Mission Neighborhood Centers (MNC) has a long and successful history in preschool education in San Francisco, primarily serving underserved and low-income families.  MNC & DW are a perfect fit – MNC provides quality preschool education as well as a financial model that can accommodate Potrero Hill’s middle-income families as well as those of lower income living in the adjacent public housing.  Demonstrated by initial outreach to the community, it is apparent that a Spanish immersion or Spanish bi-lingual preschool program would be highly attractive to families in Potrero Hill. It is important that this program be competitive in order to keep Potrero Hill families in the neighborhood for preschool, which will in turn make for an easy transition to what we hope will eventually be a hidden gem in Daniel Webster Elementary. MNC brings this language capacity in its existing programming.

MNC is a community based multi-purpose social service nonprofit organization, with a U.S. Federal Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 501 (c) 3 status, conducting business in the City and County of San Francisco and as such possesses Federal, State and City and County Government status to render services to its constituencies and operates as a charitable autonomous agency.

MNC, incorporated in 1959, and originally established as a Settlement House in 1896, operates and provides multi generational services to predominantly low-income individuals and families of Latino background through ten branches/facilities located in five San Francisco neighborhoods: Mission, Excelsior, Bayview-Hunter’s Point, Mission Bay.  Through the Webster Preschool Project, MNC now introduces child development services in the Potrero Hill neighborhood.

The MNC administrative offices are located at 362 Capp Street. MNC services include a Head Start Program for 400 children and their families, full daycare for 120 low-income working parents; youth leadership development activities, including after school tutorial services, organized sports, gang prevention and intervention services, and gender specific (girls) programs.

MNC also provides services to low-income senior citizens in the form of site based nutritional meals, site based recreational/socialization activities, English as a Second language (ESL), citizenship and naturalization classes, and arts and crafts and informational workshops. MNC is the producer of Carnaval San Francisco® and Cinco de Mayo, multi-ethnic artistic community-based celebrations which draw over 400,000 spectators to San Francisco’s Mission District on an annual basis.

Bringing MNC to DW provides a first of its kind pilot program as an initial step to turn around a failing school by inviting and involving local families several years prior to kindergarten.  These families will become the foundation and the basis for a new direction at DW – one that will truly integrate the school and raise it to a level that will serve all residents of Potrero Hill and keep middle class families in San Francisco. The Potrero Hill Parents represent the precise group of San Francisco families, which are often cited as the group leaving the city and the public schools. This proposal offers new promise from the ground up to reverse this troubling trend at no cost to the district.