Dear friends,

Earlier this July, I informed you of HEY’s merger with our long time partner, the Transitional Age Youth Initiative (TAYSF).

By now, HEY and TAYSF have shared a full quarter with each other, and I am happy to report that we have made much progress in implementing our merger plan.  As a result, on October 1, 2010, I will step down as HEY’s Executive Director, and Rachel Antrobus, TAYSF Director and my friend and colleague, will assume many of my responsibilities.  I will continue to support TAYSF on a contract basis while I work towards pursuing an MBA program in the fall of 2011.

This merger is the result of four years of consideration and careful planning, as a transition of this kind was considered in HEY’s 2007-2010 Strategic Plan which was written in 2006, the year I became HEY’s Executive Director.  Over the course of the past four years,  the HEY team built our infrastructure  and programs (including implementing our new website and e-Newsletter), we increased our staff size (resulting in the excellent work of Dana Mandolesi and Leslie Brown), and we produced many products that have helped increase the understanding  and awareness of transition aged foster youth.  In May 2009, we began the work of identifying a two-agency partnership which would best facilitate HEY’s programs and, in return, allow HEY’s 11-year track record to help grow another agency’s work.  San Francisco Foundation’s Nonprofit Transitions Fund funded the partnership search process, and HEY’s Board of Directors and HEY’s fiscal sponsor and founding agency, United Way of the Bay Area, were 100% supportive.  All were thrilled with the final exciting decision to merge with TAYSF, which we determined because of HEY and TAYSF’s shared target populations, our similar size, infrastructure, and future goals, and key overlapping programmatic elements, including integrated youth board programs.

I am deeply proud of our evaluation process and our ultimate integration into TAYSF.  This merger expands both HEY and TAYSF’s capacities, and together we can accomplish far more than we could independently.  To celebrate our merger, we are hosting a party on Wednesday, September 29, 2010, at 5:30 p.m. At the event we will unveil the new TAYSF website, which provides more information about how we have integrated and how our work will continue.  I hope you can make it.  For more information and to RSVP visit:  http://heyandtaylaunchparty.eventbrite.com/

I thank you all for your support over the years, and for your continued support as HEY launches into its next phase with TAYSF.  Should you have any questions, or if you just want to say hello, please feel free to contact me at sara@taysf.org or 415-516-3246.

Sincerely,
Sara Razavi

Project Consultant
Transitional Age Youth SF (TAYSF)

City and County of San Francisco
1 South Van Ness Avenue, 5th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103

415-701-5621

sara@tays.org (as of October 1, 2010)

Visit us at www.taysf.org

Related posts:

1. Interview with San Francisco Conservation Corps Executive Director Ann Cochrane
2. Honoring Emancipated Youth (HEY)
3. NPR interviews executive director of Jim Casey Youth Opportunities on new research on adolescent brain development and implications for transitional age foster youth