Compass Family Services is a
501(c)(3)
A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...
non-profit organization
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, that provides a wide variety of
human services
Human services is an interdisciplinary field of study with the objective of meeting human needs through an applied knowledge base, focusing on prevention as well as remediation of problems, and maintaining a commitment to improving the overall qua ...
to homeless and at-risk of homelessness families. In 2019, they served 6,000 parents and children.
Its services include intake and referral to shelter, emergency shelter, transitional housing, and childcare—in addition to a broad spectrum of counseling, parenting education, prevention, and support services.
Mission
Compass Family Services serves San Francisco families facing homelessness to help them secure stable housing and attain economic self-sufficiency and family well-being.
History
Compass Family Services, known until 1995 as
Travelers Aid The Travelers Aid movement began in St. Louis, Missouri, under the leadership of Mayor Bryan Mullanphy. Its purpose was to provide assistance to American pioneers and new immigrants who became stranded on their journeys. At his death in 1851, Mull ...
San Francisco, was established in 1914 to provide assistance to newcomers to the city, particularly young women and girls drawn by the
Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915.
Since that time, Compass has served a wide range of populations, from stranded travelers to
refugee
A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution. s to homeless families, but a common denominator among the various groups has been a need for help in an often unfriendly urban environment.
In 1976, the agency responded to the need for respite childcare among the growing number of families making use of its services by opening the Tenderloin Childcare Center (now called Compass Children's Center). In 1990, the Tenderloin Childcare Center became the first licensed childcare center in San Francisco to reserve slots exclusively for homeless and children from families with extremely low incomes. Homeless children experience developmental delays at four times the rate of other children and almost 50 percent have emotional problems such as anxiety and depression. In 2002 TLC opened moved into its own building allowing the center to enroll 72 children and offer infant care for the first time. TLC's specialization in this population allows them to quickly assess and respond to such issues when they are identified in their students.
In 1990, in response to the burgeoning crisis of family homelessness, the agency opened an
emergency shelter
An emergency shelter is a place for people to live temporarily when they cannot live in their previous residence, similar to homeless shelters. The main difference is that an emergency shelter typically specializes in people fleeing a specific ...
program, Compass Family Center (CFC), providing homeless families with short-term housing, counseling and referrals and assistance in obtaining permanent housing. Homeless families represent the fastest growing segment of
homeless people
Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are:
* living on the streets, also kn ...
in the U.S. and forty percent of the entire population are children and families In 1995 an aftercare component was added along with pre-employment and
psychotherapy
Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome pro ...
services.
In 1995, Compass Community Services opened Clara House, a long-term
supportive housing
Supportive housing is a combination of housing and services intended as a cost-effective way to help people live more stable, productive lives, and is an active "community services and funding" stream across the United States. It was developed by ...
program. Families entering this program are given the opportunity to live in a stable service-enriched environment for up to two years while preparing to maintain permanent housing on their own. The program came under scrutiny from San Francisco homeless advocates for its proposed program rules requiring all families referred to the program to provide proof of their
legal status
Legal status is the status or position held by an entity as determined by the law. It includes or entails a set of privileges, obligations, powers or restrictions that a person or thing has as encompassed in or declared by legislation.
Jack Balki ...
in the U.S.
[Burdman,P."Homeless Agency's Plan to Screen for Illegals - Travelers' Aid idea blasted even before S.F. program starts" The San Francisco Chronicle, December 23, 1994] This stipulation was added because under the recently adopted
Proposition 187
California Proposition 187 (also known as the ''Save Our State'' (SOS) initiative) was a 1994 ballot initiative to establish a state-run citizenship screening system and prohibit illegal immigrants from using non-emergency health care, public ed ...
undocumented individuals were barred from publicly financed employment services - a central piece of the Clara House program.
Clara House then received a quarter of is funding from the
City of San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
and it was unclear if they would legally be able to serve undocumented clients.
The program ultimately decided to remove legal immigration status as a requirement for admission.
Also in 1995, at the request of and with funding from the San Francisco Human Services Agency,
the agency began Connecting Point (CP), which serves as the central intake and assessment center for any family in San Francisco needing to access the city's shelter system. In 2007, CP was awarded a contract in partnership with the Eviction Defense Collaborative to provide rental assistance that allows families to maintain housing before they become homeless.
In 2006, CFC received a three-year grant through the SF First Five Commission to provide parent-child services with the goal of improving the developmental outcomes for children ages 0–5. The result was the Positive Parenthood Project, which outreaches to homeless families with children ages 0–5 and offers a range a support services. In 2007 CFC was awarded a contract, in joint venture with
Catholic Charities
The Catholic Church operates numerous charitable organizations.
Catholic spiritual teaching includes spreading the Gospel, while Catholic social teaching emphasises support for the sick, the poor and the afflicted through the corporal and spir ...
CYO
Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) is an international Catholic Church, Catholic youth movement founded by Bishop Bernard James Sheil, Bernard Sheil in Chicago in 1930. It would become a major factor in the development of race relations in the US ...
, to provide
housing subsidies
Housing, or more generally, living spaces, refers to the construction and assigned usage of houses or buildings individually or collectively, for the purpose of shelter. Housing ensures that members of society have a place to live, whether it ...
to families that are either homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless. This program follows the
housing first
Housing First is a policy that offers unconditional, permanent housing as quickly as possible to homeless people, and other supportive services afterward. It was first discussed in the 1990s, and in the following decades became government policy ...
principal adopted by all San Francisco agencies in 2007 that provide services to homeless families. This approach places an emphasis on rapidly rehousing families or preventing them from losing their existing housing preventing families entering the cycle of homelessness in the first place. The project, SF HOME, provides intensive services to participating families to assist them to increase their income through employment and training.
Compass 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) and has been awarded the national Mutual of America Community Partnership Award.
Compass has been one 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.
See also
*
Raphael House Raphael House is a shelter in the Tenderloin, San Francisco, California, that provides transitional housing and support programs for parents and children who are experiencing homelessness.
Established in 1971 at Gough and McAllister Streets, Rapha ...
References
External links
Compass Family Services website.
{{US housing by state
Organizations based in San Francisco
Charities based in California
Homelessness charities
Homeless shelters in the United States
Organizations established in 1914
Non-profit organizations based in San Francisco