Compass Community Services serves families confronting poverty and homelessness by supporting their efforts to achieve stability and realize their individual potential.
The Agency's Goals:

• To assist families in securing and maintaining permanent housing
• To address barriers to economic self-sufficiency through employment services
• To support the healthy development of children and families through enriched childcare and parent education
• To address mental health and substance abuse problems through individual and group counseling
• To provide leadership for the investigation and amelioration of issues facing homeless and very low-income families

Description:
Compass Community Services has four programs for homeless and at-risk families:

Connecting Point – The citywide access center for all families seeking shelter in San Francisco

Compass Family Center – A homeless shelter for families with private rooms and baths, plus
prevention and aftercare services
Clara House – A two-year transitional housing program with individual family apartments, plus
intensive support services and on site childcare

Tenderloin Childcare Center (TLC) – Compass’s model child development and education center for children from homeless and very low-income families.



History:
Compass Community Services is proud to have served the San Francisco community for more than ninety years. Known until 1995 as Travelers' Aid San Francisco, Compass was established in 1914 to provide assistance to newcomers to the city, particularly young women and girls drawn by the 1915 World’s Fair held in San Francisco.

Over these ninety years Compass has transitioned to meet the changing needs of our community, providing services to refugees, military personnel during wars, and transient single adults. Beginning in the 1980s the agency began to focus on the problem of family homelessness as more and more people appeared on San Francisco's streets lacking housing, employment and other resources.

Compass opened the Tenderloin Childcare Center (TLC) in 1976, which in 1990 became the first licensed childcare program in San Francisco to reserve slots for children from homeless families. Also in 1990, the agency opened Compass Family Center, our homeless shelter for families. Our transitional housing program, Clara House, opened in 1994. And in 1995, under a grant from the San Francisco Department of Human Services, Compass began Connecting Point, the citywide entry point into San Francisco’s family shelter system.

Today Compass is a leader in our field, recognized citywide for our expertise in helping families surmount homelessness and extreme poverty. By providing intensive, personalized and long-term services, we not only stabilize families in crisis and meet their immediate needs, but we give clients the tools and resources to obtain permanent housing, earn a living wage, and maintain lasting stability and self-sufficiency. We also work closely with the Mayor’s office, city officials and other agencies to identify the barriers families face in obtaining housing and employment, and to facilitate access to the services that are most critical to families’ success.



Contact people:


Lisa Dyas, Volunteer Coordinator, (phone), (email) Erica Kisch, Executive Director


Main office number: (415) 644-0504
Office fax number: (415) 644-0514

Address:


49 Powell Street, 3rd Floor San Francisco, CA 94102 (See a map)


Web Site: http://www.compass-sf.org

Directions:

Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: Powell Street,   Walk distance (in minutes): 1

Miscellaneous Information

Besides English, which languages are spoken at your agency?
	Spanish
What is the minimum age for volunteers at your agency?
	12
Is your agency wheelchair accessible?
	Yes
Does your agency have the capacity to host groups of more than 10?
	Yes
Does your agency have the capacity to host groups of more than 20?
	No

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