2022: A Year of Success

Dear 3rd Street Family,

We hope this holiday season has been peaceful and that you are enjoying the final days of 2022 before a new year of promise and possibility launches.

When I recount this past year, I think about our youth and the organization's amazing accomplishments. I could not be prouder of how 3rd Street showed up to address our young people's health, housing, and community needs. I would like to take a moment to reflect on the past 12 months and the great things WE have helped make happen.

Our Health & Youth Development Department successfully held leadership, health, and workforce development programs to benefit and serve the Bayview Hunters Point community. Each participant of our youth programs leaves with skills that will benefit them for the rest of their lives. More than 60 youth participated in one of the programs below.

• Youth Outreach Squad offered youth ages 12-16 comprehensive mental and physical health outreach training.
• 3rd Street Leadership Academy (3LA) supported youth inclined to positively impact their communities to develop critical leadership skills.
• HealthCore guided participants through a 1-year fellowship that prepares young adults for a career in allied health.

100% of all youth development program participants reported they enjoyed learning at and felt safe in the Youth Center.

Our health and clinic departments have been busy expanding into new areas of service:

• 3rd StrEATS Food Pharmacy was recently relaunched and is open to the community every Thursday (excluding holidays). So far, we have fed 25+ families over four weeks.
• We hosted an STI Prevention workshop for young men with our community partner, Project Wreckless, this month.

Our behavioral health department provides free counseling and services to youth in BVHP who otherwise would go without the critical support they need.

• This fall, we hired three new clinicians to support our school, community and housing-based services through our partners at Community Health Programs for Youth (CHPY), DreamKeepers Initiative, and Rising Up. Our new clinicians have served 112 clients!
• At the halfway point of the school year, 272 clients have already worked with a counselor! (Last school year, our clinicians served 266 clients total for the entire year.)
• In December alone, 15 new referrals came into the clinic, illustrating mental health services' effectiveness, importance, and necessity.

Our housing team works with youth facing housing insecurity to overcome the economic, emotional, medical, legal, and social barriers that keep them from getting their own apartments or homes. This year, we:

• Hired our first Director of Housing.
• Placed 106 youths in affordable housing through our suite of housing programs such as Rising Up Rapid Rehousing (14 housed), Emergency Housing Voucher Program (15 housed), SFSU Rapid Rehousing (2 housed), HomePoint Rapid Rehousing (2 housed).
• Served 353 youth with housing applications, rental deposit assistance, housing vouchers, and more.

In 2022, the Lower Polk TAY (Transitional Age Youth) Navigation Center continued to be a critical intervention on youths' pathways from homelessness to being placed in permanent homes. The Nav Center is the first youth-serving navigation center in San Francisco.

Since its opening in February 2021, we have assisted 420 guests in the 3-story building, complete with dorm-style rooms, community and dining spaces, clinic space, a laundry area and an outdoor lounge. 

2022 has been a year filled with resilience, growth and service that we know will carry into 2023. All of this is possible thanks to YOU, our 3rd Street family. Our CollegeJump fundraiser will continue for the next few days, ending at midnight on the 31st. We are so grateful for your support, and hope we can reach our goal. Please help us support our youth in reaching their educational dreams by donating or spreading the word before 2022 comes to a close.

From all of us at 3rd Street, thank you so much for your contributions and continued support. We look forward to seeing you in the new year!

Be Well,

Joi Jackson-Morgan and the 3rd Street Team