On July 16, 2006, about 30 young people from CHALK and over 25,000 people gather together at Golden Gate Park to raise money needed for the fight against AIDS. This year at the 20th Annual AIDS Walk San Francisco raised $3.77 million for the people living with HIV and AIDS.

Change the course of the epidemic. In 1981, the first reported case of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) was found among the gay men in United States. Today, almost 22 million men, women, and children worldwide have died of AIDS, and estimated 40 million people are living with HIV. AIDS impact people of all ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations.

Want to help? The last 2006 AIDS WALK will be held in Los Angeles on October 15, 2006. Don't wait, register now!

You can still make a difference -
Visit the AIDS Walk website to see how you can help.

You didn't miss a thing!
See pictures of the AIDS WALK event and our youths in our Youthline Gallery.

The two featured projects for the month of August are The Bread of Life and Families United in Our Neighborhood.

The Bread of Life Project will conduct a one-day back to school fair for youth in Sunnydale/Visitation Valley which will provide job resources, free professional clothing for interviews, and free school supplies for up to 300 youth. The youth leaders of this project have been organizing back to school give-aways, annually for several years and have fundraised to ensure that the youth of the community receive necessary supplies for a successful year. To contact Bread of Life, please email Deeann Tagoai at the following address for more information : deeanntagoai@yahoo.com.

Families United in Our Neighborhood is a unique youth initiated project that will create a pilot teen program for the summer at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House. The youth of this program have not only developed curriculum but have established community partners to help run teen specific summer programming. They hope to continue this pilot into a lasting year round program for teens. To get more information on upcoming events and how to help support the growth of this teen-led program, please contact Sharon Johnson at: sjohns35@aol.com .

Some upcoming events to check out:

- A talent show scheduled for August 24th, 2006,with special celebrity guest J. Valentine as judge!

A message from 15 year old Harrison Phong, Youth Program Officer for YFYI at CHALK…..

There are many reasons why a youth should apply for a grant from CHALK’s Youth Funding Youth Ideas (YFYI) youth grant-making program. From a youth’s perspective, I think youth should apply for a grant because we fund projects that help communities. So by a youth applying for a grant, they are helping the community get better. When a funded project is completed, some thing has been done to better San Francisco and its youth. By applying for this grant, youth are helping people become safer, their leadership is developing and the community is becoming a better place.

A message from Harrison to other youth…..

Now a days, people in general think kids in our generation are bad or have gotten worse than kids back in the days. Well, you can make them change their mind and their opinion. By you leading a youth project people will see that kids can be responsible, that youth want to help the community. While your project is going on, people in the city will recognize you for what you have done, people will see kids differently and youth will look up to you and want to do the same. So, when people in general talk about famous people who have done for the community, your name will come up and the thing about it is you wasn’t famous but just a kid from the city who wanted to do some thing positive.