Youth Development
Hunters Point Family supports youth development through enrichment programs and educational support to ensure residential youth have equal access to quality education. Hunters Point Family program participants is based on Kujichagulia, the Kwanzaa principle of self-determination.
Kujichagulia Educational Youth Services (KEYS) builds on this principle and works to improve the educational achievement of our youth by building their positive attachment to school, ensuring appropriate school placements, decreasing truancy rates, strengthening study skills and preparing youth to succeed on educational testing requirements. Our enrichment programs offer education through the arts, and create a safe haven for creative expression.
Peacekeepers is a crisis prevention, intervention and response program that provides services to youth ages 10-22 and their families living in Bayview Hunters Point.
Peacekeepers
Transforming conflict and violence
In 2002, one of the most violent years in Hunters Point history, community activists and conflict interrupters Terrell Rodgers and Demitrius Williams came up with the concept for Peacekeepers. Both Rodgers and Williams intervened often in youth conflicts that could have otherwise developed into gang-style turf wars. Together they formed Peacekeepers to train confident and capable youth activists willing to help de-escalate potential violence in their community.
95% of youth report developing stronger critical thinking skills as a result of HPF programming.
The San Francisco Housing Authority, the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, and the Neighborhood Safety Partnership supported Peacekeepers as a viable entity operating out of the Alice Griffith (formerly Double Rock) housing development. In 2003, Peacekeepers became part of the Hunters Point Family.
Education & Technology
- Educational advocacy and guidance
- Computer instruction
- Computer lab
Health & Nutrition
- Nutrition cooking class
- Life-skills workshops
- Urban farming
Life & Career
- Individualized care management
- Employment development
- Gender-specific support
- Individual and family counseling
Art & Fitness
- Art workshops
- Enrichment classes
- Recreational outings
- Annual camping trip
Family support network
The ultimate goal of the Hunters Point Family agency is to stabilize our youth within their home environment. HPF understands that in many cases a youth’s entire family needs support before he or she can meet personal goals. As a part of the HPF extended family philosophy, the agency works collaboratively with other community-based organizations to provide support and resource referrals to all family members.
Youth in HPF programs report a 50% higher rate of sense of belonging than similarly evaluated youth nationwide.
The HPF Family Support Network offers:
- Case management (individual and family)
- Family mediation and referrals
- Advocacy within the Department of Human Services
- Advocacy within the school district
- Advocacy within the juvenile and adult justice systems
- Food security support through the HPF Healthy Lifestyles program
- Computer access for employment search
- Crisis and grief support
GIRLS 2000
The seminal program of Hunters Point Family
GIRLS 2000 is a bustling safe haven where girls give and receive support as they overcome the complex challenges they face in becoming self-fulfilled individuals, future leaders and role models in their community.Through project-based learning and opportunities to exercise leadership, girls gain the knowledge, skills and self-confidence required to participate fully in their own empowerment process. GIRLS 2000 develops and leads activities based on the HPF philosophy that our youth can transform their current reality if they are given opportunities to gain awareness of their capabilities, develop the courage and ability to make life-affirming decisions, and have access to necessary resources and support.
95% of girls report having positive female identity due to gender-specific services through HPF
A key component of the program’s success is its gender-specific programming, targeting the healthy development and empowerment of girls and young women. GIRLS 2000 promotes a strong mentoring relationship between the staff and the girls to model a culturally authentic, cooperative, intergenerational connection that enhances their positive Black female identity. Read more
Education & Technology
- Educational advocacy and guidance
- Computer instruction
- Computer lab
- Academic tutoring and homework assistance
Life & Career
- Individualized care management
- Employment development
- Career mentoring
- Gender-specific support
- Individual and family counseling
Health & Nutrition
- Nutrition cooking class
- Life-skills workshops
- Urban farming and holistic health education
Arts & Fitness
- Art and dance classes
- Outdoor sports
- Entrichment classes
- Annual camping trip