PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT: Adult Evening Programs

Adult Evening Programs: San Francisco Chinese Line Dance

One of things that makes our Adult Evening Programs unique is that we are able to partner with other community organizations that wish to offer services to the community, but lack the space to do so. At our hub site at A.P. Giannini Middle School, SNBC is able to partner with organizations to provide a wide range of programming to the Sunset Community. In addition to SNBC's partnership with Bay Area Asian Sports and Loong Mah Sing See Wui (Dragon Horse Lion and Dragon Dance Association), one of the great success stories of the past year has been our collaboration with San Francisco Chinese Line Dance.

San Francisco Chinese Line Dance (SFCLD) founder Philip Hui had heard that SNBC ran free programs for adults in the evenings and approached us to see if there would be a space available for their group, which had only been operating for about a year at that time, since they were currently restricted to meeting outside in public places during the daytime such as the area near West Sunset Playground. SNBC agreed to open up space to them once a week and the response from the community was overwhelmingly positive. SFCLD would consistently pack the gymnasium with community members looking for a fun, safe, and culturally unique program to connect with others in the Sunset. That it was free, operated on a drop-in basis, and was a great workout to boot were just added bonuses!

Now in their third year, SFLCD -- which is comprised of both regular SNBC Evening Program participants as well as community members from all over the city -- has become one of the cornerstones of the Evening Programs and has expanded to meeting twice a week, providing its services to between 75-90 community members each week! SFCLD is fun, inclusive, and culturally relevant to the community it serves. Partnering with community groups such as SFCLD is just one of the ways SNBC is working hard to provide the Sunset with free, quality programming.

For more information about San Francisco Chinese Line Dance, check out www.sfcld.org. If you have a group or organization that would like to provide a service to Sunset residents but are needing a reliable, safe space, please contact SNBC’s Evening Programs Coordinator, Patrick Montgomery.