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We're celebrating Keen's 10 years of support for Compass families and programs! Our friends at Keen have been supporting Compass families through our Adopt-a-Family holiday project since 2011. Over the last 10 years, their support has grown generously from providing gifts to children and parents over the holidays to funding Compass programs for shelter, childcare, housing, mental health services and more to ensure that families have the resources they need to reach stability. Keen employees are deeply engaged with our community and many have volunteered during Compass back-to-school events, contributed individually to support our work and Keen has doubled their employees' impact by matching their support with funding that's crucial in our mission to end family homelessness. When Compass pivoted to provide groceries, emergency supplies, and hotel rooms for unsheltered families during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Keen provided $10,000 to ensure that our most vulnerable families will have the basic necessities to get through this crisis. They knew it was needed before we even had a chance to ask. They also funded tasty pizzas for families staying in our temporary hotel program last summer. Earlier this year, Keen continued their support with a $25,000 sponsorship for our annual spring event, HOME . This generous support will help us reach our goal for our $30 million Housing. Support. Hope . campaign which will ensure that Compass is here for San Francisco's most vulnerable families for as long as its needed. Compass is incredibly grateful to partner with Keen and their employees who share our vision of a just society in which all children and their families are able to flourish in a safe and stable home. Thank you!

Meet Kate Liedl! She joined Compass as a Children's Enrichment Specialist in 2019 where she offered welcoming support to children and parents who were accessing our Family Resource Center's drop-in childcare services. Kate was a friendly and familiar face for parents who would drop off their children for free onsite childcare while they were receiving case management and therapy services at 37 Grove. When shelter-in-place began, Compass was no longer able to offer drop-in childcare services but Kate quickly adapted to provide incredible support to new Compass initiatives created to meet the growing needs of families impacted by the crisis. Kate is now a Case Manager for Compass' Family Resource Center, offering individualized support and resources to our families. Since then, Kate has drafted our first ever Drop-In Childcare Handbook, connected many families to childcare services during the crisis, such as Learning Hubs, First5 services and so much more. Kate's attention to detail, balance of compassion, professionalism, and commitment to our client families is tremendous and we are grateful to have her on our Family Resources Center team! Thank you so much, Kate!

As we reflect during this National Volunteer Month, we at Compass are in awe of all that we have accomplished together. This past year has been a time of tremendous change and adjustment for all of us but especially for the homeless and at-risk families Compass serves. As we adapted and increased our services to meeting the growing needs of our families, Compass volunteers have stepped up to the plate asking, “How can we help?”, “What can we do?”, to provide support for families impacted by this crisis. Last year, 568 volunteers committed over 10,000 hours of service. These amazing volunteers have dedicated their time, skills and talents in many ways to support our families. Compass families were immediately impacted at the beginning of shelter-in-place with loss of employment and access to basic necessities and hygiene products. We immediately pivoted our services to meet our families’ growing needs and volunteers were essential in this effort — sewing handmade masks for parents and children, delivering meals and essential items to families at our Compass Family Shelter and transitional housing facility, Compass Clara House, as well as to families throughout the Bay, and doing so much more. Many Compass children were struggling with distance learning. Compass volunteers enabled the creation of our Homework Helpers Initiative, where dozens of volunteers meet one-on-one with Compass kids weekly over Zoom to provide extra educational support. Compass volunteers are also onsite at our 37 Grove Services Hub sorting and organizing donated goods and creating custom resource boxes for families filled with new and gently used clothes, toys, household goods and more. Volunteers also provide support remotely through our Landlord Outreach Project where volunteers connect with local landlords to help increase our ability to find new and affordable housing for unhoused families and through our Community Resource Mapping Project where volunteers research and compile information on local resources for families. Without our volunteers, we would be missing vital resources to deliver on our mission to help homeless and at-risk families achieve housing stability, economic self-sufficiency, and well-being. The patience, creativity, energy, and enthusiasm of our volunteer community donating their time, energy, skills and talents to serve our Compass family — especially during a global pandemic — is truly humbling and fills us with gratitude not just during National Volunteer Month, but all day, every day. Thank you to all our volunteers for everything you do to serve Compass families! Interested in volunteering? Learn more about volunteer opportunities at Compass here.

As we shifted from in-person to remote learning early on during the pandemic, we realized that many Compass kids will fall behind academically due to the immense obstacles they face, such as lack of access to technology and resources, a stable and safe space to focus on school work, and the daily stressors of isolation during a public health crisis. In addition to working tirelessly to provide families with laptops, tablets and headsets so that kids will have the tools they need to participate in distance learning, Compass also started a new virtual tutoring initiative in August 2020 called Homework Helpers where we connect volunteer tutors with Compass kids in need to extra academic support. Since then, we have matched over 36 Compass kids with Homework Helper tutors, along with local academic organizations, like 826 Valencia and Pandemic Professors to provide additional tutoring support, especially for monolingual Spanish speaking students. We would not be able to provide this essential tutoring support for Compass kids through our Homework Helpers Initiative without support from our amazing volunteers, Merritt Richmond and Roseanne Barry. Merritt is a Professional Development Lead for teachers and wanted to get involved as soon as the pandemic impacted our families and Roseanne has been a long time Compass supporter and has been volunteering at Compass since 2019. In collaboration, Merritt and Roseanne created a trauma-informed curriculum and every Tuesday afternoon, the two welcome and train prospective tutors as part of Compass’ Homework Helpers Initiative. They provide numerous resources to ensure that our volunteer tutors are well equipped to meet the needs of Compass kids, both academically and emotionally. Additionally, they created beautiful Homework Helpers Student Toolkits with thoughtfully curated supplies unique to each Compass child, to enhance their virtual learning experience. Merritt and Roseanne also provide additional volunteer support for other Compass initiatives, in addition to their wonderful work through our Homework Helpers program. Merritt helps with managing our community resources and the creation of custom boxes of donated items, including clothing and housewares for client families, as well as all of her other volunteer efforts to support our Annual Fund, Back to School distribution and Adopt-a-Family. And Roseanne is also helping out with data entry and providing additional support to our busy administrative team. Roseanne and Merritt are amazing volunteers who go above and beyond to support Compass children and parents, especially during this challenging time. We are so grateful to have them as part of our Compass family. Thank you so much for all that you do to help our families reach stability and wellbeing.

Compass Family Services will serve more than 7,000 parents and children this year through nine programs that provide shelter, housing, childcare, mental health, educational assistance, and employment services. To provide enhanced support to help families through the pandemic and beyond, and as part of our strategic goals for improving services, Compass has recently expanded its Compass Family Resource Center (CFRC) program in the areas of workforce development and securing housing. Compass has provided workforce development support to clients through case management programs for years, but it has not been a primary focus of the work. Now, as many families need help pivoting from careers that disappeared during the pandemic, they will receive dedicated job attainment and career preparedness support through this new Compass sub-program, CWORK . Parents will work with staff to address and remove barriers to employment, identify employment pathways, connect with training providers and – ultimately - be placed in employment. The comprehensive programming includes one-on-one wellbeing sessions with a career success coach to develop healthy and productive habits. Participants will also learn how to track and improve their credit scores and how to track their CalWORKs benefits. A job readiness workshop and a barrier removal workshop series as well as virtual job fairs will all be available. Compass is also partnering with Farming Hope through its Project Refettorio, which will provide a fine-dining experience where families can enjoy a meal and network within their community. Compass will also provide workforce related presentations. This project has in mind undocumented participants who are struggling to find employment to support their families. Additionally, the expansion will place housing coordination services in the CFRC and will provide hundreds of families who are not being served by a Compass housing program with support and resources to identify and pursue affordable housing opportunities. Many options including below market rate housing are incredibly competitive and the systems can be hard to navigate without this kind of specialized support. “We are dedicated to improving and expanding our programs to meet the needs of families in our community. This expansion is a response to exactly what parents are asking for - good paying jobs that put families on long-term paths to stability and better opportunities for their children,” says Compass Executive Director, Erica Kisch. The new initiatives join the family resource center’s already robust suite of services that include groups and classes providing parenting skills and financial management; essential resources such as weekly groceries, diapers, and hygiene supplies; and referrals to other Compass programs for mental health services, childcare subsidy support, and more. This expansion is made possible with funding support from Kaiser Permanente , Safe & Sound , Twitter , SC Johnson , San Francisco Office of Economic & Workforce Development , and California Public Utilities Commission .

