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.

Building Community

Chinese Connector Program Blossoming -Donate Today!

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Community Living Campaign cultivates connections to help seniors and people with disabilities age and thrive at home. We advance the ideas, talents, and energies of older adults and people with disabilities through community-building, empowerment, and advocacy.  CLC’s Community Connector and other neighborhood-based networks cultivate and strengthen the friendships and support residents need.  Our empowerment programs help neighbors build the skills and tools needed to have a good life, whether that’s learning how to use technology, find employment, or be a strong advocate for themselves and others. Our advocacy helps individuals speak out and also brings together diverse coalitions to work toward a truly age- and disability-friendly city.

Our Chinese Connector Program is only one way that CLC is supporting, empowering and advocating for seniors and people with disabilities.   Learn more about our values and what we have accomplished over the past year here in our Annual Impact Report.

Chinese Connectors

In 2024, our Chinese Program continued to evolve to meet neighbors’ changing needs. In person activities blossomed at the neighborhood level, including Tai Chi, dance, photo walks, in-person tech help, pot-luck celebrations, and many crocheted flowers!  These flowers have been handmade by participants and have provided a reminder to those who might feel isolated or alone – they carry the message – Forget Us Not!

The Chinese Program’s online activities remain very popular, with almost 30 weekly online computer classes, two weekly singing classes, four cultural celebrations, and a weekly cultural language exchange program that includes English practice, a Mandarin class, and other healthy aging topics. Here is a link to the monthly activity calendar in English and Chinese.   your donation for these lovely flowers will specifically help the Chinese Connector Program grow. 

To learn more about our Chinese program, contact Wanda Liu at wanda@sfcommunityliving.org.  

Click here now or use the QR code to make your donation and receive flowers
you can share with loved ones or neighbors to let them know how much you care!

 

Come Visit Our New Computer Lab

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COMPUTER LAB OPEN HOUSE – COME TRY OUT OUR NEW COMPUTER LAB

Learn more about CLC’s Online and In-person digital literacy classes and tech support. Come see our new computer lab (thanks Dept. of Disability and Aging!), try out the new touch screen computers, attend a short class and learn what our Neighborhood Tech Connect (NTC) program has to offer.

The Week of August 19 thru August 23, 9:00 TO 4:00

1663 Mission Street, Suite 525

Planned Activities Include:

  • Try out the new computers
  • Sign up for the Digital Passport Project  
  • Bring some pictures to scan and save
  • Play Digital Passport Bingo & win prizes

Help Create “Forget Me Nots”

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We have to step up our efforts to not be forgotten as we struggle to age and thrive in our own homes and communities.  Funding for services and supports has not keeping pace with the demographics despite the fact that older adults are the fastest growing age group in the City.  Combined with the number of younger adults with disabilities, we are nearly a third of San Francisco residents.  And now the City’s budget woes make it more likely that we will be forgotten in favor of all the issues that make the headlines. 

The Dignity Fund Coalition,  with support from the Community Living Campaign and other organizations, is launching this year’s public awareness budget campaign on the theme of Forget Me Not.    Learn more here.  

We are looking to have 100’s of flowers grow – little knitted and crocheted ones in “forget me not” blues.   They will be part of deliveries and presentations to the Mayor, Supervisors, and other policy makers who can help us.  They will accompany short postcards that invite people to talk about why they are feeling forgotten and where more support could make all the difference. 

At right is a pictures of what one finish product might  look like.  Here is a link to patterns with 3 ways to create – knit, crochet, and paper flowers.  They contain more pictures and detailed instructions 

 
And another  YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bGAV6PTrWo

 

We are happy to provide material, printed instruction and even hook you up with someone who can show you how!

You can connect with us and learn more about the project and the larger campaign at flowerpower@sfcommunityliving.org. 

 

 

Stories about the ADA

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On the 33rd anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we asked participants to share their stories about how the ADA has impacted their lives. Here are just a couple of those stories:

From John Trasvina:

When I worked as Senator Paul Simon’s counsel on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in the 1980s and 1990s, he was instrumental in the passage of the disability access provisions of the Fair Housing Act and the full Americans with Disabilities Act.   The most compelling memory I have is when members of the public who had disabilities would come to Washington D.C. to speak with staff or at hearings about the importance of these laws to their daily lives.  In particular, representatives of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) who were afflicted with these illnesses would describe their daily challenges.  Their courage and strength educated people in Washington and helped pass these laws.   They should be remembered today as well as the political leaders who passed the bills and signed them into law.

From Nicky Trasvina:

When my kids were little we rented a funky old house at 46th and Taraval. It felt like the end of the world out there. But there was a highlight! On the corner stood The Bashful Bull Too, a large diner with huge plate windows that served excellent pancakes. Those pancakes were so delicious that my father enjoyed bringing us there almost every Sunday. Sometimes we were  joined by my uncle or a family friend or two. We were a party of at least 6.

