Welcome Message From our Executive Director

On behalf of the Health and Environmental Resource Center (HERC) in Bayview Hunters Point, I appre­ci­ate your tak­ing the time to visit our web­site. Please know it is under revi­sion at this time.

Soon you will find answers to ques­tions about envi­ron­men­tal health and jus­tice, and the spe­cial sup­port­ive ser­vices we pro­vide to our clients based on our exper­tise, our advo­cacy, and our ded­i­cated staff and com­mu­nity partners.

For me, Bayview Hunters Point is com­ing home. I grew up in the projects in Brooklyn where vio­lence, poverty, and poor edu­ca­tion were com­mon­place. We too had the chal­lenge of being healthy in a toxic and pol­luted envi­ron­ment. With the help of some car­ing peo­ple I moved and got edu­cated. To be clear, I am an advo­cate of serv­ing the under­served. My 17 years as an elected school board mem­ber in Dublin is but one exam­ple of my com­mit­ment. I am devoted to HERC for the rest of my life.

Today

HERC is the sole provider of Asthma Education, Wellness sup­port, Acupuncture treat­ments, and Home Assessments in the Bayview, Potrero Hill, and Silver Ave. neigh­bor­hoods. Our model of trained health edu­ca­tors and com­mu­nity health work­ers reach­ing out and edu­cat­ing chil­dren in the schools, seniors in the com­mu­nity, and adults in their homes is work­ing very well.

The HERC vision is this:

“HERC will grow to bet­ter serve south­east San Francisco in ALL health areas, not just asthma. Our model can work for any­thing health related - and will!”

We intend to expand both our pro­gram and fund­ing to include chronic ill­nesses like dia­betes, obe­sity, heart dis­ease, women’s health, can­cer, and pain man­age­ment. The clear vision is that HERC will be the pri­mary health edu­ca­tor for all Bayview, Potrero Hill, and Silver Ave. schools, com­mu­nity set­tings, health cen­ters, and homes in all health prob­lems areas men­tioned above.

Feel free to visit us to see how we can help meet your needs, whether that is learn­ing more about envi­ron­men­tal health, or receiv­ing edu­ca­tion in any of your per­sonal health areas. Also, come meet our car­ing, ded­i­cated staff. HERC is com­mit­ted to the improved health of each and every client.

We look for­ward to serv­ing you and the community.

John Ledahl,
Executive Director
HERC