Community Living Campaign

Cultivating connections to help seniors and people with disabilities age and thrive at home.

Cultivating connections to help seniors and people with disabilities age and thrive at home.

Marie Jobling

Inner Sunset Community Fosters Holiday Connections

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The Inner Sunset Community Connector Networks gathered on December 23rd to share food, conversation and a lively raffle.  Community Connector Marina Lazzara with her daughter and friends as a back-up crew, help make for a lovely party after the regular Always Active Exercise class.   Special thanks to Judy Goddess and other leaders in this community for make this past year such a success.  This includes local leaders who have offered to provide a 100% match to donations up to $10,000.  You can help by visiting this link and making a donation.  

And enjoy some of the pictures from the party!

Midtown Gets in the Holiday Spirit with Song

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Midtown Community Connector Network enjoyed the sound stylings of Frank Sinatra (aka Perrish D’Andrea) with one another.  Community Connector Nikki Trasvina hosted with food,  holiday spirit and lovely picture collages of neighbors.   Take a look below!

Holiday Turkeys and Fixings Head for Good Homes

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The most recent San Francisco Food Security Report found that one of every three San Franciscans is food insecure. If you are food insecure, you sometimes run out money before you can buy the nutritious food you and your family need. This makes for hard choices between food and other necessities. San Francisco’s high cost of living is pushing more and more people on fixed incomes into food insecurity.  

CLC has weekly grocery delivery programs that brings nutritious food to  seniors and adults with disabilities in the Bayview, OMI and other southern neighborhoods. Once a year,  we are proud to help organize a special delivery of turkeys and fixings to  1550 household. It comes with happy greetings from their neighbors.  This is possible, first and foremost, with generous support from Glide Memorial, the S.F. Department of Public Health, and A. Phillip Randolph Institute.  

In the OMI, CLC Community Connector Deb Glen and her team along with Patty Clement-Cihak help organized distribution in the OMI and Cayuga.  In the Bayview, Veronica Shepard and her colleagues in the SF Department of Health, CLC Grocery Delivery Coordinators Chester Williams and Vernice Ross and members of HPUNITI for helping bring this special holiday gift to those in need.   Chester is also a member of the San Francisco Food Security Task Force, co-chaired by Paula Jones, DPH Director of Food Security.  This Task Force works to address food inequities by helping to strengthen the food safety net and expand access to food programs. Take a look at their most recent report here.

Take a few minutes to see the hard work of the people and organizations who are tackling food insecurity during the holidays and all year long.

St. Francis Square Community Celebrates

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St. Francis Square Co-op was the first neighborhood network, inaugurated with the support of CLC and the Board of St. Francis Square Co-op.  The Community Living Campaign Committee of the Board and network members celebrated their first ten years with a special event on December 8th.   Early founders greeted many new neighbors and remembered those who have passed on who helped create the community ties.  Music, poetry and a visit from Supervisor Valli Brown highlighted the afternoon.  A photo collage brought back memories of activities over the past 10 years that helped weave community.    Take a look below…

Cayuga Community Celebrates the Holiday in Style

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Cayuga Holiday Potluck is an annual community gathering rich with food, fun raffle prizes, music and of course, Santa.   Thanks to Patti Spaniak and all the leaders and neighbors who pitched in to make this a grand gesture of community living.   Enjoy the pics!

1000 People Participated In San Francisco, Call For A Bold Response On Aging

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(From press release by Erin Saberi) 

More than 1000 seniors, people with disabilities and citizens concerned about quality of life for the fastest growing age group – older adults – turned out at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero in San Francisco on September 20.   The gathering was the largest event to be held in California to date, with information shared and big ideas offered for the California Master Plan on Aging, called for by Governor Newsom in June 2019. 

Policymakers, activists and foundation leaders, all called for a robust response to the Governor’s executive order to develop a CA Master Plan On Aging by October 2020. “This plan poses an historic opportunity to move beyond a patchwork approach to supports and services,” said Marie Jobling, Co-Chair of the Dignity Fund Coalition, a co-sponsor of today’s event. “We need to build an effective, holistic response that assures the growing number of older adults get the services and supports they need to live with dignity at home and to continue to have a vital role and presence in our communities.”

A panel of policy experts and elected officials – State Senator Scott Wiener, Assembly member David Chiu, San Francisco Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer and longtime elderly advocate San Francisco Supervisor Norman Yee – discussed the enormity of the challenges posed by California’s growing population of older adults. California’s senior population will increase by nearly 90 percent or 4 million people in the next few decades, according to the Public Policy of California.  Currently, 1 in 5 seniors in California lives in poverty, 3 in 10 older Californians do not have enough income to cover basic needs and 1 in 4 older adults is facing housing cost burdens with many falling into homelessness.

In San Francisco, older adults and persons with disabilities represent over 25 percent of San Francisco’s population. By 2030, nearly 30 percent of San Franciscans will be age 60 or older.

Speakers also noted that as the CA Master Plan develops, policymakers will look to learn from San Francisco’s decades long leadership in providing critical supports to older adults and people with disabilities. Local activists and policymakers observed that San Francisco has made great strides, but a statewide vision is necessary to make lasting gains.  “We welcome this opportunity provided by the Governor,” said Anne Quaintance, Co-Chair of the Long Term Care Coordinating Council of San Francisco, a co-sponsor of today’s event. “We know from our experience that state involvement is critical to building the integrated and sustainable vision necessary for age-friendly cities and communities to become a reality in the years to come.  We look forward to contributing to the CA Master Plan and collaborating with the state to identify opportunities and solutions.”

Participants also acknowledged that the large public turnout today is indicative of widespread public interest in meeting the needs of older adults and persons with disabilities. Two recent surveys conducted by the “We Stand With Seniors” campaign found that 86 percent of voters support the state investing in more caregiver services for older-adults and their families and 73 percent of voters say they are concerned about their own ability to pay for long-term care.  9 out of 10 voters surveyed across party lines feel it is important for California to have a Master Plan for Aging to invest in services that allow seniors to age in place.

This  public forum was the first of a series of public forums to be held in San Francisco during the CA Master Plan development process.  Continued public input will be key to identifying ways in which the CA Master Plan can build environments that promote healthy aging and potentially revolutionize how Californians age for decades to come.  Look for our hashtag. #BePartOfThePlanSF

For more information, visit: www.sfdignityfund.org and https://www.sfhsa.org/about/commissions-committees/long-term-care-coordinating-council-ltccc.

 

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Good Neighbors Gather To Celebrate and To Honor

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The Annual Good Neighborhood Event brought together an even bigger group of leaders on Saturday, June 8 as we gather at the ARC. Each year, staff and participants in each of the CLC programs picks a community member who has gone above and beyond to help their neighbors and provide leadership to the community. We are pleased to present this year’s list of honorees. They include:

  • Mary Crenshaw, Bayview
  • Deb Padilla, Cayuga Community Connectors
  • Esselene Stancil, Computers & Access
    Marlene Olivencia , Inner Sunset Community Connectors
  • Reiko Hatakayama, Merced Extension Triangle Community Connectors
  • Evernease Cook, Midtown Terrace Community Connectors
  • Guido Van Rijn, Miraloma Community Connectors
  • Leroy Lindo, OMI Food Network
  • Judy Goddess, Community Catalyst
  • Rose Sharkey, St. Francis Square Network
  • Alice Guidry, Sunnyside Community Connectors
  • Michael S. Silver, Vision & Hearing Program 
  • Robin Evans, SF ReServe / Senior Beat 

See these and other “good neighbors” in the photo album below.