communications – Page 10 – GLIDE – San Francisco: serving the people of the Tenderloin and San Francisco since 1963

GLIDE’s sanctuary filled with justice makers and advocates on Thursday, January 9th during City Attorney David Chiu’s Inauguration. 342 civic leaders, including Attorney General Rob Bonta, CA Controller Malia Cohen, Assemblymember Scott Weiner, Mayor Daniel Lurie, most of the Board of Supervisors and many other elected officials joined Dr. Gina Fromer and Minister Marvin K. White for the auspicious occasion. The historic Glide Memorial Church building served as an inspiration for the work ahead, as City Attorney Chu prepared to defend and protect tenant, immigrant, LGBT+ and other important rights. These rights are vital for us to defend, so that San Francisco’s diverse communities can live equitably in our beautiful city!

Minister Marvin K. White opened up the evening by acknowledging how deeply David Chiu’s work aligned with GLIDE’s values. “We appreciate David Chiu’s dedication to making San Francisco a sanctuary city. As we sit in the sanctuary today, let us all reflect on how we can strive to make our cities, our hearts and our homes true sanctuaries to all people who are feeling dispossessed.”

GLIDE’s CEO Dr. Gina Fromer added, “Over the course of his career, David Chiu has fought for the people, stepped up as a truth teller, and taken a stance so many times for love, hope, inclusivity, and justice.”

David Chiu’s choice of GLIDE as a venue for his swearing-in ceremony was symbolic. “My office had dozens of legal matters challenging Trump, and given our upcoming work to defend the diversity and radical love of San Francisco, I thought Glide might be a perfect venue for the event,” he told our staff.

The church was packed with well wishers, leaving standing room only. Labor Federation President Lorena Gonzalez warmly spoke about Chiu’s work defending worker’s rights and stopping wage theft. “He continues to lead this state, showing public prosecutors how you can actually demand millions of dollars to go back into the pockets of the workers who earned them.”

We also heard many words of praise for David Chiu’s work during the first Trump administration. Senator Scott Weiner praised Chiu’s office for preventing abortion records from being subpoenaed from San Francisco General Hospital, and for defending immigrant and LGBT+ rights. The Senator added, “I will say, as a gay man, that there is a certain select set of straight elected officials where you never have to explain anything to them, they just intuitively get it. David Chiu is one of those.”

Attorney General Rob Bonta talked about David Chiu’s record in combating anti-Asian hate, “During the first year of the pandemic, when incidents of Anti-Asian hate skyrocketed, David and I worked together to enact the largest investment to combat anti-asian hate in the country.” When Chiu himself rose to address the crowd, he talked about the challenges ahead, but also moments in our city’s history that fill him with hope.

One of those moments happened when Chiu was a third year law student. At that time, he was inspired to fight a proposition that would kick immigrant kids out of schools and kick immigrant families out of hospitals. “That time made many of us feel like strangers in our own land,” Chiu vulnerably shared. No one thought Chiu and his colleagues were going to win the legal battle against that anti-immigrant proposition, but they did!

Chiu encouraged everyone present to remember: the values of San Francisco have triumphed against the odds before, and they can again. Will you join the fight?

Consider signing up to become one of GLIDE’s social justice warriors.

I’m a first-generation San Franciscan, born and raised in the city whose family is originally from the Philippines. I attended public schools and have worked a variety of jobs, including restaurant management to becoming a hairstylist. I’m now working in the health care industry as an administrative secretary for a hospital here in San Francisco.

I’ve been living in the same apartment for the past twenty-five years. As a single mom of two young kids, it hasn’t always been easy, especially with the constant rise in living expenses. It reached a point where it became next to impossible for me to continue living here in the city, which I love.

The cost of living rose so high I simply could not make ends meet. The owners of the apartment stopped making repairs to the building and when it rained, puddles of water appeared all over the place. It became unbearable for me and my children. My name eventually got selected from a Section 8 waiting list.

Transitioning to a new family home

A house was identified for my family to move into. The only problem was with the move-in costs. The city’s property management group required a substantial amount for the security deposit for first time housing program participants. It is what prompted me to reach out to the City’s Housing Authority requesting information on agencies or organizations that could help me in keeping my family housed.

