2003

3 about the koshland program5 20th anniversary celebration12 neighborhoods on the move18 awardees in the news19 new koshland web pages20 resources22 koshland committee+staff

6 Awardees 2002 Ten dedicated leaders from Alameda’s diverse WestEnd received Koshland Civic Unity Awards in 2002.

14 Mothers Against Murder and AssaultAmidst Oakland’s murder epidemic, a group of bravewomen are reaching out to help incarcerated youth.

16 Interview: Arnold PerkinsAlameda County’s Director of Public Health,a former Koshland Program director, talks aboutthe importance of community.

2

2002West Alamedaalameda

2001South of Marketsan francisco

2000Canalsan rafael

1999Bayshore·Crockerdaly city

1998West Boulevard·El Pueblo·Parkside·Downtownpittsburg

1997San Antoniooakland

1996Chinatownsan francisco

1995Oceanview·Merced· Inglesidesan francisco

1992Central and North Richmondrichmond

1991Missionsan francisco

1990West Oaklandoakland

Tenderloinsan francisco

1989Elmhurstoakland

1985Visitacion Valleysan francisco

1984Potrero Hillsan francisco

1983Western Additionsan francisco

kosh

lan

d n

eig

hbo

rho

od

s

Retha Robinsonkoshland program director

Susan Kleinmaneditor

Bahati Banks, Amy Conley,Charles Fields, Susan Kleinmancontributors

Talya Gould, Rebecca Holder, Anna Marie Tuteraeditorial assistants

Amici Designdesign

Kathy Sloanephotography

Koshland Connect, 2003Published annually by The San Francisco Foundation

The San Francisco Foundation225 Bush Street, Suite 500San Francisco, CA 94104-4224

tel: 415.733.8561 fax: 415.733.2785 email: rsa@sff.org

Visit us online at www.sff.org/koshland

Dear Friends,

We are proud to showcase once again the exceptional Koshland awardeesand their efforts to build civic unity in Bay Area neighborhoods.

In September 2002, the Koshland Program marked its 20th year of workingcollaboratively and supportively with neighborhoods to improve the qualityof life in the Bay Area. Our 20th anniversary event was a forum to celebratethe many factors that build a strong community, such as involved residents, strong families, interracial understanding, and a collective appreciation of multicultural diversity.

This newsletter features updates on the exciting work of residents and service providers in the West End neighborhood of the City of Alameda, thesoma neighborhood of San Francisco, the Canal neighborhood of SanRafael, the Bayshore and Crocker neighborhoods of Daly City, and fourneighborhoods in Pittsburg.

This year we are looking forward to working with leaders in the Monument Corridor neighborhood of Concord. Our 12 newest awardees willbe honored in a ceremony on May 27, 2003.

We want to express our appreciation to the Koshland Committee and stafffor their support and commitment and, most of all, to the neighborhoodresidents who continue to inspire our work.

Fondly,

Retha Robinson Michael Omikoshland program director koshland committee chair

3

In 1982, The San Francisco Foundation

established The Daniel E. Koshland Civic Unity

Awards in honor of one of its founders and

major benefactors. He built a reputation for

practical, bold, and even riskyphilanthropy in his efforts to improve the

quality of life for all Bay Area residents.

Daniel Koshland devoted his energy

and resources toward alleviating injustices

and discrimination. His focus was on

bringing together leadersfrom neighborhoods, the private sector,

government, and philanthropy to solve

community problems.

The Koshland Program is administered by

The San Francisco Foundation’s Koshland

Committee, which is comprised of Koshland

family members and local leaders who are

committed to improving thequality of life in the Bay Area.

In the spirit of Daniel Koshland's life and work, the KoshlandCivic Unity Awards recognize Bay Area grassroots risk-takers—those social innovators ofbold spirit who accept the most stubborn neighborhood problems as a personal challengeand who work collaboratively to overcome them.

continued 8

current neighborhoodsrepresenting all 5 counties servedby the san francisco foundation

16

a conversation with Arnold PerkinsKOSHLAND PROGRAM DIRECTOR, 1988 – 1992; KOSHLAND COMMITTEE MEMBER, 1996 – PRESENT

BB: How did your upbringing contribute to your passion for community building?

AP: I was raised in Miami, Florida in a traditional African way, in thesense that whatever was done by the families was collective. Myfather, for example, built a number of houses with his friends.They used to drill wells by hand collectively, buy food together, orgo down to the banana boat and get bananas collectively. So earlyon I understood the importance of communing with others, whichis what community is, and the unity that it took to accomplishthings.

Living in an environment that has been heavily influenced by tra-ditional European values, specifically the value placed on inde-pendence and the “I can do it myself” mentality, I have had tostruggle to help folks understand that we have to operate collec-tively. It needs to be “our program” and not just “my program.”

BB: How has your experience wearing various hats (teacher,educator, business owner, and grantmaker) molded your philosophy about community?

AP: My philosophy comes from my elders and from mentors thatI have known and worked with. I have always been taught theimportance of community. My parents instilled in me not to thinkof myself as a “minority.” “Minor” is a code word meaning “unim-portant.” I was raised in an environment where I didn’t know howto sing the Star Spangled Banner until I came to California. All I knew growing up was [the Negro National Anthem], “Lift everyvoice and sing, ’til earth and heaven ring.” On the weekends I would hear [African American musicians and activists such as]Marian Anderson, Roland Hayes, and Paul Robeson. It was alwaysall about communities. That has always been an integral part of me.

