Community Construction Outreach Program: Christopher Quinteros' Story
Community Construction Outreach Program: Lynna Vong's Story

Hear the stories of how UCSF's Community Construction Outreach Program changed the lives of two aspiring working people of San Francisco.

Local Construction Hiring 

Employing Local Workers on UCSF Construction Projects 

UCSF created the Community Construction Outreach Program  with a 30% local hire goal for UCSF capital projects with a contact value of $5 million and above. UCSF’s local hire goal mirrors the City & County of San Francisco’s Local Hire Ordinance. 

UCSF is partnered with CityBuild, the pre-apprenticeship training program in the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development, to identify job opportunities and coordinate the employment and apprenticeships of qualified local construction trade workers. 

Since the program’s inception in 2011, UCSF’s Community Construction Outreach Program has: 

  • Placed at least 1,800 local workers as electricians, laborers, carpenters, plumbers, ironworkers, drywallers, sheet metal workers and painters across multiple San Francisco races, ethnicities and neighborhoods from:
  • OMI/Excelsior 
  • Bayview-Hunters Point 
  • Mission/Bernal Heights 
  • Visitation Valley/Sunnydale 
  • Parkside/Forest Hill 
  • Inner/Outer Richmond 
  • Sunset 
  • Western Addition/Japantown 
  • Hayes Valley/Tenderloin 
  • South of Market
  • Created economic opportunity through construction work on 39 major UCSF construction projects
  • Supported the local workforce with more than 800,000 hours in construction

Young smiling worker wearing a hard hat

“I used to earn $11/hr and now earn $30 thanks to local hire programs like CCOP and CityBuild.”

 Christopher Alfaro (D6) 1st Period Drywall Apprentice

Chris is a South of Market resident who used to earn $11/hour at Six Flags amusement park, until he learned about CityBuild from his high school football coach. Now at UCSF, he installed soffit ceilings and cut metal to build the Weill Neurosciences Building at Mission Bay. Since working in construction, Chris has gained sponsorship into Local 68L, the Drywaller's union, as well as an almost threefold increase in his hourly wages. 


Current and Recent Projects 

In the past five years, over 250 local workers have been hired for UCSF construction projects through CCOP, including: 

  • Block 34 Parking Structure and Clinical Building  
  • Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute relocation to Mt. Zion 
  • Research and Academic Building at ZSFG 
  • 2130 Post St. Student and Employee Housing 
  • Moffitt/Long Hospital’s Acute Care Nursing Unit 
  • Weil Neurosciences Building at Mission Bay
  • 2 North Point Tenant Improvement 
  • Wayne and Gladys Valley Center for Vision 
  • Tidelands Housing 
  • Bakar Precision Cancer Medical Building 
  • Clinical Sciences Building Retrofit at Parnassus

Upcoming Opportunities 

Future UCSF construction projects include: 

Parnassus Heights 

  • Health Sciences Instruction and Research Seismic Program 
  • Helen Diller Medical Center (new hospital) 
  • Parnassus Research and Administration Building 
  • Irving Street Arrival 
  • Aldea Housing Rebuild