I knew about GLIDE’s history and Reverend Cecil Williams was always present for the TL community, but I never knew about the depth of services GLIDE provides. DeMarco McCall, GLIDE’s Walk-In Center Assistant Manager was the ONLY person of all the agencies I contacted to return my phone call.

When I spoke with DeMarco, he was professional and courteous to me. I walked in on a Thursday, and by Monday of the following week I received notification from the city’s property management group that GLIDE was going to assist me in my application.

GLIDE was a GOD-send!

I received $9,600 (thanks to a funding grant from Wells Fargo) in rental assistance from GLIDE which helped me complete my security deposit. My whole family is so thankful for the help GLIDE provided in keeping me and my family housed. I even called Demarco back to see if my kids could give back by volunteering.

On my birthday, I attended one of Glide Memorial Church’s services, just to give thanks. There were tears of love for these changes in my life. GLIDE has been the biggest part and without GLIDE, I couldn’t have gotten into this new home.

And GLIDE made it possible… Amen.

On Tuesday December 10th, GLIDE’s Center for Social Justice (CSJ) and its coalition partners successfully urged the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to overturn the RV overnight parking ban passed by the SFMTA Board of Directors in October. Heartfelt community voices led to the unjust RV ban being overturned in a 7-3 vote! Thank you GLIDE community!

With 90% of unsheltered families living in vehicles and the family shelter waitlist being 530 families-long, taking family’s RV dwellings, towing them, and forcing them into temporary shelter would be a heartless move. That’s why dozens of San Francisans, including many GLIDE staffers and community members, took the mic to share their heartfelt stories with supervisors. The supervisors were blown away by our arguments!

Gabriel Medina from the La Raza Community Resource Center, speaking for the End Poverty Tows Coalition GLIDE helps lead, said that of the families living in RVs who were pushed out of Winston Drive due to parking restrictions, “Less than half of these families were eventually housed. Those who were housed were only able to get housing because of sustained advocacy and time.”

He described a family of four who the End Poverty Tows Coalition worked with who were forced to live in their RV when the breadwinner lost his job during the pandemic. The family was then displaced from Winston Drive and Zoo Road before eventually being housed due to GLIDE and the Coalition’s advocacy. “I cried a lot when the city asked us to leave,” he quoted the mom of the family. “We weren’t asking for anything for free, just a safe place to live that we could afford.”

David Elliot Lewis, a co-chair of the Tenderloin People’s Congress, pointed out that affluent neighbors are just uncomfortable with the sight of people struggling with poverty, and want to push them out of sight. He added, “Banning RVs does not end homelessness, it just creates more human misery.”

Sarah Miles, a nurse volunteer with UCSF’s Roving Community Health Initiative, contributed to the discussion, “The health of people living in RVs is significantly better than the health of people living in the streets or in shelters. RVs help people hold onto their medications, and provide stability and safety for women and children living in RVs.”

Rebecca Jackson, Co-Chair of Women’s Housing Coalition, added, “As a mother who experienced homelessness with children, my vehicle was the only safe space for us to sleep… If we’re going to sweep people away, we must have a place for them to go.”

Lukas Illa from Coalition on Homelessness had a real mic drop moment when they declared, “Purposeful disinvestment in infrastructure is a way to justify criminalization of poverty…. This trickles down into attitudes of housed San Fanciscans, giving them license to intimidate some of our most vulnerable residents.” They shared stories of people’s children being threatened and their mirrors knocked off cars.

CSJ’s Eleana Binder speaking to the SF Board of Supervisors on RV ban

GLIDE’s own Eleana Binder, Policy Manager in the Center for Social Justice, delivered the rebuttal for the End Poverty Tows Coalition at the end of the hearing and made the point that “Rather than implementing a punitive policy before we have sufficient services, we should devote time and funding to establishing safe parking sites and getting people in RVs assessed for and connected to appropriate housing.”

A sanctuary city is not a city where we threaten immigrant families and make them feel like they don’t belong, simply because they are too poor to afford better housing than an RV. We even heard first-hand during the public comment from an RV dweller whose mirrors and windows were broken, a heartbreaking tale.

