"There is no question that early child development affects return on investment in every conceivable way." – SF Mayor Gavin Newsom, source: Early Childhood Focus

Our City

San Franciscans live in one of the world's greatest cities. It is a banking and financial center, home to a Federal Reserve Bank, the U.S Mint, and more 60 foreign bank regional offices. It possesses almost 30% of the worldwide biotechnology labor force and 360 biotech firms. Tourism is one of its largest industries, providing some 80,000 jobs and visitor spending worth $8.5 billion in 2008 alone. Besides abundant cultural and geographical resources, the "greater" Bay Area is one of the country's wealthiest regions. It has 12 of the Top 50 most expensive zip codes. In 2005, it boasted nearly 180,000 millionaire households, 10% of which possessed $5 million or more in assets. In 2007, median household income was $65,519. In 2008, the percentage of households with incomes exceeding $100,000 was double the national percentage, 31% versus 16%.

Our Neighbors

Some of us, however, do not enjoy such abundance.

All FCS programs serve impoverished and underrepresented groups which are largely ethnic minority. Program participants are 54% African American, 21% Hispanic/Latino and 16% Asian-American and live primarily in the Southeast Sector of San Francisco, including Bayview Hunters Point. Currently this neighborhood does not have enough subsidized childcare slots to accommodate the childcare needs of the area. Several Needs Assessments (DCYF 2008, and an earlier study by the Childcare Planning and Advisory Council) indicate a city-wide need for additional child care centers. A separate study indicated that licensed child care is available for 43 percent of San Francisco’s children with working parents but only an estimated 5 percent of licensed center slots are open for children under two (2007 California Child Care Portfolio published by the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network).

Historically, Bayview Hunters Point served as a gateway of opportunity for African Americans who migrated from the South in search of employment in once bustling shipyards. In 1974, the yards shuttered, eliminating thousands of jobs that have not returned.

Our Neighborhood

Traditionally, the Bayview Hunters Point Neighborhood has a majority of African-American families living there, and according to the 2008 DCYF Needs Assessment, African American families city-wide have seen an increase in the number of very low income households from 50% of total households in San Francisco in 1990 to 66% in 2005. According to the draft 2008 Community Needs Assessment published by San Francisco’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), the Bayview Hunters Point Neighborhood has the third highest number of children in San Francisco living there. The 2000 Census indicates that this neighborhood has, during the last two decades, attracted more families with children than any other part of the city. The Census also indicates that the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood had 4,300 more residents under age 18 than in 1980, a 58% increase. Bayview’s total population increased by more than 13,000 between 1980 and 2000, or 62% but child care availability did not keep pace with this increase in families with children who moved to this area of the city.

At the same time, the heavily industrialized neighborhood is the site of cement production, diesel bus storage and 80% of the city's sewage treatment. Studies show residents of the area face elevated rates of cervical and breast cancer. Substandard housing also leads to poor indoor air quality, ultimately contributing to the high levels of respiratory illnesses. The area has higher rates of asthma than any other city ZIP code; one-sixth of the children have asthma.

Our Children

Bayview-Hunter's Point also has one of the highest infant mortality rates of any ZIP code in California, comparable to Bulgaria and Jamaica. The area accounts for 15% of infant deaths but is only 4% of the city's population. Yet babies in the area are twice as likely to die in their first year as those in the rest of the state and 2.5 times higher than in the rest of the city.

Subsidized child care services in this area will enable individuals in the neighborhood who have been unable to find affordable child care to have a safe environment for their children while they pursue education, training, or new employment.

Our Youth

Although Oakland is commonly considered more violent than jewel-box San Francisco, the homicide rate in the African-American community is close to double that Oakland. In 2005, African-Americans made up 63% of the homicide victims but comprised less than 10% of the population. Further, Bayview-Hunters Point has disproportionately high rates of violence compared with other neighborhoods in the city.

Meanwhile, San Francisco's African American men aged 15-24 are three times more likely to die from gunshots than Latino men in the same age group and seven times more likely to die from gunshots than Caucasian or Asian men of that age. In fact, they have a life expectancy 30 years less than the rest of the city's population

Our Families

According to Housing and Urban Development guidelines, an overwhelming 97% of our target population rents rather than owns their home. Almost 87% are San Francisco natives and have established themselves as long-term community members. The predominant religion is Christian Baptist, with a minority of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Despite being the last affordable neighborhood in the city, three- or four-bedroom homes sell for $428,000 vs. the citywide median price of $650,000. As a result, older, retired African American residents are cashing out and moving to the East Bay and beyond. Of those families who fled during the 1990s, 64% were people of color, and 36% were Caucasian.

Between 1990 and 2000, the number of African American families with children dropped 45%. Sixty-two percent of families that left were low- or middle-income. According to the 2000 Census, blacks are no longer a majority in the Bayview-Hunters Point ZIP code, 94124. In place of those who left, many Asian/Pacific Islanders and Hispanics moved in.

Our Mission

Empowering families to become self-sufficient; strengthening children’s foundations for learning.

For communities in crisis, piecemeal solutions are not enough. That is why FCS provides a menu of programs designed to give families all the help they need, not just some of it. In the last two decades, we have expanded and altered services to meet the needs of a changing community.

In 1984, the Infant and Child Development program expanded childcare services to families who could not afford care in the Bayview and Visitacion Valley neighborhoods through a network of licensed family childcare homes. In 1998, FCS began several new programs: a teen pregnancy prevention and empowerment program, a fatherhood support program, a job training and placement program for young mothers, and a quality training program for licensed family childcare. In early 2002, FCS again expanded childcare services this time to a center in Hayes Valley and in the same year closed the residential program.

Our Foundation

A draft city report notes licensed child care is available for only 42% of children with parents in the (city's) labor force. Only 5% of spaces in child care centers - just 873 - are available to meet the needs of nearly 20,000 infants and toddlers. The cost of child care is prohibitive for most families - the average cost of infant care in a child care center is over $1,000 per month, nearly the full (monthly) salary of one minimum wage worker.

Approximately 4,300 children are currently in eligibility wait-lists for subsidized child care in San Francisco, and 80% of subsidy-eligible families seeking infant/toddler care are unable to find it. State funding for subsidized child care is made available on the basis of a standardized reimbursement rate which falls significantly short of meeting the full cost of providing care in San Francisco.

That is why we offer our youngest beneficiaries high quality nationally accredited child care and development services through our centers and family child care home network, offers youth an empowerment program that moves them toward graduation, offers both mothers and fathers support services and job training with placement through several employer partners, and offers family child care providers culturally and linguistically specific mentorship, continuing our mission of Empowering families to become self-sufficient; strengthening children’s foundations for learning..