“This community we’ve built during this time has been priceless:” Spotlight on the Buchanan YMCA Community Hub
By the Buchanan Team
My name is Gabbie Torres, the site coordinator for the Buchanan YMCA’s Beacon program at Dr. William Cobb Elementary School. Alongside our Senior Director LaSaundra Owens and John Muir Beacon site coordinator Ayah Mouhktar, I’ve transitioned to now manage site operations at our Hubs and within our virtual programming. We work to ensure there is an equity of resources and opportunities for the families we serve. By operating within the community school framework, we provide holistic wrap around services for the entire school-based community.
Our community hub begins at 7 am daily to support parents and guardians who work early in the mornings. We begin with a wellness check for all youth and their parents, asking the mandatory health screening questions, also checking in on their overall well-being. We want to ensure we tailor every youth’s day based on what we know may be occurring at home or in their life so they feel supported and loved in the program. After check-in, we begin with mindfulness in the mornings to ease into the day of learning and activities; including breathing exercises, group games, and listening to songs and music to get our bodies moving. After mindfulness, we go into in distance learning, connecting youth to Zoom, checking in with teachers about what assignments should be a priority for the day, and what activities we can align with their learning outcomes. We mix in scheduled times for brain and movement breaks as well, to ensure youth are not on the screen or sitting for long periods. After a morning of academics, we serve lunch and use that time for youth to be social and talk with their peers, as social interaction and engagement are crucial to youth during this time within COVID safety standards. In the afternoons we have structured activities that include STEAM/DIY and art. During this time, youth are provided opportunities to explore their creativity. After that, we have a snack at 3 pm and the rest of the day (with the program ending at 6 pm). We spend time on recreation and sports/physical activities that include a nature walk in our backyard, basketball in the gym, and Zumba/dance!
While each youth has a unique relationship with online learning, some thriving in the independence and flexibility of working online and others needing extra support to stay on task, we’ve been able to adapt and find ways to tailor their learning while on zoom to keep them engaged and on task. This has shown success as seen in one youth who entered our Hub adamant on not engaging on Zoom saying things like “my headphones bother my ears” “I don’t want to be on the screen” ‘Zoom is annoying”. Our staff faced this challenge head on by communicating directly with this youth’s teacher and parent, receiving his homework and class assignments ahead of time and incorporating the lessons he was learning in class into the Art/ DIY activity time scheduled later in the day. Having him work on his assignments after Zoom with his cohort and friends and feeling proud of his work we found he was more motivated to go on Zoom and turn on his camera to show off his incredible work and projects all in line with the academic standards he was learning in class. We now find this youth is eager to join Zoom early and has been arriving to our Hub an hour earlier than he has been at first in order to touch up and work more on his projects. Alongside this specific example we’ve also found that our community circle time has built a strong culture and climate within each cohort, having youth uplift and motivate each other to stay in class. We hear youth now saying to each other, “stay on Zoom so when we go to the backyard for our gardening time we can play!” This community we’ve built during this time has been priceless.
Our staff have become a part of many families during this year as shown when we celebrated a second quarantine birthday with a youth at our Hub, and having the student ask their parents during pick up if Ms. Chika would be there for all of his birthdays! This exhibited to us the sense of home and connection we have with our youth outside of just learning outcomes and goals, but in celebration of good times during a very difficult time in many families’ lives. We provide this sense of home and family by reinforcing to all of our families that you can reach out to us anytime, and about anything, and we will work diligently to assist however we can.
This experience has built very strong relationships with our families and students. In a traditional school year there are different families and different dynamics but within the Hub, we’ve had the same families for an extended period of time with no breaks as opposed to the usual ones that come with a usual school year. Our organization has been able to provide many different types of supports for our families including grocery deliveries, housing support, and translation support. A family of a student was going through housing insecurities, personal and family challenges, health concerns and had to move to the other side of the city. She requested that her child continue at the Hub here at Buchanan instead of finding one closer to her. They travel close to 2 hours a day (4 hours commuting total to and from) to participate in the Hub because of the relationships they have built with staff and other youth. The youth entered the Hub being unable to write her own name and when she returned to school she had not only learned to write her name, but went up a reading level.
San Francisco is home to countless resources and people who are here to see our communities thrive. I believe this is a great place to grow up because the possibilities are limitless for youth who have access and the support they need. San Francisco is very diverse and full of different cultures. Even in our Hub, a person can hear three or four different languages. San Francisco is accepting and supportive of the community.
Our city can continue the effort to ensure quality programming for youth by ensuring that families feel supported by the city officials that represent them and other key stakeholders. We as staff build strong relationships with our youth and families and would want them to feel that the city of San Francisco is just as aligned as we are to ensure their success and the removal of barriers that hinder said success. San Francisco must remind our families that we are all in this together and they are not alone, by continuing to place the well-being of young people as a central priority.
We would like to say that we are proud of the resilience that the youth have shown over the last year. Shelter in place has been hard on everyone, but to be a child in this time is unfathomable. You are strong, brave, and incredible.
Gabbie, as we struggle and grind through the pandemic, what song motivates you to continue to serve our communities?
There is a song that I like to play when I am feeling like I don’t have any more willpower. It is the Panic at the Disco version of “Into the Unknown” from the Frozen 2 soundtrack. The other song is “I Smile” by Kirk Franklin.
To learn more about DCYF’s Community Hub Initiative, visit dcyf.org/care
