YouuuuthBUild!…read more Unfortunately due to funding, the Oakland Regional Office is no longer up and running. But YB programs are still running strong across the 50 states and even internationally folks are taking the mold and creating programs that are aimed to help out-of-school youth make themselves marketable to today's workforce and well themselves. Youthbuild is a national non-profit organization that is helping folks build a community from the inside out, working on internal needs, while getting extrenal trainning. Crazy how folks wouldn' trust a knucklehead with a hammer, and now they're buidling houses for people all over the dayum place. HAHA.

The first of its kind: community based services- getting people with disabilities out and about,…read moreenjoying their lives and not sitting in a warehouse stuffing envelopes. Often imitated but never quite matched they inspire and empower. The Bay Area's premier advocacy program!

It's all about the bottom line. This company cares not for it's consumers, not even a bit. As an…read moreemployee I felt great providing to the community, that is until myself and many others were chastised or berated for helping our folks to advocate for themselves. In a recent incident the program could not pay it's employees or it's working consumers (Including some who were supposed to receive a final paycheck after being terminated due to what I can only describe as poor budgeting skills.) The law in California is quite clear. An employer has three days to provide final paychecks after termination. These folks had to wait until the next pay period. Management claims that they are exempt from this law because the consumers are in a "training program". Sorry last I checked, if you receive a paycheck than you are in fact employed. Employees didn't find out about a delay in paychecks from their direct supervisors as they are supposed to, but rather an email sent company wide, well after management knew of the delay. When the employee's of a particular site got wind of this, many decided to file a claim with the labor board (Good on you guys!) On top of that they gave the consumers the information and option to do so as well. They were then berated for it and told that there are procedures in place for such things. (Guess what, there aren't any such procedures in the employee handbook.) The reason that was given for the loophole to not pay the terminated consumers within three days is being maintained as "They are not considered employees" What a load these people are trying to shovel out! As a company supposedly dedicated to training, advocating for and development for their consumers, they sure don't seem to have any of those interests in mind. Their minds are squarely in the wallet.

Sunday, 12:30PM…read more Because this program is operated under the Lutheran Church, it's repeated again under their review. The Church's pastor (Reverend Isakson) runs this program for homeless youth. It's a temporary shelter that provides support and food for the kids that need to recuperate. My friends and I came by to distribute V-day cards and various goodies. We didn't actually meet any of the kids but were happy that program was under the leadership of such a genuine and caring pastor. And then...? My friends and I support YEAH's! leadership in alleviating homeless youth in the area. Their volunteers are passionate and altruistic (without the proselytlzing nonsense) making it easy to join their cause. We're going on Sundays for soup kitchen work but according to Reverend Isakson, one can volunteer on any day of the week. Count your blessings and share some love!

These guys and gals provide an invaluable service to youth who are trying to get their feet on the…read moreground and gain traction.

I used to work for this incredible organization. They provide assistance to children and adults…read morewho have suffered burn injuries. They have very rewarding volunteer opportunities.

My initial reaction to this group was nothing sort of amazing. They provided me with essential…read moreitems I needed when I was living in near third world poverty. They have a plethora of items and services they offer and were for the most part friendly. Things started going sour once I asked for assistance with housing. The cost of living in San Francisco is astronomically expensive that is no secret and allegedly there are outreach groups that can lighten the burden at least temporarily in The City albeit I have yet to find one. Fact of the matter is if you're not in very specific social circles housing assistance is firmly off limits for San Francisco citizens I have come to find out. After being told politely there was nothing that can be done about placement in long term sustainable housing the conversation for me ended. Towards the end of last year I did attempt to get back in contact with the general inquiry form via the website asking for a voucher for a haircut (which they offer). This was after attempting to catch one of the satellite sites they allegedly have set up around the city on various days and no one being at the location during the timeframe they specified. No worries come to the actual brick and mortar location and we can get you a voucher right away. Once there I did receive the voucher but I also asked for a sleeping bag (again another item they allegedly offer) since the place I was staying at the time was so cold I swore I saw a few penguins running around one night. The woman literally laughed in my face and said I couldn't have one. Huge red flag that I ignored but I politely thanked her and left. The voucher itself is only valid at certain locations for the hair cut so I went to the salon and tried to introduce myself to the woman there. The woman proceeded to pointedly ignore me and project a very dismissive attitude towards me. Nothing was said I simply walked out and have not returned since. Overall this place is now NOT a great place to go if you're of African decent. Period point blank if you want something good done do it yourself. "Free does not mean good" and it really rings true for here. I am not sure if its the moral high ground of knowing that the people you're assisting are obviously at a much lower point then you are which in turn makes the workers feel as if they're above you. However save yourself the shame and disappointment and simply avoid. Its not worth it if you're already in a shaky place in your life to have this weighing on your conscience. As you can see from my other reviews I have not had the most pleasant experiences lately in The Bay Area...However! I write these reviews based on my experience so that others will benefit from the experiences that I have. But always do your own research!

