Adopt-An-Alleyway Youth Empowerment Project

Infobox Organization
name = Adopt-An-Alleyway Youth Empowerment Project


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formation = 1991
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type = Youth Empowerment
headquarters = 655 Clay Street
San Francisco, California
94111
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membership = ~100
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website = [http://www.chinatowncdc.org Official Website] The Adopt-An-Alleyway Youth Empowerment Project is a non-profit project of the Chinatown Community Development Center that is based in the San Francisco Chinatown area. [cite book |last=Wright |first=David J. |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=It Takes a Neighborhood: Strategies to Prevent Urban Decline. |year=2001 |publisher=Rockefeller Institute Press |quote=... and the Levi Strauss Foundation awarded the group a $25000 youth empowerment grant. Since the ... participants in the Adopt an Alleyway Youth Project ... | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=np_zz87OKm0C&pg=PA87&dq=Adopt-An-Alleyway+Youth+Empowerment+Project&ei=-Mg4R-OVHKeGtgOU0-WDAg&sig=dZmDnjJP1fjzKowqjVSgaAKuutU |isbn=0914341839 ]

Volunteers clean the alleyways of Chinatown, organize monthly programs for seniors, and provides tours with Chinatown Alleyway Tours. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=49ers Clean for a Cause |url=http://www.49ers.com/pressbox/print_friendly.php?PRKey=2408 |quote=An outreach program of the CCDC, the Adopt-an-Alleyway Youth Empowerment Project was designed to make the city of San Francisco aware of all the neglected alleys, so that they may be safer and better maintained for Chinatown residents and visitors. |publisher=San Francisco 49ers |date= |accessdate=2007-10-31 ] [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Rebuilding Chinatown After the 1906 Quake. |url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5337215 |quote=Chin wants tourists to see more than the neighborhood's many exotic restaurants and trinket and souvenir shops. So he has organized the "Adopt an Alleyway" Tours, conducted by young Chinese-Americans, to take tourists into Chinatown's alleys where they can see certain landmarks, such as Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory along Ross Alley, which is the oldest alleyway in San Francisco's Chinatown. |publisher=National Public Radio |date= |accessdate=2007-10-31 ] [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Chinatown Community Development Center |url=http://www.dcyf.org/Content.aspx?id=1358 |quote=The Adopt an Alleyway (AAA) project has allowed young people to do organizing and community service that benefits the entire Chinatown community. Through weekly meetings, youth learn about community issues and then pick those they are most concerned about. They brainstorm and develop projects to address those issues with staff support. Currently, they organize monthly programs for seniors in two low-income housing and children that live in SRO housing, as well as the youth-led Chinatown Alleyway Tours. They will be working to enforce renovation and building inspections of Chinatown’s SRO's, create more safe transportation opportunities for youth through MUNI and for educational justice. |publisher=San Francisco |date= |accessdate=2007-10-31 ]

History

This project started in 1991 by Reverend Norman Fong, a member of the Chinatown Community Development Center, and a Chinatown advocate, where he recruited high school youths to help him on his quest to beautify the alleyways in San Francisco's Chinatown. Back in the 1980s, the City of San Francisco did not officially recognize alleyways as city streets, so nothing was done, while graffiti and trash poured relentlessly over Chinatown's alleyways, so he decided to start the project. As of 2007, alleyways are still not considered a street because they do not meet the 32ft width requirement, although other alleyways outside of Chinatown are.fact|date=February 2008 As of 2007, there are about 30+ members in the youth empowerment program, and 10 paid workers.fact|date=February 2008

Volunteer life

The Adopt-an-Alleyway (AAA) is a combination of its volunteer, the cabinet, and the coordinator. Monthly general meetings are held in the first Friday of each month, where all the volunteers come together to discuss and review the upcoming events for the current month. Usually, every second Friday of each month, the AAA cabinet will have their own meeting, supervised by the coordinator, where the cabinet plans the activities and organizes the events. The cabinet is composed of a president, vice president, two secretaries, 4 social chairs, and 3-5 cabinet leaders. The events/volunteer services done by the organization includes, tenant services, Super Sunday, and cleanup/graffiti removal every 2nd Saturday of the month. Tenant services is done twice a month, where the youths go to Single room occupancies around San Francisco's Chinatown and interact with the seniors that lives there, therefore, bridging the intergeneration gap. Super Sunday is and event where the youth helps take care of kids while their parents are having SRO meetings at Gordon J. Lau Elementary School. Clean Up/Graffiti removal is where the youth breaks into groups of 4-8, lead by the cabinet into the alleyways of San Francisco's Chinatown, where they sweep the alleyways or paint over the graffiti. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Adopt-An-Alleyway (AAA) |url=http://www.chinatowncdc.org/workareas/adv-org/aaa.html |quote=Chinatown CDC founded the Adopt-An-Alley Youth Project in 1991. ... Currently there is a youth leadership of over 35 youth who actively monitors and conducts regular clean-ups (at least 10 times a year, including two major alleyway work-a-thons) of all alleys in Chinatown. |publisher=Chinatown Community Development Center |date= |accessdate=2007-10-31 ]

Awards

On May 12, 2007, The project won the 2007 Crissy Field Heroes award and has a video spot at the Crissy Field information center. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-hm2j40CIM AAA Community Heroes] ] cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Honoring Chinatown. |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/11/BAG3TPP8FV1.DTL&nl=top |quote=A group of young people, most with roots in the historic district, began by scrubbing and sweeping its historic alleys. Now they're giving tours, too. ... The three return to the old neighborhood frequently. They're part of the Adopt-An-Alleyway Youth Project, which will receive a "community hero" award Saturday from the Crissy Field Center. |publisher=San Francisco Chronicle |date= |accessdate=2007-10-31 ]

As part of the project, the AAA also offers tours that usually leaves from Portsmouth Square, and tours some of Chinatown's alleyways. [ [http://www.chinatownalleywaytours.org/tourguides Tour Guides] ] cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Chinatown Alleyway Tours |url=http://www.chinatownalleywaytours.org |quote=Chinatown Alleyway Tours (CATs) will take you off the main streets, to learn about the daily culture, rich history and modern day issues of San Francisco's Chinatown. |publisher=Chinatown Alleyway Tours |date= |accessdate=2007-10-31 ]

List of Chinatown Alleyways in English and Chinese

*Commercial Street - 襟美慎街
*Wentworth Street - 德和街
*Beckett Street - 白話轉街

*Waverly Place - 天后廟街
*Ross Alley - 舊呂宋巷
*Walter U. Lum Place - 林華耀街
*Hang Ah Alley - 香亞街
*Spofford Alley - 新呂宋巷
*Old Chinatown Lane - 舊華埠巷
*St Louis Place - 聖路易巷
*Jack Kerouac Alley - 亞打罅巷
*Stark Alley
*Joice Alley

[http://www.sanfranciscochinatown.com/attractions/alleys.html San Francisco Chinatown Alleys] ]

References