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Meet James

Meet James, an avid artist and San Francisco native. I first met James at our 110 Diamond Street site in the Castro after he showed me the drawing that he had been working on. Right away, I noticed that the only materials James had to draw with were a pen and an ID card to make straight lines with. Most striking was his attention to detail and devotion of his time to creating these masterpieces -- all of which come directly from his imagination.

When I asked him how he started drawing he explained that he “would always get in trouble in school because I drew on everything I could get my hands on, I was always doodling in my notebook”. He went on to say that drawing is a source of therapy and retreat for him. James’ favorite thing to draw are houses, “...people always draw what they want, so I’m homeless and I draw houses”. He went on to tell me more about his technique and how he prefers not to color his pieces because he feels that it takes away from the detail in his architectural drawings.

In the future, James plans on drawing San Francisco landmarks like Saint Mary’s to sell to tourists and locals. Make sure to check out James and his drawings if you find yourself in the Castro!

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Meet Danielle

Meet Danielle, a longtime guest at Lava Mae. Danielle moved to California from her home state of Connecticut 9 months ago after being forced out of her house. For months, she was living homelessly through the harsh cold of a Connecticut winter before eventually gathering her funds and moving out here to California.

When asked what she thought of the city Danielle stated that she was grateful for the homeless aide resources available in San Francisco and that “it’s nicer because there are things like Lava Mae to help you out”. She is also grateful for the warmer weather and being one step closer to her dream of being a model in Hollywood, “Going into modeling is one of my life goals”.

She unfortunately became homeless after she suffered a mental breakdown due to her schizophrenia. Danielle explained that “having schizophrenia is weird it’s like i’ll be walking down the street and I hear voices and I can feel different things and I’ll have a sensation sometimes of something tingling my skin like a bug. I take medication for it but it doesn’t make it go away.” Danielle is currently in a homeless shelter and says that although it serves her well as a bed to sleep in, it doesn’t serve as a sanctuary because of the fights and altercations that happen within the shelter, “I’ve gotten beaten up a couple times, everyone has, but once is enough”.

Although Danielle is still suffering from schizophrenia, she says that she is doing much better than she was a few months ago as her mental health has been rapidly improving. In the meantime, she will stay in California to continue to pursue her dream of modeling.

Wishing all the best to Danielle and many of our other neighbors on the streets battling mental illness ❤️

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Meet Shelby

Meet Shelby, a long time guest and community member at Lava Mae. Ten years ago, he embarked from his hometown in Cleveland on a journey around the USA - he visited an impressive 26 states and 362 cities before running out of money and landing in San Francisco.

When I first met him, he had been sitting at our SF Public Library shower site for over an hour, socializing with guests and talking to the crew, whom he considers to be some of his closest friends in San Francisco. Shelby prides himself on finding the best places to eat. He mentioned some of his favorites like the delicious chilli served at St. Anthony’s and the meals given out at Open Hands.

Shelby disclosed to me that before he moved from Cleveland, his daughter had sadly passed and because he never knew his parents, there wasn’t much left for him there. According to Shelby, “in life you just gotta keep moving you know”.

Shelby has been in a shelter before however he chooses to stay with friends or live on the streets because the rules in the shelters didn’t allow him the freedom he needed. He loves to travel around the city and go to the movies or the beach when he can. He surrounds himself with his closest friends in the city, one of them being our longtime shower guest Billie, and enjoying the simple pleasures in life. He mentioned that he found many of his friends at the homeless church on Sundays “where they serve the best pancakes in town.” 

Best wishes to Shelby in hopes that he can continue his travels and his food adventures :)

“You just gotta keep yourself going.”

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Meet Keulani

We met Keulani and her mother at our hygiene service at First Friendship Institutional. Although they moved to San Francisco just a few months ago from Georgia, the mother is a native San Franciscan. Unfortunately, their move back to SF was tougher than anticipated. Booming housing prices quickly forced them to the streets. The family was also denied financial support because the father’s $19/hour job was considered “too much money,” yet they “can barely afford one room, let alone support a family.”

While it has been a confusing and frustrating journey for the family, they have found relief in showering with Lava Mae because it is “clean,” safe, and reliable, and they “look forward to it each week.”

The mother is continuing her job search in hopes that she and her husband can provide the best environment possible for their daughter.

Wishing the best of luck to Keulani + her family in their pursuit of stable employment + housing 💙

Next time you pass an unhoused neighbor on the street, imagine how much resilience it must take to simply survive each day. Let this serve as a reminder that despite being unhoused, so many of our guests are balancing full time jobs and caring for their families - an extremely trying feat.

