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Social Justice

Children & Education

SOCIAL JUSTICE

In 1996, the San Francisco Board of Education renamed the Douglass elementary school located in the Castro to Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy (HMCRA). It was named after Harvey Milk, the gay civil rights activist and City Supervisor, assassinated in 1978. This K-5th Grade elementary school of 250 students has a largely African-American and Hispanic representation drawing its student population from throughout the city.

In January, 1998, MCCSF established a partnership with the Harvey Milk elementary school. This is a partnership under the San Francisco School Volunteers program that has placed over 80 partnerships of businesses and community organizations with a majority of the schools within the San Francisco Unified School District.

MCCSF's commitment is long term, providing a variety of volunteer services into the school to improve student achievement and enhance the overall school experience. We believe that MCCSF and HMCRA each represent important community resources in "the Castro" that through cooperative efforts can be enriching for both organizations and for the community as a whole.

Our partnership long range goals are to:

Improve student achievement particularly in reading and math
Increase the adult to student ratio in the classroom by increasing the number of adult volunteers
Increase school/community ties and provide a rewarding experience for students, volunteers, teachers and parents

Volunteer Opportunities include:

Classroom Assistants -- under the supervision of each teacher including small group and one-on-one work.
Tutoring -- primarily after school as part of the High Gear tutoring program at the school.
Group Reading -- involving group read aloud to students for scheduled regional/national group reading days or as scheduled with individual teachers.
Field Trips & Enrichment Programs -- to help out on scheduled field trips and develop and/or participate in enrichment activities (art, music, publishing, computers).
Special Project Support -- providing time coordinating or supporting fund raising activities for the school and other special events. Often these are sponsored by the Parent Faculty Club. Also, direct donation support for "wish list" items like books, summer camp or field trip tuition.

For more information to provide volunteer time or financial resources, contact Tim Agar, Interim Executive Director, at 415/865.2752 or by email at: tagar@mccsf.org