Episode 54: Edgewood Center for Children & Families

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A transcript, lightly edited for clarity and length, follows.

VOC Covid 19 Podcast Edgewood Center EP 54 Mix 1

[00:00:00] George Koster: Welcome to Voices of the Community, which explores critical issues facing Northern California communities. We introduce you to the voices of community thought leaders and change makers who are working on solutions that face our fellow individual community members, neighborhoods,

[00:00:26] George Koster: cities, and our region.

[00:00:28] George Koster: This is George Koster, your host.

[00:00:33] George Koster: This episode is part of our series Exploring COVID nineteens impact on nonprofits and small businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area back in April of 2020 when we decided to create this ongoing series on COVID nineteens impact, first on nonprofits and then on small businesses in the San Francisco Bay area.

[00:00:52] George Koster: We like you had no idea how long the pandemic would go on and what the health and economic impact would be in our community. Going into 2021, the pandemic is now killing more people, shutting down more nonprofits and small businesses, along with wiping out the livelihoods of families, neighborhoods, and communities.

[00:01:12] George Koster: We will continue to shine a spotlight on the nonprofits and small businesses that make up the fabric of our community. Along with the founders and staff who are struggling to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their operations, services and sustainability, until we can all get to the other side of the pandemic.

[00:01:31] George Koster: Along the way, we will also share with you all the amazing solutions that our nonprofits, small businesses, foundations, and government leaders are working on to help us all get to the other side of the pandemic and come together to rebuild our communities with more economic, social, and environmental equality.

[00:01:49] Justine Underhill: I have to say that supporting a staff who work 24 7 in person to care for kids who are in intensive level mental health treatment during this time has been really an amazing experience, a challenging and amazing. Experience and our staff have at times been, you know, scared, have gotten sick themselves.

[00:02:11] Justine Underhill: You know, it's hard to keep the morale up, and they have continued to come in and run these services in just an incredible way. We have staff who are, you know, coming in in full PPE every day and every night to support kids who are going through these crises.

[00:02:25] George Koster: The harm on our mental health from the COVID-19 pandemic has been the most acute on our children.

[00:02:31] George Koster: Teenagers and young adults. School closures and enforced social distancing has added to the uncertainty, social isolation and parental angst, along with cutting off many teens and young adults, but most of their psychological support. This has put our children at a much higher risk of developing or amplifying their anxiety and depression.

[00:02:54] George Koster: Researchers at Harvard, Northeastern, Rutgers, and Northwestern Universities conducted eight large survey rounds across all US states from April to October of 2020, and found that by October of 2020, over 36% of young adults had suicidal thoughts compared to just 32% in May of 2020 when the study started.

[00:03:16] George Koster: These studies reinforced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's August, 2020, report that 25% of young people from 18 to 24 contemplated suicide in July of 2020 because of the pandemic driven lockdowns. As our youth, families, and community struggle with these mental health realities, we wanted to feature the voices of Justine Underhill, the Chief program officer, and Greg Biggs, the director of Advancement from one of the legacy social service agencies in San Francisco that has been at the center of providing mental health services to our youth, Edgewood Center for Children and Families.

[00:03:54] George Koster: I'm joined remotely by Greg Biggs, the Director of Advancement, and Justine Underhill, the Chief Program Officer of Edgewood Center for Children and Families. Thanks for being here, Greg and Justine. Edgewood has such a wonderful holistic approach to services. So I'd like to turn to you, Justine first and have you please provide for our audience a overview, if you will, of Edgewood programs and how you work with families.

[00:04:18] Justine Underhill: Sure. So before we started, you referred to an ecosystem of support, and I love that phrase. It's a great way to describe Edgewood. We have comprehensive mental health agency that serves children, youth, and families in a range of programs, starting from prevention and intervention programs like our family resource center, parenting support classes, and our youngest little clients in our early childhood mental health.

[00:04:46] Justine Underhill: Consultation program where we consult on creating, uh, positive mental health environments in early childhood settings. And then we range up to our outpatient mental health services, our behavioral, therapeutic behavioral services, our wraparound and outpatient therapy, and all the way up to our residential treatment services, which are on our campus in the sunset.

[00:05:10] Justine Underhill: So it's a, a full continuum of care for children and families. In both San Francisco and San Mateo counties.

[00:05:16] George Koster: And are you still doing work in the East Bay?

[00:05:18] Justine Underhill: Yes. Thank you. One of our really important programs at Edgewood is our kinship program and kinship program. We support kin caregivers, family members who have taken in children as an alternative to them going into the foster care system.

[00:05:31] Justine Underhill: And that means that they're saved from going into the system, but it also means that they don't get the kinds of resources that come with entering into that system. So we provide support for kinship families. And because so many families have moved out of San Francisco in recent years, we also service them in the East Bay.

[00:05:51] George Koster: So if a youth or a family might start with you in San Mateo or San Francisco at five or six years old, and then as you're working with them, and I think the whole idea that you stay with a family in youth for that long, if they move to the East Bay, essentially the service is following with them.

[00:06:08] George Koster: They're not dropping out of the service, if you will.

[00:06:10] Justine Underhill: Right. At least for that particular program, sometimes we have some limitations with what can travel where in terms of funding sources and things. But for our kinship services, yes, we can follow them there.

[00:06:22] George Koster: And so much of the work that Edgewood has done over the decades is personal.

[00:06:25] George Koster: It's one-on-one, it's in person. And now coming up on just over a year, we've been all locked down. How has the pandemic really impacted Edgewood programs and your ability to deliver service?

[00:06:39] Justine Underhill: Well, it's been huge. Of course. I would say that we've had kind of two sets of really big tasks to undertake. One was to convert all of our community-based services, our outpatient services to telehealth services so that our treatment could continue.

[00:06:57] Justine Underhill: And the second one was to keep an in-person residential treatment campus running safely. And in person, which we've done the whole time. Both of those have been a tremendous amount of logistical work and a huge financial impact. We had our services up and running pretty much immediately in terms of telehealth.

[00:07:17] Justine Underhill: Everybody just kind of did what they had to, to continue with their clients, but it took us a little while to catch up to that. In terms of the technology, not all of our staff. Had been equipped with laptops and agency cell phones and what they needed to be able to do that work in a safe and confidential way.

[00:07:35] Justine Underhill: So it was a big logistical effort to kind of get that underway and to fund that. And the sort of operational impact of running our residential services and our crisis stabilization unit in person are really huge. There's a tremendous number of different issues that come up in terms of running congregate care.

[00:07:57] Justine Underhill: Safely and at the same time, unfortunately, as we know, kids have been in a tremendous amount of crisis during this time, so we've also been busy with referrals. So it's been a lot of work. But our staff has done a tremendous job of keeping services in tech. So we don't have any literature that has not.

[00:08:16] Justine Underhill: Stayed open to our clients or that's had a gap. It just took a lot of operational work to convert over.

[00:08:22] George Koster: Greg, I'm gonna turn to you because you're in advancement in trying to help underwrite all of these services. How has COVID impacted Edge Wood's financial abilities to actually deliver these services?

[00:08:31] George Koster: Because it's more than. Just obviously it, it's also all of the PPE work, you know, and all those materials and making sure that your staff is safe and that your clients are safe.

[00:08:41] Gregg Biggs: Yeah. It's, you know, getting the, the financial in kind volunteer support is, we've had, like many had had to pivot immediately A year ago.

[00:08:48] Gregg Biggs: We had a, a, a successful fundraising campaign last spring, raised over $500,000 to provide things like hazard pay to staff that are, you know, doing direct services on our campus here in San Francisco to provide, you know, personal. Equipment and it was just a diversity of corporations, foundations, individuals that responded very generously at the time.

[00:09:10] Gregg Biggs: You know, in pre pandemic times. Volunteering was a very important part of how our community and supporters get involved, and that obviously has not been something we've been able to do in person. So we have been creative on how we've been able to keep volunteers involved. Twitter, that's one of our corporate sponsors.

[00:09:26] Gregg Biggs: Put on a virtual assign there for the kids. In our Edgewood Community School, we have had other volunteers that have written cards of support to our kids and to our staff. A catering company provided meals to all of our workers that are reporting every day at the Vicente Street campus, full designer, Amy K made handmade masks.

[00:09:46] Gregg Biggs: For our staff and for our clients. So we've seen, you know, a wide range of ways that people can still stay involved even though they can't be with us in person.

[00:09:56] George Koster: Justine, anything else on how the staff has responded to COVID or things that you both see, especially now with a new round of funding to come in to help that work and.

[00:10:07] George Koster: To your point, I think what's finally, you know, dawned on so many people is after a year of being locked down with each other, that mental health services are even that much more important than they were a year ago.

