North Beach Citizens Cancels April 18th Spring Dinner: Launches Online Fund-A-Need Campaign

Friends,

The health and well-being of our community is our top priority.  The Board of Directors of North Beach Citizens has made the decision to cancel the annual Spring Dinner Event on Saturday, April 18th due to COVID-19. 

We have launched an Online Fundraising Campaign in lieu of this event.

Our Spring Event only comes once a year, and it alone raises 40% of our annual budget.  Your financial support during this critical time is vital to continuing our daily services and program.  

Please give generously: 

Click to Give to Our Fund-A-Need Campaign.  Directly help the most vulnerable people in our community stay healthy, find housing, and rebuild their lives. 

Thank you for your generous consideration during these very difficult times.  We are maintaining our essential daily services and program uninterrupted as recommended by the San Francisco Department of Public Health.  

 Above all, North Beach Citizens remains committed to our mission of helping San Francisco's most vulnerable citizens, its homeless and low-income residents, especially now when they need us most.

 With gratitude,

Kristie

Kristie Fairchild, Executive Director

North Beach Citizens

A Sneak Peek at Our Menu for This Year's Annual Dinner Fundraiser

From food and drinks to live music, this year's Sabato di Festa -- A Saturday Night Dinner for North Beach Citizens on April 18th is shaping up to be an amazing time. Dinner is courtesy of Jackrabbit Catering, which we had the pleasure of pre-tasting at their offices a few weeks ago. Check out the delicious menu for what to expect at the event. Tickets and sponsorships are going fast, buy yours here: http://www.northbeachcitizens.org/events

Happy Holidays From Our Family to Yours

Hundreds of clients and friends joined together last week at North Beach Citizens for our annual Client Holiday Party.

 A holiday meal was served in the morning for our resource center clients, and a second holiday meal was served in the afternoon for our Street Beautification Team.

For many of the people we serve, the holidays can be a stressful and lonely time. Our staff and volunteers can sometimes become like a second family and offer the human connections that make genuine change possible. That’s why it’s especially important to gather and provide companionship, share a meal together, and enjoy a few special extra gifts from the holiday elves -- in a supportive and friendly environment.

Many clients brought their dogs who also enjoyed a few splurge foods and attention.

Guests enjoyed holiday tunes, and traditional foods like ham, gravy, crispy green bean casserole, and mashed sweet potatoes. A selection of desserts included pumpkin and pecan pies, pudding cups, and an abundance of chocolate goodies.  

 It was wonderful to gather together for such a warm and relaxed celebration.

By Julie Doherty, North Beach Citizens’ Development Director

Nob Hill Gazette Interviews Francis Ford Coppola about North Beach Citizens

In the November issue of the Nob Hill Gazette, Francis Ford Coppola is interviewed about his efforts to end homelessness in San Franscisco. He discusses how he founded North Beach Citizens nearly 20 years ago after seeing isolated homeless people pandhandling on his daily walks to his office. 

Courtesy of the Nob Hill Gazette

Coppola remembers that people saw the homeless individuals who he saw on his daily walks as a collective nusiance or ignored them altogether.

Per the article:

“They were human beings,” Coppola recalls. “They were people who had, for whatever reason, fallen on hard times or couldn’t cope with certain situations or evictions or traumas or tragedies. … I was very offended by the notion that human beings could be put on a level of garbage. That’s not possible. Every human being is a vital, complicated, interesting story. It’s never something that can just be passed over or pushed out of your sight literally.””

— Francis Ford Coppola in Nob Hill Gazette article

Read the entire story on the Nob Hill Gazette website.

Diane's Success Story After Living for 30 Years on the Streets

At a recent community forum on homelessness, one of our clients, Diane, shared her story about how North Beach Citizens helped her turn her life around after living for 30 years on the streets near The Embarcadro. We started working with Diane in 2014 and she is now in permanent housing. Diane’s determination and hard work to change her life is truly admirable! Her story is also a testament to North Beach Citizens’ proven model for helping San Francisco’s chronically homeless indivduals find and stay in housing and rebuild their lives.

To view the video below of Diane telling her story, click on the image below.

Join North Beach Citizens at Homelessness Community Forum; Sept. 18th at 6 p.m.

Join us for a conversation with a panel of experts who will speak on the crisis facing San Francisco. We will discuss why homelenssness is prevalent, and current initiatives addressing the issue. 

Moderated by Nick Ferris, Founder of Citizens Collective.

Sign up as space is limited: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/community-forum-on-homelessness-tickets-71736161791

North Beach Citizens Expands Street Beautification Team to Clean Streets

Originally published in The Semaphore

Over the last nine months, you may have noticed more people in the neighborhood with yellow vests sweeping and collecting garbage off the streets. This group of busy workers is from North Beach Citizens’ recently expanded Street Beautification Program.

Members of the afternoon shift from North Beach Citizens' Street Beautification Team.

North Beach Citizens (NBC), a local non-profit that helps homeless and low-income individuals, has swept North Beach’s streets two days a week for the past 15 years. This is part of the organization’s Street Beautification Program, which helps its clients give back to the neighborhood while learning valuable work skills.

In October 2018, the non-profit expanded its Street Beautification Team to five days a week and increased its street cleaning team from 7 to 20 people a day. As a result, the organization is on track to quadruple its garbage collection capabilities from 2,819 bags collected in 2018 to more than 13,000 bags in 2019, with 6,761 bags of garbage collected at the end of June.

NBC was founded in 2001 by filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. Together with a group of residents and merchants, the non-profit utilizes the talents and support of the local community to help San Francisco’s homeless and low-income citizens find and stay in housing and get the support they need to rebuild their lives.

The Street Beautification Team gives NBC’s clients a way to give back to the neighborhood in a meaningful way while learning needed skills. The team members receive a small stipend at the end of their hour and a half shift.

One of NBC’s clients, Javier, was homeless for many years and living on Broadway Street after losing his janitorial job. NBC was able to help Javier find permanent housing and reconnect him with his mother before she passed away. Javier is an active member of the Street Beautification Team, works and supervises many of the other team members, and appreciates the structure and stability the program gives him.

Robert, another member of the team, believes that the program is a good way for him to develop a consistent daily routine, learn how to work for an employer, and show up on time. He relies on the program to buy food for himself and his dog to eat at home in his single room occupancy studio in the Tenderloin.

As part of its Street Beautification Program, NBC also led efforts to add five Bigbelly waste and recycling stations into the neighborhood earlier this year. The Bigbelly stations keep waste and recycling contained, eliminating visible waste, windblown litter, overflows, and critter access. North Beach Citizens partnered with the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, Mayor Breed, Supervisor Peskin, North Beach Neighbors, North Beach Telegraph Hill Dwellers, North Beach Business Association, and the Department of Public Works.

Bigbelly launch event on February 22, 2019 in Washington Square Park with Supervisor Peskin, NBC Executive Director, Kristie Fairchild, and community partners

NBC also partnered with the Surfrider Foundation and the Each Foundation to install and maintain 29 cigarette receptacles. Since August 2017, North Beach Citizens has collected over 120,00 cigarette butts that would have otherwise ended up on the streets.

To learn more about North Beach Citizens and donate, go to www.northbeachcitizens.org or call its Executive Direct, Kristie Fairchild, at 415-772-0918.

By Sharna Brockett — North Beach Citizens Board Member and North Beach Resident