Compass Family Services Responds to Growing Community Need During COVID-19
By Maddie Scher
Just before Thanksgiving, SF New Deal began partnering with Compass Family Services, a nonprofit that helps homeless and at-risk families become stably housed, emotionally and physically healthy, and economically self-sufficient. The organization has worked with San Franciscans since its inception in 1914, serving community members during the Great Depression, World War II, immigrants and refugees from Asia in the 1950's, and homeless youth during and after the Summer of Love. When COVID-19 hit San Francisco, Compass pivoted almost overnight to meet the growing and changing needs of the moment. SF New Deal’s content manager, Maddie connected with Stacy Webb, Communications and Corporate Relations Manager at Compass Family Services, to learn more about Compass and their work in mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on San Franciscans.
The interview has been lightly edited for clarity:
How would you describe the role of Compass Family Services in San Francisco?
Compass is the leading family homelessness service provider in San Francisco. We’ve developed a comprehensive and personalized approach to family homelessness. This includes an emergency family shelter, a transitional program, a housing program, two early enriched child care programs, a child care subsidy program, a mental health program, an expanding family resource center, and educational and employment assistance. Compass secures housing for families throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area. We’re providing services to more than 7,000 parents and children this year. This is double the number from just 6 years ago.
Volunteers distribute meals at Compass Family Services.
How has COVID-19 impacted the communities served by Compass and how has the programming Compass offers shifted to respond?
Immediately our families experienced food insecurity and loss of income. Our pivot had to happen quickly to provide groceries, ready-to-eat meals, masks and other emergency items, hotel rooms for unsheltered families, and within just weeks – we provided financial assistance to keep families stable. We also needed to get students participating in online classes – so we purchased and had donated hundreds of laptops and headsets.
What role does SF New Deal play in supporting the Compass community?
Our appreciation to SF New Deal is summed up simply by a message we received from a single mother with two children: “Thank you for giving us prepared meals. My children loved them and it helped me a lot by not having to cook. I had more time to do other things.” That sounds like all of us on the surface, but Compass moms, most are head of household, are facing extreme financial hardship. A meal that is hardy, tasty, and ready to serve means more time to concentrate on other pressing matters, or extra time to relax and enjoy a nice meal with her family.
Compass has provided more than 60,000 meals since the beginning of shelter-in-place. This could only have been possible by organizations like SF New Deal who jumped into action and came to the rescue. Our families are very grateful and when we tell them the meals are coming from other organizations and restaurants in our area, they are surprised at the generosity coming from so many people in the community.
What are the lessons learned at your organization during this moment, and what challenges does Compass continue to face?
We are obviously a lot stronger than we thought. Compass Family Services (Traveler’s Aid of San Francisco) was established in 1914 to prepare for the 1915 World’s Fair. We’ve shifted and evolved this entire time to meet the needs in our community. 2020 may be our biggest challenge yet. This pandemic is a major crisis. Homelessness is a crisis. We’re working exactly where those two intersect. We’re collecting a lot of data on what our families are experiencing and we fully intend for that information to shape our focus on our mission to end family homelessness.
A Compass volunteer preps resources for distribution.
How can San Franciscans support the work of Compass Family Services?
There are many ways to directly help our families during Covid-19 and also support programs and staff to continue our work to make a long-term impact for family housing stability. Our website – www.compass-sf.org – provides ways to provide direct relief to families by providing digital gift cards for groceries and supplies, and our donate page is where you can make a donation that will keep our frontline workers going to provide shelter, childcare, and much more. You, your family, friends or group can host your own fundraiser and/or host a drive for hygiene items, diapers, wipes, groceries. You can also purchase items from our Amazon list of most needed items and they’ll be shipped to us, hands-free. We also need in-person volunteers to help with our holiday projects and donation sorting and distributing. And if you’re willing to make deliveries in your car, we need delivery volunteers to get donations and groceries to our families across the Bay Area.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Prior to the pandemic, we were providing services to a rapidly increasing number of families who never in their wildest dreams could have imagined they were on the edge of losing their housing. Housing instability and homelessness was primarily experienced by families generationally. Our work has been to address all barriers a family experiences when becoming and remaining stably housed. Our success rate is more than 90% for families who complete our programs to remain stably housed.
Compass has secured housing for several hundred families just in the last few years. Now, with Covid-19, many of these families who were on a path to achieve long-lasting stability are unstable. Former clients have returned on top of a big increase in new clients and all of the families in between. Your individual, extended family, civic group, and corporate support is an investment in our community.