Lisa Gray, community partnerships coordinator, recognizes participants at a luncheon.

First Appeared Friday, 11 June '04

UCSF Celebrates Community Partnerships

A welfare recipient for 18 years, Shawn Jackson-Flentoil has seen her quality of life improved dramatically after being hired at UCSF two years ago.

Working as an administrative assistant at the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center, Jackson-Flentoil has broken her family’s three-generation cycle of poverty. Today, she can afford some essentials of life – a well-stocked pantry, a car and new clothes for her four children. She also has been able to get a larger place, so her two sons, ages five and 21, don’t have to share a room anymore and even can help her eldest with college tuition.

Jackson-Flentoil is among the beneficiaries of the UCSF Community Partnerships Program, which was hailed at a recent luncheon. Started three years ago, the program trains disadvantaged San Franciscans for careers at the University. Its goal is to maximize the economic benefits for both residents and businesses in the city’s southeast sector near the thriving new Mission Bay campus.

UCSF employee Shawn Jackson-Flentoil stands by her supervisor, Jan Mantle.

“It has been great,” Jackson-Flentoil says. “Everybody made me feel comfortable and I learned what I needed to learn to get a job. I have plenty of room to move up.”

Executive Vice Chancellor Eugene Washington was among campus officials who commended the Community Partnerships Program at a recent luncheon to recognize its many contributors. Washington, a practicing physician, researcher and professor, also directs the Medical Effectiveness Research Center for Diverse Populations at UCSF, which addresses disparities in human health.

“In addition to looking after our community’s health and well being, it is critical for us to look at how we can help develop jobs and how we can contribute to economic development,” Washington says.

The Community Partnerships Program involves 11 community-based, nonprofit organizations, eight UCSF departments, 70 employees, eight funding partners and several city and county departments, commissions and agencies, according to Lisa Gray, community partnership coordinator.

Executive Vice Chancellor Eugene Washington and Pamela Calloway, president of the San Francisco Private Industry Council, were among guests at the luncheon.

“Community-based organizations are invaluable partners,” Gray says. “They bring an intimate, first-hand understanding of the people who live and work in our neighborhoods and they do not let us lose sight of our neighbors concerns.”

Financial support was spearheaded by the Rockefeller Foundation, which approached campus officials in 1998 about building a partnership with the Southeast Neighborhood Jobs Initiative Roundtable. That initiative would provide opportunities for residents and businesses in the neighborhoods near Mission Bay to reap some of the benefits from the building boom. Six years later, the bustling young campus is open and graduates of the partnership’s employment and business programs are working and doing business with the University.

To obtain her job at UCSF, Jackson-Flentoil first had to master her clerical and administrative skills in the Community Outreach Internship Program (COIP), a UCSF partnership with Florence Crittenton Services. Over the past four years, 27 people have graduated from COIP, 20 of them who remain working at UCSF.

Excelsior resident Ricky Chow, who used to work as a technician at Sight for Sore Eyes, is also looking at employment options at the health sciences university. “UCSF offers the potential for advancement and, at the same time, the quality of its staff and its reputation in the nation makes it a great place to work,” he says. “I feel really excited being here.” Chow also must first prove himself by participating in the Community Employment in the Bioscience Industry, which trains residents to work in entry-level positions as technical staff at UCSF or in the private sector through a partnership with the Young Community Developers, Inc. Once he’s trained, Chow hopes to work in the UCSF Environmental Health and Safety department.

As part of the partnership initiative, UCSF also hosts employer days offering information about how to find employment, conducts seminars for business owners about its purchasing practices and customizes plans to prepare businesses to gain UCSF contracts.

Photos by Chris T. Anderson

Source: Lisa Cisneros

Links:

Community & Governmental Relations

Interns Begin Building Careers at UCSF