Streetside Stories

Through the power of storytelling, Streetside values and cultivates young people’s voices, fostering educational equity and building community, literacy and arts skills.

Eighteen years ago, brothers Seth and James Levy kicked off the first of two cross-country “Rides for Reading.” To promote reading and writing, they rode their bicycles cross-country, sharing storytelling, theater, and creative writing with groups of youth along the way. After their second ride, the brothers moved to San Francisco. They established Streetside Stories in San Francisco in 1990 and began offering Streetside’s flagship program, the Storytelling Exchange, in San Francisco public school classrooms. During that first year, Streetside served 60 students in three schools.

Since then, Streetside has helped over 10,000 students engage with learning by sharing their life stories. We offer
high-quality literacy arts education programs to schools and after school programs, community-based organizations and to educators. While Streetside services are available to a broad array of schools and community organizations, we focus our resources on reaching underserved young people who attend struggling schools.

"Tell It Like It Is!" - A free, one-hour introduction to Streetside. Join us at our offices for refreshments, stories and the facts about Streetside. Tell It Like It Is! takes place every month, so if you aren't free this month, you can always join in later.

Anthology Release Event - Annual end-of-the-year event where we celebrate the student written stories that are selected for the annual Streetside anthology.