Response to Covid-19
San Francisco Village continues to follow the advice and guidelines of The City and County of San Francisco, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Our COVID policy is subject to change based on this advice and guidelines.
Vaccination. All San Francisco Village staff and volunteers are fully vaccinated. We do not check vaccination status at our events.
Masks. Masks are optional in our office and it is up to members and volunteers to decide if they should wear a mask when meeting in the community or at a member’s home. We work from a level of community care and ask for generous responses if someone requests masks to allow them to connect, participate, and get needed support.
Please self-assess your health before leaving home.
- Within the past 10 days, have you been diagnosed with, or tested positive for, COVID-19?
- In the past 10-14 days, have you had close contact with anyone who has COVID-19, during their contagious period?
- In the last 24 hours, including today, have you had any flu-like symptoms, that are new or not explained by another condition?
If you said yes to any of the questions above, please stay home.
Building Community Resilience
When the shelter-in-place order went into effect in mid-March 2020, SFV responded immediately, migrating our in-person programs to an online format within days. For many program instructors, neighborhood circle leaders, and members this was their first experience in a video conferencing environment, and they adapted quickly. By May, members could choose from more than 40 online offerings including meditation, movement classes, technology training, discussion groups, storytelling, intergenerational experience exchanges, neighborhood circles and an online improvisation theater group.
San Francisco Village onboarded nearly 100 new volunteers in the early weeks of the pandemic, mostly young people in their 20’s and 30’s, motivated by empathy and civic love. In early April, a team of volunteers sprang into action, phoning each of our 395 members to ascertain their needs for meal delivery, grocery shopping, pharmacy pick-ups, technology support and companionship. In April and May alone, volunteers provided nearly 1500 hours of support, a 75% increase over the previous two months. You can read the full story in our Annual Report.
By early January 2021, older adults age 75 and up began receiving vaccines. The vaccine rollout was bumpy and available appointments were difficult to secure. SFV staff intervened and helped nearly 100 members and volunteers make appointments, and in some cases, provided transportation to the clinic.
In a post-Covid world, SFV programs include a combination of in-person, virtual, and hybrid programs utilizing Zoom. Stay up to date on our current offerings by checking out our monthly newsletter and online calendar.
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.