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Yesterday, Compass Family Services hosted a panel to discuss the release of the collaborative new report, “Voices of the Unseen: A Real Count of Homeless Families,” which was authored by a group of providers and advocates in San Francisco. An Invisible Crisis When most San Franciscans think of “homelessness,” they often picture unsheltered individuals sleeping on the streets, living with acute addiction, in tents on neighboring blocks. There is a significant amount of political pressure to fix this type of homelessness - the one that is easy to see.  While no one should be without a safe and stable home, media and administrative  attention that focuses solely on individuals experiencing visible, unsheltered homelessness can drive the plight of homeless families out of the spotlight. Unhoused families often work hard to stay below the radar out of fear of punitive responses from the child welfare or immigration systems. They’re also less often found on the streets, instead resorting to ‘couch surfing’ with friends or family, living in vehicles, or overcrowding into single rooms alongside multiple families - a pattern known as “doubling up”. While these families may stay out of the public eye, they still need services and support. Yet inadequate resources are directed toward this group, due to inconsistent and inaccurate undercounts of the population. Giving Voice to the Unheard On December 7th, Kyriell Noon, CEO of Hamilton Families, moderated a panel at Compass’s 37 Grove St. office that included Compass CEO Erica Kisch and three mothers experiencing homelessness. Following Erica’s summary of the issue and the goal of the “Voices of the Unseen” report, the mothers each shared their personal stories of fear and uncertainty navigating a response system that hasn’t served them well. Chariana Jones became homeless after escaping domestic violence with her daughter. Due to housing uncertainty, Chariana has been displaced from her daughter who is staying with family. She hopes to find a stable and secure home where her daughter and her can live together again and share family moments. “Now, my safety is more at risk … with me not being housed permanently or sufficiently. I have more of a probability of running into that same type of domestic violence situation. And that’s not just regarding me, that’s true of any man woman or child [facing homelessness].” - Chariana Jones, domestic violence survivor Liberty Henegan has six children, one of whom is just four months old. Liberty says that many programs turned her away because they aren’t equipped to help larger families like her own. Before finding shelter, she and her children lived in their car out of fear of facing violence in open cots at emergency shelters.  “There's so many people like me in my position. There’s so many people that got kids and they're scared to go to the shelter or don’t want to put in the necessary footwork to beat down these doors to say just help me please.”  “Being in the {private room} shelter has made things better for my children. They play sports, they’re able to go on field trips, they’re not missing so much school, because we have a stable foundation.”   - Liberty Henegan, shelter resident Antonella Hernandez first came to America 12 years ago without legal immigration status. She had to manage working nights while spending days in the hospital with her daughter who was facing major health issues. While she has spent the past six years in a single occupancy room, her situation is not safe or tenable for her family. There are currently as many as 10 people living in the room; Antonella and her family have recently opened their home to another family in need of a place to stay. “I’ve been [at the SRO hotel] for six years now, but the conditions are not good … There are rats, there is mold, there are cockroaches, some of the people living there have drug issues. That is not a good place for my daughter. So I want to have a better place … but it’s difficult to find help.”  - Antonella Hernandez, SRO hotel resident [translated from Spanish by interpreter Elisa Gonzalez-Garcia] Listening, Not Just Hearing Chariana, Liberty, and Antonella were asked what they would most like San Francisco to do next year to better support homeless families, and a common theme emerged:: Listen to us. See us. “Listen. Let’s start there.”   - Chariana Jones “I have a fifteen year old son and I have a twelve year old daughter. I want the city to see the future of San Francisco. I want the city to see them.”   - Liberty Henegan “I would like for [the city] to listen to us, and to see all of us and each of us as we are.”  - Antonella Hernandez [translated from Spanish by interpreter Elisa Gonzalez-Garcia] Working Together to Shine a Light The published ‘Voices of the Unseen’ report asks the city to urgently put together a Family Point-in-Time Count to accurately represent the size of the family homeless population in SF. The report and its supporters are also asking for increased services and big picture system transformation. “It is all of our responsibility to bring family homelessness out of the shadows and get real about the severity of this terrible problem, get real about the numbers, and make sure that the appropriate level of resources are being deployed.”  - Erica Kisch, CEO of Compass Family Services “Voices of the Unseen: A Real Count of Homeless Families” was produced by the Coalition on Homelessness Housing Justice Workgroup and the Family Subcommittee of theHomeless Emergency Service Providers Association (HESPA), with support from Chinatown Community Development Center, Dolores Street Community Services, GLIDE, Hamilton Families, Homeless Prenatal Program, SF City Vitals, and Compass Family Services.