[00:10:19] Justine Underhill: Yeah. I mean, I have to say that supporting a staff who work 24 7 in person to care for kids who are in intensive level mental health treatment during this time has been really an amazing experience, a challenging and amazing.

[00:10:35] Justine Underhill: Experience and our staff have at times been, you know, scared, have gotten sick themselves. You know, it's hard to keep the morale up. And they have continued to come in and run these services in just an incredible way. We have staff who are, you know, coming in in full PPE every day and every night to support kids who are going through these crises, and it's really been heroic.

[00:10:59] Justine Underhill: Sometimes I think that, you know, our healthcare workers are such heroes as they are and so are our mental healthcare workers who don't always get the same recognition. But I think we've really seen that at Edgewood. We have tried to do a tremendous amount in terms of supporting the staff and kind of responding to COVID.

[00:11:18] Justine Underhill: Our medical director, Dr. Randall, created a, a kind of a Fourier plan to. Advise people every day, sort of what tier of safety or danger we are on kind of risk level tier. We have a group that meets every morning and addresses kind of what tier we're on and any issues that are arising, and then we keep that back out to the staff each day.

[00:11:41] Justine Underhill: So one of the things that's been expensive for us, but important is that we paid our staff a hazard pay or additional pay during. The time that they were working when we were in a shelter in place order. And we continue to pay extra stipends if staff ever need to supervise kids who may have symptoms or may need medical appointments, those kinds of things.

[00:12:02] Justine Underhill: We have a mandatory testing system for our staff, so all staff are required to be tested each month and report those results. And then we've worked very hard. Our staff have. Been unfortunate to have the opportunity to be vaccinated. We've worked really hard to encourage that for all of our staff as well as to provide information for our clients who our staff are also supporting in terms of getting vaccines.

[00:12:25] Justine Underhill: And then we've collaborated with the Department of Public Health when we've needed to around any kind of COVID safety issues on the campus. So we've done a lot to respond, and like I said, our staff has been really incredible.

[00:12:37] George Koster: Over the years that you've worked there, Justine, what would you say, and this is a question for you as well, Greg, what would you say is Edge Wood's biggest impact on our youth and families in San Francisco and San Mateo and obviously the East Bay, it's a regional approach.

[00:12:51] Justine Underhill: Well, um, Edgewood Hass been around for a very long time, since the 1850s, so there's been a big impact. I would say kind of both. Maybe an old example and a new example. I think, like we mentioned, Edgewood really pioneered support system and. We've had years of impact there on supporting those, like I said, relative caregivers who take children in.

[00:13:13] Justine Underhill: And we're talking about lots of grandmothers and aunties and other relatives who weren't necessarily expecting to take a child in at that point in their lives. And we provide them a really full range of support, and I think that's been a big impact in our community. A couple of other kind of newer programs that have a really big impact.

[00:13:31] Justine Underhill: One is our crisis stabilization unit. In San Francisco on our Vicente campus, which is a 24 hour program where kids who are in mental health crisis can come 24 hours a day. It's an alternative to where kids usually have to go if they're having that kind of crisis, which is to an emergency room's a terrible place to be.

[00:13:52] Justine Underhill: For kids who are already in crisis, they tend to sit there for hours at a time, and it's scary there. So our crisis stabilization unit offers an alternative where kids can come. In a much more comfortable environment and have 24 hours of stabilization and assessment, and we help them get the treatment that they need to follow up.

[00:14:13] Justine Underhill: And that has a really huge impact. 'cause we've diverted many, many kids from psychiatric hospitalizations by having that program. And then the last one I just would like to mention in San Mateo, just because it's a little bit unique, is that we have. Two drop-in centers for what we call TE Youth, our transitional aged youth.

[00:14:32] Justine Underhill: These are 18 to 24-year-old young adults, and we have two drop-in centers in San Mateo County where they can come. Not at the moment. We're offering our services virtually right now, but generally they can come. They have a place to hang out. They have a place to meal, laundry, receive therapy services, use a computer to apply for jobs, a full range of support, which is.

[00:14:56] Justine Underhill: Just a pretty cool thing for young adults who need this care.

[00:15:00] George Koster: So if a family member or a young person was listening to this, how would they get in touch with Edgewood?

[00:15:06] Justine Underhill: Yeah, so you can go to our website@edgewood.org and learn about all of our programs there, particularly if you're interested or need services from a stabilization unit.

[00:15:17] Justine Underhill: We recommend calling 4 1 5 6 8 2. 3, 2, 7, 8. And again, that's a 24 7 number. If you need help right away.