Our COVID-19 Crisis Response Gets Big Boost From SC Johnson’s Donation of Essential Items to Support San Francisco Families When shelter-in-place began, many of our corporate partners reached out wanting to help above and beyond their annual financial support for our programs. One of our Partner heroes is certainly SC Johnson providing funding for crisis-related food support and also a critical amount of diapers and wipes. Food insecurity was immediate for our homeless and at-risk families who lost 40% of their income almost immediately at the beginning of shelter-in-place. SC Johnson awarded a grant of $15,000 to provide Compass families with direct financial support through our Family Care Kit program which provided grocery store gift cards to families in-need and to support weekly food pantry purchases for our family service hub at 37 Grove Street. This was on top of their $50,000 grant to support our housing programs. SC Johnson’s Babyganics line pitched in with more direct-to-family support by sending 110 cases of diapers and 90 cases of baby wipes. Diapers and wipes are distributed to hundreds of families each month from our main service hub at 37 Grove Street, from our Compass Family Shelter, and to families we’ve recently housed across the San Francisco Bay Area via Compass case manager’s deliveries. Compass has provided more than 66,000 meals and more than $300,000 in direct financial support to keep families stabilized. And we’ve secured stable housing for more than 60 families during the pandemic. Compass’ crisis response has been massive thanks to partners like SC Johnson. They’re a family company supporting families in need in our community and beyond. Thank you!

Covid-19 changed everything, including how hundreds of corporate employees volunteer with Compass. “A crisis is when we need volunteers the most. But how do you do that when there’s too much at risk? We had to pivot to remote volunteering and realized the impact could be just as big as in-person volunteering. And in our first event, we realized it can actually be even bigger,” says Karin Lamb, Volunteer and Community Resources Manager for Compass. Employees of Accenture , a multinational professional services company, offered to volunteer for a half-day event for Compass if we could come up with a remote project. We came up with two projects and they said “yes!” The projects were coordinated by Karin Lamb and Abigail Vieira, Program Director for our housing program, SF HOME . The first is a landlord outreach project to help our housing team identify and contact landlords in the Bay Area and make them aware of our housing subsidy program. These introductions will hopefully open the doors to more landlords renting apartments to Compass families. The second project involved mapping different types of resources in cities and counties throughout the Bay Area. This includes food bank locations, employment centers, childcare, language classes, and transportation. Compass secures housing for families exiting homelessness as far out as Sacramento. As affordable housing is rare in San Francisco, most families must move further and further out which means we need to build relationships with landlords and also map resources in those communities. Volunteers met on Zoom and were given an overview of Compass Family Services before they were split into two working groups where they were provided an outline for each project. The results were impressive. Several new connections were made with landlords and available apartments were identified. The Accenture team added 9 new potential landlords in 3 counties! And the resource team mapped 30 new resources in Sacramento and 17 in Vallejo. All of the new location and contact information was immediately forwarded to housing specialists who are following up. And the new resources identified will now be available to families in those communities. The Accenture team also identified several ways to improve both projects and some volunteers wanted to continue their work after the project ended! If you or your office team would like to volunteer with Compass, in-person or remotely, please contact Karin Lamb at klamb@compass-sf.org. You can also click below to learn about many other ways we’re you can help.

“We are so grateful to be able to help Compass families with Fogo meals. The Compass team is amazing and inspiring.” Fogo de Chao is another big hero of Compass and our families sheltering in place during the COVID-19 crisis. As restaurants struggle to keep to-go orders and staff busy, many are also helping out those who are most vulnerable. A member of San Francisco Private Dining Venues , Fogo de Chao has delivered hot and generous meals to the families and staff of Compass Family Shelter. That’s more than 60 adults and children. Mahelly Ferreira, Fogo de Chao employee, delivers a hot meal with coworker, Amanda Perry, to a family at Compass Family Shelter. Millicent, a Compass Family Shelter resident, says she and her son are very grateful for the meals donated by local restaurants. Mahelly Ferreira at Fogo de Chao says “I have participated in different events with Compass and I think the world of what you do. I had similar work back home in Brazil and know the hardships that come with.” Mahelly provided more than hot meals, she offered to deliver to the doors of Compass’ monolingual families. You can enjoy Fogo de Chao too as they’re providing curb-side and delivery orders. Thank You, Fogo de Chao! You can help additional families today by purchasing a COVID-19 Family Care Kit that includes gift cards for groceries, medicine, and household items.