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Meet Keith. A long time resident of SF, Keith had a comfortable life as a freelance IT technician and paid $980 a month for his Noe Valley apartment. When his landlord more than doubled his rent, he desperately tried to find a space in a shelter. Three years later, he is still on a list for a shelter and lives on the streets on the Tenderloin. Because of his living circumstances, he can no longer work: “By the time you are done waiting for and eating lunch, you stand in line for a bed until 7pm. By that point you’ve missed dinner, and then you have a ¾ mile walk up to the shelter where they may or may not have a towel for you to shower with. That’s why I continue to shower with Lava Mae. This is clean and it is a nightmare anywhere else.” Keith’s story highlights the much too common outcome of San Francisco’s housing crisis and the nearly inescapable cycle of poverty that comes with it. Without a basic need like shelter, it becomes incredibly challenging to have a job, fight for your safety, and maintain good hygiene. We are rooting for you, Keith, and we are so happy to be a “blessing” in your life!

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Meet Rodney, an accomplished musician and Fresno native living on the streets of San Francisco with his dog, Shooka. After suffering a neck/spine injury in 2012, Rodney was put in an SRO.

“I left that SRO for greener pastures, but I lost the green pasture and now I have been homeless for a year and a half - since July 2016.”

Being a musician, Rodney performs in front of hundreds of people each week -- something that was unbearable for him until he stumbled upon Lava Mae.

“I follow Lava Mae around Monday through Friday taking showers. It makes it a little bit more manageable. I mean, quite a bit actually. Just to have a shower is like... I can face people now. You know, I brush my teeth in there. If I haven’t taken a shower for a couple days, I don’t want to face anybody, you don’t feel good about yourself. It helps out a lot. It really does.”

He hopes that Lava Mae will go to Fresno, too, where homelessness is quickly on the rise.

Rodney’s passion for music and performance is palpable. Despite his injury and continually numb hands, he “[hasn’t] stopped playing for 20 years.” He even has a consistent gig with the Condor club, playing every Thursday and Friday and earning 10% of the bar plus tips.

Rodney’s other point of pride is his dog, Shooka. Shooka came to him when he was suffering his injury, and the two have been inseparable ever since.

“He was my next door neighbor’s service animal. He treated the dog really bad. He had wild parties and the dog was always hiding. Instead of getting on his case and telling him what a shithead he was, I made friends and offered to watch him. We really connected. He saw how much we bonded and he just gave me the dog.”

When I asked Rodney about housing and homelessness in San Francisco, it was clear he had some strong opinions.

“As far as housing, it ain’t gonna happen here in the Bay Area, I’m thinking of moving back to Fresno. It has just gotten so out of hand. They are letting too many immigrants in, and ignoring all of us old people. I’m an old person that’s disabled, and they are getting all of the housing instead of me. People accuse me of being racist, but I’m truly not -- I love the immigrant people, I just see what I see with my own eyes, and it’s like why is this happening?”

Stunned but appreciative of Rodney’s honesty, he went on:

“Let me tell you something. This is the first time I’ve ever been homeless. But I was a drug addict. They were the only people that you would see homeless. Now, I’m not on drugs. I’ve been off of drugs for years. The financial thing -- never in my lifetime have I seen it this bad. And now, I mean regular people are homeless. I mean they even have jobs! Half the people in the shelters wake up every morning and go to work!”

Regardless of my own opinion on immigration, there was one thing Rodney said that has always stood out to me. Most of the homeless in San Francisco are getting up everyday to go to work. They have jobs. They are productive members of our society, trying to support their families, but stuck in this oppressive cycle of homelessness that won’t break until we start to see affordable housing. And Rodney reiterates that shelters aren’t doing much help -- “I’m sick and tired of getting my stuff stolen all the time.”

As Rodney rushed off to get lunch, he left me with these parting words:

“Housing and everything will only get worse. They don’t want us to get better. All the way around, it’s really hurting everyone I see, including myself and my dog. I’m glad I got Shooka and my truck. This is real, man. We are in for a really rude awakening and there’s nothing I can do about it. If I say too much, they will take me away. That’s the reality of it. We will survive, though.”

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Meet Frank. Last Tuesday, I met him on the steps of the SF Public Library. With his glowing white hair, calm demeanor, and soft voice, he immediately caught my attention.

Frank grew up in rural Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and moved to LA after failed business ventures in New York. However, he didn’t find success in LA, either -- he felt like he was “getting nowhere.”

Frank found out about Lava Mae when the buses and trailers first appeared at the library. A passionate artist since his childhood, Frank sleeps near the SFPL and goes there to make his work. Although running into Lava Mae was at first a coincidence, he now showers weekly. Reserved and focused on his art, Frank doesn’t “know anyone specifically” in the Lava Mae community although he feels comfortable and “hopes to make friends.”

In terms of his creative pursuits, he has a strong passion for drawing and The Old Masters (specifically Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Donatello, and Raphael).

“Yeah, I do draw. I studied [The Old Masters]. I had hundreds of works of art like the Masters. I did them at the library, and I would do a whole bunch of them and somebody would steal them, so I don’t have that much.”

Curious to see his art, I asked him if he had any with him that he could show me. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few pieces of blank paper.

Proudly, he tells me, “This one is Leonardo da Vinci. This one is Vermeer’s ‘Study of Skulls.’ This is ‘The David’ by Michelangelo.”

Momentarily confused, I realized that Frank truly believed that he was holding his treasured works of art. In his mind, he saw these papers full of his sketches and drawings.

He asked me what I thought of his art. I told him it was beautiful, and his face lit up.

“Really?! Yeah! I’m from the East Coast, like Andy Warhol. It’s hard to find places to make my art here. Here, sometimes you’re drawing and someone starts bothering you. They go off on you. I am missing a sense of peace.”

As I turn to leave, Frank stops me and tells me excitedly, “I’ll be 61 this Sunday!!!”

Happy birthday, Frank!

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Meet Frank, born and raised in San Francisco and a dedicated guest at Lava Mae for over a year and half, using the showers 3-4 times a week.

“I love the services, the people who work here are awesome, very respectful. It is very nice having this kind of privacy. If you go to other places you have to worry about your stuff getting stolen, it’s a nightmare. Here, you don’t have to worry about bringing your stuff in, and I don’t have to worry about my cat, Fantom either.”

Before Lava Mae, Frank would go to drop in places where he would wait with hundreds of other people for several hours. However, at Lava Mae, Frank said the volunteers are amazing and he feels safe with his belongings.

Although Lava Mae allows Frank and so many other San Franciscans to have their own private time, Frank said that “It takes all day to get things done when you’re homeless. People say ‘get a job’ but being homeless is a job.”

After Frank showered at Lava Mae his day was already full. Immediately after his shower he planned on going to a food provider for lunch, then to another neighborhood to look for a spot to set up his tent to stay for the night.

After serving in the military for three years, at the age of 38, Frank had a bad injury and “from there I started taking pain pills and started to get addicted to heroin to keep me off the pain pills. I had been on crutches for two years and with no pain meds I had to learn how to walk again. It was brutal. That’s why I started to snort heroin for the pain. I didn’t realize because you think you can do it one or two times a week, but it’s a powerful drug, you get addicted really easy and fast,” he said.

After his injury in 2002, Frank said, he had lost everything, couldn’t work and everything just kind of fell out, and he ended up being homeless. Since then, Frank has been bouncing in and out of San Francisco.

“I got out of being homeless for awhile, but again, people don’t realize, people are just a paycheck away,” he said, and in these pockets of escaping homelessness, Frank used various programs, including sober living programs. But, he said the struggle with all of these places and programs is that “there is always a time limit. They give you a year, which is not a lot of time to get your life sorted out, and now those programs are being cut down even more to 90 days. They expect people to get their lives together in 90 days, and it’s not possible.”

After over 15 years of being homeless, Frank said he maintains his resilience through “wanting to have things and a better life. That’s it.

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Lava Mae Founder Doniece Sandoval is a CNN Hero!

We are thrilled to share the extra-exciting news that Lava Mae Founder/CEO Doniece Sandoval has been honored as a 2017 CNN Hero! 

We're incredibly grateful for this opportunity to share our story and inspire others to rekindle dignity and deliver hygiene and other critical services to those moving through homelessness in their own cities. 

And we're overwhelmingly grateful to you, our supporters, for fueling our work and making this very special recognition possible!

Please share our CNN Heroes story far and wide with your networks, and on social media, and encourage everyone to learn more and get involved at lavamae.org, so we can reach new audiences and galvanize action on behalf of our homeless neighbors everywhere.

Thank you again for your heroically helpful support, and we look forward to sharing more good news soon!  

With Gratitude, Team Lava Mae

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Lava Mae Founder Doniece Sandoval receives a 2017 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award!

