Uplifting stories, images, and lived experiences of San Francisco youth

San Francisco has more than 115,000 youth living in our city. We have public schools, private schools, million-dollar apartments and homeless shelters that our young people call home. Foster Youth Museum and the HYPE Center (Helping Young People Elevate) present a new exhibition starting July 9, 2026, revealing the often hidden lives of San Francisco youth in this two month exhibition held at Community Works Restorative Hub at 986 Mission Street, San Francisco. 

Open Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and longer for special programming and by appointment, this exhibition will tell the stories of system-involved youth: their smarts, talents and struggles. This exhibition will include items from the Foster Youth Museum collection and also include HYPE youth contributions of photographs, original art, narratives and artifacts. Learn directly about the lives of young people who often go unnoticed in San Francisco and beyond: young people with lived experience in foster care, incarceration, homelessness, trafficking and CSEC (commercial sexual exploitation of children). Learn how youth navigate systems, build connections and community, raise children and fur babies, get educated, create art, heal and grow. 

Funded by Zellerbach Family Foundation, this exhibition has been co-organized over the last two years by an Exhibition Youth Advisory Committee (EYAC) of HYPE. These young people gave the exhibition its name, participated in storytelling and photography workshops, learned the art of matting and framing, and regularly met to create original installations in this unique exhibition.

Important exhibition details

Dates: July 9 to September 9, 2026 (Monday – Thursday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and by appointment). 

Opening night is on Thursday, July 9 starting at 5 p.m.

Location: Community Works Restorative Hub, 986 Mission Street, San Francisco

Getting there: There are limited street parking spots available on Mission and surrounding streets. It is highly recommended that you take public transportation or rideshare services. 

Parking: If driving is the best way for you to attend the exhibition, and you can’t find street parking, the Yerba Buena Garage (833 Mission St.) is located roughly three blocks (0.3 miles) east of Community Works. It is a large, secure municipal facility offering hourly and daily pricing. There is also the SOMA Hub Garage, which is about a 15-minute walk (255 12th St.) located about 0.7 miles from Community Works Restorative Hub. 

Opening Night Details

On July 9, 2026, we will have our opening night with light refreshments and opening remarks from Freedom Forward leadership, members of the Youth Advisory Board, and other special guests.

Date: Thursday, July 9, 2026
Time: 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Speaker Program: Begins at 6:15 p.m.
Location: Community Works Restorative Hub, 986 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
RSVP by: June 25, 2026

Guests are welcome to arrive anytime during the reception. We encourage guests who would like to attend the speaker program to arrive before 6:15 p.m.

For more information, please contact: hypecenter@freedom-forward.org

About Foster Youth Museum

Foster Youth Museum (FYM) is the largest collection of art, artifacts and video portraits about youth experiences in foster care. Conceived by current and former foster youth, the museum offers a unique opportunity to understand foster youth perspectives and how youth can heal and grow with supportive relationships, collaborative decision‐making, positive encounters, and respect. FYM has multiple traveling exhibitions that include that cover the following things: Foster Youth Lost Childhoods, Foster Youth and Higher Education, Foster Youth and Houselessness, Foster Youth and Tattoo Stories and Foster Youth and their Chosen Families. In addition to FYM solo exhibitions, FYM collaborates with agencies and organizations to support new and unique museum exhibition collaborations. 

For more information about FYM, please contact FYMuseumED@gmail.com.

About Freedom Forward and the HYPE Center

Freedom Forward’s mission is to collaborate with Bay Area youth, ages 14-24, to transform systems and prevent their exploitation.

Our initiatives enable young people to have agency over their bodies, relationships, choices, and lives—ultimately helping them live free from exploitation and thrive.

The HYPE Center is a multi-service drop-in center designed by and for young people to easily access the services and resources they want from multiple providers under one roof.

About Community Works

Community Works has generously shared their space for this special exhibition. 

Community Works seeks to transform justice through programs and policies rooted in humanity and healing. Honoring the lived experience of survivors, incarcerated people, and their communities as expertise, our programs are culturally responsive, trauma-informed, and rooted in Restorative Justice and the Arts. Changing Systems is how we translate the lessons from our direct service work. By honoring lived experience as expertise, the people in our community lend their voices to collective actions that seek a future where justice heals rather than harms.