When we opened the doors of our Tenderloin Center exactly two years ago, we could only dream of serving over 7,000 students a year. We had lots of ideas for how to amplify their voices in our new space—through publications, podcasts, and some ideas that sounded so crazy they just might (and did!) work.
Today, we’re super excited to host and celebrate one of our longest-standing partners in making these big dreams a reality, Dolby Laboratories, on their annual Dolby Cares Day! It’s thanks to their generosity and support—whether funding the construction of our booths or lending their talented engineers to build it—that we could record over 2,000 podcasts this school year alone in our custom-designed professional sound-proof booths.
Dolby is known for creating entertainment experiences, but they also dedicate their efforts to assist the Tenderloin neighborhood, and adjacent areas, through its Dolby Cares, their social responsibility program that focuses on inspiring the next generation of innovators and addressing communities’ most critical needs. Through events like Dolby Cares Day, over 1,000 of their employees volunteer around the world to positively impact children and the underserved.
On this Dolby Cares Day, we feel super honored to welcome these lovely folks once again to our Tenderloin Center and share with our young writers and community members how vital this partnership is to keep amplifying our students’ voices even further.
And if you’ve wandered around King Carl’s territory at Golden Gate and Leavenworth recently, you probably noticed our newest collaboration with Dolby: brand new, outdoor speakers that amplify eight hours of student podcasts a day (that’s 96 total!) to the whole Tenderloin community. So next time you’re in the neighborhood, take a moment to listen to our students’ voices and take in their diverse perspectives. Hopefully, they will inspire you to come inside and learn more about this and other 826 Valencia’s projects.
Thanks, Dolby Laboratories! And here’s to another year of more amazing collaborations.