Larkin Street Youth Services

Larkin Street Youth Services (LSYS) provides programs that support homeless young adults in their move toward independence, and its Arts Program has always played a critical role in positive youth development. With funding over the past six years, LSYS has been able to strengthen its infrastructure, and both youth clients and organization leadership recognize the Arts Program as one of its most important assets, often bringing in the hardest-to-reach youths. With renewed funding, LSYS plans to deepen the integration of the Arts Program throughout its other services, increasing the organization’s effectiveness in reaching the most marginalized homeless youth and moving all of its clients toward stable housing and independence.

This grant will provide continued support to the 3rd Street Youth Center and Clinic, which offers teen pregnancy prevention services in the context of a comprehensive youth center and health clinic in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point community. The clinic provides comprehensive primary care, mental health, community outreach, and development services to youth in the community.

This grant would continue support for the 3rd Street Youth Center and Clinic, which offers teen pregnancy prevention services in the context of a comprehensive clinic providing health care in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point district, one of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in San Francisco. This district has the largest number of teen cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea in the city, a teen pregnancy rate three times the rest of the city, and an infant mortality rate that is among the highest of any zip code in California. Fifty percent of the youth in this community live in poverty. The project seeks to improve access to services through flexible hours of operation and services, providing peer-based sexual and behavioral information, and engaging youth to serve as leaders in the community and in the agency itself. During the prior grant period the Center secured a new larger site and increased the number of clients served.