Unfiltered: Stories of Professionals of Color at Compass As our organization works to foster transparency, facilitate deeper conversations, and drive action toward creating a more equitable community, we've launched the Unfiltered series as an essential component of that mission. Before coming to the United States and San Francisco, Bolor grew up in Mongolia and spent much of her early adult life there. Bolor remembers being around three years old, seeing her mother spend her nights studying for medical school. This was a career shift for her mother, switching from an engineer to a psychiatrist. After her mother would work and put Bolor and her brother to sleep, she would study at the kitchen table. Bolor has vivid memories of her mother opening Russian medical books spread out all over the table, drinking a glass of water with the dim table light on, and a blanket covering her to warm her from the chilly nights in Mongolia. Eventually, all the studying paid off, and her mother opened her home to those in the community needing support, specifically elders and children. Bolor says, “My mom never hesitated to support others less fortunate than her.” Growing up and seeing her mom helping and supporting people in their local community, Bolor knew she wanted to be like her. Bolor also went to medical school in Mongolia – studying to become a psychiatrist. Bolor saw many things during her training in the ER – noting the broad spectrum of human life. Bolor says: “Human beings are remarkable; I’m mesmerized by people’s will and strength to live. I love people.” In 2009, Bolor and her husband moved to Idaho for her husband’s education. Once her husband graduated, they moved to Fremont, California. Bolor felt like she was treated differently when they moved because of the way she looked and because she did not speak English. She also noticed that her peers treated her unequally because she couldn’t work due to the limitations of her immigration status. When Bolor moved to Idaho, it was the first time she was ever asked the painful question, “What are you?” Bolor says: “People would guess where I was from. They were curious, which I understood, but the question was hurtful. What am I? I am human.” Having taken classes with a variety of others who also didn’t speak English, it was apparent to Bolor that she was being singled out because she wasn’t white. However, due to Bolor’s strong foundation of who she was, she says: “Knowing who I was, helped lessen the pain.” Although Bolor was a psychiatrist for two years before moving to the US, her degree from Mongolia would not allow her to practice in America. She didn’t want to leave the field, but as a lifelong learner, Bolor decided to study and take English classes. Bolor’s English teacher saw something in her and encouraged her to pursue a master’s degree to become a Marriage and Family Therapist. To enroll in the master’s program, Bolor had to pass many prerequisite courses, including statistics, which were all in English. Bolor channeled her mother’s determination often and mustered the energy to study, while working full-time and caring for her child. Bolor fears societal injustices and their harmful impact on kind people. Bolor recently became a US citizen so she can vote and have a political voice, hoping to effect positive change in her community. Bolor is inspired by her fellow Compass co-workers. She believes Compass attracts compassionate, dedicated, full-hearted people, saying, “All the kind people from the Bay Area have come to Compass.” Bolor’s experience of immigrating to the US prepared her to feel better equipped to help her daughter navigate some of the same experiences she had. Bolor advises her daughter to “be confident with her skin, accept who she is. Confidently say, ‘I am Mongolian-American,’ and I am from the United States of America.” The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely Bolor Purvee's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Compass Family Services or its personnel. Interview by Ashley Ante

The experience of homelessness is traumatic in and of itself, and the vast majority of the families we serve at Compass also grapple with significant additional trauma. For that reason, we have long held that behavioral health services are a critical piece of the puzzle in helping families to achieve lasting stability and well-being. Guided by this premise, we have always provided critical behavioral health support to our client families, but in early 2020 we received a sizable grant from the San Francisco Department of Homelessness & Supportive Housing to extend these services beyond the Compass umbrella, to families facing or exiting homelessness in programs throughout San Francisco, using a mobile or roving model. The model we proposed was innovative and interesting enough for Google to award Compass one of their prestigious Bay Area Impact Challenge Grants in November 2021, bringing an additional $500,000 to this work two years after we were awarded an initial $500,000 by Google as an Impact Challenge finalist. When the pandemic hit, the planned mobile - and even in-person - therapy became impossible. Deploying our trademark flexibility, our behavioral health team pivoted to the provision of these much-needed services largely via teletherapy, a modality that, for many therapy participants, actually shows a great deal of promise for the post-pandemic era. Last year our team of therapists provided individual, family, couples, and child play therapy to more than 300 parents and children each month, and 80% of these realized a positive change in their scores on the Global Assessment of Functioning - an assessment used to determine how much an individual’s symptoms affect their day-to-day life. Specifically, we saw an increase in housing stability and feelings of well-being in our adult participants and positive movement in the attainment of developmental milestones in the youngest therapy recipients. At the same time we noted a reduction in negative outcomes, such as homelessness recidivism, domestic violence, and child abuse. Our goal has always been therapy on demand, which means being able to provide these critical services in the moment that a family needs them, rather than putting a family in crisis on a potentially months-long waiting list. These findings linking behavioral health services with family stability have been exhilarating and validating, substantiating with data what we have always known intuitively. Staying on top of the need is tremendously challenging, but we are committed to doing so.

Program Director Joanna Garcia prepares a bedroom in a family apartment. When families move in, the Margot team provides them with a welcome package with new bedding, household goods, and other essential items to make their new apartment feel like home. Since family homelessness began to emerge as a serious and growing social problem in the early 1990s, Compass has developed and continually expanded a continuum of initiatives to address the temporary and long-term housing needs of the ever-increasing number of families affected by this most unfortunate phenomenon. For decades, we have provided emergency shelter, transitional housing and rapid rehousing programs and services, with the goal of helping families facing homelessness to achieve stability, self-sufficiency and well-being. We are now very excited to be rounding out our portfolio with the addition of a sleek new Permanent Supportive Housing program located at the corner of Mission & 9th Streets, just a few blocks from our Service Hub. The Margot is a partnership between Compass, Delivering Innovation in Supportive Housing (DISH), and UCSF Citywide Case Management, with funding from the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. Families experiencing homelessness have already started to move into the building’s forty modern, comfortable and efficiently designed three-bedroom apartments, which will become, for many, their forever homes. Residents of The Margot will enjoy a large communal event and working area, an expansive rooftop deck with panoramic views of the City perfect for celebrations and gatherings, and a warm and welcoming children’s activity space. On-site bilingual case managers will meet weekly with resident families to address goals, needs and challenges, and match them with needed services, including behavioral health, childcare, employment support and more. Our resident children’s activities coordinator will provide a menu of children’s programming and ensure that the particular needs of the program’s youngest residents are met. Working in lockstep with our DISH and Citywide partners, the Compass team is proud to ensure that any family walking through the doors of The Margot with a key in hand will know that they matter, not only to the Compass community, but to the San Francisco community at large. We know that, at The Margot, families will have every opportunity to build stable lives, raise healthy and happy children, and grow in the direction of their dreams.

Connie Swain is the C-Rent Program Director. Connie has worked tirelessly over the last year to support families and build the C-Rent team. She is excited to continue growing the program to further assist families in stabilization and provide support of all kinds, from financial literacy to reaching their education goals. Since the earliest days of the pandemic, San Francisco families experienced unprecedented job loss and housing instability. Although eviction moratoriums were eventually enacted in order to provide a barrier to housing loss, many families remained at-risk for imminent homelessness. Long before the pandemic, we provided rental assistant through our Rental Assistance Project (RAP), but the COVID crisis and overwhelming influx of families seeking rental support prompted us to pivot to a standalone rental assistance program. Compass C-Rent was carved out in 2021 to better serve the unprecedented number of families coming through our doors at risk of eviction. Being on the verge of homelessness is a volatile and terrifying experience, the traumatic impacts of homelessness are well known, and once a family loses their housing unit, it is extremely difficult to bounce back. First and foremost, C-Rent helps vulnerable families to avoid becoming homeless in the first place. The program provides client families with back rent and assistance with utility payments and moving expenses, as well as case management to address the factors contributing to their vulnerability. Dedicated case managers help families work on goals around financial independence, building credit and establishing savings. C-Rent’s Housing Search Coordinator offers housing application workshops, helping parents navigate the complexities of the low-income housing landscape, as well as workshops focused on reducing barriers to securing and maintaining stable housing. For so many families, information surrounding state and citywide eviction moratoriums was confusing and constantly changing, making it difficult for our housed families to know the fate of their housing unit, day to day and month to month. Between April and June 2022, as the statewide moratorium sunset but the San Francisco moratorium had yet to be extended, families were left in confusion and in fear of eviction. All along, the C-Rent team helped many anxious families to wade through the confusion and navigate the system. C-Rent’s small but might team helps to prevent homelessness before it happens, and we are excited to see these critical services continue to grow and expand as we help more and more at-risk families to avoid falling into homelessness.

Stories of Professionals of Color at Compass As our organization works to foster transparency, facilitate deeper conversations, and drive action toward creating a more equitable community, we’ve launched the Unfiltered series as an essential component of that mission. In this post, Family Shelter Manager Jackie Sander's shares her experiences visiting the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and National Historical Park. I sing with a national choir called GWMA (Gospel Workshop of America), and we sing gospel all over the world. Each year we travel to a state, sing and perform gospel songs for five days, and learn about the history of each place. In July 2017 I had the awesome experience of visiting the sacred Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta, Georgia. I was able to tour and go inside the places where Dr. King was born, lived, worked, and worshiped. I went into the house where he was raised and sat in the church where he worshiped. For as long as I can remember, I always had a connection to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. By way of our church names. I was raised by a Baptist preacher like King, and our church name is Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, and Dr. King’s church was also Ebenezer Baptist Church. The first place I visited when I was in Atlanta was the Ebenezer Baptist Church and sat down in the pews. I went to Dr. King’s childhood house where he lived and played as a boy. Then I went to the museum where I saw the buggy that carried his body during the funeral procession in 1968. Then to sit with Martin Luther King Jr., and Coretta Scott King at their burial site was a chilling experience as I listened to the silence of the calming water that flowed around the burial site. I could feel their presence as I sat there thanking each of them for their love for people and their faith in God. I will never forget the humble experience of looking upon such greatness. In July of 2019 our choir went to Washington DC to sing, and that is where I had my second profound experience and touching moment of my life. On this trip I was able to stand before the Memorial of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I spent the day visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which was powerful. I decided to take a tour that evening of the National Mall and Memorial Parks. The tour guide shared some history as we rode through the park as we saw the Lincoln Memorial and Jefferson Memorial. As the tour guide pointed out: "here is the Martin Luther King Jr., Memorial,” In the dark, I noticed a light shining on this big structure. As I walked toward this 30 foot tall white granite statue, tears flowed down my face. I had reached a mountain top experience. I was standing in front of one of the greatest black leaders in history. I can still remember the moment I stood in front of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s memorial. Approaching the plaza where the Stone of Hope stands, a carving of Dr. King gazes into the horizon thoughtfully. On the visible side of the Stone of Hope are the words: “Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope,” a line from Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.. Visitors enter through the Mountain of Despair, moving through his struggles as they walk to freedom. I hope that my experience will motivate others to one day visit both of these powerful sites to Dr. King. At these memorials, you can feel the presence of this influential leader who fought with love for justice and freedom for all.

Stories of Professionals of Color at Compass As our organization works to foster transparency, facilitate deeper conversations, and drive action toward creating a more equitable community, we’ve launched the Unfiltered series as an essential component of that mission. In this post, Compass Clara House Childcare Provider Sudarma Kekulawela is interviewed by our Corporate Relations Manager, Stacy Webb. What's your earliest memory of being inspired? I am a native Sri Lankan, and I was influenced mainly by my grandmother, who told me stories about equality, compassion, and mindfulness. My Buddhist upbringing also greatly inspired me to understand those in need. When did you realize that race, gender, sexual orientation, or identity would impact how you interact with the world around you? I belong to the Sinhalese ethnicity, and we are the majority race in Sri Lanka. A 30-year-old ethnic war made me come to the US leaving my comfortable home and starting in a new country all over again. There had been a social revolution where the ruler was ousted. Once again, all races are living united in our homeland. After living in the US since 2007, I have felt that my race, gender, sexual orientation, and identity greatly influenced our culture. As children, we were expected to do well and strive for excellence. Traditionally, women worked in the house and took care of the family, while men worked many years ago. Now, women are equally educated and working. However, most of the housework is done by women. It is expected of the woman too. Seldom would there be a man who would equally share the family responsibilities with the wife. Sexual orientation was only known as straight, and all other variations were hushed! Everything was so strict when I was a kid, and I had to face many expectations from my family to excel in everything. The pressure was too exhausting. I gained many skills in decision-making, multi-tasking, and leadership by being a leader. If you could give your younger self any advice, what would it be and why? To be perfect is draining and exhausting. Nothing has to be perfect as long as our actions do not harm anyone. It is okay to make mistakes and learn from them. What inspired you to work at Compass or with vulnerable populations? I witnessed the reality of people who were homeless when I worked as a desk clerk in the Tenderloin while attending child development classes. My first Early Childhood Education (ECE) job was working with six preschool children from Compass Clara House, which was just a job that gave me money. I had no passion for working with a community of moms constantly stressed out, quarreling, and demanding. I did not understand the struggles they were going through, and neither did I know how to support them. While working with these children and getting exposed to their family stories, I realized that what I felt as an immigrant in this country had been far superior to what the families in my care have faced. I was lucky to have papers with a clear immigration status. I understood the children’s dilemmas when CPS removed them from their parents due to various practices. My work as an educator positively impacted the children and the families, and my work is an essential service to people who need a caring adult to leave their children with. My second ECE job was at the Epiphany Center as an Infant/toddler teacher, and the mothers were in recovery from all forms of abuse while we cared for their children. The second time I got hired at Compass as an Infant toddler teacher, I came prepared and confident about the job. What supportive communities do you find helpful on your journey to learn and find purpose? I have worked closely with therapists, early childhood mental health consultants, and other ECE professionals who have greatly inspired me to work with vulnerable families. By nature, I am compassionate, and my personality helped me reach out to people who need me. By getting a graduate degree in ECE, I met a cohort of like-minded teachers who share the same joy of helping people. I also attend relevant workshops and training by organizations like West ED and First 5. My First supervised field experience was done at Binda Magic with mentor teachers. Frank Duhl and Linda Sudak were also employees of Compass Children’s Center many years ago, and I learned the art of gently caring for infants from them. The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely Sudarma Kekulawela's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Compass or its personnel. Interview by Stacy Webb

Stories of Professionals of Color at Compass As our organization works to foster transparency, facilitate deeper conversations, and drive action toward creating a more equitable community, we’ve launched the Unfiltered series as an essential component of that mission. In this post, our C-Work case manager, Misha Cook was interviewed by our Parent Educator, Cecily Banks. Misha is very goal-oriented, as you will learn she has had to become. She presents herself as an observant and attentive service provider. When she chooses to speak, it is with intention and purpose. She has beaten incredible odds and is present today as a flourishing community contributor and mentor to other youth with similar life paths. Misha was raised as a “ward of the court” or in the foster care system almost from birth. Due to this experience, she began wanting to understand social systems better and help navigate people through them. Misha shares that she also saw the disadvantages that present themselves to young people without a natural family,. “I wanted to make a difference for others in the community as well.” Misha grew up in a system that was not designed to help her succeed. As a foster child, her personal experience was full of change and transition. She was too often unseen and counted out regarding her education. She was identified as a “problem” child early and subjected to suspensions and expulsions from school. Misha did not have an advocate to guide and support her during these formative years. “I remember in elementary school, noticing how my classmates and I were treated and how separations were made based on a child’s color or a family’s ability to be involved. Many of the children of color were sidelined and treated differently. My clothes weren’t the same; our home lives weren’t the same; I struggled with academics and had no ongoing positive support.” Misha is one of six children born to her parents. Her mother has been in and out of her life, and she recently re-connected with one of her sisters. Misha never lived with her biological family. Misha shares, “Throughout the years, I began to see and understand the needs of others whose experiences were like mine; a youth or person of color, disconnected from family and community, and who needed help and support in life.” At some point in middle school, I began to teach myself things while I was home on a suspension or expulsion. My foster families did not take the time to make sure I was learning and keeping up academically. For much of my childhood, I used self-teaching to get by. I would seek out books and different ways to retain information.” During her teen years, Misha met a therapist who was pivotal in her life. “This was one of the only people who invested time and interest in me,” she recalls. Misha remembers the positive words from this person advocating for her and pushing Misha to be her best self. “My therapist supported me in many ways, including listening to me, challenging me, helping me to see my positive character, and encouraging me to reach goals that seemed unreachable at that time. Today, I believe in the efficacy of therapy; it can help you work through challenging situations and places, enabling us to see into the future.” When Misha successfully entered college, she began to be transformed by information and education. She began to look at the holes in our systems and the lack of support provided for students of color. Misha did struggle through her undergraduate years but came out on top and successfully graduated in 2016 from Cal State East Bay in Human Development. Through that experience, she has learned persistence and a DO NOT QUIT attitude. I asked Misha what advice she would give her younger self. She paused as she thought this question through. The statements or mottos that came to mind were “I will be OK,” “I will have successes in my life,” and “Not everyone has the same situation.” Misha said she would tell her younger self not to give up. “This connects to what I do now; I want to teach others how to use the resources available and navigate the social systems.” She goes on to proclaim,; “There is no shame in asking for support or help. Often people don’t get what they need because they don’t know how or whom to ask for help.” Today Misha serves her community and all communities of SF with support for parents needing to continue their education or land a meaningful job. “I love working with clients and helping families find a path to sustainability. Statistically, only 2% of youth raised within the foster system are stable upon exit from this system. I plan to improve this statistic. “Overall, I am grateful. Not just for the positive points and moments in my life but also for the challenges and moments I could not get up. They all have made me who I am today.”

Guest Blog authored by Nicole Moler and J-PAL North America's Laina Sonterblum, Senior Policy Associate. Originally published on the J-PAL Blog. With grant support from Google.org , the Bay Area Evaluation (BAE) Incubator supports Bay Area service providers with implementing and evaluating cash transfer programs to assess their impact on homelessness and housing stability. In part two of our BAE Incubator partner series, Compass Family Services reflects on their experiences as an Incubator partner . Nicole Moler, Impact Analyst, discusses how the BAE Incubator reinforces Compass’s culture of evidence and tells prospective Incubator partners to “go for it.” Compass Family Services is a community-based organization serving San Francisco families experiencing or at risk of homelessness. It has supported vulnerable San Franciscans for over 100 years. As a member of our Impact + Learning team, my main goal is to learn; to better understand the impact of our work and to iterate on programs to better serve our families. However, before the BAE Incubator, we didn’t have the expertise to understand our impact with the rigor of a randomized evaluation. When we applied to the BAE Incubator last summer, we hoped to take our evaluation capacity to the next level. Our goal was to take all of the information we had—all of the assumptions about what we thought we knew—and really test it using rigorous data. Our staff is very excited about the idea of cash transfers , and many believe that it will be the best thing for our families in rapid re-housing. We’ve had the opportunity to give small amounts of funds to some clients before and have seen the difference it can make but haven’t had the data to back up our observations. We are excited to explore randomized evaluation because we want to really know if cash transfers will work at a larger scale. At the same time, Compass has a desire to make sure the evaluation is done carefully, ethically, and rigorously. This is where J-PAL’s expertise comes in. As a naturally skeptical person, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from the BAE Incubator. Moreover, while we were excited to dig deeper into rigorous evaluation, we were also a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of taking on a randomized evaluation given the many moving pieces. Because of these concerns, I have really appreciated that the Incubator has been an intentional, steady process. From the beginning, the focus on simply determining feasibility made me feel comfortable. Since then, each subsequent component has assured me that we are building the right blocks. The training we received through the BAE Incubator provided the opportunity to get in the weeds about some of the more technical concepts related to both randomized evaluations and evaluation in general. We even shared some training materials with other programs at Compass, which helped reinforce the data-driven culture of evidence we’re building. We also took advantage of the opportunity to attend J-PAL’s week-long Evaluating Social Programs course, which sparked several additional RCT ideas. (For another time, perhaps!) The Incubator also includes regular, small group technical assistance sessions. When we meet with J-PAL staff members Amanda and Anisha , we have the chance to dig into questions specific to our design. They’ve helped us build confidence in both the feasibility of our project and our capacity to carry it out. They acknowledge that there can and will be challenges, but also that there are often ways to address them. The technical assistance has helped us think through potential unintended consequences of this project so that we can address them proactively. While there are times I feel as though we can’t do this, the next time we meet, I am reassured that we can. Through this engagement, we’ve really been able to sharpen our technical skills. We’re also learning how to ask the right questions to advance our evaluation goals, particularly when working directly with program staff. These tools help us not only think through the randomized evaluation we’re designing but also enhance our other work. We’ve been able to plant evaluation seeds across Compass’s many programs and spark conversations with staff about rigorous data. For any organizations thinking about applying to the J-PAL North America Housing Stability Evaluation Incubator , I say go for it! They have a deliberate, transparent, and thoughtful process focused on determining feasibility. And if a randomized evaluation of your program is not feasible, that’s okay! They’ll still help you add tools to your toolbox. J-PAL staff provide space for organizations to test out ideas and ask questions. Don’t be afraid: trust the process. Part one of this blog series explores existing evidence on cash transfers and highlights the need for further evaluation in the context of homelessness reduction and prevention in the United States. The Homelessness and Housing Stability team at J-PAL North America will be accepting Letters of Interest for the Housing Stability Evaluation Incubator from August 1–October 17, 2022. Public housing authorities, continuums of care, nonprofit organizations, and other service providers working to reduce and prevent homelessness are encouraged to apply.

Meet Clark Wininger, Assistant Program Director at the Compass Family Resource Center Clark Wininger is the Assistant Program Director for the Family Resource Center (FRC) at Compass, working to assist clients with drop-in and direct service needs. With a passion for social work and giving back, Clark came to Compass as a Case Manager with the FRC back in 2020 before stepping into his current position three months ago. Clark sits at a desk across from the entrance to 37 Grove and, from his desk, is positioned to know everyone and everything happening in the space. Clark and his team at the FRC are the first people most families will encounter when coming to Compass. The team fills out intake paperwork, runs assessments with families, and refers them to the appropriate programs within Compass and the community to address their housing, employment, childcare, parenting support, and other stability needs. In addition to providing a great level of detail and knowledge about these resources, Clark and his team also pass out diapers, groceries, and hygiene kits directly to families. With its location at the front doors of 37 Grove, the FRC team continues to greet families even after they progress through other Compass programs, building relationships that last years. This is one of Clark’s favorite parts of being in the FRC; it reflects the welcoming community that Compass cultivates. When he’s not at the front of Grove helping families receive services during drop-in hours, Clark likes to participate in the weekly group Music and Movement Class held for children from ages 0-5. He describes it as “Zumba for toddlers,” saying, “It’s so fun to walk by that room and see all the kids dancing and moving around. When I can, I hop in and it’s one of my favorite parts of the day.” The entire FRC team agrees that Music and Movement always brings a smile to all participants. The Family Resource Center’s success is due to the flexibility and adaptability of the entire team. FRC staff have to problem solve in a variety of different ways, and maintain a huge knowledge base of Compass and community services alike. “Every day looks different,” Clark notes, and “each client has a unique story that they bring to us.” Clark notes that his team does great work to bring families into Compass and create a safe and welcoming place to find stability. As a kid growing up in San Francisco, Clark always wanted to give back to his city. He served in the Peace Corps, stationed in the Dominican Republic, where he created youth programming on topics like health or the environment. After returning to his hometown, Clark saw how the pandemic displaced so many San Franciscans, and the stark presence of inequity at home and wanted to do something to help. Thank you Clark for your work to help families benefit from all of the services Compass has to offer!