Asian Neighborhood Design —AND — is a community based nonprofit architecture, community planning and employment training organization. The organization has ardently enriched the San Francisco Bay Area for almost 40 years by helping disadvantaged individuals and communities become self-sufficient.
Through architectural services, community planning leadership and an employment training center, AND is fulfilling its mission to reduce poverty, revitalize neighborhoods and build healthy communities.
AND was founded in 1973 by a group of architecture students at the University of California, Berkeley, who were determined to improve living conditions in the San Francisco and Oakland Chinatown areas. AND has now become nationally recognized for its award-winning design expertise and technical assistance, which has resulted in over 1 million square feet of architectural perfection, thousands of affordable housing units, dozens of neighborhood child care and health centers, and over 100 small business facade improvements.
AND continued to blossom and expand out of Chinatown over the years, and examples of their amazing work can be found throughout the Bay Area — from alleys in the SoMa to shops in Hunters Point and to businesses on Sixth Street.
AND has received honors from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Fannie Mae Foundation, the California Preservation Foundation, and the California Council of the American Institute of Architects.
These honors have been given for creating affordable housing such as the Minna Park Family Apartments and dozens of architectural services, including Sixth Street Facade Improvements.
The organization is also heavily involved in community planning, designing public spaces, creating economic development and designing affordable and healthy neighborhoods. AND’s Community Planning program provides underserved communities with the tools and support needed to become effective players in the shaping of equitable, safe and vibrant neighborhoods.
AND also spearheads community mapping projects, which include working with the San Francisco Housing Development Corporation to map existing foreclosure sites in San Francisco, demonstrating the impact of the foreclosure crisis in the Bayview Hunters Point, Visitation Valley and Excelsior neighborhoods.
Perhaps the crown jewel of the organization’s efforts, simply in terms of human emotion, is AND’s Employment Training Center — ETC — on Howard Street, where severely disadvantaged young people and adults are prepared for employment long term through a comprehensive 14-week program.
Since 1978, ETC has successfully trained at-risk, low income youth and young adults in the green construction field to gain vital life and employment skills and achieve self-sufficiency. Graduates are not only provided with job training, but also with job placement and career development.
“We’re literally teaching kids how to build a house from the ground up, with an emphasis on “green” practices and solar installation,” said Jamie Brewster, the ETC site manager.
Brewster is passionate about ETC, and to him the center is an opportunity for people who have made mistakes in the past to finally find the right road. He has been down the wrong road himself, and back in the past he was incarcerated five times. The fifth and final time he was in prison he was put in a drug program, which he says saved his life. According to Brewster, he has been “clean” for over 13 years now, and he dedicates his life to help at-risk youth through career training and guidance.
He feels that he is the right man for the job, since at least 75 percent of the students are on probation or parole.
Each year, up to 60 graduates gain comprehensive skills in construction and carpentry and receive
education in history and mathematics, as well as high school equivalency or GED preparation. Graduates obtain critical life skills in money management, communications, and conflict resolution, as they build self-esteem and develop pathways out of poverty.
The center houses a facility where students build an energy-efficient home inside a warehouse, and become experts in the latest construction methods and energy saving technologies.
The ETC curriculum uses leading green workforce advocate Dr. Raquel Pinderhughes’ “Roots of Success” environmental literacy course which emphasizes sustainability, solar installation, weatherization, energy efficiency and recycling.
The green curriculum and ETC’s reputation for producing quality workers puts the graduates in high demand, and most graduates go to work right away. Wendy Pryor had a job within days of her graduation ceremony.
Pryor stated that she participated in the program because she needed a better life, and during the process she discovered that she is a leader. “The program changed my life, leading me to full-time employment in a field that I love, and I now have my children back in my life — thank you ETC,” she said.
Mo Washington has been working as a solar installer for some time since graduating. Not only is he a working adult who is now integrated into society, but he also recently enrolled in college with aspirations to become an electrical engineer.
“Without the program I do not believe I would be where I am today,” said Washington.
ETC programs are made possible in part by the generous support of the John R. Cahill Fund, Crescent Porter Hale Foundation, Genentech, Kimball Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, Tides Foundation, TJX Foundation, Union Bank Foundation and US Bancorp Foundation.
To learn more about the Asian Neighborhood Design Center, visit www.andnet.org, or call 415.575.0423. Contractors who are interested in qualified apprentices, and want to make a difference can contact Jamie Brewster at jbrewster@andnet.org, 415.575.0423 Ext. 201.