Big News! We're thrilled to share that our founder & CEO Doniece Sandoval received a 2017 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award today!

The #IrvineAwards recognize individuals who are advancing innovative solutions to critical issues facing California, and we deeply appreciate the Foundation for amplifying our efforts to deliver radical hospitality and restore dignity for those experiencing homelessness. The award also comes with $200,000 to support our work!

We’d love for you to share this wonderful news and the video that beautifully brings Lava Mae's work to life! Please read, watch and enjoy at: irvine.org/leadership-awards/recipients/doniece-sandoval

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Kaiser Permanente + Lava Mae

On November 29, Lava Mae hosted our final Pop-Up Care Village of 2016,  with the generous support of our newest Sponsoring Partner of the event – Kaiser Permanente! We deeply appreciate Jim Illig and team for coming out to see our Pop-Up Care Village in action this Fall, and investing in this new program that we’ve been thrilled to innovate and refine this year. With a shared commitment to serving the most vulnerable members of our community, Kaiser Permanente's support is helping Lava Mae advance our mission of taking Radical Hospitality to the street, and bring humanity, collaboration, and innovation to the way services are provided to those experiencing homelessness. Thank you Jim and team, for making our November 29 Pop-Up Care Village possible and enabling our partners there to provide hundreds of guests with essential services, connections to vital resources, and a renewed sense of resilience – especially during the holiday giving season. Here’s to a successful 2106, and even more Radical Hospitality in 2017!

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Our Stories Outlast Us

“We seldom know what echo our actions will find but our stories will almost certainly outlast us.”

~Colum McCann

After too long an absence, I finally found time to be on the street with our team last Tuesday. Connecting with our guests reminds me why we do this work and how rich people’s lives are; that despite their current circumstances, they have dreams, hopes, and often a good number of beautiful memories they cherish. 

That morning I meet three completely different and totally fascinate men. There was John, who goes by Johnnie when he’s performing.  An electric guitarist, he’s been playing everything from metal to country-rock since he was in high school. His entire demeanor changed from defeated to energized as he talked about his passion.  He dreams of playing classical guitar on stage at Davies Symphony Hall.

Guardo, a native of Puerto Rico, is also artistically inclined. He’s working on a book about recovery and hopes to find a group of like-minded people who will join him in the effort to build a community where artists in recovery can pursue their work nurtured by entrepreneurs who teach them how to grow and cook their own food, build and maintain small houses and help them find an audience/market for their work.

My last conversation was with a former Airforce ranger who didn’t share his name. He’s the quintessential visual stereotype of a Commando; tall and imposing with a square topped crewcut and angular jaw. His every response to me began or ended with yes or no ma’am despite the similarity in our age. He told me his wife had died three years ago and that losing her unhinged him. He’s been traveling – visiting every state – since then and now plans to put down roots in the Pacific Northwest.

Each of these men left an indelible mark on me with their stories, which as the quote above says, will outlast them and me.

~Doniece

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San Francisco Bay Homelessness Agencies Innovate with Strategy, Heart and Tech

San Francisco media is collaborating this week to highlight the causes of and solutions to local homelessness. 

Multiple local events also took place on June 29 (learn about HandUp’s and Lava Mae’s below). Follow the social media conversation at #sfhomelessproject.

So much of the media we see about homelessness, and specifically the interaction between the technology sector and homelessness, is negative. But in our work every day, we see agencies succeed in helping clients find and stay in permanent housing. Organizations are also using the innovative technology for which the Bay Area is famous to increase their impact.

For this day of awareness-raising, we spoke with four Bay Area organizations about diverse causes of homelessness, and their equally diverse, inspiring solutions that are lifting up people in need.

Causes of Homelessness

A difficult economic climate and rising costs of housing have exacerbated the homelessness crisis and created increasing pressure on individuals in the community. But even beyond these particular circumstances, the ways people have landed in homelessness in the Bay Area are as unique as the individuals themselves.

Katrina Belda, Partner Support at San Francisco agency HandUp, has seen the variety of root causes behind homelessness, and the misconceptions: “When I started working at HandUp, I was able to see profiles [for individuals who were currently homeless], and the different ways people got into this situation. There’s not just one common way. Many times, it’s people who’ve been working and living in San Francisco. They had a job and then some type of family crisis happened. They had medical bills, they got behind on rent, and it just snowballed until suddenly they were homeless. A lot of people are living check to check. If you’re living so tightly, any small emergency like getting sick can be detrimental, so it’s hard to even pay for those basic needs.

“There are also a lot of cases where people come from other countries, seeking asylum. They’re fleeing dangerous gang violence, or a government that’s against them, maybe they’re gay or lesbian and fearing for their life. There are people that become caretakers for their parents, and are living with them. Then their parents pass away, and they may lose the house as well. We only see the chronic homeless on the street, and that’s only 20% or less of the actual homeless population. It’s easy to bucket people into stereotypes: maybe they’re just lazy or they’re drug addicts. There’s a much larger population with all these different situations.”

Rachel Kenemore, Senior Development Associate at Hamilton Family Center, notes that causes can also be divided by target populations: “There are larger factors that specifically affect families. The biggest is financial hardship of many different kinds: loss of a job, a physical or mental health issue that takes a lot of time or financial commitment, and domestic violence.”

The homelessness agencies in San Francisco are tackling these systemic causes with their programs, and working with other agencies to provide a full spectrum of services for different needs. See the events at the bottom of the post for some ways they’re collaborating!

How They’re Tackling Different Pieces of the Puzzle

Bay Area agencies Hamilton Family Center, HandUp, LifeMoves, and Lava Mae shared their approaches to solving different facets of homelessness.

Supporting Families with Re-Housing

San Francisco-based Hamilton Family Center works exclusively with families experiencing homelessness, and they believe getting people housed is integral to providing stability for healthy and empowered lives. “We take a multi-tiered approach,” Kenemore explains. “Our programs prevent homelessness through housing subsidies and support, provide shelter and stability for families in crisis, return families to permanent housing, support the well-being of children experiencing homelessness, and increase families’ income.”

They also conduct extensive outreach with students in San Francisco, supporting the over 2,000 homeless students in the district. “One in 25 students here does not have a stable place of their own to sleep every night,” Kenemore says. “We have a partnership with the San Francisco Unified School District. Any time a teacher, nurse, counselor, janitor, or other school staff member identifies a child who is experiencing homelessness or is at risk of being homeless, we’re called. Within one to three days, we have someone sent to the school to work directly with the families, and get them re-housed as soon as possible.”

The Center is known for its effective rapid re-housing program that began 15 years ago. They provide families rental subsidies on a personalized basis, and work with them for up to 12-18 months, tapering off subsidies as families become more stable. These subsidies provide a security net for their network of landlords who rent to the families: “Over 86% of the families we work with are successfully back in stable housing,” Kenemore says. “So we see this as a one-time solution. We have a fantastic group of case managers who work closely with these families as they’re going through this process to help them make healthy, financially sound decisions for them to create and regain stability for healthy lives.”

Bridging the Funding Gaps

At San Francisco agency HandUp, the core concept and solution is providing flexible funding for individuals. Belda explains the problem they are trying to solve, “Government programs and a lot of grants are limited to very specific things that people can use the money on. There’s a housing voucher, for example, but they can’t use it to pay their security deposit or first and last month’s rent. There are these small barriers that are blocking people from moving forward. Having a state ID, birth certificate, or social security card is not something the state will pay for, but it’s blocking them from a lot of applications to get housing, or services, or larger funding.

“We are trying to be that flexible funding for people to use right away and not cause barriers. We’re trying to find and uncover where all the gaps are, and fill them. The big blanket budgets don’t always meet everyone’s needs.”

HandUp is a crowdfunding site that offers online profiles of individuals to which donors can give, and campaigns for organizations raising money for poverty alleviation program needs. As well, they have physical $25 gift cards, which donors can purchase and give out on the street to a fellow San Franciscan in need. The card recipient can bring it to one of HandUp’s participating partner nonprofits and trade it in for clothing, food, and hygiene items. If the card goes unused after the expiry date, the donated money will go to someone else in need.

“We’ve raised $1.25 million to date that’s gone directly to clients or programs, and helped nearly 2,000 individuals,” enthuses Belda. Over 5,100 goals on the site have also been met, representing both individual and nonprofit fundraising needs, with goals as diverse as work supplies, medical help, and resources to see family.

Providing a Plan and Life Skills

At LifeMoves, a Menlo Park-based agency which runs 17 shelters in San Mateo and Santa Clara county, their main goal is to return homeless individuals and families to stable housing or self-sufficiency through life skills.

“A lot of our clients are working homeless,” says Carolyn Hooper, Manager of Marketing and Communications at LifeMoves. “They’re typically working two to three jobs at minimum wage just to survive and, with the cost of housing, they’re not able to pay the rent. Clients who decide to come to LifeMoves have to follow a program. The main focus of our organization is really to help the working homeless figure out a plan to get them self sufficient long-term.

