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.

community living

Speak Up For The MUNI Services You Need!

by

SPEAK UP FOR THE MUNI SERVICE YOU NEED!

On December 7, the SFMTA Board of Directors will vote on a Muni Service Plan for 2022. Their current proposal brings back a lot of service, but it does not restore Muni to pre-pandemic service levels, as the community has been asking for. The current proposal for 2022 Service includes the following:

  • The 3 Jackson and 47 Van Ness would remain suspended.
  • The 2 Clement would be restored with a modified route and would operate every 15 minutes all day on weekdays.
  • The 6 Haight/Parnassus would return every 20 minutes, and the 52 Excelsior and 66 Quintara would return to their past routes.
  • The 10 Townsend would be restored, but it would end at Sansome and Montgomery streets and run along 16th Street in Potrero Hill.
  • The 21 Hayes would be restored with a modified route and would run every 15 minutes.
  • The 31 Balboa would be rerouted to 5th Street, Townsend Street, 3rd Street and Harrison Street, with a terminal at the 4th and King Caltrain Station.

More details here.

Please ACT BEFORE DECEMBER 7 if this is not the Muni service you need!

  1. Call 415-646-2005
  2. Email TellMuni@sfmta.com and MTABoard@sfmta.com (cc your Supervisor and cathy@sfcommunityliving.org)

 

JOIN SDA’S CAMPAIGN FOR BUS SHELTERS: GIMME SHELTER!

From our partners at Senior & Disability Action: For years, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has been denying requests from neighborhood public transit riders to install a bus shelter with seating at bus stops that are without seats. Prior to the pandemic, the SFMTA has been removing numerous bus shelters as a solution to deal with the homeless and street drug trafficking issues. We at Senior & Disability Action find that those actions are in conflict with the Americans with Disabilities Act. People with disabilities and seniors need seating and shelter while waiting for the next bus. At this time, only 34% of current bus stops have seating, and these are distributed inequitably, with the northern half of the city twice as likely to have shelters as the southern half, particularly Bayview/Hunters Point.SFMTA really needs our (transit riders who are seniors and people with impairments) help in creating a Muni Service Network that really addresses our needs.

SDA has developed a survey and petition for the new Gimme Shelter campaign. The task of both is communicate to the SFMTA the need for all bus stops to have a shelter with seating. Please take and share with others:

The Survey
English: https://tinyurl.com/Gimme-Shelter-Survey
Chinese: https://forms.gle/1UCFGrheqXfdbEqc7
Spanish: https://forms.gle/deT4ZWP1v8AngZGY8

The Petition
English: https://forms.gle/bJqUsRpTYyCAPFEJ8
Chinese: https://forms.gle/QgExKtE5xXSWEoAMA
Spanish: https://forms.gle/YRNffsyUPGiK6G7s9

If you’d like a hard copy of the survey and petition, please contact Pi Ra at srira@sdaction.org.

HOW SHOULD THE CITY SPEND TRANSPORTATION SALES TAX REVENUE?

San Francisco has a half-cent sales tax that funds transportation projects. The City plans to renew the sales tax soon, so it’s currently developing a spending plan for the expected revenues. The spending plan doesn’t identify specific transportation projects to fund, but rather outlines the percentage of tax revenue that will be dedicated to different transportation program categories.To help develop this spending plan, the City is asking the public to share feedback on what transportation programs are most important to them.
 
Take the SFCTA survey to make your voice heard:
https://www.research.net/r/transportation-sales-tax
 

CLC is urging residents to mark the following programs as “Very Important,” so we make sure that older adults and adults with disabilities are prioritized:

  • Paratransit Service for Seniors and Persons with Disabilities
  • Neighborhood and Equity Priority Community Planning

More details at https://www.sfcta.org/ExpenditurePlan.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

Dec 6 @ 1:30 pm; Land Use & Transportation Committee
Supervisor Peskin is calling a hearing on electric-powered scooters, after Nicole Bohn, the Director of the Mayor’s Office on Disability, was seriously injured after being hit by someone riding a scooter on a sidewalk.

