Tim Griffith Foundation

The Tim Griffith Foundation is pleased to announce that were selected as one of the charitable organizations selected by the SF Giants Community Fund to receive a grant. We are honored to receive $6,700.00 to help with our anti-violence work. There were over 200 grant requests submitted to the Giants Community Fund and we were selected!! Please stay tuned to hear more about how these funds will be used provide services for at risk youth in our communities. Thank you again for all of your support! We hope to see you at our upcoming fundraiser, Harvest Moon on Saturday, October 23, 2010.

The Redwood City Rotary Club presented San Carlos resident Winston Wykoff (pictured above with Stacey Redman) with a check for $18,000.00 on July 21, 2009. This stroke of luck happened because he attended the Prayer Breakfast hosted by the Service League of San Mateo County this past spring. Mr. Wykoff purchased five $5.00 raffle tickets from the Tim Griffith Memorial Foundation, in support of Tim’s House during the Rotary Club annual fundraising campaign.

The campaign benefited ten participating charitable organizations, including TGMF, who were given six months to sell as many raffle tickets as possible leading up to the drawing on July 4th at the Redwood City Independence Day event. Over $84,000.00 was raised in total by these charities.

This was the first year that TGMF was invited to participate in the campaign. Stacey Redman, President of the foundation shares, “We were so honored to be given the chance to participate, and when we learned we sold the winning ticket it made us feel like we were giving the prize away ourselves!” Tim’s House earned just short of $8,000.00 for our efforts, and we warmly thank all of our supporters who purchased tickets!

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By Shaun Bishop
Daily News Staff Writer
House honors slain Redwood City resident
Article Launched: 10/30/2008 12:54:16 AM PDT

Tim Griffith always invited friends to come home with him, his mother said. When he was young, it was a dog or an iguana. Later, it was friends he met in drug treatment as he strived to overcome his own addiction. That's probably why the dedication of Tim's House in Redwood City on Wednesday felt like a fitting tribute, said Stacey Redman, who lost her son in 2004 when he was fatally stabbed after a Giants game in San Francisco. He was 21.
"I think in some ways he started Tim's House on his own," Redman said. "He always cared so much for people. I was thinking this morning, he would say, 'This is sweet.' "
Dozens of people crowded into the living room of Tim's House, a three-bedroom home that opened earlier this month for men ages 18 to 30 who are participating in drug treatment programs. The mood Wednesday, though, was decidedly positive, even in light of the tragedy that led to the occasion.
San Francisco authorities said Griffith was stabbed Sept. 17, 2004, by Rafael Cuevas during a scuffle as he was leaving the Giants game after watching Barry Bonds hit his 700th home run. Cuevas, 26, was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison for the killing earlier this month.
The house named in his honor is run by the nonprofit Service League of San Mateo County, which bought it from Redwood City aided by a $500,000 federal grant and $100,000 from San Mateo County. The Tim Griffith Memorial Foundation, which Redman founded to honor her son, also pledged to pitch in $50,000 per year for the house's operation.
On hand for the dedication were both local and federal officials, including Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, who spoke directly to Redman before presenting the house with an American flag that had flown over the Capitol. "Thank you for your courage and for channeling your grief into action," Eshoo told her. "And he's watching and he's very proud."
For three months before his death, Griffith participated in San Mateo County's Bridges program, which was created by the courts and includes intensive drug treatment, testing and educational programs. His former probation officer, Rossi Bradford, said Griffith "suffered from a horrible addiction to methamphetamine," but said he was committed to breaking it. "He seems to enjoy himself and takes his recovery seriously," said Bradford, reading from old notes he made about Griffith.
Currently, five recovering addicts and a house manager live in the well-furnished house, which has hardwood floors in the living room, stainless steel appliances in the kitchen and earth-tone comforters on the six beds. Mike Nevin of the service league said the purchase price was about $650,000. "This is a lot nicer than most of them," said Chris Vega, 25, one of the residents, who has fought addictions for 10 years. "It makes you feel better when you wake up and live in a place like this." Residents must abide by strict rules, including no visitors, no drug or alcohol use, a nightly curfew and a positive attitude, said Karen Francone-Hart, who directs the service league's residential treatment programs. Tim's father Josh Griffith said his son was "such a giving person, a caring person" that he would have been elated about the house that bears his name.
Redman said she was always happy to have Tim's friends over at their Redwood City home to barbecue or watch a movie and once asked him why his friends didn't go to their own homes."He said, 'Mom, not everyone has a safe house to live in,' " Redman said. "It's perfect that this has his name on it and his spirit is here."
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Four Years After Tragedy, San Mateo County Non-Profits Announce New Partnership, Expanded Services