We’re so grateful our GLIDE community advocates for people to escape the cycle of poverty and have safe places to stay. People deserve every tool at their disposal to break the cycle of poverty.

We won a major victory this month, but we still need to keep fighting for shelter for homeless families; we’d love for you to join our letter-writing about that here.

State Attorney General Rob Bonta visited GLIDE to share tips and resources on how to donate safely and avoid scams while giving this holiday season. After the press conference, AG Bonta and twenty members of his staff volunteered sorting and unpacking toys for our Annual Toy Giveaway. (We are still requesting toy donations on our Amazon registry through 12/18 if you want to make a child smile this holiday!)

Rob Bonta is the first person of Filipino descent and the second Asian-American to occupy the Attorney General’s office. While introducing him, our President and CEO Dr. Gina Fromer noted, “his accomplishments include banning private prisons in California– that’s a big deal!”

And earlier this month, AG Bonta cautioned federal officials against renewing contracts — or signing new ones — with privately operated immigration detention centers in California.

That is just one example of the wide portfolio of justice work the Attorney General’s office conducts. The Attorney General also has primary regulatory oversight of charities and the professional fundraisers who solicit on their behalf, and investigates charities that misuse charitable assets or engage in fraudulent fundraising practices.

AG Bonta’s primary mission at his GLIDE press conference was to warn the public against fraud.

One of the most insidious forms of fraud is when a scammer creates a website with a url similar to the url of a real charity. AG Bonta told a cautionary tale about a scammer who created a unicefcovidrelief.com website to impersonate the real UNICEF.

In the words of our President & CEO Dr. Gina Fromer: “It’s sad but true, sometimes scammers will impersonate charities. Remember, it’s glide.org/donate– accept no substitutes!”

AG Bonta also recommends that you stick to charities you trust and make sure every charity you donate to is properly registered with his office. Here is the registry search tool if you want to verify your holiday giving today.

GLIDE is grateful to the Attorney General for his safety tips, and for his staff’s help sorting through the toys donated to our 450 GLIDE families.

I’m originally from El Salvador. It was in 1989 when I came to San Francisco with my brother to seek out a better life. We lived with my mother who was already living here in the Mission District.

I spoke no English. But our mother was able to get us enrolled in what was then called Potrero Hill Middle School. I later attended Woodrow Wilson High school. But at 17, I got pregnant.

What made things even harder was I was in a series of abusive relationships. I was always self-conscious about myself and the father of my first child would criticize me for the way I looked, dressed, and even cooked. He made me doubt myself and it proved devastating to me. When my son was six, he abandoned us.

I met someone new, but that person proved no better. He began hitting and humiliating me. He was later arrested but so much damage had been done. I felt so much shame and guilt. It took some time, but I eventually attended a support group. It was there I learned more about domestic violence and felt as if they were talking about me. I broke down. I was also homeless for some time, being forced to move constantly over a period of ten years.

It wasn’t until 2019 when I began attending other support groups and I began learning how I could help myself and become a better version of myself. And that’s when GLIDE entered my life thanks to a recommendation from someone I knew.

Two years ago, I was looking mainly for a food bank to help me with groceries. I learned from a fellow mom about GLIDE’s Zero food waste pantry, which, at the time, was making bags of fresh vegetables and fruit available to low-income families. This really helped me.

I also was able to participate in parenting classes and workshops at GLIDE, including a presentation put on by Kid Power International. I later participated in a violence intervention program led by GLIDE’s Women’s Center Program Manager, Ileana Montano.

GLIDE has helped me in more ways than I can tell you. Now I have a stable job with a non-profit out in the Bayview of San Francisco and I’m a much happier person.

Dear GLIDE Community,

We’re so grateful for the support you showed us this Thanksgiving. Thanks to generous donations of food and funds, we served 128 turkeys, 70 hams, 210 pounds of stuffing, 288 pounds of yams, 200 pounds of green beans, and 36 gallons of gravy! It was enough to feed over two thousand people, both at GLIDE and through our meal deliveries.

