Jamestown Builds a Pipeline of Leadership from Within Through Teen Workforce Program

"Jamestown is my home. I am Jamestown and Jamestown is me.”

One of the things that makes Jamestown programming so unique and successful is our ability to join our youth on every step of their academic and personal development journeys. We have countless youth who joined our programs as elementary school students and went on to work with our Youth Workforce summer camps and eventually become Jamestown staff.

Gibran Gonzalez is just one of the many young people who entered our doors as a student and then became a valuable member of the Jamestown leadership. In his current role as Youth Workforce Manager, Gibran coordinates high school employees, who not only receive valuable work experience and compensation but also a mentor from their community who can connect with them on a personal level.

During the lockdown stage of the pandemic, Gibran and his team had ears, hands and hearts on the ground, providing families with meals and other important resources needed to sustain their livelihood during these uncertain times. Gibran texted his students regularly to gain info about how he could support families, including mental health check-ins.

Give today and help Jamestown continue developing young leaders in our Mission District community. So far we’ve raised $120,000, let’s keep the support going! Thanks for supporting our work over the years!

To hear more about Gibran’s Jamestown journey, check out his interview below.

Q: What’s an important lesson you learned from Jamestown youth?

A: That every generation keeps getting smarter. These kids are teaching me things week in and week out.

Q: What is your fondest Jamestown memory?

A: My fondest Jamestown memory was the program I was in as a teen. I got the chance to have a place to be me, where I was surrounded by people who were like me, all in the same space. More significantly, I had mentors who had similar life experiences as me at some point in their life. Having a space to go to after school is really important.

Q: What do you want your Jamestown legacy to be?

A: I have said it since I was 15 -- I want to be the Executive Director later on in life. I know that I will have big shoes to fill as the directors before me are people I look up to. I want people to know no matter how bad you had it growing up, you can still be someone that can help others.

Jamestown Continues To Meet Community Needs During Pandemic

Familia, we all know this past year has been challenging beyond measure. Our world and our communities have dealt with an incredible amount of hardship. Despite these setbacks, we have seen the Mission District rise up in the face of adversity and work together to meet our collective needs.  At Jamestown, we have been busy keeping our students engaged throughout the pandemic through virtual learning and other family support programs.

As we return to in-person learning at our Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 (BVHM) and Longfellow program sites, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on all the powerful work our talented staff has been able to accomplish during this pandemic. Below are just a few examples of how Jamestown has been able to effectively address the needs of our community:

Community Hubs

• In person learning for our most vulnerable youth:  Community Learning Hubs alongside the San Francisco Department of Health have been highlighted in  the Wall Street Journal and KQED. Our Community Learning Hubs have provided our most vulnerable students with in-person learning opportunities, in a safe and healthy environment.

• Meaningful Collaborations: We have also fostered meaningful collaborations between our dedicated staff members on site and partnering agencies who allow us to continue providing high quality programming for our Mission District familia.

Family support+ relief funds

• Weekly food boxes: In addition to providing quality programming we have worked diligently to distribute 180 food boxes weekly to our Mission District families.

• Relief funds: Over 125 Jamestown families have received financial relief funds totaling $113,000. We saw the economic impact of the pandemic and are working continuously to ensure families receive the help they need. 

Celebrating + Honoring our Community (from afar)

• Black History Month- Our team at James Lick Middle School was able to rally and put together an incredible virtual Black History Month celebration in conjunction with Mayor London Breed’s office. 

Youth Social Justice + Cultural Pride- As part of Telemundo’s tribute to Afro-Latinxs in the Bay Area, our Office Manager and Samba star, Salma, was profiled for a feature about Jamestown’s focus on youth social justice and cultural pride! We also want to acknowledge Selma's Dance Instructor and Fogo na Roupa’s Artistic Director Metzi Henriquez who has helped in the development of many women of color in the Mission District.

These are just a few of the highlights from the past few months. As schools begin to slowly reopen and with summer programs on the horizon, we look forward to navigating the new reality in community with our Mission District students and families. We know the transition back to in-person learning will have its challenges and we are prepared for whatever lies ahead. We are still here, we are still fighting and we are still working to create a more equitable and compassionate world. Stay tuned for more updates, our work is far from over. Huge thank you to all our supporters in the community who allow us to continue our work.

Jamestown Persists Amidst School Closures and City Lockdowns

Familia, we hope you are staying safe and healthy during these difficult times. Jamestown, along with our community partners, have done our best to remain adaptable to the circumstances and continue working to ensure our communities are safe and informed on COVID-19.

Due to the closure of all SFUSD schools, our site-specific programming remains on hold during this lockdown. Still, despite the circumstances, Jamestown remains resilient and is taking an innovative approach to continue serving our youth and families.

