I’ve been contacted by…Rebuilding Together, the national organization that does Habitat for Humanity type rebuilds and remodels of both private homes and non-profit organization’s facilities.

I was a construction captain a few years ago on a fabulous remodel of the basement of the Larkin Street Youth Center and last year did assessments on two homes…

Apparently there are projects in communities all around the Bay Area, but if you’d like to team up with a corporate sponsor and do some great work while showing off your organizing skills and NAPO’s community spirit–please let me know asap.

Really? A unique opportunity to stretch one’s organizing muscles, volunteer for an awesome nonprofit and cause, AND be part of a team that positively impacts the lives of strangers? “Please do put me on the list! I’d love to help if the timing’s right,” I responded to my colleague, Victoria Roberts-Russell.

Two weeks later, another email landed in my inbox. This one contained descriptions of various projects that could benefit from the input of a professional organizers. I signed on, completed a project, and was hooked. When it was over, I wondered how we could get more organizers on board with this seemingly natural partnership and began conspiring with Victoria and our enthusiastic associates at RTSF.

“Organizers play a pivotal role on our bi-annual projects,” says RTSF’s Valerie Coleman. “Often times the critical repairs that a senior or disabled adult needs is not even accessible until ‘stuff’ has been cleared out. Or, perhaps an overworked and understaffed youth center is just focusing on how to run the best programs possible and to engage the most kids they can, which means that creating an organized, functioning space is just beyond their abilities. Whatever the situation, we greatly value the experience and perspectives that professional organizers bring to our projects. In the past, they have helped us determine scopes of work, whether clients are ready to let go, sourced donations and materials, led volunteers on a task and offered tremendous support to our clients, who are often overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin.”

Over the next few years we slowly but surely recruited more of our colleagues to join us on this annual collaboration. Then came one fine evening in February 2012 at the RTSF office where we had a record number of organizers in attendance to learn about upcoming projects…

Eight professional organizers (the seven pictured above, plus myself) sat around the large table with RTSF staff members Valerie Coleman, Jen Garber and Jonathan Rossall. We were also joined by representatives from the Mental Health Association’s Peer Responders Program. This meeting was the beginning of the deployment of nine professional organizers who would cumulatively contribute nearly 275 hours of pro bono services to three non-profit facilities and three residential clients before, during, and after National Rebuilding Day. (Two projects were cancelled in advance of Rebuilding Day, and organizers assigned to those projects were re-deployed!)

When professional organizers join their clients, skilled tradespersons, and corporate and community volunteers, “the power of we” can take on unique dimensions. Here’s what the organizers’ contributions to this years’ projects looked like.

Margie Lehnen-Holtz and Emily Vander Tuin at Mr. and Mrs. A’s home
Mr. and Mrs. A have done their best to maintain their home of 40 years, but it’s become harder to keep up with as they are no longer physically capable of doing it themselves. They have accumulated quite a bit of stuff that they needed help removing. Below, Margie and Emily work with Mrs. A to sort and remove unwanted items from the overstuffed garage.

Amanda Kovattana at Ms. G’s home
Ms. G is an elderly widow for whom maintaining her home became very difficult after her husband passed on. For the first few years after her loss, grief made it hard for her to let go of possessions which accumulated throughout the home. Enter Amanda who worked closely with Ms. G to clear the kitchen to make way for necessary upgrades in this room. Items being kept had to be temporarily stored in the living room until Rebuilding Day work was complete.

Erin Becker and Courtney King at Holy Ghost Service Center
At Holy Ghost Service Center, the program administrators share their home with ten formerly homeless men, all who pitch in and help with household chores, and also prepare and serve food to the homeless several times per week. On Rebuilding Day, Erin worked with the team’s volunteer carpenter, residents, and fellow organizer, Courtney, to clear and organize the basement by removing unneeded items, building and installing shelving, and moving items onto shelving.

Victoria Roberts-Russell, Kathy Waddill and Sandy Trout at Beacon Center
The OMI/Excelsior Beacon Center is dedicated to improving the lives of low-income families by providing educational, recreational and support services for free to the community.

Victoria, Kathy, and Sandy quickly changed gears when their previous project – a residential client who was a hoarder – was postponed. On Rebuilding Day, they collectively re-configured the staff’s administrative office to optimize the work space, triaged and organized the program’s multi-purpose room, and triaged a storage room (and hallway) that had become less than functional.

