Looking Back at Our (Unprecedented) Year at Oasis

Not only did our Oasis programs go virtual during shelter-in-place, our staff meetings did too.

It’s hard to believe, but 2021 is finally upon us and we are excited to post our first article in our new Oasis for Girls Blog! We are starting this blog as a way to share what’s happening with you in our oasis. This past year has been one of the most challenging we’ve ever had, for our organization, staff and our girls. But despite the difficulty caused by the pandemic, I am incredibly proud of what our team was able to accomplish. 

Thanks to our dedicated staff, Oasis rapidly pivoted our summer 2020 session to a virtual programming model so we could continue supporting our girls. We purchased laptops, hotspots, art supplies and other materials for each participant to ensure they could participate fully in the program. Our staff hand-delivered the kits to each of our girls’ doorsteps.

We knew our girls weren't just dealing with distance learning and WiFi issues at home - they were also dealing with family stresses like parents losing their jobs and not having access to basic needs. This led our program leads to add a “Week 0” to the session where they connected with each girl 1:1 for an hour to get to know them better and understand their needs, and then continued to contact each individual girl on a weekly basis to check in on their overall well-being. The ENVISION, RISE and CREATE curricula were all adapted to ensure the programs were engaging, intentional and powerful in our new virtual environment. We’ve received more applications than ever before demonstrating that girls need a safe, girl-centered space more than ever.

Our annual fundraising event, Shine, also went virtual in October and was a huge success thanks to our amazing community. We were so fortunate to hear from many of our girls and have the support of powerful women like our event emcee, ABC7 news anchor Ama Daetz, and Mayor London Breed. We are thrilled that we surpassed our fundraising goal and raised over $50,000, which will go a long way in providing critical support for Oasis’ programs. 

Thank you to our dedicated staff, advisory board, volunteers and our generous sponsors and donors for helping us carry out our mission and giving our youth an opportunity to flourish even in these uncertain times. 

We look forward to sharing more highlights from Oasis with you on this blog, and hope that you will stop back often to see what’s new! 

-Anu Menon
Executive Director