Here’s a video of the feasting and merriment.

It’s not just about one meal, either. People who come to us during the holidays form a relationship with GLIDE. Through that relationship, they learn about our other programs, from recovery to women’s groups to homelessness prevention.

Browse through our photo gallery of love in action.

(L) Director of Volunteerism, Lindsey Coonan and (R) GLIDE President & CEO

Dr. Gina Fromer

If you volunteered or donated, know that you did more than bring joy to one day: you might have changed someone’s future! And the media is taking notice. On Thanksgiving, the S.F. Chronicle profiled Joy Jardine, a former GLIDE client who overcame homelessness and medical problems and triumphantly returned to GLIDE on Thanksgiving as a volunteer. KTVU interviewed our client Garth Martin about how GLIDE was the only place that brought his daughter peace and helped her out of her tough spot.

ABC7 quoted Haskell Allen after he received our meal delivery, “It means the world to people like me: I’ve been out here struggling with nothing for so long, and GLIDE really comes through with a lot of resources.”

Mayor London Breed, former Mayor Willie Brown, Supervisor-Elect Bilal Mahmood, Assessor Joaquin Torres, Fire Chief Sandy Tong, and other local leaders attended Thanksgiving. Mayor London Breed, Dr. Gina Fromer, and Minister Marvin K. White all gave words of gratitude and celebration at our 10am Thanksgiving celebration.

We couldn’t have done it without our community, so thank you for everything you do to support GLIDE. If you feel inspired to make someone’s day better with a warm meal and a kind word, our volunteering sign-up is always here for you.

In this season of giving and gratitude, we are grateful to everyone who makes our work at GLIDE possible, in all the ways you do!

Wishing you a merry holiday season,

Your friends at GLIDE

On Tuesday, December 10th at 3:00 p.m. in Room 250 at City Hall, GLIDE’s Center for Social Justice and its coalition partners will urge the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to overturn the RV ban passed by the SFMTA Board of Directors!

In October, the SFMTA Board of Directors, at the behest of the Mayor, passed an overnight ban on oversized vehicles on city streets selected by the Director of Transportation. With 90% of unsheltered families living in vehicles and the family shelter waitlist being 530 families-long, it is unconscionable to dispossess families of their homes, force them into temporary shelter, and to keep the hundreds of families waiting for shelter on the street longer.

We need real solutions, like safe parking sites and the expansion of permanent supportive housing— not mass criminalization of the working poor for political gain. At a time where our city and country is shifting to the right and further criminalizing our unhoused communities, we need to show up for our neighbors in RVs!

We’d love for you to bring your friends with you to City Hall to tell the SF Board of Supervisors to VOTE YES on overturning the SFTMA’s ban on RVs across the city. You can use this template as a starting point for reaching out to people you know to bring them to the public, or you can share our flier on social media with any of the hashtags: #NoTowingFamilyHomes #SafeParkingNotSweeps #DoNotTowMyHome #WhereDoWeGo #RVBanAppeal.

For more information, you can check out our full toolkit here. If you can’t make it in person, we urge you to email the SF Board of Supervisors; our toolkit has their email addresses and template emails to make it easy for you.

“People ask me, why am I not bitter? And I say to them, ‘hate and bitterness only eat me up from the inside. Love is a powerful emotion. Love transcends all.’”

Miss Joyce O’Neal shared these powerful words with participants from GLIDE’s Alabama Justice pilgrimage in the community room of the Brown Chapel AME Church, just a few short blocks from the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Born and raised in Selma, Miss O’Neal was a foot soldier in the 1960s, marching alongside Martin Luther King Jr. to secure the right to vote for African Americans.

In the last week of October, 25 people from the GLIDE community (ranging in age from one to 70!) spent five days immersed in learning the truth about American History. We met on-the-ground activists across Alabama – from Selma to Tuskegee – whose work continues to disrupt and transform incomplete narratives about oppression, crime, and punishment.

In the words of Steven Reed, the first Black Mayor of Montgomery, AL, “we are here to move from pain to progress.” As we absorbed stories of racial terror and extraordinary examples of resilience and courage, we made commitments to bring this learning back to our lives in the Bay Area.

