San Francisco, CA. Sunset Youth Services‘ central philosophy is that cultivating healthy attachments with stable and caring adults is the best way to support youth and young adults on the precipice of the criminal justice system. SYS works with young people aged 14 to 24 – as well as their families – in a multitude of different capacities: providing digital arts resources, workforce development, justice and mental health services, and family support. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has forced SYS to close its Youth Center and adapt many services to an online format, staffers continue to center their efforts on relationship-based support for the community.
Youth perform at Sunset Festival prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the early weeks of California’s shelter-in-place order, SYS began weekly ‘Love Parades.’ Employees made signs bearing encouraging messages, piled into their cars, and drove by the houses of families they serve, honking and shouting, “We love you!” and “We’re in this together!” SYS’s commitment to the mental wellbeing of the families served is palpable in the video below of a ‘Love Parade.’
In addition to these weekly shows of support, Sunset Youth Services, in partnership with the San Francisco Marin Food Bank, Dine11, and World Central Kitchen, delivered over 2,000 meals a week to program families during the beginning stages of shelter-in-place. According to Development and Communications Associate Melissa Laureta, SYS “continues to distribute food boxes,” although staffers and volunteers have reduced the number of meals they deliver. This initiative is made possible because of food donations from Trader Joes and the SF-Marin Food Bank.
SYS employees prepare to deliver meals to families in need.
Sunset Youth Services’ Digital Arts program is a cornerstone of the nonprofit’s efforts to cultivate community with SF youth both inside and outside prison. Young people come to SYS’ Youth Center to produce music and videos, write songs, and learn similar marketable skills from industry professionals. SYS began bringing its Digital Arts program into juvenile hall and jails so that in the process of creating music, incarcerated youth form relationships with Sunset Youth employees. Once out of jail, those connections facilitate their reentry into society by connecting them to the wealth of services that SYS provides, such as a highly successful Workforce Development program. Almost 90% of the youth who graduate from this program land a job. At the junction between Digital Arts and Workforce Development is Upstar Records: a youth-led record label that cultivates young hip-hop enthusiasts into digital technology professionals.
A singer performs with a group associated with Upstar Records during pre-COVID-19 times.
SYS’s programs are structured around the research-driven concept of attachment communities: groups that provide connectedness and foster healthy, trusting relationships between volunteers and youth. Many young people lack stable relationships in their lives, which is believed to be a root cause of issues like depression, anxiety, and mental illness. Even before research released by The Commission on Children at Risk in 2005 identified attachment communities as the definitive response to myriad behavioral and mental health issues in youth, SYS had already formed its own relationship-based community in San Francisco. Instead of compartmentalizing the services they offer, SYS ensures a teen can walk into the building and have access to any of five programs. At the Youth Center, youth and young adults can make music or beats, meet with mental health professionals, case managers, and receive support caring for a young child. Laureta explains, “Youth can come into our center and hit all five of our programs and still maintain community within our family.” This idea of ‘family’ is at the core of all Sunset Youth Services programs.
Sunset Youth Services at the Playland BBQ in 2019.
Anyone interested in volunteering with Sunset Youth Services should contact Melissa Laureta at [email protected] for more information. Keep in mind, however, that Sunset Youth Services’ dedication to forging enduring relationships between volunteers and youth make getting involved more complicated than some might think. Laureta says, “We are pretty tight gatekeepers of our youth community because there’s a lot of abandonment stuff and mental health stuff with our kids. When we have volunteers who parachute in and out, abandonment issues arise rally fast. So we need dedicated volunteers to stick with a kid or a cohort of kids for weeks and months and be committed and show relationships are stable because they don’t get that from other places in their lives.”
From Sunset Youth Services: The mission of Sunset Youth Services is to foster long-term stability and growth in in-risk* youth, young adults, and families through caring relationships and supportive services. This goal is based on the simple belief that youth are inherently worthy of dignity and respect and have the potential to positively contribute to their communities when their real needs are met.
