The Adopt-An-Alleyway Youth Empowerment Project is a project of the Chinatown Community Development Center that is based in the San Francisco Chinatown area, that clean the alleyways of Chinatown, and provides tours. [1] [2] [3]
This project started in 1991 by Reverend Norman Fong, a member of the Chinatown Community Development Center, and a Chinatown advocator, where he recruited high school youths to help him on his quest to beautify the Chinatown alleyways. Back then, in the 1980s, the City of San Francisco did not officially recognize alleyways as city streets, so nothing was done, while graffiti and trash poured relentlessly over Chinatown's alleyways, so, Norman Fong decided to start the alleyway project. As of today, alleyways are still not considered a street because they do not meet the 32ft width requirement. As of 2007, there are about 30+ members in the youth empowerment program, and 10 paid workers. The Adopt-an-Alleyway (AAA) is a combination of its volunteer, the cabinet, and the coordinator. Monthly general meetings are held in the first Friday of each month, where all the volunteers come together to discuss and review the upcoming events for the current month. Every second Friday of each month, the AAA cabinet will have their own meeting, supervised my the coordinator, where the cabinet plans the the activities and organizes the events. The cabinet is composed of a president, vice president, two secretaries, 4 social chairs, and 3-5 cabinet leaders. The events/volunteer services done by AAA includes, tenant services, Super Sunday, and cleanup/graffiti removal. Tenant service is done twice a month, where the youth go out to SRO (single room occupancies) and interact with the seniors that lives there, therefore, bridging the intergeneration gap. Super Sunday is and event where the youth helps take care of kids while their parents are having SRO meetings at Gordon J. Lau Elementary School. Clean Up/Graffiti removal is where the youth breaks into groups of 4-8, lead by the cabinet into the alleyways of San Francisco's Chinatown, where they sweep the alleyways or paint over the graffiti. [4]
On May 11, 2007, The project won the 2007 Crissy Field Heroes award and has a video spot at the Crissy Field information center.[5] [6]
As part of the project, the AAA also offers tours that usually leaves from Portsmouth Square, and tours some of Chinatown's alleyways.[7][8]
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An outreach program of the CCDC, the Adopt-an-Alleyway Youth Empowerment Project was designed to make the city of San Francisco aware of all the neglected alleys, so that they may be safer and better maintained for Chinatown residents and visitors.
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Chin wants tourists to see more than the neighborhood's many exotic restaurants and trinket and souvenir shops. So he has organized the "Adopt an Alleyway" Tours, conducted by young Chinese-Americans, to take tourists into Chinatown's alleys where they can see sights such as the famous Fortune Cookie Factory, a small shop in Ross Alley.
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The Adopt an Alleyway (AAA) project has allowed young people to do organizing and community service that benefits the entire Chinatown community. Through weekly meetings, youth learn about community issues and then pick those they are most concerned about. They brainstorm and develop projects to address those issues with staff support. Currently, they organize monthly programs for seniors in two low-income housing and children that live in SRO housing, as well as the youth-led Chinatown Alleyway Tours. They will be working to enforce renovation and building inspections of Chinatown's SRO's, create more safe transportation opportunities for youth through MUNI and for educational justice.
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A group of young people, most with roots in the historic district, began by scrubbing and sweeping its historic alleys. Now they're giving tours, too. ... The three return to the old neighborhood frequently. They're part of the Adopt-An-Alleyway Youth Project, which will receive a "community hero" award Saturday from the Crissy Field Center.
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