826 Valencia Tenderloin Center now open for writing, tutoring, exploring

“826 isn’t diving into the neighborhood blindly. Staff members and volunteers spent the past year working with Tenderloin children alongside established local organizations, like De Marillac Academy, the Boys & Girls Club Tenderloin Clubhouse, Glide Family Services, the Tenderloin Community School, and Bessie Carmichael Elementary School in SoMa.

Literary program for children replaces liquor store in the heart of SF’s Tenderloin

“‘King Carl is a pufferfish, a traveling royal pufferfish, who opened a store in the Tenderloin and he sells the wares from his travels here,’ said Bita Nazarian, the Executive Director of 826 Valencia, a literary program for children that started in the Mission District and is expanding to a storefront and new tutoring center in the Tenderloin.