Dec 13 @ 1:30 pm: Land Use & Transportation Committee
Supervisor Melgar is calling a hearing on the City’s responsibilities in maintaining safe and accessible sidewalks, as well as being accountable to public requests for sidewalk improvements. We’ll keep you updated, or stay tuned here: https://sfbos.org/meetings/land-use-and-transportation-committee.

LOWER SPEED LIMITS COMING TO SF STREETS

Thanks to a new state law, San Francisco now has more authority to set speed limits on our streets! That’s great news, since speed is a major factor in whether someone hit by a car lives or dies. Considering that older adults make up half of all pedestrians killed in San Francisco each year, lower speed limits could help us reduce this number.As early as January 2022, the SFMTA will lower speed limits by 5 mph (from 25 mph to 20 mph, or 30 mph to 25 mph) in key business activity districts (streets where at least half of the property uses are dining or retail). These speed limit changes require SFMTA Board approval, and the first seven corridors being brought to the Board for speed limit reductions from 25 to 20 mph include:

  • 24th Street, from Diamond to Chattanooga streets and from Valencia to San Bruno Avenue;
  • Fillmore Street, from Chestnut to Union streets and from Jackson to McAllister streets;
  • Haight Street, from Stanyan Street to Central Avenue and from Webster to Steiner streets;
  • Polk Street, from Filbert to Sutter streets;
  • Ocean Avenue, from Geneva Avenue to Victoria Street and from Junipero Serra Boulevard to 19th Avenue;
  • San Bruno Avenue, from Silver to Paul avenues; and
  • Valencia Street, from Cesar Chavez to Market streets

The SFMTA also plans to reduce speed limits on San Francisco’s high-injury corridors, where most traffic crashes are concentrated. You can learn more here about all the important speed limit changes that SFMTA is planning. In the meantime, let’s all slow down!

For more information about any of these transportation updates, please contact CLC’s Transportation Program Manager: Cathy DeLuca, cathy@sfcommunityliving.org, 415-638-9183.

Wishing Patti Spaniak-Davidson Well on Her Next Adventure

by

The natural-born connector. The person who makes us smile every time we think of her. The person who takes and prints pictures of everyone like they are her family. A font of creativity and enthusiasm.

These were just some of the glowing tributes to Patti Spaniak-Davidson, our departing head of Community Connectors, before she and her husband, Tyler, moved to North Carolina.

“Do we owe it to your new neighbors to warn them their lives are going to grow and change?” Judy Goddess quipped.

Here’s more of what team members and neighbors had to say about Patti:

“Patti’s middle name should be ‘connector.’ She’s a master at connecting people and the services and programs they need. I am so grateful for her help in expanding the Always Active program to the Community Connector sites. I am also thankful that our connection became a special friendship. Keep on connecting, Patti!” —  Valorie Villela

“Patti, you have been such an inspiration to me! You are one of those rare people in the world that just exudes love and care and fun and friendship and all the good qualities of a human being! You encourage everyone to be creative, to be free, to express themselves, and you bring out the best in everyone around you. I shall miss you very, very much!”  — Juliet Rothman

“Patti has been the faithful angel who comes to my gate each week to deliver my Open Hand meals. She always brightens up my corner of Cayuga Avenue with her outfits that are as vividly colored as a 48-color crayon box.” — Paulann Sternberg

In addition, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors recognized her as a catalyst to connect neighbors and a determined advocate for older adults and people with disabilities. Lauren Chung, staff for Supervisor Ahsha Safai, presented her with an official proclamation declaring March 19 as Patti Spaniak-Davidson Day.

Her team of Community Connectors across the city and the rest of the staff at Community Living Campaign will miss Patti and wish her well on her journey!

Meet the rest of us by coming to some of our activities! You can find our calendar of events here.