But during the 1990s tragedy struck and my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimers and simultaneously lost her mobility, making her wheel-chair bound. Yet my dad insisted we keep going to The Bashful Bull Too. So we brought my mom downstairs, into the car, along with the wheelchair and off we would go. Tragedy struck again around 2002 and my dad was stricken with a form of ALS, aka Lou Gehrig’s disease. Our family was in shock to see two very intelligent and active seniors lose most of their physical abilities almost overnight.
But we knew that my dad wanted to continue the Sunday family tradition of going to The Bashful Bull Too. So almost every Sunday, my brother, my boys, and I would somehow carry my parents down from the second story of their home, get them situated in the car, load up the wheelchairs  and drive to 46th and Taraval. Then we would carefully get them out of the car, unload the wheelchairs and off we would go!
The bittersweet aspect of this story is that when the Bashful Bull Too owner and waiter saw us approaching the front door they did everything they could to accommodate us! They held the door for us while another moved tables and chairs. They saved the corner table for us to shield us from the drafty door opening and closing, they brought us coffee and menus immediately. They made the experience as easy as possible for my parents and for the rest of the family. I will never forget their kindness and the respect they showed to my parents! We never felt like a spectacle causing so much commotion, but appreciated the fanfare of their welcome!
Yes, this did take place after the ADA was voted and approved in 1990, but to me, the owner and her staff embodied the underlying meaning and mission of the ADA. They did not behave this way because of the ADA. Yes, it’s important but a sad commentary that we have to have laws to tell people the right thing to do, to notice and to make accommodations so that everyone is treated fairly and given full access. It is the strength of the law that protects what differently -abled individuals have gained and benefit in their daily lives.
The bittersweet aspect of this story is that the owner and her staff did not behave this way for the ADA. Their assistance to us was inspired out of the goodness of their hearts. Their show of respect and kindness to my parents is a bittersweet story of all our fortitude and determination to make my parents’ lives as regular and happy as possible for the longest time possible. We could not have done it without our friends at the Bashful Bull Too.
I want to thank Jennifer Walsh, a warrior for the differently-abled community, for asking for stories about how the ADA has impacted our lives and the experiences of those with disabilities.

CLC Does Carnival in the Mission

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It as a grand cultural celebration and CLC was an active part of it this year, thanks to a great team of folks lead by Miguel Hurtado & Marie Jobling.  Thanks go out to Yvan Torres, Maia Veres, Connie Adachi, Molly Hankwitz, Olivia Franco, Mark Huynh, Paul Hickman, Jennifer Walsh, Betty Traynor, Alan Lam, Robin Nasatir & Jon, Laura Atkins, Wanda Liu , Noah Weaker, and CanXin Tang. 

Some of us had to look twice, as we had only seen each other on Zoom!  But it was fun to reconnect, to reach out to a new community with a collection of material in Spanish as well as promotion for our many programs.  Special thanks to Sam, Miguel, Yvan, Maia and Karla Soumala for helping get material ready for this special event.  

Carnival was an incredibly diverse and wonderful event that brought ten’s of thousands of folks of all ages together to enjoy themselves after two years plus of isolation.   We met and talked to lots of people in Spanish, Chinese and English.  Now we need to figure out what to do next to let more people know about what CLC has to offer.   In the meantime, enjoy Mission Local’s write-up and great pictures of the Caravan parade 
 

Honoring Mothers and Fathers in a Festive Celebration

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The CLC Chinese Community Programming, includes tech training, cultural events, exercise and Chinese and English language cultural exchanges.  And a recent online gathering brought together over 140 participants to enjoy a rich array of talent with song, dance, and the joys of just being together.  The event also showcased the growing video talents of the computer class students.   Enjoy this student developed overview of the richness of this event.  Thanks go to Wanda Liu, Fiona Ren , Donna Li and Peter Karpathakis for bringing this production to life. 

https://vimeo.com/828869718?share=copy

Meals on Wheels – We Celebrate and Thank You!

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We celebrate and congratulations the San Francisco Meals on Wheels Organization on the opening of their new warehouse site.  And we send our heartfelt thanks as MOW has given our grocery delivery program a home a couple years and now is supporting our move to their new site along with URI, which runs the delivery program in the Bayview.  Walking over the site, we heard the booming voice of non-other than former director, Ashley McCumber, who returned for this special occasion.  See the pictures and meet Vernice Ross and Roland James  in their new office space. 

Connect with Tech Week – Golden Gate Park Photo Walk

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Good Work Everyone

We have Dropbox links to pictures of our big events this year.  Let’s start with the Golden Gate Park Photo Walk!  Enjoy this video produced by students in the Chinese language classes to memorialize this walk in the park.

Golden Gate Park Photo Walk.  https://vimeo.com/830462143?share=copy

 

[Show thumbnails]

 

Connect with Tech Week – Mission Photo Walk

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Harvey Castro returned to lead this year’s Photo Walk in the Mission District.  Harvey provide a quick course to help participants take their best pictures looking at setting, perspective, using apps effectively, saving pictures to share with others.  Then they struck out on a guided tour to practice in the surrounding neighborhood.  Take a minute to enjoy what they saw!