[00:15:27] George Koster: Thank you. And Greg, you've been there for a while. What do you feel has been et Edward's biggest impact on the community?

[00:15:33] Gregg Biggs: I think, you know, in addition to our direct services, it is to help reduce the stigma around mental health, which we feel is very important.

[00:15:41] Gregg Biggs: And I think if there's any positive out of the pandemic is that I think that has made a lot of people aware of what it's like to face, you know, stress and anxiety and, you know, we are very committed to having, you know, honest. Open conversations about mental health and that there is nothing to be ashamed about in, in having that discussion or saying that you need help.

[00:16:02] Gregg Biggs: You know, in addition to providing our services, we, uh, feel that that's very important part of our mission is helping to reduce that stigma.

[00:16:09] George Koster: Couldn't agree more. And one of the unique things that Edgewood is engaged in since you've been around for decades, and I don't think most people realize you've been around since 1850.

[00:16:17] George Koster: That's a good one. Thank you, Justine, is that you are doing research and evaluation to improve your services. Greg, would you like to talk a little bit about the evaluation and research services and then we will ask Justine to talk a little bit more about the measurement and the metrics that go into that.

[00:16:32] Gregg Biggs: Sure. In addition to, you know, the clients that we work with directly, we feel that it's really important that we document our best practices and share that with training of our own staff, but also to share it with other people in the profession. Through support of local family foundations, we launched the Edgewood Institute, which is dedicated to documentation, dissemination, and training around our best practices so that more organizations will.

[00:16:57] Gregg Biggs: Adopt lessons learned from our programs, and we have started with a focus on family healing as being an essential part of the training that we'll be doing.

[00:17:05] George Koster: And then Justine, what goes into measuring and evaluating what are the things that you and your team do to make sure that you gather this information?

[00:17:12] Justine Underhill: Yeah, so. We utilize measures that are generally sort of required for plantation in the, for the contracts that we serve. So we have tools that we assess at the beginning, at the end of treatment. These are assess tools that look at, uh, a wide range of mental health symptoms and diagnoses. We also do things like suicide assessments.

[00:17:35] Justine Underhill: And pain assessments at the beginning of treatment. So right now we use those types of tools along with satisfaction surveys to track our outcomes and see how our clients are doing at the beginning and end of treatment. As Greg said, we would like to de our work in outcomes and evaluation. It's when resources are tight, it's not always the thing that we're able to prioritize.

[00:17:59] Justine Underhill: And it's really important. So we are looking forward to relaunching the institute and hopefully being able to more resources to search those kinds of outcomes in more depth.

[00:18:11] George Koster: Thank you. And, and Justine staying with you, I would really love it if you could share with the audience one of your favorite moments of working at Edgewood.

[00:18:19] Justine Underhill: Yeah, if it's okay, I have two different kinds of favorite moments that happen for me at Edgewood. One of them is big and one of them is small. So one kind of favorite moment that I have is when I get to, I'm fortunate in my position to get to work on sort of a bigger scale. For example, I really had a great moment when I was meeting with the director of our crisis stabilization unit and the leadership of the San Francisco Unified School District to talk about how we could.

[00:18:47] Justine Underhill: Support kids in school who are going into mental health crisis in school and how we could utilize our crisis stabilization unit to support them. And it's moments like that where I get very excited about the opportunity to kind of impact San Francisco kids. At such a broad level and to think about how we can contribute to their safety on such a large scale.

[00:19:10] Justine Underhill: And then the other kind of favorite moment that I have is sort of the opposite. It's the individual one. It's the the client who you mentioned who just recently graduated from high school, from Edgewood non-public school, which is school that supports kids who are not able always to go to a mainstream public school.

[00:19:28] Justine Underhill: And we had a very. Successful recent graduate from there who, as you mentioned, had also been my therapy client when he was five years old in our early childhood program, and just kind of really represented, I think, that continuum of care and the ability for a family to be supported sort of throughout the lifespan at Edgewood.

[00:19:46] Justine Underhill: He also had a client recently who left a note behind when she left a residential treatment program to go back home and left a note for this. Staff thanking them for giving her the coping tools to go back home and kind of deal with her challenges with a set of tools rather than becoming suicidal as a way to cope and left a note behind to thank everyone for that.

[00:20:09] Justine Underhill: So it's those kinds of things. That kind of keep you going and remind you of our success.

