HISTORY
Making a difference for over 100 years.
1914 - 1934 | TRAVELERS AID
Compass Family Services' predecessor, Travelers Aid San Francisco, is founded in anticipation of the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition, also known as the World’s Fair -- which attracted over 18 million visitors -- to provide assistance to newcomers. The organization continued to provide a helping hand to American pioneers and new immigrants who became stranded on their journeys.
1936 - 1939 | THE GREAT DEPRESSION
In the midst of the Great Depression, the organization hires extra workers to conduct outreach to youth in need. As part of the New Deal, a National Youth Administration project helps update clerical work, freeing up social workers for greater client service. Travelers Aid opens an office on Treasure Island to provide full-time social workers for the Golden Gate International Exposition.
1940 - 1951 | REFUGEES
Due to the influx of refugees arriving from Europe and Asia, Traveler's Aid's caseload increases exponentially. A “Transit Lounge” is opened in Southern Pacific Railway Station (at 3rd and Townsend Streets) in response to influx of WWII refugees and increase in young people moving from place to place.
1969 - 1978 | FIRST PROGRAMS ESTABLISHED
The agency opens Aquarius House, a 30-day residential program in the Haight to help with the influx of teens and young adults, and the Tenderloin Childcare Center in the YMCA Ballroom, to offer subsidized childcare to San Francisco’s poorest families. The Tenderloin Childcare Center becomes the first licensed childcare center in San Francisco to reserve slots for children experiencing homelessness.
1989 | FOCUS SHIFTS TO HOMELESSNESS
After celebrating 75 years of “assisting transients, newcomers, and travelers alone in the city,” the focus begins to shift to issues of homelessness as more and more people appear in San Francisco’s streets lacking shelter, employment, and other resources.
1990 - 1994 | GROWING PROGRAMS
The organization opens Compass Family Shelter,one of the city’s first shelters to alleviate the burgeoning crisis of family homelessness, in addition to Compass Clara House, a two-year transitional housing program for families. Compass establishes Family Follow-up Project to provide aftercare services to homeless families in permanent housing.
1990 - 1995 | COMPASS COMMUNITY SERVICES
Travelers Aid San Francisco is renamed Compass Community Services. The City of San Francisco awards Compass a grant to form Compass Connecting Point, allowing Compass to centralize access to services for homeless families and manage the citywide family shelter waiting list.
TODAY
Compass Family Services runs 13 programs across San Francisco. The agency has been recognized as one of the Best Non-Profits in the Bay Area by the San Francisco chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG);awarded the national Mutual of America Community Partnership Award; and isone of 23 agencies nationwide to be awarded a federal grant through the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development to rapidly re-house homeless families.
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