Looking at what we all did makes me giddy inside, and then I think about how much more we can do in the future. The possibilities make me giddier.

o~O~o~O~o~O~o~O~o~O~o

This post has been registered for participation in Blog Action Day 2012.

Cross-posted at Liberated Spaces

Text and photos by Debra Baida / Liberated Spaces

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Here are some interesting snippets:

Thanks again to our volunteers who came out and the great Recology staff that put up with our millions of questions and abundant 9am enthusiasm. I’m hoping to do this tour every year, so keep an eye on our Facebook page if you’d like to join us next time. And remember the 4 ‘R’s – Recycle, Reduce, Reuse and ROT!

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Where: SOMArts Cultural Center (934 Brannan St., San Francisco, CA 94103)

When:  Thursday, September 22nd 6:00-9:00pm

What: Join us at the Changing Neighborhoods, Changing Lives fundraiser for Rebuilding Together San Francisco and support our work to rebuilding our San Francisco community! Exciting events include:

For more information contact Karen Nemsick (415) 905-1611 ext. 202

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Picture courtesy of Light Rider Images

So on that note – we thought it would be fun to schedule a Tour of the Dump! Getting a tip that they offer these, our awesome AmeriCorps member Chelsea has lined it up for us on July 12th at 9:30am and it’s open to 30 of our current or past volunteers…(incentive to volunteer with us? perhaps…) If you would like to participate, please RSVP with us by Thursday, July 7th.

But wait, you say – why the heck would I want to tour the dump? I would much prefer to just drag out the cans once a week and forget it about until the next trash day. But there is so much more to Recology! 

• In 2007, they switched all of their trucks (372) to run on alternative fuel, a blend that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5,400 tons (here)

• Recology has composted an estimated 907,000 tons of food scaps and plants since it started in 1996, which is roughly the equal to offsetting emissions from all vehicles that cross the Bay Bridge for more than 2 years. (here)

• Now in their 20th year with their Artist in Residency program, it’s an awesome combination of reuse & repurposing as well as educational for the 5,000+ residents who visit and attend tours each year. Plus, I love seeing the hillside covered in bizarre sculptures, hunks of metal & trash-turned-treasure surprises poking out of random corners.

• But my favorite fact? Oh, how about that San Francisco has the highest diversion rate in the nation at a whopping 77%. Oh yeah, we ARE the country’s recycling leader. Woot Woot!!

Now, if you can’t make this tour, don’t worry – Recology schedules them on a regular basis, so contact them for more information.

And, if you read this and are as pumped as I am about waste diversion, then please come help us! Each year, we have 20-100 volunteers clearing out homes, nonprofits, community centers and schools and we are always in need of volunteers that can help us divert even more! Come join our rebuilding efforts as a volunteer Garbage Czar (does the fancy title help? We hope so…), it really is one of the most important volunteer roles and we struggle to find enough volunteers who care about it as much as we do. If you want more information about volunteering, please start here.

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Isn’t it shocking how many people it takes working together to drive the Rebuilding Day train? But even more amazing, is how many of our volunteers, sponsors and partners return every year, committed and passionate about the work that we do. This short blog from an extremely exhausted (and equal parts thrilled) staffer is a basically a love letter to all of those who helped us make this happen. I’m blown away with both the tangible results and (even more so) of the outpouring of love, time, and hard work that ALL volunteers put into their work with us.

Here is a snap-shot:

• We served 30 homeowners: seniors, low-income families, disabled adults, with everything from new cabinets, cleared out backyards & garages, handrails, raised planter boxes, new appliances, to energy efficiency and home safety repairs.
• We renovated 16 nonprofits: serving children, seniors, homeless, disadvantaged youth, young families and more with everything from installing gardens, shelving, reorganizing, extensive painting and more.
• We ‘greened’ 3 local public schools & 7 community organizations: with planter boxes, concrete removal, increased green space and a partnership that installs rain water catchment systems.
• We are revitalizing neighborhoods: volunteers, clients, community partners helped us ensure that a majority of our projects were in the OMI (Oceanview/MercedHeights/Ingleside) neighborhood, including our community festival that brought out over 500 community members, as well as Mayor Lee and Supervisor Avalos!

From one of our partners - “Thank you so much for your work in the OMI. You would never imagine how much it helped the seniors. Ms. J called me on Monday and cried because of how much easier you all made it for her to live and age in home now. She had me to come over and see all of the work. She said no one had ever taken the time to help before.”

