About Us

Ashbury Images Mission

Ashbury Images rebuilds lives one shirt at a time by providing paid employment, job training, and supportive services to at-risk youth recovering from poverty, substance abuse and homelessness.

 

Ashbury Images is part of New Door Ventures, a youth development social enterprise.

 

Client Success Stories:

 

Merlin's Story

For many transient youth, San Francisco can be an intimidating place to try to become independent. Merlin, a 21-year-old young man originally from Wisconsin, came to Ashbury Images for the support of a healthy environment while getting on his feet.

 

At 18, Merlin left home to start college, but had no financial support from family. "I was trying to pay rent with two jobs and go to school on my own. Mental stress and emotional issues, along with work and school all at once, built up on me. I made some bad decisions." After a few missteps, Merlin lost his housing. "I was homeless. I was sleeping in parking lots, and got arrested. I missed work while I was in jail; I lost both of my jobs."

 

Merlin moved a few times before coming to San Francisco and finding Ashbury Images. He said, "I was struggling. Being on my own, fighting for myself, surviving each day, wondering where I would get food." Even when living in a shelter, his situation was challenging. "I left the shelter at 8 a.m. It was hard to sleep in the shelter, so I would pretend to read at the library so I could sleep. I would walk around and try to get a job, carrying everything in my bag."

 

Merlin was drawn to Ashbury Images because he knew "the outcome would be positive, and the environment was a healthy one, with youth in the same position as I was in." Merlin had participated in other job readiness programs but applied to the job-training program at Ashbury Images, hoping for more than just a temporary paycheck. 

Merlin's aspirations when entering the program were simple, but challenging. "I wanted to get back on my feet and pay off old debt. I knew first I needed employment. I wanted to learn how to work diligently in the workplace."

 

At Ashbury Images, Merlin "learned the importance of working hard and being on time everyday." As he worked, he was able to pay back much of his debt, which removed holds that schools had placed on his enrollment, and was able to move forward in his education. "Once I was able to do that, I felt unstoppable."

 

Through his references at Ashbury Images, Merlin was able to find a job at a restaurant and was accepted to a photography internship. He has also returned to school to study art.

 

When reflecting on his personal growth, Merlin commented, "I am more mature. I am learning to let go of my old ways. I can focus more and I am not making the mistakes I made before. I am learning to express myself in better ways."

 

Stephanie's Story

 

"I said to myself: this is an open door; I need to take this chance and take a shot at it. It was like a break in the struggle - and I just took the opportunity immediately. And I succeeded."
 
Looking back at her life before she started working with Ashbury Images, Stephanie can hardly believe how far she has come.
 
"Before I started working with Ashbury, my life was horribly unpredictable. I had just gotten out of a shelter and gotten on food stamps. I didn't have a high school education. I would spend most days just wandering around the city. It was kind of an empty existence."
 
Listening to her talk her about her life now, "a complete turnaround" almost seems an understatement.
 
Stephanie came to Ashbury Images in 2008 and was placed in a six month, job-training internship. Eager to grasp her opportunity, she impressed her managers with her hard work and positive attitude, always looking to learn new things and take on extra responsibilities.
 
"It was like a big hole in my life that just got completed with this job. It made me feel really good that I could actually do a job - it was really enlightening and gave me a lot of self-esteem."
 
So impressed were her managers at Ashbury Images that, once she had completed her internship, they offered her a permanent, full-time job. Now supervising other youth interns, Stephanie is a role model to show what they too can achieve.
 
Though rightly proud of her own achievements, Stephanie is quick to acknowledge the support that Ashbury Images provided along the way.
 
"I had a case manager - Carin - she worked with me not only at work but also to get my GED. I had dropped out of high school early and she helped me pass my tests to get a high school equivalency. Sometimes, when you've been in a lifestyle like mine, you need that person to keep pushing you, to keep you going and to give you reasons why you should. And anytime I felt like I had a problem at work, I could let her know and she was able to put it in perspective for me and help me work through it."
 
"If I hadn't had that person to support me along the way, I think I would have ended up not knowing what to do, having nowhere to turn and having just a bunch of problems and not seeing any solutions. I might have just stopped coming here. And that would have been awful. I'd still be angry and depressed and feel no self-worth at all."
 
Despite all the changes that she has already made to her life, Stephanie is not yet ready to rest on her laurels.
 
"I feel like I've been taking so many baby steps for so long that I need to continue on that road. So I'm going to go to City College and enroll in some classes - maybe just one class a week on a Saturday would be fine. Anything from banjo lessons to art to chemistry or engineering classes!"
 
Like everything else that she has tried since coming to Ashbury Images, we've no doubt that Stephanie will succeed at that too.

 

Jerrick's Story

 

Jerrick’s almost constant smile belies the many challenges he’s had in his 18 years of life. His mother died when he was very young and he’s had almost zero contact with his father. He was raised in San Francisco’s Mission district by his maternal grandparents who lived on social security. Despite the poverty and gang violence around him, Jerrick chose to stay positive, finding healthy outlets in the B-Boy movement (a form of break dancing) and in creating and sharing “spoken word” (a mix of poetic words, music, and hip hop).

 

Jerrick wanted to reach his goals but lacked the resources. Jerrick has worked hard to take constructive steps in his life and managed to finish high school. His goal was to obtain an Associate Degree and then transfer to a four-year university. But he didn’t know how to pay for college. He had looked for jobs but kept hitting a wall because of his lack of work experience. And, he didn’t know how to make a university transfer possible.