“We want to help Compass families during this crisis. We have lots of food and lots of cooks!” Credo restaurant’s General Manager, Brandon Heist, reached out to Compass Family Services to offer meals during the COVID-19 crisis. And they came through in a very big way, delivering 230 meals Tuesday morning before our doors opened at 9am to families. “This was a big help to our families today,” says Erica Kisch, Executive Director. “Many of our services for families have been limited over the last week so when we opened this morning to provide essential items like diapers, hygiene, and getting them their mail, being able to offer them a nice, healthy meal made with love was just perfect.” Credo General Manager, Brandon Heist, and Chef, Larry Finn, and additional staff deliver meals to Compass Family Services Tuesday morning. Credo is a member of SFPDV.com and has supported Compass for many years through their annual event, Toast & Taste, and through their nonprofit of the month program. Although temporarily closed for all food orders now, we hope you’ll join us at Credo when they’re open once again. Thank You, Team Credo! You can help additional families today by purchasing a COVID-19 Family Care Kit that includes gift cards for groceries, medicine, and household items.

Thank you for making it possible for 30 vulnerable families to safely Shelter-in-Place! Three weeks ago San Francisco’s family service providers—Compass Family Services, Hamilton Families, Homeless Prenatal Program, Dolores Street Community Services, and Providence Foundation— joined forces to shelter unhoused families during the COVID-19 public health crisis. Our motivation was that families cannot shelter in place if they have no shelter and no place to go. We launched a campaign to help fund this effort, and thanks to your incredible generosity, we’ve raised more than $30,000 on our campaign page so far! We have been hard at work over the past three weeks: securing a block of 30 hotel rooms in San Francisco’s SOMA district, negotiating a family-centered agreement with the hotel operator, and matching unsheltered homeless families to open rooms while collaborating to provide supplies, food deliveries, and supportive services. Rooms are spacious with one king bed or two full beds and private bathrooms with showers and baths. After Homeless Prenatal Program performed an initial safety assessment, Compass Family Services stepped in to child-proof every room, equipped each room with a microwave, and added industrial refrigerator and freezer; and Hamilton Families stocked each room with a welcome pantry, full of toiletry items, nonperishable snacks, cleaning products, baby supplies, and more. Our family collaborative has worked seamlessly to provide donor-funded meal deliveries, build supportive relationships with each family, and make services and supplies available on an ongoing basis. We have maintained a high occupancy rate, allowing for a small degree of turnover as families locate alternative housing. All families are engaged in housing search with the support of our agencies, as we are committed to transitioning our hotel families from unsheltered homelessness to stability as much as possible. Here are the stories of just a few of the families currently housed at the hotel: · A mom and a young son who were couch surfing and spending nights in their car once they lost their housing due to separation from an abusive partner. The mom had located housing, but her work hours were cut due to COVID-19 and because of the cut she could no longer afford to move in. · A mom in her first trimester and dad with their one-year-old. She had been staying at a local women’s shelter while the dad slept in their car near the airport, where he works. The shelter bed had become increasingly uncomfortable as a result of the pregnancy, and the mom had considered moving the entire family into the car so that they could at least be together during the stress of a new pregnancy. They were so grateful to be offered a hotel room where they can be together and where the mom can get a comfortable night’s sleep. · A mom, dad, and their three children—a daughter and two sons—who had been sleeping in a tent. Both boys have asthma and they had struggled with homelessness for a while. They are particularly appreciative of the room because they are concerned about the boys’ health and vulnerability in the pandemic. It is thanks to your tremendous support that we can provide these children and parents with a safe, stable, and private place to shelter as we ride out what we hope is the worst of this terrible and unprecedented crisis. We are grateful, we are hopeful that we can help our hotel families start building lasting stability for themselves and their little ones, and we know that we are stronger when we are working together. Thank you for partnering with us to serve these vulnerable families! Families cannot stay-at-home if they do not have a home, and we will not rest until they do. Help unhoused families shelter-in-place during the COVID-19 health crisis.