My Nonprofit Reviews

I am a longtime donor and volunteer at Sunset Youth Services (SYS). I have had the honor and privilege to witness firsthand the incredible impact this nonprofit makes in our community, especially among systems-involved families and at-risk youth and young adults in San Francisco and surrounding communities. The everyday work that SYS does oftentimes goes unseen but for the marginalized communities that SYS serves, receiving these services are key to their sheer survival in his harsh world –– even more so during this time of Covid. 

To say that the SYS staff wear many hats is a major understatement. SYS provides services that encompass so many of their clients' needs, that it's hard to put in a neat paragraph the breadth to which they are a lifeline to their clients. On any given day, you will find SYS staff accompanying a client at court, attending an IEP meeting, counseling a family whose child committed suicide, helping plan a funeral for a baby who tragically died,  giving an at-risk young adult just starting out a weekly food box, helping a foster youth produce his next hip hop album, helping an undocumented family get legal assistance, helping a single mom secure safe shelter away from domestic abuse, or educating parents whose children have been removed by CPS with strategies to how best to talk to their teen––just to name a few.
 
SYS also is often one of the primary advocates and activists fighting for justice reform. SYS was an instrumental community voice in helping close down the Juvenile Justice facility in San Francisco.  SYS also works closely with the school district to advocate for at-risk youth to have the tools they need to complete their high school diploma, and even offers a continuation high school on its premises.

As a regular volunteer delivering Food Bank boxes to families, I have seen firsthand the tragic toll that Covid-19 has taken on our already marginalized and stretched communities. Yet, I have also seen sheer beauty arise from ashes in these same clients who have been empowered by SYS with the tools to produce outstanding hard-hitting music and talk-show productions on Youtube.  I have also seen these same clients pay it forward each week by taking extra food boxes to other SYS clients who aren't able to be there personally for the food dropoff times. 

When the evening news reports yet another murder or shooting––SYS staff often know the people involved, and sadly, sometimes it is one of their clients. This proves how closely tight knit and entwined SYS staff are with the surrounding community it serves. The systematic injustice and racism as well as the ongoing trauma and PTSD is intense. However, SYS staff faithfully show up everyday and come alongside these families and young adults with the love and practical services that these precious souls need at their darkest hour. Without SYS, their clients would be left abandoned to fend for themselves in a cruel system that crushes systems-involved families over and over again.

As part of their prevention strategies, SYS also runs parenting classes to equip parents to break cycles of violence and disconnection. I have had the privilege to participate in their Triple P Parenting classes, where I have seen firsthand how the staff at SYS bring their authentic love and much needed down-to-earth wisdom to help systems-involved parents (some of whom are taking the class to fulfill court orders to regain custody of their children). In these classes, SYS staff help these parents to feel safe, loved, accepted and heard in a world that has often forgotten them or written them off as unworthy.

This is a small glimpse of the extensive ways SYS is quietly yet powerfully a vital lifeline to the clients they serve. The impact and legacy of their work will affect not only this generation but many generations to come, especially in the marginalized communities they serve. This is why I donate and volunteer for SYS and am committed to doing all I can to make sure they are here for our community for decades to come. 

I support and volunteer with Sunset Youth Services because of their focused and incredibly effective work mentoring and providing services to the most at risk and forgotten youth and young adults in our city. The leadership at SYS provides that safe and emotionally healthy "forever family" that many of the young men and women that walk through their doors will honestly not find at very many nonprofits in the city serving this population.

Among the variety of services SYS provides to its youth and young adults, the ones that stand out to me are the intensive parent trainings, the vocational job development services and the performance art opportunities that SYS has created for these youth to grow and thrive in a positive environment

However, one of the main reasons I support SYS is because of their extensive case management and crisis intervention services. The SYS staff actually spend most of their days journeying with their clients through the really hard stuff - going with them to court, grieving with them when a family member is killed, advocating for them at special education school meetings, helping them find emergency housing, visiting them at the hospital, holding their hands through a mental health crisis, and the list goes on and on and on.

SYS provides a crucial safety net for these young men and women through its holistic family-centered approach, and in doing so, they are putting a stop to the pervasive school to prison pipeline every single day. Thank you Sunset Youth Services for your incredible work with one of our city's most vulnerable populations.

The work the Pomeroy Center does with children, teens, and adults with disabilities is a huge gift to the San Francisco area. Janet Pomeroy's original vision to get these children out of their isolation and institutions and into the community was groundbreaking. Today, the Pomeroy Center continues this pioneering effort through wonderful unique programs such as the live chicken farm and onsite farmers market vocational program, an amazing occupational therapy program including several specially designed sensory facilities, comprehensive therapeutic swimming programs for those with injuries or disabilities, an adapted computer lab, partnerships with many many community organizations allowing clients to go kayaking at Lake Merced or learn how to fish on-site, and the list goes on and on.

My child attends 6 days a week (after school and Saturday respite) all year long and he loves it. When other city programs could not accommodate his needs, the children and teens program filled that crucial gap for us - allowing him to both be independent and learn new skills at his unique level and have so much fun doing it. The staff at the aquatics program have also been amazing to accommodate his needs so he can participate in group classes with typical kids.

Thank you PRRC for being there for us and other families when we didn't know where to go. Thank you for being here for the children teens and adults with disabilities in our community so they can TRULY thrive.

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