Currently, Jamestown program staff are working daily at our Buena Vista Horace Mann Beacon stayover shelter to handle the added capacity and support youth and families during this time of crisis. The stayover program has been greatly expanded during this shelter-in-place order and Jamestown staff have stepped up to do their part. Chavez Elementary, one of our other Beacon sites, is providing a community food bank so our families and other vulnerable community members have access to the nutrition they need to stay healthy.

Despite the social distancing order, we have still been able to offer some of our community programs through online platforms. Our Strengthening Families class continues to host regularly scheduled meetings through video chat, so families can continue to build healthy relationships and communication practices. The Loco Bloco performance ensemble, despite not being able to meet physically, continue to rehearse via Zoom meetings, keeping them active and engaged with their community and art form.

Along with hosting program meetings online, we continue to share relevant resources on our social media from the Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF) as well as other community organizations working with similar populations. We want to ensure the families we serve are properly informed and connected to all the services available to them.

As Jamestown continues navigating through these uncertain times, we are doing our best to provide the services we can to our youth and families. In these tough times, it is imperative we continue to serve vulnerable populations to ensure the security of our community.

Thank you for supporting our work and being valuable members of our community.  We continue to send lots of love and light to all of our gente. Stay safe and strong everyone.

Presenting Loco Bloco's Carnaval 2020 Theme: From Roots to Reincarnation

Through our artistic expression, we will create:

An embodiment of the ancestral traditions & wisdom living in the land & carried in our spirit

An act of community healing from our ancestral trauma as our scars evolve into adornments of empowerment
A reclaiming of our strength, power & voice as we transform our vision for our collective future

Join us March 7th at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 School for our Spring Resource and Carnaval Registration Fair 11am - 2pm. If you want to get involved before this, join us every Monday at Brava Theater for our Free Community Drum and Dance Classes 5 - 6:15pm. Stay updated on all things Loco Bloco by following on Facebook and Instagram.

Executive Director Myrna Melgar to Pursue New Leadership Role

After six powerful years as Jamestown's Executive Director, Myrna Melgar will be transitioning out of her position to run for the City of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors' open seat in District 7 in November of this year.

Under her leadership, Jamestown grew tremendously to now serve nearly 4,000 youth and families annually. During Myrna’s tenure, the organization also doubled its funding, merged with Loco Bloco (another youth-serving Mission District organization), expanded programs and purchased office space in the Mission District. Jamestown is strong, stable and poised to continue providing low income youth with high quality educational opportunities that build inter-generational leadership within the community. 

While she will be stepping down in June from her official leadership role at Jamestown, Myrna plans to stay involved and continue supporting this community with the same passion she has always carried. The Board of Directors will conduct an open recruitment for the new Executive Director, and during the transition, Jamestown's Deputy Director, Nelly Sapinski, will assume Interim Director duties. 

Nelly has served as Deputy Director for five years, and previously led the out-of-school division for Reading Partners and Santa Clara County Catholic Charities. Nelly grew up in Tijuana, Mexico and holds a Master's Degree in Education from Harvard University. She is a certified bilingual teacher and reading recovery specialist, who has built Jamestown’s program design and evaluation systems throughout her time with the organization. 

Jamestown appreciates all the support from our extended familia of youth, families, partners and funders as we continue to serve our community during this transitional phase. Our focus remains on our work and mission of helping young people and their families realize their full potential to become powerful and healthy members of society.

Join The Mission and Support Jamestown

This past year has been groundbreaking for Jamestown, we hope you have enjoyed following the journey and growth on our Futuros Sin Fronteras blog. We have completed the merger with Loco Bloco, expanded our programming to serve nearly 4,000 youth and their families, and purchased space in the building we occupy at the Historic Centro Social Obrero. Our organization is stronger and more sustainable, poised to continue providing opportunity to kids, and helping them succeed.

At Jamestown, long-term engagement and deep relationships based on trust are the secret to our magic. This magic is the underpinning of the success of our youth, and what makes our programming special. We strive to serve youth and their families for as long as they need us -- providing crucial programs and supports to accompany them into adulthood. 

Martín Herrera Pazmino embodies the core values and mission of Jamestown. Currently a World History Teacher at John O’Connell High School in the Mission, Martín grew up in the community, attending public schools in the neighborhood, supported by the enrichment programs at Jamestown and Loco Bloco. A budding artist, he picked up his first drum at age 3 in a Loco Bloco class. Martín also attended Cesar Chavez Elementary School, where he participated in Jamestown’s afterschool program. 