[00:20:13] George Koster: Thank you. Both really good stories. I love the kind of systematic San Francisco Unified School district integration with mental health services, with Edgewood, and then all the way down to the individual and the fact that you follow someone from five years old to 17.

[00:20:27] George Koster: So Greg gonna turn to you. You've also been there for a while. Could you please share with the audience one of your favorite stories of working in Edgewood and your feeling of its impact on the community?

[00:20:36] Gregg Biggs: Clients who had been, uh, part of our residential program at the San Francisco Vicente Street campus, who in the fall of 2020 was coming to the end of his time at Edgewood as he earning his high school diploma and graduating from our Edgewood community School and made tremendous progress over a year of a number of behavioral problems he had, had successfully been able to address, and was sort of reflecting on that time.

[00:21:01] Gregg Biggs: Realized he wanted to do something to give back, to show his appreciation for what he had, uh, accomplished. And one of the supports he had had from when he was, you know, even before Edgewood, was that he had been in the Boy Scouts and he had seen older scouts who had been sort of mentors to him. And he realized he wanted to do something similar and he was thinking about earning his Eagle Scout badge.

[00:21:22] Gregg Biggs: So he came up with an idea of building a zen garden on the Edgewood campus. And he and his counselor reached out to our team and worked with him to do fundraising with, you know, friends committee members. And then he also made a presentation to the boards of two local rotary clubs who wrote some, you know, small grants to help him accomplish this.

[00:21:43] Gregg Biggs: All of this during COVID and you know, in which he was able to, you know, work with our staff and the volunteers that did a, you know, contactless delivery of supplies and so that he was able to leave behind a legacy. So that, you know, future youth that are on our campus will be able to, you know, have, you know, meditation or mindfulness in that vanguard.

[00:22:01] Gregg Biggs: And we don't always hear from, you know, clients after they leave. But knowing that a client was able to leave a mark and help others in the future was really hardening.

[00:22:10] George Koster: Thank you. Another really wonderful story. So Greg, I'm gonna stay with you. How can folks who are listening to the show get engaged in helping Edgewood and its programs?

[00:22:19] George Koster: I mean, I know it's a little bit difficult now because we're still hunkered down in place to be a personal volunteer, but share with the audience how can folks support you guys.

[00:22:27] Gregg Biggs: There are a number of ways, of course, financial support is always greatly needed and greatly appreciated. You can just go onto our website and there's a, a donation forum with wealth.

[00:22:35] Gregg Biggs: We have, you know, a variety of volunteer opportunities that are coming up that you can find either as an individual or you know, through a corporate congregation, uh, team. All that you know, of course done virtually for the media future or to learn more about. The work that we do as part of the Edgewood Institute, we relaunched an educational series called Our Lunch and Learn, where we focus on different specific programs.

[00:22:59] Gregg Biggs: We've done one on our crisis stabilization unit. We've done one on our kinship services in the Bayview, and we'll be continuing them throughout the year. Those are all on our website in a way that, uh, you could learn more, uh, as well as we have a, a wishlist. Of items that we need. Everything from, you know, personal protection equipment for our staff to, you know, games, clothing, through our Amazon wishlist.

[00:23:21] Gregg Biggs: Those are regularly updated and that's a way that people could know that, you know, they donate something very specific that would help, you know, a specific child or family.

[00:23:30] George Koster: And do you have any special COVID-19 fundraisers or fundraiser coming up in the springtime that you would like to talk about?

[00:23:37] Gregg Biggs: Sure.

[00:23:37] Gregg Biggs: The Edge Edward's annual Fund called the, the Edgewood Fair that has, that is put on by our group of. Volunteers called the Edgewood Auxiliary has been an event in San Francisco in person since 1967. Obviously last year we had to pivot to doing it virtually, and we'll be doing it again virtually this year, and we'll be held May 20th and 21st.

[00:23:57] Gregg Biggs: You can check it out on our website, although we will be able to do it in person. We will have a live fund, a need, and talking about, you know, successes we've had. Over the past year, despite the challenges and a way that people can, you know, engage with us and know that they're supporting our response to cope and the challenge that our youth will face after that.

[00:24:15] George Koster: So, final question for both of you. We're gonna start with Justine. What would you say are some of the positive things that could come out of the crisis to support mental health, uh, of our youth?

[00:24:25] Justine Underhill: Yeah, I mean, I think that Greg mentioned this. My biggest hope would be that we may just come out of this with a really drastically reduced stigma around mental health.

