission. "We can provide services comprehensively, with compassion and care, consistency and integrity." Challenge and Reach For the more than 5,000 children who live within a 10-square-block radius of the Tenderloin, Columbia Park Boys & Girls Clubs will soon bring one more opportunity. Asian Neighborhood Design is currently assisting them in designing a 15,000-square-foot building that will include a theatre and dance hall, fine arts studio, computer lab and teen center. Located at the corner of Jones and Golden Gate, the entry would replace what has been an adult porno theatre. "People are very interested in helping us move ahead with this project," said Jim Richards, Columbia Park's executive director. "The neighborhood sees this as a catalyst for change." A local affiliate of the national Boys & Girls Club of America, Columbia Park is one of the city's most established youth-specific organizations focusing on youth development. While they offer activities and services that youth have been traditionally able to get at other recreation and teen centers, their emphasis is on providing all of the experiences that would assist school-age children and youth in becoming healthy, productive adults. "You can program kids up to about age 12 with the gym-and-swim concept," he said, "but our older members need to experience art, technology and community service. If at 18 they are not job-ready, we have failed." Like all youth groups, Columbia Park has challenges with helping to raise today's children, many of whom come from single-parent households. For less than the price of one evening movie, a child can get a full year's membership at Columbia Park to enjoy new experiences. A girl who thinks she is limited to crafts will get to build something out of wood and play competitive sports. A youth proficient in street language will see how he can learn business English. A child from El Salvador who grew up playing soccer will have a chance to learn basketball. Columbia Park operates on a "challenge and reach" philosophy that encourages kids to succeed. At their Guerrero and Excelsior clubhouses, there are no signs of that infamous circle symbol with the diagonal line across it. "We believe that there are no limits to what kids can do. They will perform to the level of expectation." The Guerrero Street Clubhouse, currently being renovated by architects Robinson Mills & Williams, will offer youth a gymnasium, computer center, café, and a crafts shop to learn woodworking, painting, printmaking, screen printing, photography, ceramics, jewelry making and lapidary. The Excelsior site began serving youth last year by giving them a gymnasium, play field, computer lab, teen center, learning center, games room and recording studio. For both sites, major community involvement during the design process was key to learning what children, teenagers, parents, educators, and neighbors wanted. Part of the creation of the Guerrero club involved 40 focus groups. From these discussions, Columbia Park made a number of accommodations. They learned that kids are usually told not to sit on steps, but kids like to hang out on them; so they created non-traffic staircases for kids to gather and sit on. They created a separate learning center for the teens, so they can avoid the uncool act of being seen with 10-year-olds. They shortened the legs of a couple of the pool and foosball tables so that smaller and taller kids would have games appropriate for their body and size. Columbia Park began operating the Excelsior Youth Center last year. "The Excelsior community believed strongly that the availability of after-school programs would contribute significantly to the reduction in youth gangs and youth violence," said Harry Ja Wong, a principal architect at Asian Neighborhood Design. A.N.D., along with Kendall Young & Associates, designed the building at the request of Mayor Willie Brown and under the direction of the Mayor's Office of Community Development and the San Francisco Unified School District. The neighborhood youth strongly advocated for a recording studio, which is a popular attraction today. Opening next summer will be Columbia Park's fourth youth center, currently being developed in partnership with Mercy Services, at the Heritage Housing Project in Visitacion Valley. Their fifth site, at a site to be determined, will be an entrepreneur center where 13- to 21-year olds will learn job skills development. Cradle to Grave Services Enola Maxwell is perhaps the city's most widely respected community leader, considered by many to be an authority on issues concerning everyone from children to seniors. As executive director of the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House since 1972, she has seen how her multipurpose community center has helped a diversity of people "learn to not be afraid of each other." Volunteers throughout the city from every walk of life come to the basement of the neighborhood house for tutoring services at the Omega Boys Club, which has been responsible for changing the lives of hundreds of youth who previously thought gang banging and drug dealing were their only choices. Teachers, students, housewives, seniors, judges, lawyers and media personalities have assisted in getting these inner-city kids into colleges around the country over the last 12 years. In a building designed by renowned architect Julia Morgan after the 1906 earthquake, the neighborhood house hosts a wide variety of activities and services, including weekly meetings of the Omega Boys Club and monthly graffiti paint-out and litter removal workouts at the neighborhood�s public housing projects. Programs aimed at youth include substance abuse day treatment for adolescents, counseling and services for youth involved in the juvenile justice system, and job preparedness and placement. Cultural activities include multi-ethnic theatre presentations and arts and crafts classes. Food and social programs engage seniors. "Young people get to meet older people," said Maxwell. As a result, youth know how to respect seniors, and seniors will vouch for the youth in times of need. "The seniors have protected them many times. They'll tell the police, 'Don't bother those boys. They're from the neighborhood house.'" She cautions people from believing everything they read. The general public has come to fear youth, who are blamed for everything by a media that often depicts all street youth as the same, she said. "Fear and hate are the most dangerous things because they take away your freedom." In the past three years, the neighborhood house has sponsored an Experiment in Diversity Program, designed to ease racial tension caused by fear and misunderstanding, to reduce violence in the community and to improve communication through education. The students, representing different ethnic backgrounds, work together to experience diversity in order to develop better interactive skills and understanding of one another. Once a month, guests are invited to teach how to prepare food from their culture. On the third Thursday of each month, the students prepare the food and present information about the culture at a dinner for their parents and other people from all areas of the city. Maxwell, who has spent her career fighting the poor quality of education and inadequate facilities made available to inner-city youth, feels, "Public schools should do more to teach something to kids in a way that's not so bland." Practical and Personal Skills Advocates for youth believe that public school children are suffering from budget cuts in education that began more than 20 years ago in California. The schools of yesteryear offered regular classes in everything from cooking to wood shop. In addition to making up for this loss, youth and community centers today have adopted the role of providing youth with supplementary basic education and going a few steps further by helping them prepare for the work world. "Just like an adult who has never held a good job, many young people today face the future not knowing how to be productive in our society," said Maurice Lim Miller, executive director of Asian Neighborhood Design. "They want to know that they can be independent economically, yet they might lack skills, be forced to fight stereotypes or have limited opportunities." The most effective youth programs are those that combine activities with the building of self-esteem, he said. In addition to providing professional design services for youth and community centers, Asian Neighborhood Design offers job training to multicultural low-income people at its two sites. In the San Francisco Potrero Hill and West Oakland centers, older teens learn carpentry and cabinetmaking alongside adults. "Too many young people have not had a chance to create something that someone wants or can use. When they make a bookcase, they have a chance to show that they are productive. This builds their self esteem, which encourages them to get a good job to build a better life."