Academic Enrichment Programs (K-5 Tutoring Club and Bridge Program)

Academic Enrichment Programs (Tutoring Club and Bridge Program) offers extensive academic tutoring, enrichment activities, and mentoring throughout the school year. The program includes a K-5 Tutoring Club with after school tutoring that covers snack, homework, supplemental work, and reading, as well as scholarships for extracurricular pursuits. Children in the program also participate in swim lessons, summer camping, and river rafting trips, and follow a rooftop playground rule where they run 10 laps upon arriving on the roof before going on to play.

• Ages: 5–18 years old

Raphael House began as a volunteer run organization in 1971 and is the 1st family homeless shelter in San Francisco. Its mission is to support low-income families and families experiencing homelessness in strengthening family bonds, finding stable housing, and achieving financial independence. The Academic Enrichment Programs include a Residential Shelter and after-care Bridge Program, and on average, 90% of the children served in these programs show improved academic performance. Over a 5-year average, 88% of the families served in the Residential Shelter achieve stable housing, and 94% of families maintain housing stability long-term through the Bridge Program. Raphael House offers programs for parents, and volunteers also take part in a holiday Adopt-A-Family program and shelter renovation projects, and have drawn on their Tutoring Club experience to lead an art program with refugee children in Beirut. One volunteer describes seeing children’s accomplishments from year to year, such as learning to read, mastering multiplication, and learning how to add mixed fractions, and notes that the afternoons spent at Raphael House are often the best part of her week.

Last updated March 7, 2026.