For nearly 40 years, DrawBridge has been doing one thing consistently: showing up.

Every week, at shelters, transitional housing sites, and community centers across seven Bay Area counties, our teaching artists and trained facilitators arrive with art supplies, set up a table, and create a space where children can simply make something. No enrollment. No referral. No prior experience required. Children participate by being present in the place where they already live. The artists and mentors come to them.

What happens in that room is not a lesson. There are no correct outcomes, no projects to complete, no grades. A child chooses what to make, what colors to use, what to do with the space in front of them. A Community Artist — someone who often shares their cultural background, language, and lived experience — sits alongside them, working on their own creative project. A trained facilitator holds the room: consistent, calm, and unhurried, the same faces returning week after week.

That consistency is the program. For children experiencing housing instability, who have very little control over most of their day, having one hour a week where they are the one who decides matters more than it might sound.

"DrawBridge was a physically safe place where we could just be kids and make a mess," said Sadaf, who grew up in the Tenderloin and participated in DrawBridge as a child. "My mind was at peace. During times of stress or frustration, I continue to turn towards art as an outlet. That safe space continues to be a part of me today."

Right now, DrawBridge operates at 14 active sites serving approximately 500 children and youth each year across seven Bay Area counties. Fifteen more shelter communities are on a waitlist.

This spring, we are raising $50,000 to sustain our current programs and take the first real steps toward clearing that list.

$125 gives one child a month in that room. $1,500 supports one child for a full year. $25,000 activates a brand new shelter site.

Join us on May 9 for our spring fundraiser at 2 Embarcadero Center in San Francisco. The event is hybrid — attend in person or tune in from wherever you are. Our auction is open on GiveButter now and stays open beyond May 9. Every dollar raised goes directly to the children and families we serve.

Every Week. Every Child. Every Site.

Help us reach 500+ kids — and the 15 sites still waiting

Team Members