Building a Community of Support
So Much More Than a Surf Session
Since 2015, MeWater has positively impacted the lives of more than 5,000 underserved youth in the San Francisco Bay Area with a focus on the neighborhoods of Bayview, Hunters Point, Visitation Valley and beyond. Our work continues to expand all across the Bay Area!!!
The Impact of Our Work
MeWater youth are educated on the environment, provided mental health support, and exposed to the outdoor San Francisco community in ways that were never available to them prior to joining MeWater. MeWater’s unique model also includes families in our events, often providing families with their very first surfing and camping experience together.
MeWater holds more than 54 daily outings yearly, with an average of 20-25 kids at each outing. In addition to our daily surf camps, MeWater holds overnight camps, bringing youth and their families to our local parks to experience camping and surfing together. These multi-day camping trips include a more extensive environmental and mental health education and skill development component, overnight camping on Mt. Tamalpais and Samuel P. Taylor State Park, and conclude with a beach surfing day. Definitely a highlight for all involved, creating lifelong memories outside in Mother Nature!
Community Partners
MeWater has expanded its community partners in just five years to include:
City of Dreams
APACC
SF CASA
San Mateo CASA
Boys and Girls Clubs
Friends of the Children SF
Hunter's Point Family Community Center
San Francisco Mayor's Youth Employment and Education Program
Edgewood Center for Children and Families
Project Avary
Hope SF
Youth Vs. Apocalypse
Huckleberry Youth Services
College Track SF
St. Raphael’s School
Salinias Surf Club
Outreach Off The Beach
Even when we are not in the water with our kids or hosting overnight camps, we interact with our kids each week through food distribution, at home visits and outreach. MeWater has a volunteer team of more than 300 community members providing a range of services from mental health support to surfing instruction and environmental education.
MeWater serves kids ranging in age from 5-20. It is a 100% volunteer-driven organization with every dollar raised going straight to support our underserved youth.
Many of our program participants are youth of color who have faced adverse childhood challenges including abuse or violence in their homes, schools, and neighborhoods; parental poverty or incarceration; undocumented status; underperforming at schools; and lack of access to physical and/or mental health services.
MeWater camps provide a clean, safe, and positive outdoor recreational and educational opportunity for the community and build stewards of the environment, with our youth engaged and inspired to pursue higher education in areas of environmental preservation.
MeWater relies on research-based practices proven to build protective factors. For example, the social development model shows that kids who develop competency in skills and who receive positive reinforcement will develop stronger bonds and have fewer health-risk behaviors as adults. The constant stressors of under resourced communities often result in behavioral and learning problems, an increase of social isolation in its members, and a need for realistic opportunities that enable young people to prosper.
MeWater camps provide these opportunities and where extra social support is needed, MeWater's inter-disciplinary team of healthcare professionals, can offer the necessary emotional support and social guidance that oversubscribed social services are often unable to provide.
At MeWater Foundation, we have witnessed first-hand how exposure to the ocean and nature has the power to educate, inspire, and empower.
We address trauma and stress in young people from backgrounds of poverty and violence through access to the ocean and parks.
Mother Nature has the incredible power to educate, heal, inspire, and empower and we share that abundant source with those who need it most so they can access it forever. We are making a difference. Every day. One child at a time.
Support for our families and our surf camps is only possible through donations and sponsorships. MeWater is grateful for any donation amount.
Contact Us
Are you interested in partnering with MeWater Foundation?
Contact Eddie Donnellan at eddied@mewaterfoundation.org