San Francisco Bay Area KIPP Schools: A Study of Early Implementation

Measures how well five San Francisco Bay Area schools have implemented the goals of the Knowledge Is Power Program during the first year of a three-year initiative to prepare underserved urban youth for college

Spotlight on Arts Grantmaking in the San Francisco Bay Area 2007

In 2005, the San Francisco Bay Area benefited from 1,498 arts and culture grants totaling $145 million, according to Spotlight on Arts Grantmaking in the San Francisco Bay Area. The report provides a mini-directory of selected Bay Area funders with a focus on the arts, and is supplemented by a listing of the top non-Bay Area foundations that provide significant arts funding in the region

Community Building, Community Bridging

A summary document of our research, entitled "Community Building, Community Bridging: Linking Neighborhood Improvement Initiatives and the New Regionalism in the San Francisco Bay Area," discusses the three initiatives and draws general lessons for those interested in how communities and regions could better work together

The Benefits of Youth Philanthropy Programs in San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Day Schools

This study identified the benefits of youth philanthropy as perceived by student participants ranging from 13 to 22 years of age. Youth Philanthropy is a relatively new concept in the United States but a growing trend in San Francisco Bay Area communities. It moves philanthropy from the boardroom to the classroom, providing students an opportunity to apply academic objectives to the real world. This study surveyed 62 alumni of a youth philanthropy project occurring in two San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Day Schools. Alumni answered a series of questions about their project involvement and were given opportunities to reflect upon their philanthropic experience. This study found that the youth philanthropy project enhanced academic, social, and life skills while providing students an opportunity to explore their passions and learn about community needs. The youth philanthropy project left a lasting impression on students and motivated them to continue giving back to their community

Philanthropic Case Study: The Civic Engagement Fund for Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian Communities - Bay Area Demonstration Project

In September 2006, the Civic Engagement Fund for Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian (Fund) approved its first cycle of seventeen capacity building grants totaling $129,000 to support Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian (AMEMSA) communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Civic Engagement Fund for AMEMSA Communities is a capacity building initiative designed to support AMEMSA nonprofit organizations through a mix of small grants and the provision of technical assistance. The Fund was developed through a strategic partnership between Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP), an affinity group of the Council of Foundations, and The San Francisco Foundation, a regional community foundation. The collaborative now includes seven additional San Francisco Bay Area philanthropic institutions.This paper explores this unique partnership between an affinity group and a community foundation developed with an explicit goal of developing new strategies to amplify the issues and challenges facing disadvantaged communities and identify innovative funding solutions

Ancient and modern genomics of the Ohlone Indigenous population of California

Traditional knowledge, along with archaeological and linguistic evidence, documents that California supports cultural and linguistically diverse Indigenous populations. Studies that have included ancient genomes in this region, however, have focused primarily on broad-scale migration history of the North American continent, with relatively little attention to local population dynamics. Here, in a partnership involving researchers and the Muwekma Ohlone tribe, we analyze genomic data from ancient and present-day individuals from the San Francisco Bay Area in California: 12 ancient individuals dated to 1905 to 1826 and 601 to 184 calibrated years before the present (cal BP) from two archaeological sites and eight present-day members of the Muwekma Ohlone tribe, whose ancestral lands include these two sites. We find that when compared to other ancient and modern individuals throughout the Americas, the 12 ancient individuals from the San Francisco Bay Area cluster with ancient individuals from Southern California. At a finer scale of analysis, we find that the 12 ancient individuals from the San Francisco Bay Area have distinct ancestry from the other groups and that this ancestry has a component of continuity over time with the eight present-day Muwekma Ohlone individuals. These results add to our understanding of Indigenous population history in the San Francisco Bay Area, in California, and in western North America more broadly

Who is funding Iran’s pursuit of the death penalty?

Hamid Yazdan Panah is an attorney, writer and human rights activist from the San Francisco Bay Area

Observations of Fallout from the Fukushima Reactor Accident in San Francisco Bay Area Rainwater

We have observed fallout from the recent Fukushima Dai-ichi reactor accident in samples of rainwater collected in the San Francisco Bay area. Gamma ray spectra measured from these samples show clear evidence of fission products - 131,132I, 132Te, and 134,137Cs. The activity levels we have measured for these isotopes are very low and pose no health risk to the public.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

PRICE AND NON-PRICE INFLUENCES ON WATER CONSERVATION: AN ECONOMETRIC MODEL OF AGGREGATE DEMAND UNDER NONLINEAR BUDGET CONSTRAINT

We study the influence of prices and non-price conservation programs on water consumption and conservation behavior during a drought in the San Francisco Bay Area. The empirical results show that pricing can be effective in reducing water consumption. Use restrictions and landscaping audits are also effective in inducing conservation from consumers.Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy,