The SCAN Foundation recently interviewed San Francisco Village Executive Director, Kate Hoepke, Member Services Director, Jill Ellefsen, and Wellness and Volunteer Coordinator, Sha’Nice Patterson. These interviews highlighted how San Francisco Village fosters intergenerational connection and interdependence through a community model of social care. We’re proud to be recognized for the work we’re doing to advance health equity among older adults!
Watch Kate discuss intergenerational relationships, mutuality, and the power of building a genuine culture of care in this video. This is a must-listen!
Why this matters
Social care is critical for the wellbeing of older adults and their ability to age in place. San Francisco Village’s model of care leverages the power of intergenerational connection to empower older adults to build trusted relationships with people they can call upon for support.
We look at the intergenerational relationship as an opportunity learn and an opportunity to look at it from a partnering perspective, not necessarily as an up-down mentoring thing. Which, often times, that’s how it’s framed…We look at it as an equal relationship. — Kate Hoepke, Executive Director at San Francisco Village
[Aging], it’s a time of life where your social circle shrinks in a very natural way. People die, people move away. Sometimes if you’re not in the work world, you don’t have kids, you don’t have that social contact that you’ve had where you just replenished as time went on…You hear over and over again, ‘I see my social circle shrinking’ and it’s a very important time to have a social circle around you, to have people around you.
— Jill Ellefsen, Member Services Director at San Francisco Village
All over California and it’s certainly true in San Francisco, people have come here from other places and they have left natural support networks behind inadvertently. We don’t plan on that when we leave and we come out here, but we are a city of transplanted people… Whether that’s immigration from another country or from another state…How do you rebuild that feeling of support and safety and belonging? — Kate Hoepke, Executive Director at San Francisco Village
Read more insights from “Stories of a Movement” in the full research report here. San Francisco Village is highlighted on pgs. 139, 152, and 163.
Photo credit: The SCAN Foundation, Greater Good
Sara joined the team in 2018. She brings with her 20 years of experience in community development, philanthropy, and organizational management. She completed her bachelors at George Washington University and her masters at UC Berkeley. Her career focus has been on evaluating how community groups run from year-to-year and strengthening daily processes to increase institutional success. Sara loves travel and global development issues, particularly a non-profit she founded 10 years ago focusing on students’ access to school in Cambodia. Sara is raising her family here in San Francisco.
Maya is a public relations and communications professional with more than a decade of experience; her expertise includes consumer products and technology PR, as well as event management and content development. She has been a pro-bono consultant with the Taproot Foundation since 2012, and has participated in three service grants to date. Maya attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and graduated with a BA in mass communications and a minor in political science.