Community Partnerships | Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good

Designing Our Vision of Justice

Last month, a newly formed Mural Design committee gathered for the McCarthy Center’s first in-person meeting since the Center closed in Spring of 2019. The committee made up of Center students, community partners, staff and faculty, were tasked with conceptualizing a full wall-sized mural to be installed in the Masonic Building Office #103. Precita Eyes…

Supporting Year-Round Literacy

Throughout this month, we have highlighted our summer learning partnerships in the USF/ Heart To Heart/ Mo’MAGIC Summer Literacy program and the Summer Academy Program. In this week’s blog, we hear from our Director of Engage San Francisco, Karin Cotterman, about the literacy initiative our Center works on year round. Since its formal launch in…

Re-Engaging for the Fall

In this week’s blog, we continue to celebrate National Summer Learning Week with a post from the Summer Academy Program (SAP) Program Director, Imène Ghernati and student teachers from Catholic and private independent schools. SAP is a 4 week summer program for 6-8 graders, created as partnership between USF’s School of Education and Gateway Public…

Empowering Youth through Literacy

Since its launch in 2014, Engage San Francisco has focused on building meaningful relationships with individuals, schools, nonprofits, and service providers in the Western Addition/Fillmore neighborhood. One consistent aspect of our work has been our literacy efforts. In partnership with the School of Education, we have continued to develop our shared, long-term vision to provide year-round literacy and learning support in…

Poetry as a Unifying Force

As National Poetry Month comes to a close, Jacqueline Ramos, our Program Manager of Community-Engaged Learning and poet, speaks on the importance of poetry in activism. Also the Community Empowerment Activist Instructor, Ramos encourages our CEAs to approach social justice issues in all lenses, including poetry. Read on for her piece, “Inauguration”, and her view…

The Path to SF Environment

In support of Climate Action Month in April, we want to highlight a community partner, co-educator, and mentor-supervisor for the McCarthy Fellows in San Francisco. Huy Le is the Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) and Used Oil Program Coordinator on the Toxics Reduction & Healthy Ecosystems team with the San Francisco Department of the Environment. He…

Community Vision Driven by Data

Our Engage San Francisco Director, Karin Cotterman, was instrumental in the creation of The Fillmore/Western Addition Gleeson Resource Page. The page features photos, videos, and news stories that document the history of The Fillmore. In this week’s blog, Karin answered a few questions on what prompted the compilation of these resources, and how they highlight…

Education as a Liberatory Force

The 8th annual Women in Leadership and Philanthropy Virtual Symposium was held last week, hosting women who are making changes in their communities and inspiring others to do the same. The first time our past Board Chair, Serra Falk Goldman, and Board Chair of Sobrato Philanthropies, Lisa Sobrato, met was at the in person WILP…