In whatever capacity you supported our work, thank you. Thank you for supporting our mission to  ensure that seniors are safe and warm, that adults with disabilities deserve to live with dignity and independently, and that families deserve an opportunity to age in their family’s home. Thank you for helping us support the community-based organizations and their clients and providing green spaces in public schools. I truly have the greatest job in the world and even in my sleep deprived haze, am excited to do it all over again.

Mayor Lee, Supervisor Avalos & RTSF ED Karen listen to homeowner

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A Volunteers’ Perspective, by Emilie R.

When I learned that Rebuilding Together San Francisco had its eye on the OMI, I knew I needed to volunteer — it offered me the chance to use my camera to assist a great organization and to reconnect with the memories of the “me” who used to live there.

I never referred to the OMI as such — life for me took place in 2 distinct hoods:  Ingleside and Lakeview, each with its own character and feel.  I was raised Pentecostal and attended church at the Voice of Pentecost on Ocean Avenue in Ingleside.  I lived in Lakeview, at 240 Thrift Street, not far from Oceanview Park (where Rebuilding Together will be planting a community garden).

Ingleside has always been a quiet and unnoticed neighborhood in San Francisco.  Its center for me is at Ocean and Lakewood, where Voice of Pentecost is located.  The church’s color and decor are different now, and a lot of the old members are gone, but somehow it remains unchanged.  It still represents the dream of Marilynn Gazowsky, a woman from Arkansas, who felt moved in the 1970s to start a Pentecostal church in San Francisco, to save the city from itself.  It still serves an ethnically and racially diverse working class population.  It is still a constant in my life, even though I no longer attend church — it comforts me that my Ingleside hasn’t drastically changed.

But Lakeview, just over the hill from Ingleside, used to be pretty rough.  I think my favorite Lakeview handle is “Lunatic Village,” coined by RBL Posse, who rapped about the realities of Lakeview dope slinging and cap busting in the 1990s.  Although I lived in Lakeview for ten years only two blocks from Oceanview Park, I think I played there twice, and never unsupervised.  My father was jumped there once — I’ll never forget how vulnerable and pissed I felt when I saw his two black eyes and pockets ripped from his pants.  

When I arrived at Oceanview Park to photograph the plots that Rebuilding Together will cultivate on April 30, 2011, I was happy to see how much the park had changed.  The Minnie and Lovie Ward Recreational Center is beautiful!  And the playground structure is wonderful — it’s shiny and pretty and was busy with much little people activity that day.  

The whole feel of Lakeview has completely shifted.  It feels safer, brighter, and more family oriented.  I know that it will continue to shift — positively — because of Rebuilding Together’s efforts.  I’m so glad I got to return to my old hood and know that it has and will continue to undergo major change, and that I was there to document it.

Written by Emilie R. – Emilie will be taking ‘Before/After’ photographs of a couple Rebuilding Day projects. You can also read more about her story from the “I Live Here: SF” site here, created by another one of our amazing community partners (as well as volunteer & SF resident extraordinaire).

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In San Francisco:
1400 RD Volunteers + 35 sponsoring organizations / 52 building projects  =  $1,000,000 worth of repairs

Let’s try another one for the entire Bay Area:
8550 RD volunteers x 10 hours of time each = 180 homes, 51 Facilities, 6 schools repaired and renovated in one day

Multiply the above by 200 Rebuilding Together Affiliates across the United States and you get tens of thousands of volunteers donating their time and skills to make a huge impact in their own communities.

Give yourself some extra credit this week.  Post your own Rebuilding Day math on your Facebook page, and visit our blog and Facebook to tell us how your volunteer hours changed lives on April 30.

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How long have you lived in the OMI? I have been a resident of the Ocean Ave. corridor for more than 26 years. In that time I have seen a number of significant changes, most of which make the area more desirable.

If you were to describe the OMI in 2 sentences, what would you say? The neighborhood is ethnically diverse, and is home to people from all walks of life. Originally a blue-collar neighborhood, you can now find a good mix of professionals, multi-generational families, retirees and service employees.

As a tour guide for your neighborhood, what are 3-5 great things the OMI can boast about? About a decade ago, beautification began along Ocean Ave., when palm trees were planted and bulb-outs were created to quiet traffic flow and assist pedestrians using the busy avenue. The K-Ingelside is a major streetcar route, serving City College and Ocean Ave. on its way downtown. The neighborhood boasts good public transportation, and it is also convenient to major freeways and state routes. Ingleside got a modern new library in 2009, which has proven to be a base for neighborhood activities.

