Happy New Year!

As we welcome 2024, our commitment to you remains unwavering. We will continue to show up with open hearts, thrive as a community, and care for each other with compassion. In the spirit of love, we pledge to protect one other and stand united in the fight for health justice for our communities.

Photo: SFCHC staff during our Fall 2023 staff retreat

In Gratitude

Thank you to those who made year-end donations to SFCHC in support of the work we do. Your contributions fund critical, on-the-ground, life-saving medical and social services our team provides to marginalized communities here in the Tenderloin and throughout the city. We are grateful to all of you who support our mission to transform lives by advancing health, wellness, and equality.

Stop the Hate

A program for the LGBTQ+ AAPI community

By Rowland Mendoza

On March 21, 2021, community leaders of various LGBTQ+ Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) organizations and programs in San Francisco came together and invited community members and allies in solidarity to raise awareness of, and voice outrage at, the recent and ongoing violence on AAPI and Black and Brown folks. The event, “Castro to Chinatown: An LGBTQ+ Solidarity March for Asian Lives” started in the Castro District of San Francisco at Harvey Milk Plaza. Hundreds, even thousands, of attendees showed up, and I was one of those folks in attendance. While I may have been there to represent the SF Community Health Center, I felt it necessary personally to raise my voice and express that enough is enough. Violence and hate are not welcomed in any community, especially the AAPI community.

In 2023, San Francisco Community Health Center was awarded a grant through the California Department of Social Services and has partnered with Asian Health Services to develop and implement the Stop the Hate program. I'm proud to work on this program and grateful for the opportunity to address and develop resources for AAPI LGBTQ individuals who may have experienced hate, violence, and crime. Through this program, the Stop the Hate team will work to develop a tool for clients to report incidents of violence or hate, implement an after-hours escort service for AAPI LGBTQ elders, and provide educational self-defense, de-escalation, and preventive workshops.

Photo: Lance Toma and Rowland Mendoza attending Castro to Chinatown: An LGBTQ+ Solidarity March for Asian Lives

Meet the Client:

Joe B

Having been housing-insecure in recent years, Joe has been a frequent presence at our Community Living Room along with his dog, Gilligan. Originally from Long Beach, CA, Joe has hitchhiked through every state in the US, from Maine to Washington, and has been incarcerated at times for offenses related to substance use and addiction. 

Soon after settling in San Francisco in 2001, Joe discovered he was HIV positive and, in 2006, began working with a case manager at SFCHC. In the ensuing years, our agency has assisted him in obtaining a valid birth certificate, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), substance abuse counseling, mental health treatment, and transitional housing as well as medical care.

"SFCHC is different because it's approachable.

The case managers are not as reactive as in other places

and are willing to really listen." - Joe B

Currently Joe's HIV is undetectable. He is committed to his recovery and diligent in following treatment plans. He adopted Gilligan in 2022 from the ASPCA and we are pleased they both are part of our SFCHC family. 

Photo: Gilligan and Joe

Featured Events

• 1/17: Meteor Queers Drop-in Space @ UCSF Alliance Health Project, 1930 Market St from 5-7pm

• 1/20: Outreach & Sexual Health Testing @ you/niQue, 2344 Market Street from 9pm-2am

• 1/24: API Transgender Empowerment Group @ UCSF Alliance Health Project, 1930 Market St from 6-7:30pm

What's Tea space for Trans BIPOC youth (ages 13-34) empowerment! Join us for fun events and an opportunity to talk about your sexual health.

• Wednesday and Friday from 4:30-6:30pm @ Trans: Thrive, 1460 Pine St (btwn Polk & Larkin)

San Francisco Community Health Center celebrates and attends to the health and wellness of the communities that define San Francisco—immigrant and communities of color, queer, trans, unhoused people, and all of us who are most impacted by oppression—through comprehensive medical, dental, and mental health services. We believe that health care starts with healing justice and meeting the basic needs of our communities. Our culturally informed services are designed by the very people we serve.