Shaun Osburn dressed as a banana

The inaugural entry of this blog was posted by one Doug Huggala on October 7, 2007. Commemorating St. Anthony’s 57th anniversary, the post is a meditation on why we do the work we do.

We’re now in the midst of celebrating our 60th year of service. For the last three years, the blog has served as a forum for further explorations of what inspires and motivates our work in the Tenderloin, for spreading the word about news and events within the Foundation, for showcasing the contributions of our indispensable volunteers, for discussing the issues and policies that affect the lives of our guests, and for bringing the far-flung and highly eclectic St. Anthony’s community together online. Since its inception, this blog has been administered with care by the mysterious Mr. Huggala, whose real name is Shaun Osburn and whose last day as Senior Communications Associate after four and a half years of hard work is this Tuesday.

Shaun has been key to growing St. Anthony’s online presence, and evidence of his professionalism, commitment to worthy causes, and serious Photoshop chops can be found throughout this website and blog. We will certainly miss having Shaun as our webmaster, but not as much as we’ll miss having him as a co-worker, team member, and friend. Thank you, Shaun, and best of luck!

Last month we announced that Dr. Ana Valdes, Medical Director of St. Anthony’s Clinic, was a finalist for a Healthcare Hero Award. It’s high time to announce that she won.

The San Francisco Business Times launched the new awards to honor professionals who go above and beyond to make the Bay Area healthier by delivering quality care, advocating for patients, innovating new technology or educating the community about health issues.

Dr. Ana was recognized for increasing healthcare access to the underserved. Interestingly enough, one of her achievements that most interested her healthcare peers was synchronizing St. Anthony’s electronic medical records with the coding system at San Francisco General Hospital. This made St. Anthony’s the city’s first low-income clinic to do so. It sounds technical, but coordinating with SF General means that all the doctors who serve a low-income patient have the same information. A more complete history means better care and more possibility for progress.

The magazine also cited the brand new breast health program Dr. Ana has started in the Clinic, based on an outreach model she created for diabetes patients and later for asthma patients. All three programs help patients who have a hard time keeping up with their healthcare come into the Clinic, check on progress, and make a plan for managing disease. (more…)

Dr. Ana Valdez is a finalist for a Healthcare Heroes Award. Sponsored by the San Francisco Business Times, the new awards honor professionals who go above and beyond to make the Bay Area healthier by delivering quality care, advocating for patients, innovating with new technology or educating the community about health issues. Recipients will be announced at the awards ceremony on July 27.

Dr. Ana does all of the above. She has made St. Anthony’s Medical Clinic into a medical home for those who need it most: the uninsured and underinsured, the working poor, new immigrants, and low-income families with children.

Her experience practicing Family Medicine in the American Southwest, Mexico, and Guatemala prepared her for St. Anthony’s. She knows how to provide high-quality care with limited resources . Her approach makes rigorous use of counseling, health education, and peer support. St. Anthony patients participate in their own care.

Dr. Ana has taken a “go get ‘em” approach to inviting diabetic patients who have trouble keeping current with their care to come in for a visit with a doctor. The Clinic organizes 4 Diabetes Days a year. They telephone all of our Diabetic patients who haven’t been in for a while to come in for a check-up, treatment, and counseling. On the same day, they invite the neighborhood to come in for screening and Q & A about Diabetes.

It started as an experiment and it worked so well that the Clinic started a series of Asthma Days to do the same thing with asthma patients: 4 Asthma Days a year, calls to the asthma patients they haven’t seen in a while, and an invitation to neighbors who might become new patients. Soon, thanks to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, they’ll replicate the whole model for women’s breast health to prevent and identify breast cancer and other diseases early on.

Whatever happens on July 27, Dr. Ana is a healthcare hero to her colleagues, and to 3400 people who make the Clinic their medical home. We’re grateful to the San Francisco Business times for honoring Dr. Ana.

Check out the SF Business Times for a profile of Dr. Ana and the other finalists.

On my first day as an intern, I was told that there is not such thing as an ordinary day at St. Anthony’s, and boy were they right! Whether I find myself in our Tech Lab, Medical Clinic, Clothing Program or Dining Room, the implications of this statement ring true throughout all of our facilities and programs. But no one at St. Anthony’s encounters a greater diversity of people and experiences than our Client Safety Services (CSS) Staff.

Last week I spent a day shadowing Ken, who is one of our CSS staffers who has worked at St. Anthony’s for about 3 years. From an outsider’s perspective, his job may look as simple as overseeing the order of the dining room. But spending just one day behind the scenes provided me with a whole new insight into the world of CSS, one that only scratches the surface of what their job truly entails.

It is without a doubt that the best part of CSS is not the cool walkie-talkies that they get to use, or the navy blue t-shirts that (only) they get to wear: instead it is the people who make it what it is. Ken is just one of the 16 incredible people who work as CSS, and like each of them, he has his own story of how he got to work there. (more…)

The following are the reflections of Robin Polastri, shared as she stepped down from the Board of St. Anthony Foundation.

In the Footsteps of St. Francis

Fear and doubt are strange emotions. They can stop us in our tracks from taking an unfamiliar step; from heeding our heart’s desire; from venturing forth with courage and confidence; from falling with abandon into the reliable arms of the One who created All.

St. Francis, upon his conversion, must have experienced some pricklings of both fear and doubt as he turned away from the privileged, unexamined life he had known, eyes opened by the inanities and cruelties of war and by the graceless poverty and suffering God revealed to him.

And yet, Francis stood humbly before Sultan and Pope, filled with the Power that comes from the One, and the world turned as a result. Francis of The Leper, Francis of the Begging Bowl, Francis of the Re-Turn to the Rightness of Creation.

This is what has inspired me over the 22 years I have been associated with the St. Anthony Foundation. I arrived at St. Anthony’s Dining Room in September of ‘89 full of fear and doubt, and thus began the shifting of my world view. (more…)

Friday is the last day that I am working at St.  Anthony Foundation.

I keep repeating that thinking maybe it will sink it, but so far it hasn’t.  Maybe if I were nagged about leaving, or given guilt trips it would feel more like a reality.  But, true to form, my colleagues have been nothing but supportive about my move onward to a new position.

Perhaps when I’m walking to work on my first day and don’t hear the shout outs and good mornings lining my path, as if the walk up to Golden Gate were my own personal stadium tunnel and I was on my way to play in the championship game, perhaps then it will sink in.  Maybe when lunchtime rolls around and there is no Dining Room menu to ponder, when the table I sit at is not surrounded by staff and volunteers who are all dedicated to this earnest and fundamental mission, who know we are lucky enough to share in this meal along with so many others who rely it. Perhaps then it will feel real.

St. Anthony’s has been more than employment. It has been a life-changing and perspective-altering experience.  It has not just built my resume, it has built my character.  Leaving, I feel akin to clients in programs who have moved along to the next step, and know that I am welcome back, but am saddened that I won’t see the smiling and supportive faces of the people who have helped me arrive at this point in life on a regular basis.

This organization truly and deeply cares about the whole of each person who enters its doors.  I have never been so acutely aware of the trials, triumphs and underlying vulnerable humanity in each person as I have been here.  And that will carry on with me wherever I go.

Everyone has that first job they look back on that changed, reaffirmed or otherwise set them on the right path.  I am lucky, grateful and honored that St. Anthony’s is that part of my personal history.

St Anthony Dining Room staff is sponsoring a baseball game & Cookout on May 12 for the Father Alfred Center Residents as a way to thank them for their volunteer service at the Dining Room.

This event gives residents at Father Alfred Center, St. Anthony’s drug and alcohol treatment program, a chance to socialize not only with the staff, but also with each other.  Sometimes our residents have a tendency to feel confined by the routine of their day.  The game gives them a chance to get away from that routine and interact with each other & staff in a unique setting.

When asked his opinion Charles Sommer told me, “Each quarter we like to do something nice for the guys.  They work very hard down here at the Dining Room every day.  This gives us a chance to hang around with them in a different setting and have fun.”

A baseball game between St Anthony Staff & Father Alfred Center residents is the focal point of the event. Staff from Father Alfred Center & the St Anthony Dining Room are joined by colleagues from the Social Work Center & Tenderloin Tech Lab for the game.

The great food and competition with staff are something the Father Alfred Center residents look forward to.  So far the staff team is undefeated.  Will this remain the case?  Only time will tell.

With the convention behind us I wanted to take a moment to look back and get the perspective of the Father Alfred Center staff who attended the Convention.

Administrative Coordinator Raynette Page Johnson says:

“I had the privilege and honor to greet our clients at the Northern California Convention of Narcotics Anonymous XXXII in Santa Clara, California.  Forty six  residents of Father Alfred Center attended.  We were in the company of thousands of recovering addicts from all over California and other states.  The Northern California Convention of Narcotics is the largest convention in California. The first convention was formed in 1979 in San Jose California.  There were approximately 350 recovering addicts in attendance.  This celebration of unity, simply known at NCCNA, now hosts between 6,000 to 8,000 recovering addicts annually.”

Manager Michael Hurd writes in:

“It is an awesome opportunity for Father Alfred Center residents to experience a NA Convention. I think it is surreal to imagine over 5,000 recovering addicts in one place at one time from all different cultures, races, backgrounds, beliefs to gather together for one common goal ,that goal being to help the addict who wants to recover is unimaginable until they see it. Then I think there can be a physic change where they can really start to believe that being clean for them is possible. I witnessed the stoic glow in several of our residents at the convention there expressions said it all. For me to witness the joy, hope and relief I see in the faces of our Father Alfred Center residents is priceless! I look forward to exposing new residents to this awesome experience again next year.”

Yesterday the Tech Lab celebrated its 2nd Christmas party by serving a fantastic meal consisting of ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, and a superb broccoli cassesrole. Thanks to the generosity of the staff at the Dining Room as well as the hard work of our Tech Lab all-star, Salena Bailey, everyone left with a full stomach.

The event was less a celebration than it was an opportunity for folks to relax, mingle with the staff and volunteers, and just rewind from the hectic holidays. It is easy sometimes to forget about your neighbor sitting at the computer next to you when you have a lot to do on your limited time at the computer. Being able to share a meal has been a life-giving, community building activity that the St. Anthony Foundation has been built on. The Tech Lab took a page from the book of the Dining Room and used a warm meal to celebrate and appreciate what each person offers.

After the meal our front desk program assistant, James led the crowd in some holidays songs. At his side was his friend and fellow musician Joy who humbled the crowd with a performance like no other. Without prompting our guests joined her in performance. The Christmas spirit was certainly present at 150 Golden Gate yesterday.

At that point raffle tickets were handed out for guests and volunteers to get a shot at winning some prizes. Some of the highlights included flashdrives, gift cards, and a TinkerBell notebook! With Walter on the piano and a talented MC the party ended with a bang. Yet another successful gathering of individuals celebrating not technology but the relationships that are everlasting.

If there one thing that St. Anthony’s serves up 365 days a year, it is the connection between food and community. In the St. Anthony Dining Room, people rely on the social connection almost as much as they do a hot, healthy, filling meal. Almost.

Today we celebrate a little known tradition at St. Anthony’s: The staff holiday meal. This year, as the last few years, the meal is being hosted and prepared by Tom Saber, our neighbor at Al Sabeel Masjid Noor al-Islam mosque.

Tom says it is not a thank you for loaning him our kitchen during Ramadan, when our Muslim brothers and sisters fast in order to be reminded of all of of our hungry neighbors, but a gift of thanks for the work that is done here 365 days a year serving the hungry in the neighborhood we share: The Tenderloin. All we can do is say thank you, and bless you Tom and our wonderful community.