University Partnerships Council Names Community Co-Chair

Gwen Henry, director of the Parent and Family Resource Center and associate director of Florence Crittenton Services (FCS), has been named co-chair of the UCSF University-Community Partnerships Council. Consisting of 10 UCSF representatives and 10 members of the community, the council is charged with enabling faculty, staff and students to further improve the University's presence and participation in community partnerships. The council also is charged with assisting the community in partnering with UCSF to address community needs. Kevin Grumbach, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center, serves as co-chair of the council from UCSF. Recently, Henry, who has had a long working relationship with the University, answered these questions for UCSF Today. Q: Why did you decide to join the council? A: I was asked to join, and the final decision for accepting the invitation was my agency's past working relationship with UCSF, specifically the COIP [Community Outreach Internship Program] partnership. FCS and UCSF have had a strong, successful partnership for 10 years, and I look forward to seeing that project and partnership resurface and using our experiences as a launch pad for other worthy and invaluable community-based organizations [CBOs] to gain real access to employment for more of the clients we all serve. Q: What are your expectations for fostering future partnerships? What specific goals do you hope to accomplish? A: As stated above, my expectation for fostering future partnerships is the development of solid pathways of communications and processes, so other community-based organizations can know how to work with UCSF and begin to feel like true partners and not just an outsider looking, wondering how or who can they call to assist their clients with gainful employment. I say this because my CBO partners in the southeast sector work with clients that cannot or will not gain employment through the normal process of applying online, waiting for a call, going through an interview, etc. We work with clients who really want to work, but need assistance with knowing that they don't have to have a college education, that with assistance they can respond to interview questions that show their skill sets and are just as capable as anyone else of working for the second largest employer of San Francisco. Q: How long have you been involved in the Parent and Family Resource Center and Florence Crittenton Services? Why are these organizations important to San Francisco? A: First, Parent and Family Resource Center and Florence Crittenton Services are one and the same. Florence Crittenton Services is the name of the agency and the Parent and Family Resource Center is the umbrella for all the support services we provide our families. Florence Crittenton Services is 120 years old and continues to serve needy families of the Bay Area toward self-sufficiency. This agency and others like it are important because we work with very poor families who are trying to climb out of poverty. Many of these families need basic work skills, housing, child care, food and other services that will ensure a family becomes self-sufficient. Our agency's mission statement is the best way of saying what we do: "Empowering families to become self-sufficient and strengthening children's foundations for learning." Q: What prompted you to pursue your career track? A: It's very selfish, I have the strong need to care for the next generation because one day I will be too old to care for myself and I want to make sure there are enough individuals in the world that have been able to have a better life, so that when they are ready to give back to their community, they can. And who knows? I might be one of the people they need to care for. Q: What are your impressions about the state of working families in San Francisco? Are they leaving for less expensive cities? A: The families I know of that are leaving the city are leaving more because of violence and fear that their sons and daughters will never grow to adulthood. Keep in mind, the only way to break poverty is to obtain a living wage and move to neighborhoods that will give their children opportunities to thrive and grow. Our poor families are no different than any middle-class family. They just need more support. So for the families of modest means that are leaving, yes they are leaving for cost reasons. Buying a house with a yard in San Francisco is too expensive, and they are moving to neighborhoods that will give their children opportunities to thrive and grow. Q: What is your educational background and where are you from? A: I am a native of San Francisco, a mother of two and grandmother of three. I hold a BA in psychology with an emphasis on early childhood education. For 23 years, I have served in child care and employment arenas of South San Francisco and the City and County of San Francisco, working to change and improve the lives of children and their families. I have a wealth of knowledge built over the years of owning my own child care business for 15 years. I was the city of San Francisco's child care coordinator for five years; developed and coordinated mental health and health services for the preschool children within the San Francisco Unified School District Child Development program for two years; and I am the current director of the Parent and Family Resource Center at FCS and the associate director of FCS. Links: UCSF Forms University-Community Partnerships Program Florence Crittenton Services