Trevor TCR Community Investments
In 2020, Trevor TCR launched Community Investments--an inspired innovation on our existing grants program that takes a holistic approach to economic vitality and growth by investing in four key areas of community: Community Health & Wellness, Education & Educational Opportunity, Enterprise & Economic Innovation and Arts & Expression.
Our inaugural as well as past grantees are below, all of whom demonstrate how communities can be a vibrant place of ideas and economic empowerment where all people are welcome, and have the opportunity to succeed. And, in 2024, we’ll give you a deeper insight into our new grantmaking strategy and also introduce you to Trevor’s new leadership team—so stay tuned!
Grantees:
Community Health & Wellness
Because International
https://becauseinternational.org/the-shoe-that-grows
What they do: Millions of children die each year from preventable causes. Hundreds of millions more suffer illnesses that prevent them from being healthy and attending school. We focus on inventing and developing products for kids challenged by poverty (i.e. The Shoe That Grows) [to help them] be more healthy, attend school more often, and be more confident.
Why we like them: Because International approaches community health by asking ‘how do we keep kids healthy’ but also ‘how do we keep kids in school.’ Their solution: a shoe that protects a child’s feet from infection and disease, and grows with them up to five sizes, thereby reducing the financial burden of buying new shoes frequently (which can be significant for families with financial challenge). Shoes are made with local resource and labor, which also means Because is designing educationally- and economically-minded health solutions—a great investment.
Education & Educational Opportunity
Techtonica
https://techtonica.org/
What they do: Techtonica partners with tech companies to provide free tech training, laptops, living stipends, and job placement to women and non-binary adults in the Bay Area [thereby creating] opportunity [for] a long-term, tuition free, full-time program that prepares and places apprentices in the software engineering field without [the] worry of financial instability.
Why we like them: Techtonica is unique for many reasons, most visibly because it provides 360-support that mitigates the financial obstacles which often make educational-professional development opportunities prohibitive. But what we really like is that students commit to a six-month course (rather than three months), and corporate partners don’t just hire, but commit to diversity + inclusion practices to create long-term opportunity for underrepresented groups. For them, it’s not just the job, but changing mentality + culture around how people get that job.
Enterprise & Economic Innovation
Sister Hearts
https://sisterhearts.org/
https://squareup.com/us/en/dreams/sister-hearts
What they do: Maryam Henderson-Uloho spent thirteen years in prison in Louisiana. After her release she struggled to find housing and employment. She began selling gently used items out of a suitcase on corners in New Orleans. In just three years, she grew her business to a brick-and-mortar thrift store and reentry program--that also provides housing and employment for other formerly--incarcerated women. She calls those women—and her store—SisterHearts.
Why we like them: Sister Hearts is borne from an entrepreneurial spirit rooted in “recycling”— both in terms of goods, but most importantly, people. This is compelling because it reflects our core principle of empathy and imagines every individual as having the potential to not just survive, but thrive. This all occurs within a business (or economic model) designed to be self-sustaining, safe and committed to making its vision of enterprise replicable for everyone it supports. In terms of a self-propelling and -perpetuating investment, we couldn’t ask for more.
Arts & Expression
The Adachi Fund
http://sfpublicdefender.org/
http://www.evenoddfilms.com/
What they do: The Adachi Fund is a vital first-of-its-kind media and creative economy program of the Office of the San Francisco Public Defender developed in partnership with award-winning creative studio and production company Even/Odd. Its goal: use our community to illuminate unseen perspectives of the US legal system via documentary film, photojournalism and public art installations created by more than fifty artists-filmmakers from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Why we like them: The Adachi Fund has potential to be one of the largest and most visionary creative economy initiatives launched in San Francisco County in recent years. It is created in memory of the late Jeff Adachi, (SF Public Defender, 2003-2019) and employs regional artists and filmmakers to elevate marginalized and under-represented stories of our community—mirroring work of the Public Defender. It’s an inspired vision for arts, and a powerful prototype for demonstrating the value of investing in local talent to advance the voice of all communities.
