From The Executive Director

For 40 years, Young Community Developers (YCD), Inc. has played an integral role in connecting San Francisco’s Southeast Sector residents with high level training and employment opportunities. YCD continues to provide quality trainings utilizing evidenced based curriculum so that participants receive the highest quality of services. In the past 2 and a half years alone, YCD’s trainings have led to job connections for several hundred individuals and counting!

The YCD family is excited about the forthcoming development opportunities in the Southeast Sector, which means more jobs and education opportunities for the residents in the community. YCD is focusing on ensuring that Southeast Sector residents benefit from the very opportunities that are located right in their own neighborhood. YCD will be working closer with employers in all sectors of businesses in order to create a pipeline for opportunity. YCD will stay engaged with small businesses, large businesses and corporations in order to stay abreast of their needs and requirements for connections.

In addition to quality trainings and employment connections, YCD will continue to work in our schools in order to provide credit recovery, life skills and tutorial opportunities for SFUSD students. It is vital that we provide our students with proper information and the tools they need to be prepared for higher education and future careers. YCD will provide internships (in collaboration with our partners) for students in the fields of engineering, architecture, communications, government relations and finance and accounting. These exciting private-nonprofit partnerships will allow for maximum success for our youth.

YCD’s dedicated Team continues to work hard to strengthen the community everyday and build effective collaborations with the entire service provider community. As we enter into the second year of YCD’s 3-Year Strategic Plan implementation, we will continue to focus on strengthening partnerships with the funder community and remain innovators in the area of delivering workforce development services in the Southeast Sector; one of San Francisco’s most isolated and underserved—but resilient—communities.

With “Preparation, Placement and Preservation” as our brand and guiding principles, we will remain dedicated to building a skilled, effective and prepared workforce for our community. Whether it is working closely with the primary systems of preparing the workforce (schools, colleges and employers), or whether it is working together with other CBOs, the Building and Trades community, city government, private foundations and training entities, YCD’s focus will remain on the individuals that need our services the most.

This year’s Annual Report is a reflection of the resiliency of the community we serve and a huge reflection of the dedicated YCD Team that we have in place. Our work is never done and we will continue to produce high outcomes for the people we serve daily. Please don't hesitate to support or access YCD and what we have to offer.

YCD = “Preparation, Placement and Preservation”

Sincerely,

Shamann Walton, MPA
Executive Director- Young Community Developers, Inc.