When Cody Van Felden turned 18, she became homeless after her foster parents kicked her out of the house because […more…]

All parents want their babies to grow up happy, healthy, and well cared for. But with diapers costing a monthly […more…]

“We would love it if kids didn’t need to go through a legal process that removed them from their family’s […more…]

When Creativity Explored began in San Francisco’s Mission District in 1983, the nonprofit for artists with disabilities operated out of […more…]

Before the pandemic, Brad Adams, then the executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, would often drive his two […more…]

As Rachel Bryant, a Black-Latina alumna of the counseling psychology graduate program at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in […more…]

International poaching and smuggling crimes may seem distant to people who live in California, but the consequences of these illegal […more…]

When Alyssa was 15, she came under court protection due to physical abuse. In the foster system, she endured 17 […more…]

Most people are familiar with the phrase “Friendly Fire” – typically combat-related terminology that refers to the inadvertent shooting of […more…]

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1 in 5 children ages 3 to 17 has a […more…]

By the end of high school, Isaiah C. had already mapped out his future political career path. First, he’d get […more…]

At Aurora Theatre Company’s Alafi Auditorium, no audience member is more than 15 feet away from the stage. They all […more…]

Julie López played soccer for as long as she can remember. Growing up in a family of seven in Sylmar […more…]

Pedro Arista, senior director at San Francisco’s Hirsch Philanthropy Partners, has a saying: “Collaboration moves at the speed of trust.” Pedro Arista, Senior Director at Hirsch Philanthropy Partners. Arista, a philanthropic advisor at Hirsch, is a strong advocate for community-centered approaches to philanthropy that are influenced by Trust-Based Philanthropy and Participatory Grantmaking. In these frameworks, funders look to communities for insights, solutions, and decision-making power, treating them as trusted partners working together to achieve greater racial equity and systems change. Since 2017, in partnership with the Hellman Foundation team, Arista has led the Hellman Foundation’s Collaborative Change Initiative, which has [...more...]

Jamie Allison, an experienced leader in philanthropy, is on a mission to catalyze meaningful change in the eclectic San Francisco Bay Area.  Originally from Tennessee, Allison has cultivated deep roots in San Francisco for more than 20 years. Her daily enthusiasm for the city’s beauty and potential is palpable. Recently, while driving on Market Street with her godsons, Asher and Kyle, the view of downtown appeared before them. Allison bounced in her seat, grateful for and astonished by its splendor. “This is home for me. I 100% absolutely love San Francisco. I love waking up here every day and I [...more...]

Arlene Stanich-Prince, Executive Director of Ohlhoff Recovery Programs. Ohlhoff Recovery Programs Executive Director Arlene Stanich-Prince has witnessed the barriers her clients face in accessing treatment in the Bay Area again and again.But she also knows this from personal experience. Her husband, insured by a prominent managed care organization, had to wait four months to see a mental health professional several years ago, and then was allowed to see that person only five times. If he wanted to continue his sessions, he’d have to see another therapist and start the process all over again – so he decided to go outside [...more...]

Queen Adu-Poku, CEO of Royal Emotional Care. At the start of the 2023 school year, San Francisco public schools received $1.28 billion to spend on 48,000 students – that’s nearly $27,000 per child. But in the coming years, that number is expected to decline dramatically.  The city gives out funds based on school attendance, and numbers are expected to go down. That’s due to a number of factors, including people deciding to pull their kids from public schools and moving out of the Bay Area entirely. With the needs of students having only increased in the wake of the pandemic, [...more...]

It’s a cold, unfortunate fact that while growing into adulthood, a teenager’s success can be highly dependent on their financial situation. In 2022, as pandemic-related safety net measures came to a close, California saw its child poverty rate for children under 18 years old jump from 7.5% to nearly 17%, the state’s largest increase in 50 years. As these anti-poverty policies recede, teenagers and young adults across the state are caught in limbo during a pivotal moment in their lives.  While the grip of childhood poverty can sometimes be too strong to escape, the key to loosening that grip is [...more...]

Sara Lomelin is a true believer that anyone and everyone can be a philanthropist. In a rousing TED Talk, she invited 1.4 million rapt digital viewers to join her in creating a more democratic, inclusive future of philanthropy through the power of collective giving. Her efforts are gaining traction with new collective giving groups launching regularly and increased visibility for this giving model across various channels. She recently was awarded a coveted spot on the Forbes 50 Over 50: Impact List, for her leadership in the movement to diversify and democratize philanthropy. Lomelin is founding CEO of Philanthropy Together, a [...more...]

Dan’l Lewin, the current President and Chief Executive Officer of the Computer History Museum, is a veteran of the technology industry with a career spanning back to 1977. His professional journey – from Apple to Microsoft – has been marked by a commitment to explore the intersection of technology and civic issues. After college, Lewin considered becoming a lawyer to satisfy his interest in doing good for society but ultimately determined that the only career that would quench his curiosity, energy, and enthusiasm would be in the emerging and innovative technology industry. Lewin believed his ambition to enhance the human [...more...]

For some, the concept of sustainability, defined by the U.N. in 1987 as, “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” has been muddied as a mere environmentalist buzzword, which is a shame because it’s a noble and necessary pursuit. In the book Collapse, written by UCLA professor of geography Jared Diamond, the author tells in deep anthropological detail about the fall of several civilizations throughout world history. While reading, it could strike the reader how frequently societies thrived or languished based on the simple administrational choices they made regarding [...more...]