Currently Ocean Avenue has no large commercial chain stores. However, there are a number of small shops that serve the needs of the residents. Fruit Barn is a regular stop for fresh produce and other goods. It stays open on major holidays, much to the relief of holiday cooks who may need one critical ingredient. Java on Ocean has a broad customer base. At almost any time of the day you will find most of the tables and comfy upholstered chairs filled with students, seniors and other locals.

What do you hope for in the OMI?One thing the area currently lacks is a major supermarket. A Safeway at the intersection of Jules and Ocean closed in the early 1990’s. Lucky used to have a store on Alemany Blvd., but that closed almost a decade ago. Now a large development is underway on Ocean Ave. between Plymouth and City College, which will be anchored by a Whole Foods Store.

The area continues to improve and adapt to the needs of its residents. Although not as fashionable as some parts of San Francisco, OMI is a place where everyone can live comfortably. Residents of the OMI enjoy the best of both worlds. Although they live in San Francisco, they enjoy a suburban lifestyle.

Thanks Connie! This year she’ll be mentoring a new Construction Captain on Rebuilding Day (Saturday, April 30th) at the OMI Family Resource Center – I hear they have great plans for a child-friendly backyard! If you’d like to get involved in our 22nd annual Rebuilding Day, please contact Valerie@rebuildingtogethersf.org.

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Welcome to the OMI Neighborhood!

For Rebuilding Day 2011, we’re thrilled to be working in the OMI (Oceanview, Merced Heights, Ingleside) neighborhood as our focus this year. Sandwiched between City College and SF State along Ocean Ave., the OMI sits within District 11, with roughly 45,000 residents and is a diverse, solidly working class neighborhood, rich with history as well as a strong sense of community.

More specifically, the OMI:

• highest population of seniors
• most ethnically diverse in the City
• lowest per capita income
• highest population of children and youth
• one of the highest rates of homeownership in SF

What is happening in the OMI neighborhood on Saturday, April 30^th?

Our volunteer teams will be providing free repairs, energy upgrades, senior safety and light repairs to 17 homes in the OMI this year. These repairs will ensure that a low-income senior can age safely at home or that a multigenerational family can continue to live in the home their grandfather built.

Similarly, our teams will also be providing renovations and repairs on 4 community centers, nonprofits, and school – from creating a community garden, improving the facility needs of a youth program or providing an outdoor common area for a senior day program, our projects directly impact hundreds of community users, clients and site staff.

In addition to our Rebuilding Day projects mentioned above, we are also partnering with many groups on 3 community based projects including:

Why a neighborhood focus?

“Changing Neighborhoods, Changing Lives” Initiative: Rebuilding Together San Francisco has spent the last 22 years repairing the homes of low-income seniors and renovating nonprofits, schools and community centers. In 2010, we launched our neighborhood revitalization initiative, where each year we focus on a different underserved neighborhood in San Francisco. In addition to our renovation projects within this neighborhood, we work closely with various community stakeholders (nonprofits, community leaders, district Supervisors, & city agencies) to execute community based projects that support a resilient and vibrant neighborhood.

Our goal is to be seen as the Construction Project Manager for neighborhood based work – our greatest strengths include engaging community volunteers, project management and leveraging resources, especially with regards to construtction & renovation work. Therefore, we’re thrilled to be working with so many organizations this year (almost double from last year!) and at last count, our Saturday, April 30^th team includes:

And of course, we’re still recruiting volunteers – so if anything above strikes your fancy, please don’t hesitate to contact us at RTSF! It’s going to be another great year and now is the perfect time to get involved.

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Some captains have been working with RTSF for many many years and as an AmeriCorps member who has only been involved with the organization for the past 6 months, it is always a pleasure to get together with some of our “lifers” to pick their brains and ask for advice about what success looks like for a Rebuilding Day Project.  I’m pleased as punch to be able to be in contact with people who have such a passion about the work that we do here at RTSF, that they have volunteered with us for decades!

All in all, it was a fantastic night full of great people, food, and music. And I sincerely hope that everyone is as excited about our upcoming Rebuilding Day as I am!

P.S. I would also like to give a special shout-out to our great volunteers from Swords to Ploughshares that helped up coordinate everything, as well as my project team from Wells Fargo!  Who will be working hard with me for the next couple months to pull off energy efficiency upgrades in seven homes in the OMI (our target neighborhood) on Rebuilding Day! Also thanks to Michelle at Light Rider Images for taking all these great photos! You can see the rest of the set here.

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