Very organized!! I wish everyone knew how easy it is to volunteer a few hours of your time. This…read morewas my 4 time. They give you different jobs every time and it's so easy to just help. The Homeless need help on other days besides Christmas and Thanksgiving. When you see the children and adorable dogs.... you will not only feel humbled and grateful you will feel good about helping. It's so easy and it goes by fast. I'll be back for as long as I live in SF.

For days I contemplated on what the subject matter would be for my 500th Yelp review. I narrowed…read morethe choices down to two then decided to use neither because this one simply fell into place. During the holidays many people take time out of their busy schedules to volunteer to help those less fortunate than themselves. I was taught this lesson many years ago and have taken it a step further by volunteering my services to different organizations year round. I'm often asked how I'm able to volunteer as often as I do, and simply put, I think I'm able to do this because I work it into my schedule much like someone would incorporate an activity of leisure or hobby into theirs. On Thanksgiving morning 2008, I signed up to help prepare a turkey feast for those in need. The name of the organization for which I was volunteering for is Fill Up America. Fill Up America is a 501.c.3 non-profit organization based in San Francisco and completely volunteer-run. In addition to providing free holiday meals during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays the main mission of Fill Up America is to obtain surplus food from local growers and markets to bag and redistribute to those in need. Every Friday morning volunteers gather at the OneTaste Urban Retreat Center on Folsom Street to help unload surplus food from pallets and then help to sort and bag the donated food. From literature I gathered at the site I learned that much of the surplus food comes from the San Francisco Food Bank, the San Francisco Produce Market and Trader Joe's and is redistributed to families and individuals in the SOMA and Mission neighborhoods. Going in I knew nothing of the organization, and I simply expected to help out in a kitchen or help to serve food. It turned out to be so much more than that. Being Thanksgiving morning they had a large force of volunteers on site to help out. After a quick overview by one of the volunteer coordinators we got to choose which immediate task we wanted to take part in. I chose to be part of the street team which headed out to specific target areas to stop and talk to the homeless and those who looked like they needed a meal and to inform them that we had a free hot Thanksgiving meal for them if they wished to attend. Broken up into two person teams and armed with a handful of informational flyers I wasn't sure what kind of reception we would encounter, but it turned out to be a very positive, worthwhile experience as we were greeted with smiles and gratitude from most of the people hanging out on street corners or just sitting on the sidewalks. Before I knew it we had run out of flyers. Things were looking good at the meal site when we returned. With volunteers cooking at yet another site a half block away and the space being all cleaned up and swept the number of available tasks was pretty bare. As soon as one of the coordinators suggested help was needed cleaning up in the kitchen I jumped at the opportunity to get my hands dirty. As it turned out I was to get my hands quite clean by scrubbing and washing all the serving pans, pots and utensils. I had plenty of helpers to help me wipe and put things in order and amazingly enough we were ready to go about 45 minutes before the scheduled serving time. Although the shift that I had signed up for ended I decided to stay longer to help serve the food. There were plenty of volunteers there, but I wasn't about to do all that prep work just to walk away when the guests began to show up. I wanted to see how it all went down. Since one of the organizers had already asked me to prepare the sterno canisters, (I love playing with fire.) I simply grabbed an apron and a pair of gloves and jumped into the server line. I got to ladle gravy onto everyone's turkey, potatoes and stuffing and just seeing all the happy faces and hearing all the gratitude made the entire morning so very worthwhile. Fill Up America doesn't have a permanent address. If you're interested in volunteering simply call the number posted and ask for David.

Coro trains future leaders. They train 'em how to operate in a competent, ethical, transformative…read morefashion. They do a really good job at it - creating sets of business, government, labor and community leaders who are all over the place. This is Coro San Francisco - but there are five Coros all over the country. If you know a smart person who's interested in using their life to Make A Difference, Coro might be a place to point them.

CORO is the only organization that has been supporting the efforts in Myanmar even before the…read morecyclone disaster. Great organization and the staff was very accomodating.

SFEMS is a wonderful organization which was founded in 1976, almost fifty years ago. Since then,…read morethey've implemented a pay-what-you-can model, making early music education and entertainment accessible to all members of the community. We had the pleasure of attending the Musicians from Valley of the Moon Music Festival at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley this past weekend. We enjoyed the spirited performance by talented artists (including co-founders and directors of Valley of the Moon) on the fortepiano and gut strings of the violin and cello, allowing listeners to experience the music of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethovan in a captivating way. The sound was amazing in the church, every piece of music played that day mesmerizing. Beethoven's Seven Variations on "Bei Männern, welche Liebe Fühlen" based on Mozart's The Magic Flute, WoO (1801) was notably engaging and a great way to start the second half of the program. I appreciated my time here. SFEMS puts on some really great workshops and events for fans of early music. I especially look forward to the Berkeley Festival & Exhibition in June.