I feel like I was born with a sense of community. I don’t get caughtup in the argument about, “Well, you’re not from the community!”All of us are from a community and it all counts. You don’t have tolive in West Oakland to have a sense of what people there experi-ence; but at the same time you certainly can’t go into WestOakland and tell people what to do.

interview with a koshland committee member

Arnold Perkins is the director of the Alameda County Public Health

Department, providing leadership and direction for administrative,

program, and policy activities. He brings diverse experience and a deep

commitment to building and maintaining the spirit of community to his

current position. Currently, Arnold is leading the department through a

major organizational shift that reflects a broad vision of public health

and a community development orientation. His colorful background

includes roles as a high school teacher, counselor, and principal; psy-

chology technician; director of a California Youth Authority halfway

house; faculty member at California State University at Hayward and at

Antioch College; developer of the first county-wide homeless programs

for Alameda County; multicultural fellow and director of the Koshland

Program at The San Francisco Foundation; and restaurant owner and

operator. Arnold is an experienced speaker and facilitator, especially in

the areas of organizational change, team building, creative leadership,

community development, and group dynamics. Married with four sons,

Arnold is an avid traveler, reader, and sportsman and enjoys gardening,

raising bees, and growing orchids. Arnold spoke with Bahati Banks, a

multicultural fellow with The San Francisco Foundation, about his expe-

riences and his philosophy of community building.

continued8

I give a talk where I begin with the universe and Ibring it all the way down to the individual. If you lookat us from 5,000 feet in the air, we look very muchlike a cell does. If you’re walking down a corridor onSan Francisco’s Market Street, it looks just like cellsin the body. When we look at ourselves in a muchbroader context, we’re part of an organism, and weall affect one another. Even me [breath sound] blow-ing on you, you feel my presence, and so we all havethis energy that we exchange back and forth. Myexperience has taught me about the importance ofour interconnectedness.

BB: How has your background in promoting healthand wellness influenced your work around commu-nity building?

AP: I didn’t come to this job in the traditional way,through the Masters in Public Health track. I camefrom a community wellness perspective and a beliefthat communities are interrelated, and I learnedabout health later on.

I reorganized the department from being a down-town operation, making the people come to us, to acommunity-based operation. My philosophy is thatI’m employed by the residents of Alameda County,and the best way to serve them is to go where theylive. We now have ten community health teams inten different neighborhoods. I would like to have 20or 30 more teams, and the teams don’t have to focussolely on public health. They need to be a part of alarger structure, because if a team is only workingon public health, then we are not doing our jobs.

BB: Can you tell me more about the communityhealth teams?

AP: The teams are made up of community healthoutreach workers, nurses, and clerical support with-in these various communities. We selected twoneighborhoods in each supervisory district inAlameda County. The teams are there to teach thecommunity and also to learn from the community. Inorder to do our job well, we must build capacity,which means we transfer the skills that we havewithin the community and we also have the commu-nity skills transferred to us.

It’s very much like raising bees. Bees go out and pol-linate. Our community health teams should be goinginto the community to pollinate and then setting upstructures so the community does the work on theirown. When we do research, it has to be participato-ry, so that the community learns the research meth-ods that we have. The goal is to create healthy orwell communities. People in our communities arediseased, and we have communities that are “dis-eased,” and part of our goal is to create environ-ments where people are not “dis-eased,” but peopleare “at ease.” When people feel well, they feel likethey are in homeostasis.

When you look at a mobile, it goes around in bal-ance, and then sometimes the mobile gets out of

balance, and it will go up and down until it findshomeostasis. A lot of our communities, for variousreasons such as education, economics, policing, orlack of health access, are like mobiles out of kilter.Our goal is to create the homeostasis within a com-munity so the community can operate, because mostcommunities already have what they need. Somecommunities don’t have grocery stores or banks, but,with organized pressure, residents could bring thoseinstitutions into the community. I encourage commu-nities to create their own institutions.

People in the community are so wonderful. Look atthe Koshland Program. Folks just want attentionpaid to them and they want us to listen to what theyhave to say. Many communities are disenfranchisedbecause of the lack of access to capital and employ-ment. We have the ability to assist them with organ-izing around issues so that the community feelswhole and empowered.

BB: How has the Koshland Program transformed theway in which communities view their homegrownleaders?

AP: I don’t know if it has transformed them as muchas recognized that those leaders exist and that theyhave been there for many years. It’s like if I’m drivingdown the street and Columbus sees my car and

says, “I discover your car.” In some ways we havediscovered, from an organizational perspective,what people in the community already knew. I thinkwhat Koshland does is work with the people in thecommunity to celebrate their genius, their great-ness, their leadership. It also reinforces for the com-munity that you folks have a lot going on; it’s right inyour midst. What we want to do is help you harnessthe wisdom that you already have.

Omowale Satterwhite, who facilitates the initialKoshland neighborhood meetings, usually goesaround the room and asks, “How many years haveyou been involved with service in this community?”He points out that the total number of years in theroom could be anywhere from 500 to 1,000. That’s asignificant amount of knowledge. The KoshlandProgram assists people in tapping into that knowledge in a more organized fashion, helpingthem develop a community plan. If you don’t have a plan, then any path will get you there because you don’t know where you’re going. But, if you have someone to work with you and organize andharness the energy, then you can do incrediblethings. It doesn’t have to be a lot of people, just afew people who organize can make a difference.Koshland has helped people to realize the geniuswithin their communities.

17