Ciara Wade

Ciara Wade is the Program Director for New Door Ventures, a community-based youth development organization that provides jobs, work readiness training, and supportive case management to at-risk, low income youth in San Francisco.  Ciara participates in many local forums that emphasize creating multiple pathways of opportunity for disadvantaged youth. From 2008-2014, she held an appointed seat on the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development’s Youth Council, a body that advocates for the educational and employment needs of youth.  She has been a co-chair for the San Francisco Youth Employment Coalition (SFYEC), and represents the needs of transitional-aged youth on San Francisco’s Workforce Investment Community Advisory Council from 2011-2013.  She currently leads a sub-committee on business development for the SFYEC.

A native of small-town Wisconsin, Ciara has worked in youth development since 2000, with extensive experience in both residential, educational and workforce settings.  Previous to her work at New Door, Ciara worked in a residential program for children with emotional and mental disturbance, and later in a specialized high school program for dual diagnosis teens ejected from the public school system. Following completion of her undergraduate studies at Taylor University, Ciara worked on a human rights research project for Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, focused on raising awareness of international trafficking of women and children for purposes of prostitution and slavery.  She believes that the resounding theme of so many people’s struggle in the US, and around the world, is lack of economic opportunity and that the American Dream will be restored and reinvigorated only through the collected energy and enthusiasm of every-day people committed to a shared vision.