We will continue to share stories about this experience from Board members, GLIDE Staff, Justice Academy graduates, and other community partners as we move closer to the goal of truth, justice, and reconciliation in its full and complete form.

The more sorrowful the times, the greater the intensity of GLIDE’s celebration: our joy is a candle we pass from one person to another and hold up against the darkness. Our master of ceremonies Priya Clemens opened Holiday Jam by acknowledging, “It’s hard to be up here after what we have been experiencing, after the shock and the pain… There is so much hate in the world, but what we have at GLIDE is love and joy. So let’s move forward, powered by that joy and love!”

After joy-filled, roof-rocking strains from the Glide Ensemble, a video tribute to Cecil played, showing him at all ages of his life. A chuckle passed through the audience as Cecil said, “I hate it when people tell me God loves me. Do YOU love me?! That is the question!” Indeed, our holiness is not dependent on allegiance to some abstract doctrine, but on how well we love the people in front of us.

Our President & CEO Dr. Gina Fromer, wearing a bright silver jacket that sparkled festively in the lights of the stage, reminded us of the power of love. “We have each other, and we’re in California (thank God we’re in California!) Cherish moments like this and soak in beloved community. There is so much love in this room. I hope you can feel it, because I do!” She spoke about GLIDE’s role in feeding all kinds of hunger; not only literally, through our free meals program, but the hunger for love, meaning, and belonging.

“You shouldn’t be afraid to raise your voice for what you believe in: for justice, for freedom, for a healthy city,” she urged the audience. “Hate is loud, so when GLIDE calls for justice, we must be louder!” Our Minister of Celebration Marvin K. White built on this theme, by saying, “A love agenda is the only thing that will combat Project 2025: we need an agenda of helping the most vulnerable. We can’t just sit around and cry, unless we can fight and cry at the same time.” In saying this, he echoed the sentiments of our churchgoers, who recently told an ABC reporter the election results were inspiring them to do more volunteer work to help the marginalized.

Michael Marshall sang “San Francisco: Be Sure to Wear Flowers In Your Hair,” and our former Director of Music Vernon Bush was reunited with the Glide Ensemble and his devoted fans and sang meltingly, “love is all there is,” a line from an original composition. The audience was then thrilled by a surprise appearance from activist and songwriter Joan Baez, who fittingly filled the auditorium with John Lennon’s famous song, “Imagine.”

In a video about GLIDE’s street outreach work, we shared Community Ambassador Andra Gadson’s story about finding meaning in helping others after overcoming incarceration. His coworkers wildly cheered as his face came on the huge screen.

Then our auctioneer Michael Tate from the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus masterfully charmed the audience. “Now you’re going to hear a big number,” he twinkled, “But if it’s not your number, just wait until your number comes. It’s coming: I promise you,” and then he put $100,000 on the screen, which was pledged in short order. “What are the bullet points on your love agenda?” Tate asked the auction-goers, and they responded with amazing generosity, in bids from $100,000 down to $250, giving us the money we need to keep helping people for another year.

Assemblymember Matt Haney briefly appeared on stage to declare, “We are not going back. We are not letting hate win. The love agenda is going to win!” to thunderous cheers. The mayor-elect Daniel Lurie did not make an appearance on stage, but rather sat back greatly enjoying the festivities.

The Philharmonik, winner of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, played and sung his winning song, “What’s it all mean?” on the piano with a dynamic energy. And when our closing act, Lenny Williams danced on to the stage in a red sparkly jacket, he charmed everyone who was still sitting down onto their feet to dance. “This is for all the lovers in the house!” he shouted, before launching into his hit “Cause I Love You.” Joan Baez came back out to sing along with him. GLIDE community poured right onto the stage to merrily dance with the GLIDE Ensemble, before the event came to a stunning finish.

As we reflect on the joy of the evening, we’re also looking ahead. As wonderful an evening that we all had, and as generous as our community was, it is only a fraction of what GLIDE needs to provide our vital services through the holidays and all year long.

Author: communications

Transitioning to a new family home

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