"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

Our Neighbors

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

Most FCS families live in the southeast sector of the city (Bayview-Hunter's Point, Visitacion Valley, OMI), and the Western Addition. Historically, these areas served as gateways 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.

These days, unemployment rates for FCS' service areas far exceed those of the city as a whole - 16.5% compared to 6.8%. Meanwhile, the median income in these communities is 27% below the citywide level. The vast majority of residents have high school level education and some work experience, but not the skills to allow them to move beyond entry-level jobs. In Bayview-Hunter's Point, nearly 22% of the people live in poverty.

Meanwhile, the area has more liquor stores than grocery outlets. Just 5% of the food stocked in local stores is fresh produce; the three most commonly sold commodities are alcohol, tobacco and junk food, a city report notes. Obviously, the lack of access to healthy food does little to alleviate diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, diabetes or cervical and breast cancers.

Our Neighborhood

Bayview-Hunter's Point is also home to almost all the city's polluting industries, including the main power and sewage treatment plants and the now-closed Hunters Point Naval Shipyard -- a Superfund cleanup site where the military once experimented with radiation that remains contaminated.

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.

Surprisingly, the area has during the last two decades attracted more families with kids than any other part of the city. By 2000, children made up 32% of its population but just 15% of the city's. The neighborhood had 4,300 more residents under age 18 than in 1980, a 58% increase. Its population increased by more than 13,000, or 62%.

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, they 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 $550,000 vs. the citywide median price of $800,000 in March -- 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 46% 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

"Where I am is, poverty kills, so I want to work on poverty." – Dr. Rajiv Bhatia, San Francisco Health Department

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: teen pregnancy prevention and empowerment program, a fatherhood support program, 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 and are unable to find it. State funding for subsidized child care is made available on the basis of 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, offers family child care providers culturally and linguistically specific mentorship, continuing our mission of ending poverty one family at a time.