It's Back to School Season!

In this newsletter, you'll find...

• Open House & Happy Hour - Fri 9/15
• Summer Program highlights
• Back to School Fundraiser: New van needed!
• Meet our new Beach House Manager
• Volunteer opportunities

Community Open House 9/15

Join us on Friday, September 15 from 4:30 - 7:00pm at the School House (Building 33, Upper Fort Mason, SF) for a fun happy hour and appreciation of our staff, volunteers and the incredible Home Away community.

All are welcome to attend this community event! Come enjoy a beverage, meet our team, tour the School House and learn more about our special programs serving youth experiencing homelessness.  

This Summer, we ran a 5-week program for middle school students at the School House. The students connected with nature while exploring the outdoors, enjoyed field trips throughout the Bay Area, participated in community service, hosted a dinner party and even learned about hydroponic farming.

Our high schoolers also kept busy this Summer! They held internships with Environmental Traveling Company (ETC), volunteered at Sherman Elementary School and worked a variety of seasonal jobs with local businesses and organizations.

Huge thanks to those who helped support our graduates as they began preparing for their transitions to college! We are so grateful for your generous contributions towards supplies for school, dorm rooms and more for the college-bound participants in our College & Career Program.

To close out the Summer season, all of our School House students (including some alumni!) joined us for our annual river rafting trip on the American River with ETC. We also honored and celebrated our longtime Program Director, Diallo Grant, as he steps down from his role with Home Away. You will be missed, Diallo!

Home Away is growing…and we're searching for another van to transport all of the youth we serve! As we relaunch our Beach House Program and regularly begin driving groups of children out to our cottage in the Marin Headlands, we are in need of another vehicle.

Support our Back to School Fundraiser to help us raise $12,000 to purchase a new van today!

An additional vehicle will allow our programs to support more youth and provide access to the natural world, outdoor education and a supportive, nurturing community. Contribute today to help us kick off the school year with some new wheels!

We are thrilled to welcome our new Beach House Program Manager, Char Nelson, to our team! Char brings a wealth of prior experience working with youth and families in a variety of different settings to Home Away.

After an extraordinarily challenging few years due to the pandemic, we can't wait to resume programming at the Beach House this Fall. Char is working hard to clean, organize and prepare the cottage for youth groups to visit. Stay tuned for more Beach House news coming soon!

In addition to re-opening the Beach House, we are welcoming several new students into the School House program this semester. That means we've got lots of exciting volunteer opportunities on the horizon!

Some specific areas where we'll need support this year include:

• Beach House trip assistants
• School House chefs
• College prep & mentorship
• Tutoring support:
• Bilingual tutoring (Cantonese, Spanish)
• English literacy tutoring
• Tutoring support in the areas of Graphic Design, Computer Engineering, Painting, Content Creation & Social Media Marketing

Apply to volunteer today and contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Emily Bouton, at [email protected] for more info!