 

Jerrick came to New Door and got the tools he needed. Jerrick then heard of New Door and competed with over 30 applicants to earn a paid job internship at Ashbury Images. As part of his internship, Jerrick was matched with his own case manager who worked with him in weekly meetings to actualize his goals. Together, they mapped out the sequence of classes required for a transfer and worked through the how-to’s of budgeting, saving, and applying for financial aid for school. His case manager paired him with a volunteer tutor for weekly, one-on-one sessions so that he could get the grades required for a transfer. And Jerrick’s case manager held him accountable to meeting his commitments at both work and school, teaching him how to balance his obligations and stressing the importance of fulfilling even small tasks in order to tackle bigger responsibilities in the future. For every paycheck he earned at Ashbury Images, Jerrick was able to save half of that amount for school. In fact, because New Door enrolled him in a community program that matched each of the dollars he saved, Jerrick was able to complete his internship with double the amount he would have otherwise had for his education.

 

“New Door and Ashbury Images mean a lot to me," Jerrick says with his winsome smile. "It is the only place willing to lend a hand to a youth who wants to make the right moves and stay away from negative influences. They give you the chance, in anything you want to do. They believe that you can pretty much do anything. And they'll help you in any way they can."

 

Freddy's Story

 

In his own words, Freddy describes himself as a young man who is "hard working and finishes things he starts." It's taken some time for that to be apparent, but now, at age 22, he is working hard to support his daughters and family, excel in his job at Ashbury Images, and to finally complete his credits for a high school diploma.

 

Having a family and making positive choices haven't always been a part of Freddy's life. At age 11, Child Protective Services placed him in a foster home for the first time, because of his mother's drug problem. Freddy didn't like the foster home and wanted to fit in with a family. He ran away from that foster home, and many subsequently. He stopped attending school around age 14. Since his mother had not been able to give him the support he needed, he found a tight knit group on the streets. With his first experience in Juvenile Hall at age 12, Freddy is the first to admit he was making poor choices for his future.

 

"Being in jail for 3 years was the worst time of my life - I was in the cell for 23 hours a day with one hour of recreation." After he got out, he continued to make mistakes that landed him in jail for another 6 months. That was the breaking point.

 

"I couldn't wait to get out. I was ready to turn my life around." And, with hard work, Freddy has taken steps to do just that. He came to New Door a few months after getting out of CYA (California Youth Authority: prison for youth), hoping for his first real job. He was accepted into the SWITCH enterprise internship program. He got a job at Ashbury Images where he learned time management, how to communicate with supervisors, and received support from a case manager to help him achieve other goals, like completing his education and staying out of trouble. He also participated in a tattoo removal program, to erase the gang affiliation tattoos he'd worn for years.

 

Freddy's hard work and leadership among his co-workers eventually earned him a full time position at Ashbury Images. He's a solid team player, who is always mentioned by new youth interns as "someone who helps you out a lot." He hopes to graduate this fall, and plans to one day share his story with other young people, to help them make positive choices too.

 

Ramses' Story

 

Ramses is mixing ink at a color-spattered table on one side of the vast space that houses Ashbury Images, a screen-printing business owned and operated by New Door Ventures – a nonprofit that helps at-risk youth prepare for work and life. Ramses is a big, soft-spoken guy. Stacks of red shirts stand like snow drifts amongst the machinery and cardboard boxes. The T-Third line streetcar rattles by outside, on its way south to hardscrabble Bayview-Hunters Point. Ramses grew up not far from here; he’s spent his entire life in the house where he still lives with his parents. He’s 21 years old. This is his first job.

 

About four years ago, he started getting in trouble. He was hanging out with the wrong crowd, skipping school, getting in fights, and breaking the law. He was locked up several times during his late teens; just before coming to Ashbury Images he served a seven-month sentence. He got tired of it, he says. The birth of his daughter, when he was 20 years old, strengthened Ramses’ determination to make something of his life.

 

When he was released from jail, he landed a six-month internship at Ashbury Images. He started out “catching shirts,” which means pulling them from the machine where they’re screened, loading them onto the belt of the dryer, and unloading them at the other end. He folded, boxed, and labeled shirts, then shipped them out. In the process, he earned a reputation as a good worker.

 

“I’m a hard worker and I’m determined to do a good job,” Ramses says. “I like to work and I don’t think negative.” His work ethic paid off. At the end of his internship, he was offered a full-time, permanent position at Ashbury Images. He wants to learn as much as he can about printing and sticks close to the more experienced workers. “If you’re interested, you learn more,” Ramses explains. “It’s up to you to pay attention and ask questions.”

 

Ramses himself wears a plain white T-shirt. “We don’t print them big enough for me,” he explains with a laugh. His family— including his father, who often worked three or four jobs to support his wife and kids—is proud of him. “I’ve been pretty good,” Ramses concedes. “I don’t get frustrated, and I see now that there’s no reason to get mad over things that don’t matter. So I just let it go. I stay focused on work. Right now I want to concentrate on the positive and see how far I can go.”

 

“One of the main reasons Truitt & White has chosen Ashbury Images is for its commitment to the community. Everyone benefits and it’s been a pleasure working with Ashbury Images all of these years.”

Patrice Parame

Truitt & White

 

Stephanie (right) with her case manager, Carin.

 

Freddy designed and printed his own t-shirt.