Senior Power on “I DEMAND A REFUND!”

by

We particularly enjoyed this Monday morning post from Margaret Graf, reflecting on 2020 as it draws to a close…

Dear Powers That Be (PTB):

I have been a loyal & normally enthusiastic user of your yearly products for a very long time, usually with only minor grumps & complaints. This past year was the final straw.  Frankly, 2020 did not measure up to my expectations & in fact, was one of the worst ever.  I admit that I may have been a bit overly enthusiastic in the beginning, it being the start of a new decade & all, but really…it began to fall apart almost from the beginning & only got worse as time went on, pell-melling me & all your other users through a whole year with political farces, a world wide pandemic, weather calamities, fire disasters, extreme social injustice & fatal protests fueling a depressive mood that has brought us to our knees, fairly weeping in despair & crying for mercy.  When I say “we” I mean the people, here in U,S, around the world, humans everywhere subjected to an onslaught of your whims & the  defective product you foisted upon us.  In short, 2020 was too complicated to use, impossible to assemble, came with no warnings or directions on use & was just plain defective nearly from the beginning. The pandemic was the really ‘big one’  wiping out a serious number of us, causing businesses to close, jobs lost, long food lines & despair.  Not satisfied with that, you  sent along wildfires, floods (never in the same place of course) & economic penalties to boot.  Really??  What did we do to deserve this shabby & unconscionable treatment at your hands??  THERE WAS NO LETUP ALL YEAR LONG!  Only in the last month, have we begun to be able to counteract your product & slow the disintegration of the whole mess.  Thanks to the cleverness of our scientists, we now have 2 (with more on the way shortly) counter-measures (we call them vaccines) to this horror you have visited upon us.

SO…in the spirit of negotiation & recognizing our long standing loyalty to the years you have been kind enough to bless us with in the past, I propose a negotiation, without which I sincerely believe we will have lost all faith in your product & will have to look elsewhere for our future.  You are not the only planet in the universe, you know.

I sincerely ask…no demand, on the part of all my fellow humans, that in order to show your good faith you grant us a refund.  Minimally, it should reflect the period of use from March-December, when we were hardest hit & before we began to suspect the inadequacy & continued dangerous consumption of your product.  I propose that you grant a refund, to each & everyone of us, beginning January 1, 2021, in the form of adding  10 months to the end of each of our lifetimes on Planet Earth to compensate for the period noted above.  It is a fair & equitable solution, with little cost or effort to you, not nearly adequate to compensate us for the misery you have cost, but as an expression of your good will toward the future. Please take this demand seriously and reply forthwith.

Sincerely yours, 
Margaret Graf, Senior Power
 

Breast Cancer Support Pink Luncheon 2018

by

Breast Cancer Groups Celebrate

On Oct. 11, the Breast Cancer Group of the Lutheran Church of Our Savior, and the Bayview Imani Breast Cancer Support Group held their annual celebration luncheon.

Though African-American and white women are diagnosed with breast cancer at roughly the same rate, African-American women are 42 percent more likely to die from the disease. There seem to be several reasons for this: African-American women are more likely to be diagnosed at later stages of the disease, and experience delays in treatment. They are also more likely to be diagnosed with a triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive subtype that is linked to poorer survival.

The OMI breast cancer group meets the third Thursday of the month, from 11 a.m.– noon. The group takes on different projects – murals, paintings and placemats – some of which were on display at the church. Their primary task, explained Barbara Tate, program director at the LCOS, is supporting one another and the newly diagnosed. “When we hear of someone who’s been newly diagnosed, we try to visit and talk with them. We go with them to the doctor if they want us to do that. We listen to their story and tell our own. Whatever the person wants, we’re available.”

October 11, however, was a day to greet old friends, enjoy good food, celebrate and listen to inspirational speeches from Pastor Evered Cohen of the Lutheran Church and the Rev. Dr. Carolyn Ransom-Scott

If you are looking for support or want more information, call Barbara Tate, 415-586-7890.


