En Route to Shift the Trajectory of Bayview Youth
National Career Development Month
City of Dreams believes in teaching the Bayview youth to be self-governing individuals with enough knowledge of the world’s potentialities to pursue anything they choose. In an area off to the side of one of the most famous cities in the world, Bayview’s youth deserve specialized attention to evade the effects of the systemized inequality in the district. Career development initiatives are imperative to our programming efforts. Self-autonomy is one of the most crucial components to ending the poverty cycle so, we want to ensure our kids are informed to the greatest extent of how they can succeed in society.
The following are Career-Development focused initiatives that took place in 2022.
DKI: Dream Keepers Initiative was designed to invest $120 million of San Francisco’s law enforcement budget into programs that support Black youth and families. Through DKI, we created the Black Justice Initiative, an action plan made possible by DKI to elevate the voices of young, Black individuals. BJI was a series of events that started in early 2022 and will carry out until 2023, meant to create intentional Black presence and narrative shifts among media, creative spaces, technology, economy, trade, businesses, and higher education. Our young adult program, Ground Zero, and individuals within this age in Bayview are the targeted audience. Financial literacy and interview preparation are two examples of workshop themes made possible thanks to DKI. Visit here to view DKI funded activities we have hosted.
100 Black Men of the Bay Area & MOL Program Partnership: One Hundred Black Men was founded in 1967 with the basis of improving the quality of life for Black and minority individuals. Its members have mentored over 125,000 youth across the nation in the program areas of education, health, economic empowerment, and leadership. Under the organization’s Mentor Opportunity League (MOL), our Ground Zero youth are participating in “Wisdom Wednesdays,” a series of workshops on Financial Literacy, business etiquette, virtual versus in-person interactions, social media consciousness, the application and interview process, and more. These Wisdom Wednesdays are held in collaboration with the 49ers personnel staff and General Manager John Lynch. Upcoming events for our youth will include themes of Networking, Community Service, and Academics.
100% College Prep Summer Tutoring: To ensure our youth remained academically stimulated during the summer months, 100% College Prep tutored our youth for a 6 week span. Four days out of the week, 100%’s tutors came to our site to not only read, but to also incorporate games and activities oriented towards improving literacy. Low or extremely behind literacy rates are common among the youth when they first join City of Dreams. Accordingly, on-site activities are implemented with academics emphasized. By making literacy fun, organizations like 100% College Prep engage our kids differently than a typical classroom structure would. We have seen real results among reading levels and math comprehension as a result.
College Tours with Ground Zero Girls: Recently, Ground Zero Girls began a college-touring journey! Some of these young women are approaching college application age and are less informed of their post-high school possibilities compared to neighboring district youth of the same age. Zenaida, Ground Zero Girls Facilitator, guided the girls around her former campus at the most recent college-tour of San Francisco State University. The girls spoke with the Athletics department, Educational Opportunity Department, and transportation department to navigate their curiosities and answer their questions. In another instance, two of our Ground Zero youth visited an HBCU fair, spoke to numerous representatives of different HBCUs, and left excited for the application process! In the future, we hope to bring all of Ground Zero on campus trips around the state. If you can assist in this goal, please email us at info@cityofdreams.org.
In the near future, Ground Zero Girls will participate in a career development workshop for resume building and cover letter writing. To tackle Bayview’s lapse in educational equality, these initiatives are proving to inform and inspire the kids to think outside of the district walls.
If you would like to support any of these initiatives, or propose a new one, please contact us at info@cityofdreams.org.