The Community Living Campaign: Turning Strangers into Neighbors and Neighbors into Friends
CLCs Community Connectors are organized around a group’s needs and interests, offering ways to meet neighbors and link with local resources. The mantra, “turning strangers into neighbors and neighbors into friends,” summarizes the program’s goal. During shelter-in-place CLC offers many activities on Zoom, including exercise, nutrition, art, cooking, writing, and computer classes and one-on-one computer help. For questions about the coronavirus, listen to Dr. Anna Chodos, a University of California, San Francisco geriatrician, every Friday from 12 to 1 p.m. Those needing help using Zoom can get assistance from CLC staff. Monthly calendar: https://sfcommunityliving.org/events/.
Well Connected
Well Connected, the Senior Center Without Walls, is a national, phone-based program that addresses loneliness through “activities, education, friendly conversation, and an assortment of classes and support groups for older adults accessible from the comfort of home. SCWW is a community of participants, staff, facilitators, presenters, and other volunteers who care about each other and who value being connected.” Groups take place daily. Programs are free. Mission District resident Niki Noyes, an active Well Connected participant, lives in an apartment building she shares with her family. “Even though I have family and a lot of people around, I feel letdown when Well Connected isn’t on the air,” said Noyes. “These are the people I connect with…Sometimes new members complain of feeling like a stranger. I tell them, ‘very soon you’ll feel the same way. We are a big family and you’ll be part of it.’” Check the Covia website for a program catalog and to register: https://covia.org/blog/well-connected-increasing-connection-one-call-at-a-time/; or 877.797.7299.
Transportation
As a result of the public health emergency, public transportation services have been reduced. The experience can feel threatening to seniors and people with disabilities; doctors still need to be visited, medications picked-up. The Essential Trip Card subsidizes two or three round trips by taxi a month for adults 65 and older and people with disabilities. Each $6 loaded on the card creates a $30 value; $12 a month equals $60. ETC is a debit card that must be funded before it’s used. It can take up to 10 days to activate it. According to San Francisco Paratransit’s Natasha Opfell, “calls are either answered immediately or we will get back to you within a day. We want to enroll eligible riders as quickly as possible.” To apply call 311 weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4:45 p.m., indicate the request is related to the ETC program, and ask to be transferred to a live agent.
(Absentee) Voting Tuesday 10/13 through Tuesday 11/3
The Elections Department will mail ballots to registered San Francisco voters. The U.S. Post Office won’t forward these documents. Registration details can be updated at registertovote.ca.gov. Those that don’t receive their ballot by October 13 should contact 415.544.4375 or sfvote@sfgov.org. Ballots can be mailed to the Election Department, dropped-off at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, 99 Grove Street, among other places, or, on November 3, returned to any California voting site. Ballot delivery, verification, and counting can be tracked through https://sfelections.sfgov.org/voting
In-Person and Virtual
Wednesday 10/14/20 through Sunday 10/18/20
Film: CAAMFest FORWARD
The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) presents CAAMFest FORWARD, five days of storytelling and conversation during a time in which Asian Americans have been deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and preoccupied with racial and civic discussions. Presented through live virtual and on-demand film screenings and at San Francisco’s only drive-in theater at Fort Mason Center. For more information: https://bit.ly/2S1gSYH
In-Person
Wednesday 10/14/20 through Saturday 3/13/2021
Film & Photography: Lessons of the Hour
A ten-screen immersive film installation and photography exhibition by British artist Isaac Julien that explores the life of the visionary African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Incorporating excerpts of his speeches and dramatizations of his private and public milieus, the film “Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass” (2019) offers a contemplative, poetic journey into Douglass’ zeitgeist and a forceful suggestion that the lessons of the abolitionist’s hour have yet to be learned. Tuesday – Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Free. McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, 1150 25th Street, Building B. For more information on the exhibit: https://bit.ly/3mOd9f8. What to expect when you visit the gallery: https://bit.ly/3n2Rro3.
Virtual
Thursday 10/15/20
Health: Cultivating Optimism and Resilience for Success and Wellbeing
This interactive class offers tools to manage daily professional and personal challenges. Learn how to use evidence-based strategies grounded in Positive Psychology that, with practice, help to cultivate better work relationships, more satisfaction and foster greater resilience in the face of adversity. 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. $139. Sponsored by University of Hawaii Manoa Outreach College. For more information and to register: https://bit.ly/3kQjc0T
Virtual
Monday 10/26/20
Health: Age Related Hearing Loss
Learn what today’s technology can do to improve the lives of people with hearing loss. Jessie Johnson from the Hearing and Speech Center of Northern California will discuss new hearing aid technology, assistive listening devices, communication strategies as well as recent studies linking untreated hearing loss to cognitive decline. 10 to 11 a.m. Presented by Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State via Zoom Conference. Free; account registration required. For more information: https://bit.ly/33Zl2G0 or email olli@sfsu.edu.
