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

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!

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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!

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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.

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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…

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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!

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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. 

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‘Preserving Memories’ Events Engage Across Generations

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The Community Living Campaign and the San Francisco Tech Council have joined forces to help individuals and their loved ones preserve memories. It’s a “have scanners, will travel” phenomenon!  

After a launch event at 30th Street Senior Center with support from Fujitsu (which donated a range of Snapscan scanners),  the traveling event landed at Richmond Senior Center, Curry Senior Center, Excelsior Senior Center, and the Bayview YMCA.  

And the new CLC office at 1663 Mission Street became the site of a great scan-a-thon, with high school students scanned documents, photo boxes, and almost 1,000 snapshots for individuals and the organization.  

If you would like to bring a Preserving Memories event to your center, housing complex, or neighborhood association, please contact marie@sfcommunityliving.org.

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House in the Inner Sunset Builds Community

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picture of barbecue invite

Sunset residents find out when there’s a party or other event at the “Blue House” when the owners put up a sign.

SENIOR BEAT – Nothing brings a community together more than a neighborhood party where everyone is invited. And none so much as the eclectic and sometimes eccentric gatherings hosted by Inner Sunset residents Barbara and Paul.

No one  was surprised earlier this year to hear that Barbara was throwing another shindig. Barbara and her late husband started hosting backyard happenings in 2007. (Now 60, she prefers for security reasons to keep her last name to herself.) Her invitation to a barbecue was posted on the fence: “Bring finger-sized desserts, drinks and I will supply the meat. Enjoy our friendly guitar-duo.” Anyone who saw the sign was welcome.

The variety of these often impromptu get-togethers tickles the imagination. Everyone remembers the Haunted House, said Martha Etherton, director of the Inner Sunset Park Neighborhood Neighbors association. It “was so scary – someone reached out and grabbed my ankle.”

Magical exterior, mysterious backyard

A passer-by might suspect something or someone special lies behind the big blue house near Sixth and Irving. Signs of this would be the numerous mobiles, chimes and other hanging art, tickling and chiming over lovely flowering plants.

Of all the events she and her husband sponsored, Barbara is most fond of the Book Blast. “We had so many helpers, sorting books every Thursday night for 10 weeks.” She and Paul sought donations on Craigslist, then picked them up in their car. “Sometimes we had so many books in the car, Paul had to walk behind the car on the way home.” That year they collected 10,000 books, which were given away over a weekend’s time.

What makes Barbara’s backyard so great for accommodating events is that it’s really the front yard – with five big doors opening onto the street. So at the last Book Blast in 2016, people could easily pull their car up and offload donations.

All the events are completely free, she said. “Our motto remains ‘Twice a year, your money back if you’re dissatisfied!’ ”

Book blasts and group fix-its

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Sunset neighbors find out when there’s an event at “The Blue House” when the owners put up a sign.

Perhaps their most unique event was the Fix-it Fair. One day, she and Paul were repairing things in their yard with one of the doors open. People looked in, sighed, and wondered – aloud – how they could get what they needed fixed. Barbara took heed.

“I found six women who sew and brought them over with their sewing machines. I rounded up welders, electricians, knife sharpeners, carpenters and others who were willing to fix things for free,” she said.

Other favorite gatherings include the Gazillion Family Flea Market, Dessert and Dancing and Sunday Silent Garden.

Barbara’s skill in pulling off successful events could come from her background in writing and marketing. She wrote copy for major department store catalogs and a financial column for The Examiner when she worked for a tax attorney. Then again, she just seems to be one of those naturally good-natured types who love to bring people together. Happy is a word she uses a lot.

“I had a very happy childhood traveling with my family to many countries when my father was in the State Department,” she said. “I feel very happy to live in the Sunset. I swear there is serotonin in the water. Everyone smiles walking down the street.

Happy is the word

“Hearing laughter makes me so happy.”

Events like the Haunted House that require a lot of construction work are too much for her these days. Her husband died in 2017. But that’s not going to stop the parties. “Spreading joy and happiness while hosting gatherings in the Inner Sunset is in my blood,’’ she said. “I am continuing the tradition.”

There’s lots of demand for another Fix-it Fair,” she added. To find out more or to sign up as a volunteer go to www.BarbarasList.com.

Contact Jan at jrobbins-seniorbeat@sfcommunityliving.org

‘Preserving Memories’ Events Create a Chance to Share Stories

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Some activities are special, and the recent “Preserving Memories” Event at On Lok’s 30th Street was just such an event.  Nearly 20 seniors with memories to share were greeted by two teams of interested and engaged seniors from Lick-Wilmerding High School and given the opportunity to preserve their memories and share them with friends and loved ones.  The event was made possible by the generous donation of scanning equipment and day-long technical assistance from Fujitsu.  The San Francisco Tech Council, with support from the Community Living Campaign (CLC), helped organize and promote the event.   If you would like this Preserving Memories event to come to your senior or community center, contact Marie Jobling at (415) 821-1003 ex. 101 or email marie@sfcommunityliving.org. 

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