[Show slideshow]
1 2 3

Celebrating the ‘Good Neighbors’ Who Build Community Across San Francisco

by

prize baskets on a table

Gifts from the Neighborhoods: Baskets created by each program and neighborhood were among the prizes for this year’s Good Neighbors.

Neighbors throughout San Francisco are at the heart of creating community. In every CLC program, there are many people who share their time and talents to improve lives of fellow  seniors and people with disabilities. These dedicated neighbors who share their lifetime of experience and talents demonstrate just how much better we can make our communities when we create opportunities for everyone to contribute. 

Each year, CLC hosts a citywide “Good Neighbor” party to  thank these neighborhood volunteers for their countless contributions and to honor those in their midst who inspire others in CLC’s neighborhoods and programs.  

The afternoon included great food from Mission Language and Vocational School, appetizers from our own Lizette Martinez, and homemade strawberry shortcake from our own Kate Kuckro. Folks also enjoyed a CLC Trivia game, a free prize drawing of themed basics from the different neighborhoods and projects, and fun photos. As one neighbor said, “we come from the north and the south, the east and the west and we join together to learn from one another.”

Honoring Outstanding Neighborhood Volunteers

This year’s Good Neighbor honorees – all seniors or people with disabilities themselves – have contributed in a wide range of ways. But across the board, all are quick to offer help in whatever ways they can.  The Honorees help with computers, offer rides, share garden cuttings, host gatherings around the piano, organize neighbors, pack groceries, offer hearing screenings, and reach out to local businesses.

This year’s Good Neighbor Awards go to…

Some of the "good neighbors"

A Reservoir of Talent: Good Neighbor Honorees share their time and skills to improve their communities.

  • Carmelita Lozano, Cayuga Connectors
  • Nan Park, St. Francis Square Network
  • Ruth Dark, Bayview Food Network/Connectors
  • Carolyn Taylor , OMI Food Network
  • Victor Lam, Computers & Access
  • Steven Lopez & N. California Hearing & Speech Center, Vision & Hearing
  • Brenda Billings, Events
  • Marc Christensen, Merced Extension Triangle Community Connectors

These special neighbors will be honored again at CLC’s 10 year anniversary event on September 20th.


[Show slideshow]
1 2 3

Loneliness Really Is a Public Health Issue

by

Google Community Space and the Global Shapers hosted a thoughtful discussion on loneliness and increasing awareness of how bad it is for your health.   The panelist included:

Kasley Killam, event organizer (and CLC Board member) facilitated a  solution-focused discussion about loneliness among seniors, raising awareness about this issue and  highlighting  efforts of each organization to address it.  The session closed with suggestions for how the more than 70 people who attended might take steps to contribute. The panel discussion is featured on the CLC Facebook page.  You can learn more about the issue in Kasley’s article in Scientific American.  

Loneliness: A Public Health Crisis Livestream

Posted by Global Shapers – San Francisco Hub on Wednesday, March 21, 2018

 


[Show slideshow]

 

Our Second ‘Good Neighbors’ Event Celebrates the Volunteers Who Power Our Work

by

Community Living Campaign held our second annual event to honor neighbors who volunteer their time to make a difference in their community.  The ARC was transformed on May 6 into a neighborhood block party, with lots of good food, conversation, fun photos, and even a few prizes. 
 
This year, we honored 10 stand-out neighbors who volunteer their time and passions to help make our communities safer, healthier places for all.  We thank you!
  1. Randolph James (Bayview Food Network)
  2. Delfina Pelayo (Cayuga Connectors)
  3. Henry Khalil (Computer Training & Access)
  4. Sara Taylor (Connections for Healthy Aging)
  5. Mark Cambell (Laguna Honda Computer Club)
  6. Saralyn Archie (OMI Food Network)
  7. Cathy Russo (Park Merced University Park Food Network)
  8. Janet Tom (St. Francis Square Community Living Committee)
  9. Tricia Cardillo (Goldsmith Vision & Hearing)
  10. Dignity Dog! (Organizing)

Hope you enjoy the pictures!


