Lightbulb Challenge
Explore Lightbulb Challenge photos from DCYF grantees whose names begin with A–C.
826 Valencia: Mission Center
826 Valencia is dedicated to supporting under-resourced students ages six to eighteen with their creative and expository writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. Their services are structured around the understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with individualized attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.
African American Shakespeare Company
African-American Shakespeare Company’s Shake the Stage programs provide youth with accessible, high-quality performing arts experiences. Through dynamic classes and workshops in acting, dance, vocal performance, puppetry, and storytelling, young people build confidence, creativity, and collaboration skills while exploring the power of self-expression and cultural storytelling on and off the stage. This year, their Lights On Afterschool photo displays one of their puppetry/storytelling classes at Creative Arts Charter School. The class used lights, shadows, and different voices to do a puppet show.
View more details about the African American Shakespeare Company
America SCORES Bay Area
America SCORES inspires youth to lead healthy lives, be engaged students, and have the confidence and character to shape change in their communities. Their core offerings include soccer, poetry and service-learning projects.
Asian Pacific American Community Center
From Monday to Friday from 2-6:30 PM, APACC Afterschool Program provides a combination of academic support, enrichment activities, and recreation for grades K-8. Every day, youth receive homework assistance and tutoring. We also provide curriculum-based extracurricular activities weekly that are STEM-focused such as hands-on engineering-based projects and field trips to the local community garden. We also provide daily physical activities for at least 1 hour. Healthy snacks and beverages are provided every day. Staff work with parents to keep parents updated on student progress and for staff to take in any parent academic and/or behavioral concerns/needs of their children. Referrals to counseling for any behavioral needs through our partner APA Family Support Services are available to families in addition to referrals for social services. In October, APACC will hold the Lights On Afterschool event with youth and their families to highlight the importance of after school programs. On the last day of the program, APACC will hold the End of the Year event to celebrate rising kindergartners, 5th graders, and 8th graders in addition to showcasing to families what the After School Program did that year.
Bay Area Community Resources: APG Beacon
APG Beacon is a program of Bay Area Community Resources. Our mission is to provide supports and opportunities to ensure the healthy development of children, youth, and adults. Our purpose is to connect people to their passion, potential, and community.
Bay Area Community Resources: Ulloa
Ulloa afterschool program provides a safe, welcoming, and engaging environment where students can learn, grow, and build meaningful relationships beyond the school day. We offer a balance of academic support, enrichment activities, recreation, and social-emotional learning to support the whole child. Students have opportunities to complete homework, participate in hands-on enrichment activities, explore their interests, develop new skills, and engage in structured recreational activities. Through group activities and positive interactions with peers and staff, students strengthen their communication, collaboration, problem-solving, and leadership skills.
Bay Area Community Resources: Lawton Alternative School
BACR- Lawton Alternative School has inspired students to lead the way for others and become great leaders in the now and for the future. We provide services for our youth and serve all families day in and day out to create a safe environment for students to progress and lead by example in sports, academic, and writing skills. We stay connected to our roots and our community in the Sunset.
Bay Area Community Resources: RLS Excel
BACR ExCel at Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School.
Booker T. Washington Community Service Center
Booker T. Washington Community Service Center (BTWCSC) is one of the Bay Area’s oldest Black-led, Black-serving nonprofit organizations, with over 106 years of service to San Francisco. A beacon of Black joy and self-determination, we have nurtured over five generations of San Franciscans. We stand embedded as an anchor institution, fostering intergenerational bonds and working in solidarity with allied communities to reform and reimagine a more inclusive San Francisco. We prioritize serving the Black community and welcome all people from ages 0-99 who walk through our door. We are one of the few urban spaces where anyone in the community can access comprehensive services, from a hot meal to childcare to academic support to senior services.
Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco: Excelsior Clubhouse
At Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco, we inspire and enable all young people, especially those from disadvantaged circumstances, to realize their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens. Our Clubs are located in neighborhoods with the fewest resources for youth, and we are open when youth need us the most—after school, on most school holidays, and all day during the summer. We impact the lives of Club members, primarily ages six to 18, by focusing on academic success, healthy lifestyles, good character and community engagement, and job readiness with earning potential.
Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco: Don Fisher
Our Don Fisher Clubhouse is a state-of-the-art youth development facility designed to provide high-quality programs for more than 200 youth per day. The Club is located at the crossroads of the Western Addition, Hayes Valley, and Civic Center neighborhoods, drawing the majority of its members from the Western Addition. Due to the many public transportation routes in the area, the Club is able to draw members from much farther away as well. Don Fisher is the only Clubhouse with a swimming pool. The aquatics center supports recreational swim, swim lessons, our BGCSF swim team, and swim teams from partner schools, most notably Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep. The Don Fisher Clubhouse is also home to one of two Notes For Notes music studios at BGCSF. Notes For Notes is a separate nonprofit that resides in our facility and provides its own staffing and programming for our Club members.
Boys & Girls Club of San Francisco: Mission Clubhouse
At Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco, we inspire and enable all young people, especially those from disadvantaged circumstances, to realize their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens.
Breakthrough San Francisco
Breakthrough supports young people in San Francisco on the path to college, and trains the next generation of educators.
Buchanan YMCA
We’re more than a gym or a place to go—we are a place to grow. At the YMCA of Greater San Francisco, we support the full journey of well-being, addressing physical health, mental wellness, social connection and economic opportunity where you can Be Yourself, Belong In Community, Become Your Best. With a focus on youth development, healthy living and social responsibility, the Y nurtures the potential of every youth and teen, improves the San Francisco Bay Area’s health and well-being, and provides opportunities to engage with and support each other. Guided by our core values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility, the Y is dedicated to giving people of all ages, backgrounds and walks of life the opportunity to reach their full potential with dignity.
Buchanan YMCA: John Muir Elementary
The YMCA of San Francisco’s mission is to build healthy, sustainable, and equitable communities for all generations. With a focus on youth development, healthy living and social responsibility, the Y nurtures the potential of every youth and teen, improves the San Francisco Bay Area’s health and well-being, and provides opportunities to engage with and support each other. Guided by our core values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility, the Y is dedicated to giving people of all ages, backgrounds and walks of life the opportunity to reach their full potential with dignity.
Buena Vista Child Care, Inc.
Buena Vista Child Care’s mission is to provide a safe and nurturing environment where children can learn and grow. We believe each child is unique and strive to help them develop and maintain a positive self-image. Our program offers strong academic support, diverse enrichment opportunities, and experiences that promote emotional and personal growth, preparing every student for a successful future.
Careers in Science at the California Academy of Sciences
Careers in Science is a multi-year, year-round, paid internship and youth development program for San Francisco high school students who come from communities underrepresented in STEM, including girls and students of color.
Children's After School Arts
Children's After School Arts (CASA) is an independent, nonprofit creative arts after school program dedicated to guiding San Francisco’s youth toward open expression, expansive hearts, and questioning minds through our core tenets of art, justice and wellness. We provide a safe, comfortable, and inspiring environment in which children in Transitional Kindergarten through 6th grade receive creative and performing arts instruction.
Chinatown Community Development Center
Our youth-run, youth led programs at Chinatown Community Development Center's provide youth applied leadership skills, team-building, and communication opportunities. Through our youth programs, students gets to immerse themselves as leaders using Chinatown as their classroom.
Chinatown YMCA
The YMCA of San Francisco’s mission is to build healthy, sustainable, and equitable communities for all generations. With a focus on youth development, healthy living and social responsibility, the Y nurtures the potential of every youth and teen, improves the San Francisco Bay Area’s health and well-being, and provides opportunities to engage with and support each other. Guided by our core values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility, the Y is dedicated to giving people of all ages, backgrounds and walks of life the opportunity to reach their full potential with dignity.