Founder's Award
Upaya Social Ventures
https://www.upayasv.org/about/
What they do: Upaya creates dignified jobs by partnering with early-stage entrepreneurs to scale their businesses, employing more people in their communities. The businesses we work with are often too large for micro-loans, but their business models are not yet suitable for investments from local banks or venture capitalists due risk involved and support needed.
Why we like them: Upaya Social Ventures noticed a trend in microlending that was overlooking investment opportunities which radically enhance the economic outlook of communities. So, it went against the popular grain and suggested [microlending] wasn’t necessarily flawed, just “incomplete.” And then, they created a solution. We like this kind of maverick-thinking and entrepreneurial spirit, and what we like even more: Upaya investments are grounded in data, driven by community and unafraid of risk—which emulates our ethos that everyone has value.
Past Grantees:
Women of Iceland
Iceland has been ranked #1 in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index for the tenth year in a row. What is the secret to Iceland’s success? What can the world learn from the Women of Iceland?
"Daughters of Fire & Ice: Women of Iceland" is a book of intimate photography and interviews revealing the power, courage, and vulnerability of Women of Iceland--as pioneers from the Viking era to a new tomorrow.
Quentin Cooks
Website (1): www.cwmag.com/quentin-cooks
Website (2): www.insidecdcr.ca.gov/2018/11/food-heaven-at-san-quentin
Quentin Cooks is a volunteer run professional development program for inmates of San Quentin State Prison who are nearing release. The program is unlike other prison culinary instruction programs that train inmates for food service positions, as it is designed to prepare students for food entrepreneurship opportunities, and executive careers in the culinary industry.
Indaba
Website: www.indaba-foundation.org
Indaba Foundation empowers the most vulnerable children in the South African Winelands through transformative education. Indaba invests in young children’s capacity to develop and learn by providing world-class, internationally recognized, and accredited Montessori teacher training, learning materials, and educational infrastructure--helping improve their chances for a successful adulthood
Lava Mae
Website: www.lavamae.org
Lava Mae brings radical hospitality to the streets by bringing humanity, innovation and collaboration to the way services are delivered to people experiencing homelessness. More specifically, Trevor TCR is funding a creative initiative called 'Coming Home,' an immersive augmented reality + audio experience connecting San Franciscans across the housing divide.
Found Sound Nation
Website: www.foundsoundnation.org
Found Sound Nation (FSN) is a creative agency that uses music-making to connect people across cultural divides. We believe that collaborative music creation is a deeply effective way to become aware of the beauty, trauma, and hidden potential in our communities. Our process gives voice to the underrepresented, unlocks the creative potential of youth, and supports movements for social justice.
FSN programs are ongoing programs that explore music's special power to tie together disparate communities, retrace our common histories, affirm our common humanity, and reimagine a world based on the principles of collaboration, empathy, and creativity.
The Bread Project
Website: www.breadproject.org
The Bread Project leverages the power of social enterprise with training, job placement assistance and support services to help fight poverty. Their award-winning Bakery Boot Camp has consistently delivered industry leading outcomes. Since 2000, they have changed the trajectory of the lives of over 1,800 low income individuals with high barriers to employment; putting them on a path toward economic opportunity and living wage.
Jungle Mamas
Website: pachamama.org/advocacy/jungle-mamas
The Jungle Mamas program is designed to eliminate all preventable deaths in pregnancy and childbirth of Achuar mothers and babies, and to improve community health by empowering Achuar women and communities with the tools needed to be their own agents of change.
Since 2006, the Jungle Mamas program has been working in collaboration with the Achuar Nation of Ecuador to develop a model of addressing maternal, infant, and community health in a way that is culturally appropriate, empowering, and sustainable.
America Scores Bay Area
Website: www.americascores.org/affiliates/bay-area
America Scores provides kids with meaningful opportunities to develop leadership skills through civic engagement, leadership, and public speaking while increasing physical fitness.
SCORES’ soccer and literary arts activities at local schools and community-based agencies, combined with weekly soccer and fitness activities that involve traveling through inner city neighborhoods on foot, have helped create a community and connectedness for children and families, while addressing some of the root causes behind low youth physical fitness levels and isolation.
