Leslye Lugo

Senior Youth Advocate, 18 Years Old

" I have been here at Mission Dignity for over 3 years. I am an artist and attend City College of San Francisco. What attracted me originally to Mission Dignity was the passion, power, and knowlegde that each individual that worked here carried. This has motivated me to be more active in my community and life. I hope to see this center grow and prosper as a place where youth can grow and learn to become active participants in their own lives to create lasting change in our society."

Alicia Garcia, MSW

Training and Youth Development Director

"I am a teacher and social worker who has been dedicated to working with inner-city youth and families for fifteen years. I am a Native Californian from Los Angeles, a daughter of immigrant parents from Mexico and someone who believes in social change, transformative, empowering, healing work for communities of color.

I came to Mission Dignity as a volunteer to contribute by working with adult staff in empowering youth to develop "conciencia" and skills such as leadership and their strengths; ultimately their future goals and aspirations. What I hope for Mission Dignity is that it will flourish in reaching its mission to serve youth in the community in ways that are far reaching, inspiring and transformative."

Emilio Osorio, MSW

Associate Director

" As the Associate Director of Mission Dignity, my role centers around youth development in the areas of critical consciousness, forming new epistemologies, and creating new horizons in personal growth and collectivism, which I believe is essential in building community. My framework for youth development is inspired by the works of Ignacio Martin Baro, Paulo Freire, Dr. Joy Degruy Leary, and the countless others that have worked towards freeing minds. My roots are centered in San Francisco's Mission District. As a native of the "MISION", I have been blessed to have been exposed to an array of cultural diversity and continue to be a part of a vibrant community. My passions are centered around building community and helping to develop young people into becoming the next California's future leaders. SI SE PUEDE."

Nancy Kahn

Executive Director and Co-Founder.

"In 1999, I partnered with a long-time Mission District community activist and a local developer to co-found Mission Dignity. In 2000, I hired our first cohort leadership team of youth who joined me to research, develop and launch our Youth-led Peer Education and College Resource Center. It has been an amazing journey to develop our organization, our programs and services, and at the same time keep learning how to build a youth-led organization, sharing power with young people. Our youth leaders are passionate and committed to creating services and programs that empower youth to achieve and to overcome hardship;they are living as role models overcoming their own academic and life challenges. I am also a skilled trainer in Nonviolent Communication (NVC) using my training in NVC, a language of compassion, to develop organizational systems that support powerful youth leadership and that do not perpetuate power over structures. I am thrilled to see our youth staff getting exposure to a variety of powerful skill sets and tools that support their own development and their ability to serve other youth in the areas of leadership, youth development, access to higher education and creating communities that are safer for young people to live in and thrive in. I believe youth are the true leaders of today and tomorrow! "

Rodrigo Garcia Alcaraz

Youth Co-Founder

"I was born in Zacapu Michoacan Mexico. I have been working with Mission Dignity since it's early beginings. I am one of the youth co-founders of the center. I decided to work with Mission Dignity because I wanted to have a place for those who feel out of place, to feel a part of the community they are living in as well as for all those young people who live in this community to have a refuge from the violence, drugs, and other harmful aspects of our comunity. In the process of createing this center I began to understand that youth could discover within themselves the power they have to create change in our community. I feel its of great importance that we continue to harvest in each of our youth through- out San Francisco and the world a critcal conscience and diverse knowledge so that they may create a world free of the present repressions and opressions. "