Jasmin Serim

Senior Program Specialist | Funding Team

Jasmin Serim was born and raised in New Jersey. As a queer teen, she got involved in youth leadership development and activism, sparking a passion she carries with her today. From New Jersey she moved to Santa Cruz where she attended the University of California at Santa Cruz, and received her Bachelor of Arts in Women’s Studies. In 2003, Jasmin moved to San Francisco and has been here ever since! Her work over the past two decades includes: street outreach, counseling and HIV prevention work with homeless teens; training and supporting peer health educators, teachers, parents and youth throughout the Bay Area in reproductive health education; serving as a researcher and project manager for program evaluations in community-based organizations across social services; providing capacity building and developing curricula and training materials to support program and organizational development; and supporting San Francisco youth programs as a Senior Program Specialist at DCYF since 2015.

She received her Masters in Social Work in Management and Planning from UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare. Outside of work Jasmin enjoys hanging out with her partner and their cats and dog, cooking, camping, reading, writing and occasional karaoke. She is trying to learn to like hiking.

What inspires you to do this work?

As an LGBTQ youth, programs that provided safe, accepting adults that helped me find and express my voice were life-saving. I’m so inspired by the work I see our grantee community-based organizations doing for and with youth in San Francisco, and it is my goal to provide them the support they need to keep doing this critical work.

DCYF’s tagline is “Making San Francisco a Great Place to Grow Up.” Do you believe this? Tell us why.

I hope so! I know there are so many caring and passionate people who are working hard to keep it that way and/or making it that way, building on community history and embracing diversity. San Francisco is a beautiful place that has so many resources available. Unfortunately, it’s also getting harder and harder for families to stay here due to rising costs and housing insecurity. I hope we as a City can figure out how to turn this tide and keep families here so youth can continue to grow up nurtured by and benefitting from all that San Francisco has to offer.

Is there a song or anthem that inspires your grind and motivates you to serve our communities?

“We Found Love” by Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris.