Episode 68: Compass Family Services

Other Episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104

Compass Family Services - Central City Access Point, Family Resource Center, Family Shelters, Clara House, Children’s Center, Childcare support services, Behavioral Health and NeighborNest

Embed Block

Add an embed URL or code. Learn more

Stay updated on future episodes by subscribing to Voices of the Community on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcasts, or where ever you listen to your podcasts

“Our families are still facing a collective total of about a million dollars in back rent, which is profoundly stressful” – Mary Kate Bacalao

Our featured voice in this episode is the Director of External Affairs & Policy of Compass Family Services Mary Kate Bacalao. The focus of this week’s show is on how the covid-19 pandemic is impacting our un-housed and low-income children and families. We hear from a San Francisco legacy social service organization Compass Family Services about their work with our families to deal with the pandemic’s ongoing impact on their housing, jobs, and health.

Mary Kate Bacalao

Mary Kate Bacalao is the Director of External Affairs and Policy at Compass Family Services, where she leads budget advocacy and policy efforts to prevent and end family homelessness. Mary Kate also co-chairs the Homeless Emergency Service Providers Association (HESPA), a coalition of 30 community-based agencies working on the front lines of San Francisco's homelessness crisis. Mary Kate holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Columbia College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. Her writing has appeared in The Nation, CityLab, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the Nonprofit Quarterly, and local newspapers.

Compass Family Services

Compass Family Services leads the way in helping San Francisco families facing homelessness secure stable housing and attain economic self-sufficiency and family well-being. We have been service innovators for more than 100 years, and more than 90% of the families who complete our housing programs achieve lasting success.

OUR MISSION STATEMENT: We help homeless families and those at imminent risk to achieve housing stability, economic self-sufficiency, and well-being.

OUR COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION & BELONGING
Compass Family Services boasts a strong passion for social justice. We embrace the idea that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion contribute to our success and strive to look at everything we do through this lens. We are committed to the pursuit of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in all aspects and areas of our work, in both internal and external relationships – as they impact our clients, our staff, our stakeholders, and our place in the community. We believe that we can empower families to achieve housing stability, self-sufficiency, and well-being by creating a system that is equitable and a culture of inclusion that leverages diversity. We understand that this work is a continuous process while at the same time recognizing that it is absolutely critical to our success and integrity as an organization.

Compass Programs

+ Central City Access Point is an entry point for families experiencing or at risk of homelessness to connect with SF Family Coordinated Entry.

+ Compass Family Resource Center is a comprehensive set of trauma-informed services that support family well-being.

+ Compass Family Shelter offers families facing homelessness a safe, temporary place to stay and offers services designed to help families secure and maintain permanent housing.

+Compass Clara House is an 18–24 month transitional housing program where families live in private apartments and receive intensive wrap-around support.

+Compass Children’s Center is a full-day early education and childcare with a curriculum that focuses on social and emotional development for children, ages 0–5, from homeless and extremely low-income families.

+Compass Childcare Support Services helps parents to access early care and education programs for their children.

+Compass Behavioral Health offers confidential emotional support and therapy for families who are experiencing homelessness, at risk of homelessness, newly housed or engaged in any Compass program.

+Compass SF HOME promotes long-term housing stability through rental subsidies, case management, and one-time financial assistance to help cover security deposits and the first month’s rent for families at risk of eviction.

+Twitter NeighborNest is a family-friendly learning center that provides access to technology for homeless and at-risk families in the Mid-Market, Tenderloin, and SOMA areas.

Donation/Volunteer

Every Child Needs a Home
All families need a safe place to call home and all children deserve a stable environment in which to thrive. You can help provide both with your gift today!
Every dollar contributed between now and the end of June will count towards our 3-year $30 million Housing. Support. Hope. campaign goal! Thank you for your support of this critical effort to sustain Compass and support all of the vulnerable families we serve. More information about the campaign can be found here.

Volunteering - The COVID-19 outbreak has created terrible challenges, hardships, and anxiety for the homeless and vulnerable families Compass serves. Compass is working hard each day to meet the needs of our families. There are many ways that you can help in person and remotely. Compass Family Services offers one-time and long-term individual volunteering opportunities. Fill out our Volunteer Interest Form by clicking the button above. Our Volunteer and Community Resources Manager will follow up with you in a few business days to schedule a Volunteer Tour and Orientation with you. If you have other ideas about how to get involved, or just want to help wherever we have the greatest need, get in touch with us at volunteer@compass-sf.org

Videos

To find out more about Compass Family Services check out our videos:

Subscribe to the Voices of the Community newsletter to stay updated on future episodes and issues that matter

“I think that Compass’s greatest impact has been both in creating community, where families can come in and feel safe and the number of clients who reach out to Compass and say how much it feels like a second home to them is, really staggering”

— Mary Kate Bacalao, Director of External Affairs & Policy,Compass Family Services

Donate to Voices of the Community

We are fiscally sponsored by Intersection for the Arts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which allows us to offer you tax deductions for your contributions. Please consider making a donation to help us provide future shows just like this one. If you want to send us a check, please make checks payable to Intersection for the Arts and write [Voices of the Community] in the memo line of your check. This ensures that you’ll receive an acknowledgement letter for tax purposes, and your donation will be available for our project.