Through his participation in Loco Bloco, Martín was able to hone his artistic skills and was accepted to the San Francisco School of the Arts for High School. While at SOTA, Martín worked as a youth apprentice at Jamestown, which taught him valuable workforce skills, opening the doors to a career in education. Working as a youth apprentice also provided Martín with income – a crucial component for our youth who are often overlooked by traditional college and career support programs. 

Every summer while he attended Sonoma State University, Martín came back to San Francisco and taught valuable skills to younger neighborhood kids in Jamestown’s summer programs. Martín credits his participation in Jamestown and Loco Bloco and his parents, Betty and Francisco, for his deep commitment to social justice and the Latino community in the Mission. It is where he grew as a leader, an artist and an educator.  

Jamestown’s comprehensive educational supports include academics, arts, sports, leadership development, and social emotional skill building delivered with cultural competence by our highly trained staff. Our work embodies education justice for low income youth: opening the doors to high quality educational opportunities regardless of their family’s ability to pay for it.

We consider all of our readers part of the Jamestown familia, and invite you all to donate and help us continue growing in our work during this holiday season. This will be our final blog post for the year, we hope you have enjoyed reading about all of our accomplishments and will continue following our progress into the new decade and beyond! Thank you for believing in our Mission, see you in 2020.

Jamestown: Reclaiming Space and Culture in The Mission

After months of planning and working behind the scenes, The Jamestown Community Center is excited to announce that along with a consortium of other community organizations, we have purchased part of the equity in the building that houses our administrative offices on the corner of Alabama and 19th Street. Thanks to a generous contribution from Mayor London Breed’s Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative, Jamestown is officially a homeowner in The Mission! 

To honor this triumphant reclamation of space, we want to invite all community members to celebrate and take a tour at our open house, Planting Roots: Reclaiming Community (Sembrando Raices: Reclamando Communidad) on November 20th (event details to come!).

While this relocation to a bigger and better space is certainly a win for the organization, we also see it as a victory for the community as a whole. The struggle to keep the spirit of the Mission District alive has been an uphill one. Between the rapid gentrification and displacement of community members, as well as the closing of many longtime businesses, often times we can feel like strangers in our own neighborhood. Despite the obstacles, Jamestown remains steadfast and committed to holding space and celebrating longtime community traditions with our gente.

Photo by Carla Hernandez Ramirez

One of these traditions, the Loco Bloco Blocura gala, will be making a triumphant return this year! After taking a brief hiatus, we are proud to bring back Blocura on October 18th at Patio Español. The event will include live performances from the Loco Bloco Ensemble and an art auction featuring work from some of the Mission District’s premier visual artists.

All of the funds raised will go directly to support Loco Bloco arts programming, which includes teaching artists’ salaries, music and art supplies and development for young adults involved in the Teaching Artists in Training program. You can support the work of our amazing artivists, by purchasing a ticket or becoming a sponsor today. 

“It was really important for us to make sure we made Blocura happen this year,” said Annie Jupiter-Jones, Deputy Director of Arts and Community. “This event is all about celebrating with our community; we’re looking forward to dancing the night away with our supporters both old and new.”

On the heels of Blocura, Jamestown along with other community partners will host the third edition of ReclaMisión in honor of Dia de Los Muertos. As in years past, this event will feature local artists, musicians and community organizations collaborating on a creative exposition of this timeless cultural tradition. The celebration of ReclaMisión allows us the opportunity to celebrate our culture alongside our people in a grand display for all to see, hear and feel. 

We work with artists of all disciplines and bring them together for a one-of-a-kind experience of cultural expression that keeps us connected with our heritage, while instilling in our young people a sense of pride and tradition that at times can feel far off given the current political landscape. ReclaMisión holds sacred space for us to remember our history and be active participants in creating it.

Events like Blocura and ReclaMision are critical to continue fostering community and creating a safe space to celebrate our cultural traditions together as a Mission familia. We will not lose touch, we will not lose hope, and we will continue working on behalf of our people for a better tomorrow.

Mayor London Breed Visits BVHM

Jamestown Community Center had the honor of hosting San Francisco Mayor London Breed for our Soar with Reading event at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8. Mayor Breed took time out of her busy schedule to address the youth and read an excerpt from Holly Anna’s Daisy Dreamer and the Totally True Imaginary Friend.

The students were ecstatic to meet the mayor and even presented her with letters addressing their gratitude and what they want to see in their city. Beyond the reading and presentation, students also received free books and book bags compliments of Jet Blue Airlines, who worked in collaboration with other community partners to make this a event a huge success. Jamestown is grateful for everyone involved and looks forward to hosting more community events at our Beacon Sites this year.