ABOUT THE FOUNDATION
Founded in 2010, the Northern California Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Foundation’s mission is to extend Dr. King’s vision by helping people to connect to community and to service through on-going targeted initiatives throughout the San Francisco Bay area and northern California region. HISTORY
For nearly three decades the City and County of San Francisco has hosted one of the nation’s premier annual events celebrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Cecil Williams to establish the organization to host Northern California’s annual birthday celebrations in honor of Dr. King. Cecil Williams urged that a new leadership carry on the work fostered for nearly a quarter of a century. And, after discussions with a core group of long-time committee members, the Northern California Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Foundation was launched in the spring of 2010 to build on this great legacy and to further extend Dr. King’s mission by helping people connect to community and service. FOUNDATION ACTIVITIES
The Foundation represents a continuation of the nearly thirty-year legacy left by the Dr. King and local and regional leaders, and today, through new community and service programs and initiatives, touches thousands of individual lives throughout northern California. Our initiatives are segmented into two categories, Connecting Community and Connecting Service. CONNECTING COMMUNITY
Healthy Communities
• Our Healthy Communities initiative promotes health, wellness, sustainability and preparedness in and among underserved communities through festivals and other direct community programs designed to bring greater access “to the doorstep” of those in need. Learning Communities
• The Learning Communities initiative envisions an environment where all can learn and deserve an opportunity to succeed. Through the literary, visual and media arts, we help to increase the joy of learning and the vital requirement of literacy in the functioning of daily life. Celebrating Communities
• The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday celebrations in San Francisco brings thousands of celebrants together annually to honor the legacy of Dr. King every third Monday in January at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Yerba Buena Gardens. CONNECTING SERVICE
The MLK Virtual Service Corridor
• The Foundation is establishing local service and information portals to assist in pointing people toward service projects in their area. Through e-publication of Connecting Point Magazine (www.issuu.com/norcalmlk), we showcase service stories around northern California. The Annual Drum Major Awards
• With the goal of promoting increased service among the area’s business community, the Foundation has created its signal service recognition, the Drum Major Award, awarding businesses that achieve recognized levels of community engagement and service.
