We Are the City Spotlight: Jamestown Community Center
By the Jamestown Community Center Staff
Through transformative youth development services rooted in the cultural and artistic traditions of our communities, Jamestown Community Center accompanies youth and their families on their path to realize their full potential as powerful and healthy members of society. Our programs include tutoring, before and after school academic enrichment, summer programs, social/emotional support, sports, youth workforce, parent leadership development and organizing, and Afro-Latino arts education and performance.
Since the onset of the pandemic, the team at Jamestown worked to address the immediate needs of our community. We pivoted our programs and resources to directly support the immediate needs of our youth and families by providing food, technology, and mental health support and referrals. During lockdown, Jamestown turned our Chavez Elementary site into a community food pantry.
We worked diligently to distribute 180 food boxes weekly to our Mission District families. In addition to the pantry, we also raised relief funds to provide our community with direct financial support. Over 125 Jamestown families have received relief funds totaling $113,000. We saw the economic and emotional impact of the pandemic, and we are working continuously to make sure families receive the resources they need.
After working alongside city health officials to ensure the safety of our staff and students, Jamestown opened Community Hubs: in-person learning sites for our students with the highest needs. Our hubs, alongside the San Francisco Department of Public Health, were highlighted in the Wall Street Journal and KQED.
To guarantee that our students were receiving quality, in-person instruction, we fostered meaningful collaborations between our dedicated staff members on-site and with partnering agencies that allowed us to continue providing robust programming for our Mission District familia.
As part of the Latino Task Force, we have been supporting food distribution, sharing informational resources, and providing COVID-19 tests and vaccination sites in the Mission and Excelsior districts.
With the cancellation of Fall soccer in 2020, Jamestown’s Sports team worked diligently to provide physical exercise opportunities based on the needs and interests of our families and coaching staff. The sports team piloted one Out of School Time pod of approximately 14 youth in the Mission District focusing on physical activity and individual soccer development. The pilot program was observed closely and followed the safety guidelines set forth by city health officials. In addition, we provided Metas Para Atletas — a virtual training program that consisted of weekly challenges that allowed youth to learn new exercises, stay active and build soccer skills in the comfort of their homes.
At Jamestown, we believe San Francisco is an incredible place to raise a family. Despite the displacement and gentrification of our neighborhood, families are resilient in their efforts to remain part of the city. This is because San Francisco has so much to offer in terms of cultural diversity and family friendly activities connecting with arts and nature. The resilience and collaboration amongst organizations to meet the needs of our families and community is a testament to the strength of our city. There truly is no other place like San Francisco.
We believe our city should be allocating resources to youth with the most need. Children growing up in the Mission, Excelsior and Bayview Districts deserve the same opportunities and access as students from other more affluent neighborhoods. Jamestown believes in a youth-first approach, meaning public officials who oversee departments pertaining to youth development should consider how their policies and initiatives will impact students and find ways to center student voice in policies for the city.
Jamestown is celebrating a major milestone this month: 50 years of service! Congratulations! What do you believe have been the keys to your agency’s success, and what advice would you give other agencies that serve children, youth, and families in San Francisco?
As we celebrate our 50th year with gratitude and pride, we want to celebrate the leaders we grow from within. While there are many reasons Jamestown has been successful, one of the aspects of our programming we are most proud of is our student-to-staff pipeline. Over the years a significant number of our participants have gone on to become key members of our leadership and program teams. This unique retention is a direct reflection of the quality of our programming and how Jamestown staff make deep, long-lasting connections with our youth.
We are proud to have leadership staff that come directly from our Mission District community, so our youth have role models that directly reflect their culture and experiences, priming them for future success. Having former youth from our programs as leaders of our organization is unique, and a testament to the impact of our work and our practice of ensuring relationships are at the heart of all that we do.
Learn more about some of our community leaders here:
