Why is it that so many people who come to St. Anthony’s to help end up thanking US? The folks from Interaction Associates worked a shift in the Dining Room toward the end of the month (always the most hectic time), thanked us profusely, and are coming back for more.

In many ways, it’s not a mystery. Most people like St. Anthony Foundation once they get in the door. That’s when they discover that all the talk about community at St. Anthony’s isn’t just talk.

And it helps that IA is in the people business. They train leaders in group process, facilitation, and collaborative cultures. Their workshops help companies build teams, grow leaders, navigate change, and increase corporate responsibility.

Three of their values on a list of 7 are “stakeholder voice,” “social responsibility,” and “human dignity.” This sounds familiar.

Interaction people intended to leave early for a team pot luck instead of the usual lunch with our guests, but when the time came, it was hard to get them out of the Dining Room. We had urged a short reflection session on them, very short, to accommodate their schedule, but they just kept, well, interacting.

They want to come back to make gift bags for Dining Room guests. They’ve already collected 200 pairs of new socks and 100 sets of unopened toiletries. We’re talking together about a possible fundraising event.

The email that explained all this to me ended “Once again, THANK YOU…THANK YOU…THANK YOU and we are very excited about helping out in the future.”

I’m not confused. I understand how it feels down there in the Dining Room. But this is my chance to say, “Thank you, friends, and thanks to Interaction Associates for taking the time.”

A few years back, I saw a greeting card that said “ What the world really needs is a good LISTENING to!” I don’t know who coined this evocative turn of a well know phrase, but I haven’t forgotten its message. During our Volunteer Orientations we typically cite the words attributed to Francis of Assisi: “Preach the Gospel often; use words only when necessary”. The relationship between these quotations is one that I see and treasure daily here at St. Anthony’s. A volunteer, delivering a lunch tray with a smile to a waiting and hungry guest in the Dining Room is a core example of this relationship. Conversely, many of our volunteers say that it is our guests who initiate smiles and kindly jokes…lifting the spirits of the volunteers and the staff!

Looking a little deeper into the notions of “actions speaking” and “attentive listening”, it’s clear that much of the healing that goes on here at St. Anthony’s is rooted in these ways serving one another. Recently, in the reflection period following the Dining Room experience, one of our young volunteers shared that he hadn’t really “connected” with the fellow he sat next to on his break, because the man hadn’t wanted to talk. But we talked about that, about the willingness to simply be present, to sit there and not force conversation on someone, of accepting a person for who they are in that moment, of making room for a person to feel accepted.

On the other hand, words can be healing too! I was serving in the Dining Room one day last week, when I noticed one of our guests wearing a button. I voiced the words “I am loved”; “Yeah!” he grinned. “I found it on the street and I put it on right away!” His smile & joy were wonderfully contagious, and I caught a good case of it from him.

With the sad news of Senator Ted Kennedy’s death, and the extensive media coverage of his legacy, I’m struck by how much of his dedication to service, of a family commitment to “giving back” is very, very resonant with the ways of the St. Anthony Foundation family. I got a call recently from one of the Seniors who eats regularly in the Dining Room. “Can I volunteer? I want to give something back.” And now, this person is volunteering as well. Does that mean everyone should? No, not at all– there are myriad ways that we can support one another’s well being. Our volunteers are always voicing how they feel so appreciated by guests and by staff. It’s not so much a back & forth as it is a circle of giving and receiving; of actions and of listening. And in these times of so much uncertainty and struggle, thank goodness we can count on the basic generosity of caring for one another. If I ever get discouraged, and I do, all I need to do is to watch and listen to our guests and volunteers for a moment or two, to revive my faith in “our better angels”.

Earlier this month, Silicon Valley’s very own Google came by to volunteer during a day of computer repairs and training at St. Anthony’s Tenderloin Tech Lab.

St. Anthony Foundation has had the privilege of partnering with members of the corporate community for many years. We have worked with a variety of corporate service projects from company wide service days to individual volunteers offering time and professional skills through their company. Corporate volunteers have served meals in our Dining Room, planted gardens in our residential programs, conducted mock interviews in our Employment Program and hosted bingo games at our senior center.

To inquire about your company partnering with St. Anthony Foundation contact the Justice Education/Volunteer Advocacy Manager, Angelina Cahalan, at abcahalan@stanthonysf.org or (415) 592-2727.

“In times like these, when we’re facing challenges unlike any in our lifetime, and you all know this better than anyone, I know it can feel close to impossible … Some may view volunteering as something extra, but ‘real change’ comes from the bottom up, from citizens working and mobilizing and serving the nation that they love …” (excerpted).

So said First Lady Michelle Obama as she delivered the keynote address for the 2009 National Conference on Volunteering and Service convened this week in San Francisco. As I’ve been thinking about Michelle’s words this week, I’ve realized that the essence of her timely message is one that St. Anthony Foundation volunteers have largely harmonized with for nearly 6 decades! I’d perhaps make a couple of modifications—I’d say that our volunteers demonstrate the ‘real change’ that comes from within, and as that dynamic breaks down barriers between “us & them”, change in the structural barriers to a more just society are nourished. And yet, our First Lady words speak clearly to the worst socio-economic conditions that I’ve seen in my lifetime. In what I think of as a kind of “spiritual economy”, the care that our volunteers offer day after day, year after year, is the kind of “currency” that lifts up not only our clients and guests, but St. Anthony staff as well. And yet, how often do we hear any number of our volunteers say “I get so much more than I give!”

In my last little blog entry about a month ago, I voiced my concern that volunteering be understood as an invaluable response to our current economic downturn—but not “the answer” to it. And, as our President’s “United We Serve” Initiative gives new impetus to volunteering, I wonder if in fact we will witness the blossoming of connection with others that service encourages. Just one little example of this continuum is a story from one of our Summer Immersion High School groups. When the participants were reflecting on some of their experience, several of the students spoke of how moved they’d been by a homeless man who had made such an enthusiastic effort to help them feel comfortable. They assumed at first that this gentleman was one of the staff! Now some of those same students are involved in advocacy efforts to maintain San Francisco’s City Budget funds for essential programs, such as the one where this hospitable fellow safely laid his head over night. That’s change, for real alright—from within, across divides, and toward the restoration of caring community.

HAPPY JUNETEENTH!!!

June 19 is the annual celebration of Juneteenth, the oldest ongoing celebration in honor of the abolition of slavery in the United States. On June 19th, 1865, Union soldiers marched into Galveston, TX with news that slavery had been ended by the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier. For two years, slaves in the area had been unaware of their right to freedom. Texas had not had much contact from Union troops until after the April 1865 surrender of General Lee, the leader of the Confederate side in the Civil War. By 1865, Union troops were finally able to subdue the Confederate soldiers who still resisted the Northern victory.

The response to the news by the former slaves was both shock and joy. Some waited to find out if there would be a new relationship with their former masters, but many just left immediately in search of a better life and separated family members. Today, people celebrate Juneteenth in honor of those who suffered under the burden of slavery, and in honor of their freedom.

The word “Juneteenth” is a combination of “June” and “nineteenth,” and its popularity has grown and subsided through the years. Since the Civil Rights movement of the 1950’s and 60’s, it has become more popular as more people have learned about it.

(June 19, 2009 / Michelle & Lexie / SEATTLE EAST SIDE EXAMINERS)

Ever since I first learned about Juneteenth, I’ve been fascinated by the story. For two whole years all those enslaved people in Texas were legally freed, but went on living and laboring in their dehumanized condition because no one had managed to get the good news of their liberation to them.

Haven’t you had some Juneteenth moments in your own life? For many of us in recovery it’s been a clarifying moment (or season) when we realized that we actually COULD live free from the slavery of addiction. For others it may have been the liberating experience of crossing over some previously forbidding barrier, getting past fear and apprehension, (perhaps by volunteering at a place like St. Anthony’s Dining Room) and discovering that the world isn’t as scary a place as it once seemed to be. And for some of us it may have been one of those light-bulb-going-on-in-our-head moments when, thanks to the revealing insights of a teacher or mentor, or even to the stubborn position of an opponent in a debate, some previously hidden truth suddenly, finally, opens up to us.

(more…)

Employees of Google, the Silicon Valley internet giant, are crossing the chasm to help their Bay Area neighbors by hosting a Neighborhood Computer Help Day in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. On Thursday, June 11th, from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., Google employees will be volunteering to teach classes and do one-on-one tutoring with homeless and economically challenged participants of the Tenderloin Tech Lab, a collaboration between St. Anthony Foundation and Network Ministries. This is reflective of the trend that St. Anthony Foundation volunteer program is seeing, of more and more technologically savvy Bay Area residents reaching out to share their skills with the disenfranchised.

“Today’s economic crisis is running counterpoint to the technological crisis in areas like the Tenderloin, where the decreasing number of resources and services are forcing people to be more savvy about their survival. Technological access is proving to be the unlikely thread that is holding marginalized people together by connecting them to information, services, and each other,” noted Karl Robillard, Manager, of St. Anthony Foundation’s Employment Program & Technology Lab. “The interesting thing is that as the technological literacy of the poor and marginalized community is increasing, so is the interest in skilled technology volunteers, such as the employees of Google. This parallel reflects an unprecedented possibility of a narrowing technological chasm in the face of bleak economic times. That in and of itself is remarkable.”

ST. ANTHONY FOUNDATION

Since 1950 St. Anthony Foundation has addressed root causes of poverty with compassion. St. Anthony Foundation’s programs offer gateways to escaping poverty by addressing immediate needs such as hunger and clothing, as well as long term needs such as employment, drug and alcohol addiction, and physical and mental health. St. Anthony Foundation does not accept any federal, state, or local government money, and is entirely funded by private donations.

WHEN: Thursday, June 11th, 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.

WHAT: Google’s Technology Day in the Tenderloin

WHERE: Tenderloin Tech Lab, 150 Golden Gate Ave @ Leavenworth, 3rd Floor, San Francisco

Today scanning through the weekend’s pile up of emails I came across an interesting article from the Foundation Center’s Philanthropy News Digest reporting on a recent study that reveals America’s poor are the most charitable demographic per capita.

“The poorest one-fifth of American households contributed an average of 4.3 percent of their income to charitable organizations in 2007, while the richest fifth donated 2.1 percent of their income.”  This statistic from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is not terribly shocking.  When someone has personally experienced how valuable each dollar is in making it out of the red that month, or to finding food that day, shelter that week, it is understandable that they would be compelled to in turn help someone else when they are in a position to do so.

Working at St. Anthony Foundation I have seen generosity and compassion in places that I would have never expected it.  Recently our Social Work Center was paid a visit from a former guest, who nine years ago received rental assistance to secure housing.  This time the visit was to repay that amount and hopefully help someone else get on their feet.  There a many other stories like this one, men who have come through the Fr. Alfred Center drug and alcohol recovery program returning to bring food for the Dining Room, or guests from the Dining Room returning to volunteer.

While, yes, there is clearly concern to be raised over the point of the wealthier strata donating less comparatively, it is none the less heartening to read and bear witness to stories of community and compassion especially in these toughest of times.

“Who does that help?”

San Francisco columnist C.W. Nevius posed this question last Saturday in regards to the social services available in The Tenderloin.

St. Anthony Foundation has been serving the needs of the poor and homeless, transitioning families and individuals out of poverty, since 1950. Prior to that Franciscans friars were organizing bread lines, pictured above, on the same block of Golden Gate in San Francisco dating as far back as 1908. For over 100 years this tiny stretch of the Tenderloin has been helping the needy in whatever capacity possible.

Here are some of the folks who, in our lifetime, have benefited from these services:

“It makes you realize … that they’re in the same situation as you or I, but something went wrong somewhere along the way.” – Jesse, High School Volunteer at St. Anthony Dining Room

“Without St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic I’d be dead. It’s such a positive place. Once you walk into the Clinic you know everything is going to be taken care of.” – Tim, St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic Client

“Since I’ve been here at St. Anthony’s I have seen nothing but love, appreciation, kindness, and people that really want to teach you or give you the opportunity.” – Leroy, St. Anthony Employment Program / Tech Lab Student.

“Part of what I do today as a banquet waiter is what I learned volunteering at St. Anthony’s. It’s all about service with a smile.” – Muhamad, former St. Anthony Dining Room guest and current Volunteer

“Everything is so expensive. Some people have to work two jobs and they still can’t make ends meet. That is why organizations like St. Anthony’s are so important.”– Olga, Volunteer at St. Anthony Dining Room

“Every day, I see people I used to get high with. When they see me, it gives them hope. As I stay clean, I’ll be the encouragement for others.” – James, Fr. Alfred Center Graduate

“I chose St. Anthony’s for an internship because I wanted to know more about the people who were living in the Tenderloin. There I found a community of people helping each other survive in an area of town that is neglected.” – Kathy, Former Intern at St. Anthony’s Employment Program / Tech Lab

The newly updated whitehouse.gov website has launched, and with it comes President Barack Obama’s strong push for community service.

Here’s an excerpt from the site:

“So today, I am asking you to roll up your sleeves and join in the work of remaking this nation. I pledge to you that government will do its part to open up more opportunities for citizens to participate. And in return, I ask you to play your part – to not just pitch in today, but to make an ongoing commitment that lasts far beyond one day, or even one presidency.”

Are you up to the challenge? You can start at home by volunteering or donating to St. Anthony Foundatation.

San Francisco has a unique opportunity in the November election to support city funding for the creation of housing that’s affordable to low- and middle-income San Franciscans.

The San Francisco Housing Fund will be on the November 4 ballot, and we are looking for volunteers who would like to be part of a speakers bureau that will help to educate the community about the measure. Volunteers will be trained to speak to community organizations and church groups about the SF Housing Fund, and will be able to sign up for speaking engagements.

The Housing Fund has scheduled two trainings for the speakers bureau to accommodate as many volunteer speakers as possible.

1) Tuesday, August 19, 10:00 AM – noon: 1095 Market @ 7th Street, 7th floor. Community Housing Partnership.

2) Wednesday, August 20, 6:00 – 8:00 PM: 405 Shrader Street @ Oak Street. Council of Community Housing Organizations.

To sign up for a training, call St. Anthony Foundation Advocacy Coordinator, Colleen Rivecca @ 592-2729 or email crivecca@stanthonysf.org.