The Bay Area organizations listed below offer various academic and enrichment opportunities for students in middle school and high school.
826 Valencia
826 Valencia helps students, ages 8–18, with their writing skills. Its programs focus on creative writing, expository writing, and English as a second language. Classes are taught both in schools and at the organization's headquarters and are led by professional writers and editors, local college and graduate school students, and other staff and volunteers. Find detailed information by calling (415) 642-5905 or on the web at http://www.826valencia.org
A Better Chance
A Better Chance is a national non-profit talent search organization. Through the College Preparatory Schools Program, it recruits talented students of color to place in outstanding independent and public schools. A Better Chance advocates for placement and financial aid at the schools and offers various programs to continue assisting students with their intellectual, personal, and social development. Find out how to apply by calling Program Coordinator Prasant Nukalapati at (510) 763-0333 or on the web at http://www.abetterchance.org/Programs/Applicants/Applicants.html
Asian American Communities for Education (AACE) Educational Services Talent Search
Talent Search offers academic support, advising, assistance with college and financial aid applications, and tutoring students at Denman, Francisco, and Roosevelt middle schools and Balboa, George Washington, Jefferson, and Galileo high schools. Find detailed information by calling (415) 921-5537 or on the web at www.sfaacets.org
Asian American Communities for Education (AACE) Educational Services Upward Bound
Upward Bound provides a year-round college and career preparation program for high school students in San Francisco who come from low-income families and will be in the first generation of their family to go to college. Students are recruited to the program during their freshman and sophomore years and participate in it until graduation. Find detailed information by calling Zebunissa Bradley at (415) 202-7900 or on the web at http://www.jcyc.org/programs/aaceup.htm
Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area
Big Brothers Big Sisters helps build responsible, independent children and youth by matching them with a supportive and caring adult mentor. Find more information by calling (415) 503-4050 or on the web at http://www.bbbsba.org
Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco
Boys and Girls Club provides a broad range of programs to inspire young people to realize their full potential as productive, responsible, and caring citizens. It offers a wide variety of programs and activities, from technology and leadership skills to gang-prevention and intervention to fine arts and athletics. BGCSF also offers access to health services, daily homework assistance and tutoring, and specialized programs for young girls and teens. Find more information by calling (415) 445- 5437 or on the web at http://www.bgcsf.org/aboutus.html
First Graduate
First Graduate helps young people finish high school and become the first in their family to graduate from college. They provide academic support, mentoring, high school and college counseling, family engagement, and college support to students, who take part in the program for 10 years–from the summer after 6th grade through college graduation. Find more detailed information by calling (415) 561-3450 or on the web at http://www.firstgraduate.org
Girls for a Change
Girls For A Change recruits professional women to support urban middle and high school girls to become social change makers and innovators by empowering them to design, lead, fund, and implement social change projects that tackle problems they face in their neighborhoods around the Bay Area. Find more detailed information by calling (408) 540-6432 or on the web at http://www.girlsforachange.org/About.htm
Jamestown Community Center
Jamestown Community Center provides learning opportunities and safe space for young people in San Francisco's Mission District. Its programs focus on academic enrichment, academic tutoring, youth leadership and employment, sports and recreation, and teen guidance. Find detailed information by calling (415) 647-4709 or on the web at http://www.jamestownsf.org
Junior Achievement of the Bay Area
Junior Achievement partners with businesses and educators to give young people hands-on experiences that will help them understand the economics of life and open their minds to their potential. Find detailed information by calling (925) 465-1068 or on the web at www.jaba.org
Mayor's Youth Employment and Education Program (MYEEP)
MYEEP provides subsidized employment opportunities for low-income high school students. The goal of the program is to support the positive development of youth in San Francisco by engaging them in meaningful employment, career, leadership, and community involvement opportunities. Find detailed information by calling (415) 202-7903 or on the web at http://www.myeep.org/
Oasis for Girls
Oasis For Girls is a center for girls and young women ages 10 to 20. It offers interdisciplinary programming that focuses on arts, leadership development, and life skills and that centers on bringing mentorship into girls' lives. Learn more about the organization by calling (415) 701-7991 or on the web at http://www.sfoasis.org/
Omega Boys Club/Street Soldiers
The Omega Boys Club/Street Soldiers works to keep young people safe from violence and free from incarceration. Through its Leadership Academy, Training Institute, Violence Prevention Program, and nationally syndicated radio show, the Omega Boys Club provides youth with opportunities to build positive lives for themselves and move into contributing roles in society. Find detailed information by calling (800) 765-3437 or on the web at
http://www.street-soldiers.org/contents.htm
San Francisco Beacon Centers
Run by the San Francisco Beacon Initiative and housed in public schools in Bayview, Chinatown, the Excelsior, the Mission, the Richmond, the Sunset, Visitacion Valley, and the Western Addition, San Francisco Beacon Centers provide youth development opportunities before and after school, on weekends, and in summer. The Centers offer programs focused on education, career development, arts and recreation, leadership, and health. Find more information by calling (415) 554-8965 or on the web at http://www.sfbeacon.org/
Students Rising Above
Students Rising Above helps low-income Bay Area high school seniors rise above tremendous odds to get through college. Almost all of its students are the first in their families to go to college. Students Rising Above provides both college scholarships and an adult mentoring programming. Mentors work with students through college and beyond. Learn more about the organization by calling (415) 561-8633 or on the web at www.studentsrisingabove.org
Summerbridge San Francisco
Summerbridge is a free academic enrichment program for middle school students that operates during the school year and the summer. It aims to develop in students a passion for life-long learning and empower them to lead their schools and communities. Summerbridge uses a creative and interactive curriculum designed and implemented by innovative high school and college students. Find detailed information by calling (415) 447-3126 or on the web at http://www.sfuhs.org/summerbridge/
Summer Search
Summer Search provides year-round mentoring, life-changing summer experiences, college advising, and a lasting support network to low-income high school students. Find detailed information by calling (415) 362-5225 or on the web at www.summersearch.org
Youth Leadership Institute
The Youth Leadership Institute brings young people and adults together to create positive social change. It runs community-based programs that provide teens with leadership skills in the areas of prevention, philanthropy, and policy and civic engagement. Learn more by calling (415) 836-9160 or on the web at http://www.yli.org
Youth Making a Change (Y-MAC)
Y-MAC is a dynamic, multi-ethnic, youth-led organization that builds the leadership and power of high school age low-income young people and people of color in San Francisco. Youth Organizers recruit, educate, and mobilize Y-MAC members to wage policy campaigns that win concrete improvements for young people and build their capacity to create long-term social change. Through peer education, citywide cultural events, direct action, advocacy, and an intensive leadership development process, Y-MAC trains young people to become grassroots leaders. For more information, contact Y-MAC's parent organization, Coleman Advocates for Children & Youth, at (415) 239-0161 or on the web at http://www.colemanadvocates.org/ymac/index.html
