District 11 Engaged Learning Zone Project –Phase I

SF State's Institute for Civic and Community Engagement (ICCE) and the City and County of San Francisco's Neighborhood Empowerment Network (NEN) launched a new partnership, called NEN University (NENu). NENu connects the resources of local higher education institutions with the NEN to address critical issues as defined by residents in San Francisco's diverse neighborhoods. After evaluating best practices in community sustainability nationwide, one of the first undertakings of NENu was to initiate an Engaged Learning Zone (ELZ)  project in District 11 in San Francisco, which covers six distinct neighborhoods: Cayuga Terrace; Oceanview‐Merced‐Ingleside (OMI); Excelsior; Crocker Amazon; New Mission Terrace; and Outer Mission. District 11 was identified as a target for this project because of its diverse population and because a high percentage of families who live in its neighborhoods contain many vulnerable children and seniors. With strong support from San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos' office and the Mayor's Office of Housing/Community Development Division, Phase I of the ELZ process consisted of analyzing social capital in the District, neighborhood resources (assets), needs, and aligning neighborhood projects with SF State Community Service Learning (CSL) students.