A group of parents started the Tenderloin Community Business District's Safe Passage program 15 years ago because they wanted their kids to be safe walking to and from school in one of the city's grittiest neighborhoods.
On Sunday, the community celebrated the anniversary of the effort at Father Alfred E. Boeddeker Park.
The gathering was also part of the Sunday Streets' third annual Phoenix Day celebrations, which included block parties, a community open house and a fall festival, as well as a self-guided bike ride between several city neighborhoods.
Over banh mi sandwiches, chips and flavored seltzer water, longtime participants in the program sponsored by the Tenderloin Community Business District cracked jokes and testified about the importance of looking after the most vulnerable members of the neighborhood's 30,000 residents: its 3,000 children.
"It's been an incredible journey for this program, which was not funded for six whole years," said district executive director Kate Robinson, acknowledging the effort's start with seed money from the Saint Francis Hospital Foundation through what was once called the Tenderloin Health Improvement Partnership.
"It has taught me every lesson I've needed to learn, which is that when we serve communities, we have to deeply listen to the community members and do as they say."
Robinson drew cheers when she noted that the district's tax assessment will ensure funding of Safe Passage through 2035.
The project emerged in the summer and fall of 2008, when groups of residents began watching over eight to 10 corners in the Tenderloin, a diverse area that's for years been widely associated with drug activity and homelessness. That year some of the working-class and immigrant families that populate the neighborhood got together to help to direct crosswalk traffic and chat with neighbors at intersections.
“Safe Passage is an amazing program that serves the Tenderloin community by helping residents, families and children get around the neighborhood safely," added Supervisor Dean Preston, who oversees the district that includes the Tenderloin.
Behind the scenes, its workers clear sidewalks for wheelchair users and pedestrians, check on folks who sleep on the streets and redirect foot traffic if a drug overdose or another incident requiring emergency workers occurs on a sidewalk.
The group's strength comes in part from its participants' diverse experiences, drawing on stories of immigration and resilience in the face of trauma.
Stephen Tennis, a longtime corner captain, recalled encountering mixed reactions during his first stints at Tenderloin corners.
"We would go out there two to three times a week for an hour or two. For years, it was just a straight volunteer job, afternoons, sometimes mornings. We did have at least T-shirts that noted what we were doing," Tennis said. "Turk and Hyde, not where the park is but across the street, that was really bad. Some of those corners were really bad. It takes a while for people to get used to us but they did."
Tenderloin resident Tatiana Alabsi, who rose from working as a corner captain alongside her husband Jalal to become a program manager for Safe Passage, spoke frankly about the challenges posed by the neighborhood, especially for families with young children.
"Every day, they look around and see negative activity, like drugs in open markets," Alabsi said. "It's a very big question, how kids will look for the future when, from early childhood every day, kids watch this negative activity."
But she said that staff members' ability to stand in the gap and meet needs as they arose provided a powerful incentive to try to help.
Alabsi, who grew up in Russia, talked about helping a fellow Russian speaker and her family find a job and other resources to start a new life.
"All the Tenderloin community benefits district staff helped this family with providing resources, information with living and schools," she said.
Eric Rozell, a 20-year Tenderloin resident who directs safety programs for the district, says the guards' walkie talkies and safety code training lets them respond quickly to incidents that might endanger local kids. Last week, for example, a midday shooting injured three people.
"When that occurred, we were on the phone right away. We have a text group chat that we use. We texted a message out to everybody letting them know to be aware that we might need to reroute" students preparing to leave school or after-school programs, Rozell said.
"It's really taught me the value of community, and people working together," he added.
"When you're coming together as a group focused on something like safety, generally people get out of their head or their ego and it becomes more about like, How can I be of service to others?"