New York City Outward Bound Schools
Website: www.nycoutwardbound.org
Founded in 1987, NYC Outward Bound Schools is the first independent urban Outward Bound Center in the United States. The term "outward bound" is nautical, describing the moment a ship leaves the safety of harbor and its crew commits to the challenges of an ocean journey. Outward Bound programs—in schools, the wilderness or other settings—are based on the belief that both youth and adults learn and grow when they leave the safety of everyday experiences and challenge themselves in new ways.
New York City Outward Bound Schools’ educational approach challenges and supports students to do their best work, injects elements of adventure and discovery into schooling, grounds academic content in real-world issues and concerns, promotes teamwork as well as individual initiative, and places character and intellectual development on equal footing.
Access Institute
Website: accessinst.org
Access Institute is all about accessibility. They offer psychological services to those who want and need psychological support, but aren’t able to access it for any number of reasons including: income, cultural barriers, stigma around mental health, and lack of mobility.
Their mission is to serve those in the San Francisco community who have fallen through the cracks. In addition, they help them develop healthier behaviors and relationships so they may thrive.
They provide clinical internship training to the next generation of therapists who believe that everyone matters and deserves high-quality care.
Seven Tepees
Website: 7tepees.org
Seven Tepees Youth Program positively impacts the lives of inner-city youth. Students are with us from 6th grade through high school graduation and beyond, an impressive long term investment in their future.
At Seven Tepees, youth learn and practice the academic and social competencies necessary to be successful in the 21st century. A cornerstone of our work is connection to the natural environment.
Zen Hospice Project
Website: zenhospice.org
Zen Hospice Project has served the San Francisco Bay Area community through compassionate and contemplative caregiving for the terminally ill, both at their Guest House on Page St and at San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital. In addition to serving those with serious illness, the organization has trained thousands of professional and family caregivers in mindful caregiving - Zen Hospice Project’s unique human-centered approach. Known as Mindful Caregiver Education, this curriculum educates, enables, and empowers caregivers to build resilience and reduce burnout, thereby helping them take better care of others. At their Guest House, at Laguna Honda Hospital, and through the Mindful Caregiver Education program, Zen Hospice Project embarks on its 30th year as a leader in the movement to change the experience of dying and caregiving in America.
Pomeroy Recreation and Rehabilitation Center
Website: prrcsf.org
The Pomeroy Recreation and Rehabilitation Center vision is to create a stronger community demonstrating opportunities and respect, embracing diversity, and inspiring people with disabilities to live a full life. Their mission is to provide recreational, vocational and educational opportunities for people with disabilities through programs and services that encourage self-expression, promote personal achievement, and lead to greater independence.
Center facilities include a therapeutic swimming pool, gymnasium, adaptive computer lab, full kitchen, playground, theater with stage, and a community garden with a greenhouse. The Center also provides employment training and job placement for individuals with disabilities and works in cooperation with St. Mary's Hospital of San Francisco to serve people who have experienced traumatic brain injury. The Pomeroy Recreation & Rehabiliation Centers mission extends beyond San Francisco to include programs and services in San Mateo County.
The San Francisco Film Society
Website: sffs.org
The San Francisco Film Society champions the world's finest films and filmmakers through programs anchored in and inspired by the spirit and values of the San Francisco Bay Area. Building on a legacy of more than 50 years of bringing the best in world cinema to the Bay Area, the San Francisco Film Society is a national leader in exhibition, education and filmmaker services.
The crown jewel of the Film Society's exhibition program is the San Francisco International Film Festival (April 21-May 5, 2016), the longest-running film festival in the Americas and a beloved showcase of cinematic discovery. Last year's Festival featured 252 screenings of 183 films from 47 countries, which were attended by over 315 filmmakers and industry guests from around the globe.
The SFFS Education department offers year-round media literacy programs to over 10,000 K-12 students, develops college and university programs to help students transition into the professional filmmaking arena and connects international filmmakers with local institutions of learning through a prestigious Artist in Residence program.