🎶Do you remember? The 23rd night of September? 🎶
Yes, we did have to reference Earth, Wind, and Fire. While we’ve been sharing about our expanded capacity for Raphael House for a few weeks, we had some special guests celebrate the occasion with an official ribbon cutting on September 23. At the event, District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter presented Raphael House with a certificate of honor honoring our longstanding commitment to families experiencing homelessness. And the grand finale: San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie held a press conference and wielded the golden scissors!
At the event, Executive Director Tina Burgelman spoke about the beauty of our home-like Residential Shelter and Bridge Programming: “I think that families are experiencing all the warm moments that we all seek to have as parents, here at Raphael House. This is paired with a drive; a challenging, daring ambition to pursue something new. And I can’t think of anything more worthy of the best of our energy and time.”
This summer’s Back-to-School drive went swimmingly!
After a total count, we were able to deliver new backpacks and age-appropriate school supply kits for 129 children!
Our Residential Shelter & Bridge Program clients are all ready for a new school year. We are so grateful to our corporate sponsors, our generous donors, and our volunteer groups for helping make this happen for our families!
The school year is now in full swing, and we’re happy to announce that our Children’s Services program is actively tutoring Raphael House children, and providing them with funding for extracurricular activities.
Since 1971, Raphael House has been a source of transformative change for single mothers like Aisha. When Aisha first heard about Raphael House, she was initially hesitant to enter the shelter system. As a single mom, she was nervous about her children’s safety. But when she learned that Raphael House offers each family a private room of their own, she decided to take a chance, and moved into our Residential Shelter.
During Aisha’s time at Raphael House, her case manager worked with her to develop a daily schedule, with set bedtimes for her kids, and task deadlines to create the foundations for a fresh start. With the support of Raphael House staff, she even connected with other families during monthly house meetings, where parents could exchange resources and share progress in their lives as they continued on their journey towards stability.