Our Spaces

Our formerly incarcerated community can be found in many different community spaces in around San Francisco, we have two physical spaces that are centered specifically around their needs and constraints. Both our houses are integrally connected to and proud to participation in the Embassy Network community and Haight St Commons. All our spaces are sober and meet parole and probation requirements.

Sigil

A five-bedroom house in Lower Haight, housing three returning citizens and two not-formerly-incarcerated individuals. We are a tremendous mix of ages, races, gender presentations and life experiences. Sigil is one of the coziest community spaces in the city!

Template House

Template House is a historic building in the Lower Haight comprised of four mixed-use units. The two upstairs units are residential and form our second Second Life house. Again we are an interesting mix of humans, who all appear and sound very different, but who have been bought together by a shared vision for a collective future.

Maine Second Life

This emerging community is built around the needs of formerly incarcerated individuals in Portland, Maine. This is part of the larger Second Life Project community, but addresses the unique needs of those impacted by incarceration in Maine. Their non-profit efforts are socially and fiscally sponsored by District Commons.

Community Values

  • We believe people's past need not dictate their future.

  • We believe that people are capable of organizing themselves for the protection of their own people, and transformation of harmful aspects of society.

  • We believe and support individual autonomy, self determination and self-valorization. We trust others to make the best decisions for themselves.

  • We are opposed to order arbitrarily imposed and maintained through force or forms of coercion. We work towards an order that results from the consensual and voluntary interaction of individuals.

  • We work together to live out the Embassy network values of openness, consensual engagement, experimentation, and learning and unlearning.

  • Self-care as community care. It is vital that this home be one with little escalation, thus we encourage everyone to take space when emotion rise up and address issues and conflicts in a calm state. Do whatever you need to do to make sure you are as emotionally and mentally healthy as possible while residing here.