Compass Family Services

Compass Family Services

Formation	1914
Legal status	Non-profit organization
Purpose	Human services
Headquarters	San Francisco, CA
Region served	San Francisco Bay Area
Executive Director	Erica Kisch
Budget	US$7.7 million(2011)[1]
Mission	To serve families confronting poverty and homelessness by supporting their efforts to achieve stability and self-sufficiency
Website	www.compass-sf.org

Compass Family Services is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in San Francisco, California that provides a wide variety of human services to more than 3,000 low-income and homeless parents and children each year.^[2] 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 families confronting poverty and homelessness by supporting their efforts to achieve stability and self-sufficiency.^[3]

History

Compass Family Services, known until 1995 as Travelers Aid 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 (1915).^[4] Since that time, Compass has served a wide range of populations, from stranded travelers to refugees 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.^[5] Homeless children experience developmental delays at four times the rate of other children ^[6] and almost 50 percent have emotional problems such as anxiety and depression.^[7] In 2002 TLC opened moved into its own building allowing the center to enroll 72 children and offer infant care for the first time.^[8] 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 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 in the U.S.^[9] and forty percent of the entire population are children and families ^[10] In 1995 an aftercare component was added along with pre-employment and psychotherapy services.

In 1995, Compass Community Services opened Clara House, a long-term Supportive housing program.^[11] 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 in the U.S.^[12] This stipulation was added because under the recently adopted Proposition 187 undocumented individuals were barred from publicly financed employment services - a central piece of the Clara House program.^[12] Clara House then received a quarter of is funding from the City of San Francisco and it was unclear if they would legally be able to serve undocumented clients.^[12] The program ultimately decided to remove legal immigration status as a requirement for admission.^[13]

Also in 1995, at the request of and with funding from the San Francisco Human Services Agency,^[14] 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 3-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 CYO, to provide housing subsidies to families that are either homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless. This program follows the housing first 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.

Programs

Compass Connecting Point

Compass Connecting Point provides families experiencing a housing crisis access to services including eviction prevention, emergency shelter, health care, child care and educational programs.

Services include:

• Intake interviews and placement into shelter
• Intensive counseling for families on the waiting list for shelter including assistance in job hunting and school enrollment, plus help accessing benefits, eviction prevention services, childcare, legal assistance, substance abuse treatment, mental health services, and healthcare
• Interest free loans for move-in costs, deposits, back rent, debt payment, and outstanding bills through our Rental Assistance Project (RAP)
• Housing placement assistance, enabling many families to avoid shelter placement and move directly into housing
• Drop-in support services, including computer access, food, clothing, diapers and baby supplies, personal voicemail service, and transportation assistance
• Onsite healthcare through the Tom Waddell Health Center
• A toll-free hotline to provide crisis intervention and information about services
• Referrals to a wide network of Bay Area human services agencies^[15]

Compass Family Shelter

Services include:

• Emergency shelter with intensive support services for 24 families for up to six months
• Prevention and follow-up case management for up to two years
• Help securing permanent or transitional housing
• Move-in grants and eviction prevention assistance
• Therapy, family counseling, and support groups
• Pre-employment training, GED tutoring, and life skills workshops for adults
• Children’s activities, play groups and field trips, plus support for teen moms
• Up-to-date checkups and immunizations for all children
• Access to a food pantry, clothing closet, personal hygiene products, diapers and baby supplies, and transportation assistance^[16]

Compass SF HOME

Compass SF HOME helps families in danger of homelessness to stabilize and maintain their housing and re-houses homeless families so that they can work towards long-term economic self-sufficiency.

Services include:

• Assistance to locate and maintain safe, permanent housing
• Rental subsidies coupled with intensive case management to address:
  • Education and professional goals,
  • Self-sufficiency skills like how to find resources or advocate for their families,
  • Organizing expenses and effectively managing money,
  • Maintaining a safe and healthy household,
  • Fortifying their children's developmental and educational success,
  • Maintaining good physical and mental well-being for the entire family through preventative care and awareness.
• Access to a food pantry, clothing closet, personal hygiene products, diapers and baby supplies, and transportation assistance
• Access to enriching educational and recreational activities for their children^[17]

Compass Family Resource Center

Compass Family Resource Center runs parent education classes, support groups and outreach.

Services include:

• Individual case management focused on the relationship between caregiver and child
• Drop-in services where families can access information, referrals and crisis counseling as well as obtain concrete items such as food, Muni tokens, clothing, diapers and toiletries.
• Workshops, support and parent/child activity groups and information sessions in English and Spanish that support healthy family development
• Child Protective Services-certified parenting classes in English and Spanish
• Health education groups covering topics such as stress reduction, obesity, diabetes, healthy hearts, and smoking cessation
• Parent leadership groups and discussion forums including opportunities for recreation and socializing through monthly parent-led field trips and events
• Clinical child assessments, therapy and play groups
• Developmental screening of children
• Workshops and information sessions targeting areas of interest to parents of young children
• Specialized services and support to families whose children have been exposed to violence, through the Safe Start Delivery Team
• ACCESS SF child care subsidy - ACCESS is a pilot project to help families with at least one child under 3 years living or formerly living in homeless or domestic violence shelters obtain child care.

Compass Clara House

Services include:

• Housing in 13 individual family apartments within a uniquely supportive community
• Two-year action plans designed with each family to help clients achieve their education, career and housing goals
• Intensive case management and onsite therapy
• Hands-on employment, education, and life skills support for parents
• Full-day licensed childcare for children through age five, and an afterschool homework and tutoring program for older children and teenagers
• Housing placement assistance for families graduating from the program
• Follow-up case management for up to two years through Compass SF HOME^[18]

Compass Children’s Center

Compass Children's Center (previously Tenderloin Childcare Center) is an award-winning^[19] enriched early childhood education center with a curriculum tailored to meet the specific needs of children living in extreme poverty and homelessness.

Services include:

• Full-day childcare for 66 children from three months to five years of age
• A specialized early childhood curriculum focused on art, music, science and nature, pre-reading and pre-math, and gross motor play
• High teacher-child ratio
• Ongoing assessment of each child’s cognitive, emotional and social development
• Two nutritious meals, plus snacks, served daily
• Support services for parents and children, including crisis management, psychotherapy, counseling and referrals
• Up-to-date immunizations for all children at CCC, plus annual vision, hearing and dental screenings for children over two years-old
• Special attention and services for children with special needs
• Parenting education and support groups^[20]

See also

• Raphael House

References

External links

• Compass Family Services website.