Memory of slain Redwood City youth lives on with opening of “Tim’s House”

REDWOOD CITY, CA – San Mateo County community leaders joined the Tim Griffith Memorial Foundation and the Service League of San Mateo County to celebrate the commemorative opening of Tim’s House, a home for young men who are successfully participating in San Mateo County’s BRIDGES Program, an intensive treatment program that focuses on helping drug offenders end the cycle of substance abuse and crime.

Tim’s House is named in honor of Tim Griffith, a BRIDGES Program graduate who was killed following a San Francisco Giants baseball game in 2004. After Tim’s death, his mother, Stacey Redman, founded the Tim Griffith Memorial Foundation to help fund support services like the BRIDGES Program.

For Redman, the opening of Tim’s House marks the fulfillment of a dream to expand the services that helped her son before he died. “Tim was a shining example of how successful the BRIDGES Program is when it comes to rebuilding lives”, said Redman. “I know that Tim would be proud to see that his legacy is working to ensure that more young men like him have access to these invaluable services.”

Tim’s House will provide five young men with a residential environment that delivers support services designed to help them transition back into society. The house will be open to BRIDGES Program participants ages 18 to 35 and will be operated by the Service League of San Mateo County as a part of its Hope House Program. Since 1960, the Service League has been providing treatment, education and other support services to San Mateo County Jail inmates and their families. The Service League’s Hope House program supports access to a variety of health and social service to recently released inmates, ensuring that they are prepared to reenter the community, and greatly reducing the likelihood that they will return to jail.

With the addition of Tim’s House, the Service League will be able to provide residential treatment to 42 clients in 6 separate facilities. “This is truly an example of how to build triumph out of tragedy”, said Service League Executive Director Mike Nevin. “Tim’s family and loved ones will never be the same, but we are truly blessed that they are choosing to honor his life by providing the means to help rebuild the lives of others.”

Through $50,000 annual contributions, the Tim Griffith Memorial Foundation will fund the operating expenses for Tim’s House, where Hope House clients are already living in a residential environment. “Thanks to this new collaboration, Tim’s House clients will participate in their own individual treatment plans that include customized programs developed by Service League case managers”, said BRIDGES Program Services Manager Rich Hori. “These services are proven to greatly reduce the likelihood that individuals will become repeat offenders.”

Based on Service League experience, client programs like those provided at Tim’s House are more successful in turning lives around. This is one reason why the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors recently passed a resolution recognizing the contributions that Tim’s House will make to both in the lives of individual participants and the in community at large.

Earlier this month, Tim Griffith’s killer was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison after he was convicted of second degree murder last May. “For those of us who knew Tim, the opening of the house is not just the fulfillment of a goal,” said Rich Hori. It’s also an opportunity for us to reflect on Tim’s life and a chance for us to celebrate how his legacy will survive to serve so many others.

We are excited to announce that the San Francisco Examiner published an article on TGMF on June 10, 2008. Tamara Barak Aparton writes:

"As jubilant Giants fans celebrated Barry Bonds’ 700th home run Sept. 17, 2004, Tim Griffith was dying of a stab wound just outside of the ballpark.

For his mother, Redwood City resident Stacy Redman, the days following the attack were darkened by intense grief. But it also was then that Griffith’s legacy would be born.

After the 21-year-old’s funeral, Redman and her friends began thinking of ways to show people that Griffith was more than a victim of violence. He was the 5-year-old who once slipped his Christmas money to a homeless man. He was the young man who brought home stray animals and lost souls.

“Something positive had to come out of this,” Redman said. “It couldn’t be that he was lost and that’s that. His spirit was about helping people.”"

To read the full article, please visit the San Francisco Examiner.