About CES
Community Educational Services (CES) believes that young people can make a difference. Through projects that address environmental, health, and other community issues, the hundreds of children and youth in CES' programs build skills for personal success while learning that they can play an important role in making the world a better place.
Created in 1969 by young activists in San Francisco Chinatown, CES has grown over the years in the scope of its mission and services. While CES maintains its initial focus on the academic, social, and employment needs of recently arrived immigrants in Chinatown, the agency now works with nearly 2,000 children and youth of all backgrounds in 11 schools across the City.
Through pursuing our mission of empowering youth to transform their lives, schools, and communities, CES has become deeply engaged in enriching the ability of San Francisco public schools to deliver relevant and exciting educational experiences that increase student engagement and responsibility in the classroom, improve effectiveness and job satisfaction of teachers, and integrate the curriculum with real-life challenges in the community.
A Message from the Director
Youth empowerment, one of the hallmarks of CES' work over the decades, has within it an ongoing tension of the practical vs. the ideal. It is said that the wise person knows s/he cannot change the world, and yet the world needs change more than ever. CES builds the abilities and motivation of low income youth so they can improve their individual socio-economic status, and at the same time we must involve them in efforts to reach for the ideal and work for the collective good.