Engage San Francisco Partnerships

Through student learning, research and teaching consistent with University of San Francisco’s Mission and Vision 2028, this university-wide initiative supports African American neighbors living below San Francisco’s poverty level to achieve their full potential in education, health, career development, and housing.

In support of our goal to enhance student learning and faculty research in the Jesuit tradition with key connections to the University of San Francisco’s Mission and Vision 2028, USF faculty and students partner with community members and organizations to address community-identified needs via community engaged research and learning partnerships.

Some select examples from across campus include:

• Faculty members and students in community-engaged learning courses have partnered with the YMCA, Magic Zone and other out of school time programs to support after school programming.
• Master in Public Health students completed community needs assessments and provided original research on the challenges of housing and service provision in the Fillmore.
• Undergraduate students in the Martín-Baró (Professor David Holler) and Esther Madriz (Professor Stephanie Sears) Living-Learning Communities collaborated with community leaders to create the Changemakers publication.
• Law professor and nationally recognized mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) leader Professor Rhonda Magee provided a community based MBSR training for Western Addition service providers.
• School of Management faculty Professor Monika Hudson collaborated with community based organization Brothers for Change to publish a report on the Muni Substation at the corner of Fillmore and Turk.
• School of Politics faculty Professor James Taylor worked with New Community Leadership Foundation on their Jamestown Commemoration project.
• School of Management faculty Professor Roger Chen and his Executive MBA students collaborated with the Success Centers of San Francisco on strategic projects for their long-term planning.
• First year students in the Black Achievement, Success and Engagement Program and their professors Candice Harrison and Dominique Broussard worked with community based organizations Brothers for Change, Rosa Parks Senior Center, and Hamilton Recreation Center to gather community histories.
• Annually, School of Nursing and Health Professions faculty and students support annual health fairs and peace festivals in the Fillmore.
• Performing Arts and Social Justice faculty Professor Christine Young and Handful Player’s staff built a pipeline to support USF student internships.
• The African American Shakespeare Company worked with a School of Education graduate student Bria Temple to create study guides for teachers to use with children who attend their performances.

For more information contact Karin Cotterman at kmcotterman@usfca.edu.

As the city’s first university we are uniquely situated to address issues related to the poverty and inequality in the Western Addition, and we do this work in partnership with residents and service providers to address a lack of access to high quality, affordable housing, healthcare, and education. For more information, email engage@usfca.edu.

Community Events

Check out the Mo’MAGIC calendar for events in the Western Addition!

ESF Community Partner Award

To recognize community partners, in 2017, Engage San Francisco launched the Engage San Francisco Community Partnership Award. The inaugural award was given to the partners in Mo’MAGIC’s summer reading program which serves Western Addition youth by preventing summer learning loss. In Spring 2018 we awarded the community activists who have provided vision, leadership and knowledge that have informed the Changemakers Project. Their advisement, suggestions, connections and knowledge have been instrumental to this project.

2020 Awardees

SFUSD Literacy Partnership Co-Educators

• Remi Nakamoto, Literacy Coordinator, Rosa Parks Elementary
• Megan Stoltz, Literacy Coach, William Cobb Elementary

2019 Awardees

Health and Wellness Partners

• Westside Services: Dr. Mary Anne Jones and Kimiah Tucker 

2018 Awardees

Community Activists Who Partner with the Changemakers Project

• Ms. Altheda Carrie
• Ms. Brenda Harris
• Ms. Lynnette White

2017 Awardees

Partners with the MATR Summer Reading Program

• Booker T. Washington Community Service Center
• Magic Zone
• Prince Hall Learning Center

Partnership Request

We cannot promise that your request for student volunteers or a community engaged research or learning partnership will result in a match with a faculty member, course, student group, or student. However, emailing us your request allows us to more easily promote and share your request with members of the USF community in the hopes that a match between your request and faculty/student interests works out.

To submit a request, send an email to engage@usfca.edu.

There must be at least one USF-affiliated applicant and one applicant from an organization providing services in the Western Addition. Funds will support teams in completing a well-defined project that supports the achievement of a community-identified need, while deepening their partnership through an intentional and collaborative process.

Applications are currently on hiatus, but please stay tuned for more updates in the future. For questions, please send an email to engage@usfca.edu.

Goals and Outcomes

Goals

• Cultivate and deepen transformational partnerships.
• Work to achieve measurable community-identified outcomes in the Western Addition. 
• Participate in thoughtful, intentional and on-going critical engagement that moves from a conception of service as charity to a notion of service as social justice.
• Incorporate best practices in campus-community engagement.

Outcomes

• Teams will embrace an asset-based model of university and community partnership that is grounded in authentic relationships.
• Teams will support the provision of wraparound services for children and families in the Western Addition (e.g through capacity building, professional development, assessment, etc).
• Teams will elevate mutually enriching relationships through long-term commitments and resource sharing. 

As the city’s first university we are uniquely situated to address issues related to the poverty and inequality in the Western Addition, and we do this work in partnership with residents and service providers to address a lack of access to high quality, affordable housing, healthcare, and education. This initiative draws upon the history of community engagement at the University of San Francisco and recognizes the unique potential of working with residents to achieve community-identified goals.

Take a Community Walk

If you have a class or group that is interested in a community walk to learn more about Engage San Francisco and the Western Addition/ Fillmore, please send an email to engage@usfca.edu.

Gleeson Library Western Addition Resources

Thank you to USF reference librarian Carol Spector for creating the Western Addition resource page. If you have additions or corrections, please email Karin Cotterman, Director of Engage San Francisco at kmcotterman@usfca.edu.