[00:24:35] Justine Underhill: I think that, as you mentioned, Greg, there's a lot almost in popular social media, things like that around mental health issues during this time being normal expected. Okay. There's a lot of focus on reaching out to each other on self care, things like that, that have. You know, come up as a result of the pandemic, and I hope and think that that could be actually something that lasts.

[00:25:01] Justine Underhill: That it's sort of enough people have experienced it, that it will really change the amount of stigma associated with it. I do think that, you know, again, sort of the focus. On self-care. The focus on empathy and kindness to each other during this time, I hope will translate and continue on. And I think that, you know, when kids go back to school, I think there's, it's gonna be really challenging.

[00:25:24] Justine Underhill: I think we're gonna have, you know, sort of a generation of kids returning to school who have experienced a year of really a historical level of crisis and trauma. And I think that's gonna be really challenging. Hope that one thing that will come out of that will be kind of a, a new level of understanding of the impact of trauma, the importance of childhood development, and that sort of the understanding of the meaning of mental health and trauma for kids will be much more widely understood and that the stigma of it will be much less.

[00:25:57] George Koster: And Greg, how about you?

[00:25:58] Gregg Biggs: Well, I think the realization that we're all in this together and that we all can be supportive together. Justina said, you know, we've had this heroic staff who have been, you know, working in person on the front line, but they also need support too. And, you know, just having, you know, a wonderful meal that's delivered because of member of the community wants to send that or sending a supportive note of how important that is.

[00:26:20] Gregg Biggs: And that continuing that, you know, after we are able to all be back in person is really important because all of our, you know, even before the pandemic, all of our program staff doing truly heroic work and they will continue it beyond the pandemic.

[00:26:33] George Koster: Thank you. It was great. Thank you Greg and Justine for sharing Edgewood Center for Children and Families work today.

[00:26:38] George Koster: We'll make sure that listeners have your contact information, website and social media so they can follow Edgewood Center and get engaged in your work to help your mission. Please stay safe and healthy as we all work our way through this Very strange, new normal.

[00:26:51] Justine Underhill: Great. Thank you so much for having.

[00:26:53] George Koster: That's it for this episode of Voices of the Community. You've been listening to the Voices of Justine Underhill, the Chief Program Officer, and Greg Biggs, the Director of Advancement from Edgewood Center for Children and Families. For more information about Edgewood Center for Children and Families and to help them with their wish list of resources and make a donation as well as volunteer, go to edgewood.org.

[00:27:18] George Koster: In addition to the wonderful work of Edgewood Center for Children and Families, we hope that you'll consider diving into our past episodes to listen to and support the great organizations in our community that are providing a safety net for our children, teenagers, and young adults. Please listen to our interview with Doug in episode 19 from Huckleberry Youth Programs and our interview with Charles and DeMar in episode 29 from at the Crossroads.

[00:27:45] George Koster: Along with our conversation with Liz Lynn of BM Magic and Shaina from Third Street Youth Center and Clinic, as well as how books change lives with Emily. And Maureen from the Children's Book Project in episode six. And don't forget to tune in to next week's show with the Woman's Audio mission to find out how creating audio helps our youth deal with the pandemic.

[00:28:08] George Koster: We hope that you enjoyed the insights, points of view and personal stories from the voices of Change makers and their nonprofits and small businesses featured in the series. To find out more and get engaged with the nonprofits, small businesses, and staff members featured in the series, please go to my website, george koster.com and click on Voices of the Community to find links to the extended versions of these interviews and to listen to the entire series.

[00:28:35] George Koster: After listening to these stories, we hope that you will consider making a donation and volunteering to provide a hand up to your fellow community members. I want to thank my associate producer Eric Estrada and Casey Nance at Citron Studios, along with the wonderful crew at the San Francisco Public Press and KSFP.

[00:28:53] George Koster: Voices of the community is a member of Intersection for the Arts, which allows us to offer you a tax deduction. For your contributions, please go to george costa.com and click on the donate link to make a donation to help us provide future shows just like this one. While you're on our website, you can enjoy our archived Pass shows, which feature community voices working on solutions to critical issues facing Northern California communities.

[00:29:19] George Koster: And you can sign up for our newsletter to find out more about future shows as well as shows and events from the organizations that are included in our episodes. Take us along on your next COVID walk by subscribing to voices of the community. On Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

[00:29:39] George Koster: You can follow us on Twitter at George Koster and we'd love to hear from you with feedback and show ideas. So send us an email toGeorge@georgekoster.com. I'm George Koster in San Francisco, and thank you for listening.

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