[Show as slideshow]

Dignity Day Helps Build Momentum for Prop I

by

dignityday13

I for Independence and Interdependence! Vote Yes to invest in seniors and people with disabilities.

September 23 was Dignity Day and the community of supporters and elected leaders gathered to show their support for Proposition I – The Dignity Fund.  Mayor Lee and members of the Board of Supervisors spoke of the importance of supporting seniors and adult with disabilities.  Community leaders shared their stories about how Prop I will make a difference.  And around the city, Meals on Wheels staff and volunteers distributed information about this November 8 ballot measure to meal sites.  Hundreds of seniors, adults with disabilities and their supporters showed their enthusiastic support by pledging to help get the word out with house signs, phone banking and outreach engagements.  You can learn more about how you can help here.  Enjoy the pictures and remember to vote Yes on Prop I!

Invalid Displayed Gallery

Annual Event Shines with Friendship and New Connections

by

Dr. Patrick Arbore was the special guest as this year’s honoree for the Norma Satten Community Service Innovation Award, held ondsc_7653 September 22 at the Marine’s Memorial in San Francisco.  Once again, the community of individuals and organizations who believe in the importance of helping seniors and people with disabilities age in community came together.  Highlights included CLC Board member Colt Stander, who introduced a special, intergenerational hip hop performance by Bert Houle and Rebecca Fazio, information about the award by Norma’s daughter Debby Satten, introductions of CLC Good Neighbor Awardees, chosen by their community earlier in the year.   These good neighbors include Paul Hendrickson, Mel Noguera, Jimmye Mae Bynum, Ned Reese,  Vernice Ross, Donna Wilmott, and Jim Stevenson.  Another highlight dsc_7287was Anne’s introduction of Dr. Patrick Arbore and his heartfelt call to help reduce isolation and create connections.   Jim Illig closed the evening with a toast and a call to keep working hard to make this a better city in the year ahead.  Enjoy the pictures and mark your calendar to come next September.

Invalid Displayed Gallery

St. Francis Square Shows the Way

by

Article by Betty Traynor, Convenor

Since 2010, the Community Living Campaign has been active at St. Francis Square (SFQ), a 50 year plus residential cooperative founded by the ILWU with close to 300 units in the Western Addition, across from Japantown. Our CLC group founded by Marcia Peterzell and Linda Silver was a very welcome addition to the Square as there are many seniors living here, who moved in when they were “kids” in the ‘60s and ‘70s and are now aging in place. Many seniors welcomed the chance to join the CLC committee to learn about issues important to them, to exercise together, and to just have fun.

The CLC sponsors birthday parties through the year where everyone is invited to celebrate those with birthdays in the past four months, with party favors, music and gifts. We have Coffee and Conversation three Friday mornings a year with breakfast snacks and relevant speakers on hearing, the vial of life, health issues, and aging empowerment to name a few. One of our members, Jimmy Bynum, started up a weekly Walking Group on Wednesday mornings to get around our delightful neighborhood from the Fillmore to Japantown and in between. To specifically help those in need at SFQ, the CLC group formed “Neighbor to Neighbor” soliciting volunteers from all our residents who could be called on to give a hand: give a drive to the grocery store or medical appointment, move a couch, walk a dog. The volunteers are on-call and not far away. Our monthly meetings on second Tuesday mornings in our Social Hall are when we plan all that is coming up and look back on what we’ve done to improve for next time.

We decided recently that we needed to add some enjoyable “outside the Square” activities, so we’ve met for happy hour at a local club, Sheba Lounge on Fillmore, and one of our Square members who owns Picnic on Third restaurant in SOMA invited us to check it out for lunch a few months ago. We not only had a great meal but were treated as honored elders by the owner and her staff. So for now that is the Community Living Campaign at St. Francis Square Cooperative—ready, willing and able to be there for each other and to have fun along the way.   For more information, contact Betty Traynor at btraynor@att.net.

Invalid Displayed Gallery