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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, June, 14 2006
Contact: Mayor's Office of Communications
415-554-6131
*** PRESS RELEASE ***
COMMUNITIES OF OPPORTUNITY HITS 500 MEMBERS
Mayor tours sites as members receive their cards and new services are announced
San Francisco, CA – Mayor Gavin Newsom today joined residents in Bayview Hunters Point and Visitacion Valley for the COO Celebration Day. Today’s event marked an important milestone for COO. More than 500 residents who signed membership interest forms received their official membership cards and membership details at each of the sites participating in the program.
Mayor Newsom, echoing his remarks from last October’s State of the City noted, "Communities of Opportunity is anchored in 3 bedrock principles; empowering residents to be owners in the processes and decisions that affect their community; integrating services and being accountable for results; and connecting the city’s social services network to our economic development network to ensure real opportunities exist for all. By becoming COO members these residents have joined us in advancing these principles toward our shared goal of changing the ineffective and outdated top-down service-delivery system."
COO Services Launched
In addition to enrolling members, the event celebrated the selection of new service providers for each neighborhood. COO Action Teams at each site worked with the City to decide which local Neighborhood Based Organizations (NBOs) - responsible for delivering needed services including youth, employment, health, safety, environment and social capital building - will receive funding to deliver programs in their community. The teams will also track the outcomes of those services, and establish accountability criteria.
Dwayne Jones, COO Director, called the Action Teams "the eyes and ears of the community," and said "they will keep track of the promises and progress the city and our nonprofit partners make and also hold us accountable for results. Action Team members will also demand equal engagement and participation from their friends and neighbors – something that is essential if we are to end the cycle of poverty and violence."
Jones also commended the NBOs who completed a 4-day training program to be eligible to provide COO services, "The city has long relied on nonprofit organizations to provide the critical services in the community that it cannot. However, our investment in the capacity of those organizations has been uneven at best. If we wish to see different results in our communities we need to invest differently in the organizations that serve those communities. The NBO training program is the first step in that process."
In all, 12 NBOs were selected to provide the first wave of COO services beginning this summer and fall.
COO, a public/private partnership to invest City and philanthropic anti-poverty funding in a coordinated way in areas identified by the community itself, has produced significant results to date. Data from the initial demonstration project at Alice Griffith shows that in that community that larceny, burglary, and drug related crimes are down 40%, 25% and 7% respectively. Teachers reported that parent involvement was up by 65% and students returning from the COO summer camp had all maintained or improved their performance in school. Overall since work began in the southeast more than 150 residents have gotten jobs, including 95 who have moved into long-term employment. COO has now expanded its pilot to include the Alice Griffith, Hunters Point, Hunters View and Sunnydale housing developments and the surrounding areas.
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Communities of Opportunity ("COO") is a radical new approach to breaking the cycle of poverty and connecting struggling San Francisco communities to real opportunities through smart government, strong communities and serious collaboration.
Smart government. Rather than just talking about collaboration we are laying down the foundation to make it happen. The Mayor’s office is leading an effort to share data, improve our communication with families, and to get city departments, nonprofits, and schools to work together in innovative ways that create positive change in our most disconnected neighborhoods.
Strong communities. COO is resident designed, developed and driven. "Action teams" help us prioritize services and choose the organizations who provide them in their neighborhoods; and then hold everyone – the city, nonprofits, and residents alike – accountable for measuring and achieving real results.
Serious collaboration. COO brings together public and philanthropic funding, taps into nonprofit expertise, and works with businesses and corporations to ensure residents have access to the services they need and benefit from the millions of dollars being invested in their communities.
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