“We help them get life skills, build their resume, and practice interviews in order to get a better paying job. We also work to help them to secure affordable housing, figure out their income and make it work.” Stories that LifeMoves shared with us are illustrative of the diverse landscape of homelessness and the skills necessary to survive:

Paul, a veteran living in San Jose, suffered from PTSD and other health problems after his service which made it difficult to return to his old life. Mounting medical expenses forced him into homelessness. With the help of LifeMoves case management, he was able to create a plan that helped him pay off debt, find housing, and secure a job, as well as set up a 401k plan and savings.

Herminda became homeless after her husband’s behavior became violent, and she sought safety for herself and her daughter. After completing a domestic violence shelter program, she was referred to LifeMoves, who provided therapeutic children’s services and helped her find full-time housing and employment.

Penny and Robert moved to the Bay Area to get specialized care for their two disabled children, who had both suffered medical emergencies. They stayed in a motel short-term, but soon ran out of money. Working with LifeMoves, Penny learned how to plan for the financial future, saved money while in the program, and ultimately found housing they could afford in Santa Clara.

Returning Dignity through Hospitality

Lava Mae, a relatively new San Francisco nonprofit that takes retired MUNI buses and turns them into mobile showers and restrooms, works to deliver what they call “Radical Hospitality” to the homeless population.

Neil Shah, Lava Mae board member, and Director of Development and Partnerships at Code Tenderloin, shares his thoughts on the organization’s philosophy: “Lava Mae was founded on the idea that society has different standards for dignity for those with resources versus those who lack them. What attracted me to Lava Mae was really the idea of delivering Radical Hospitality, which we define as an unexpected level of care and respect.”

Living in homelessness has a strong emotional component, and Lava Mae’s approach works to restore optimism and instill a sense of opportunity while moving people through homelessness. “The facilities are very clean,” says Shah. “I go every Saturday and help clean them and talk to the guests. We call them guests instead of clients, because that’s hospitality. You’d be amazed at someone’s attitude before they go in and after they step off the bus stairs. It’s an amazing transformation.” Lava Mae has received hundreds of inquiries around the world about replicating its model, and is currently putting together an affiliate program and toolkit.

The Role of Technology in their Work

Working in the Bay Area positions local agencies to have a unique relationship with technology and the tech sector. We loved hearing a few of the ways that technology is helping them improve the lives of individuals facing homelessness.

Ability to Connect

Technology like websites and social media helps to power the work of numerous agencies by connecting those in need with those who want to help. “Technology is our whole platform,” says Belda of HandUp. ”We’re using technology to reach that larger audience and connect the dots. We’re able to connect donors directly and immediately to people in need that are fundraising on our site, and spread their stories in a mass way so they’re accessible to anyone who wants to help or is looking to contribute.”

Other new technologies play a part in surprising ways. “We have a really fun field day planned this week for some of the kids staying at our Transitional Housing Program,” says Kenemore of Hamilton Family Center. “There is a group of Google staff who will be bringing drones! Flying these drones is really fun and also not a typically accessible experience for a lot of these children and youth we work with. Having space for the kids to play and be kids, as well as connecting and having meaningful, safe connections with trusted adults like this has proven to be a really important factor in healing the trauma that occurs from experiencing homelessness.”

Opportunities from Technology Partnerships

Homelessness agencies in the Bay Area collaborate with movers and shakers in the technology world to bring additional resources to those they serve. “We partner with tech companies to bring skills to clients,” says Hooper of LifeMoves. “LinkedIn comes in and does a skill training with our clients, Adobe helps them understand how to build a resume. Many of our partners bring skillsets to clients.”

Kenemore remarks, “[Hamilton Family Center] worked with Twitter over the last year to build a digital learning center at our shelter program, and we’re working with others to build out another learning center in our transitional housing program. Just having a place for students to be able to check into their school portal, know their teachers, or play educational games is so valuable.”

She notes that what arises from these partnerships is often unexpected and ingenious: “We’re building out some digital learning curriculums with Yammer, like coding camps. We have amazing generous fiscal support from tech companies like LinkedIn, Google, Adobe, Genentech, and Salesforce, as well as a lot of technical assistance and volunteer support. So many things have been brought to the table by these relationships. Twitter came in and said: we have the resources to build a digital learning center, and Google asked, what would the kids want on the field day? And we said, I don’t know, face paint? And they said, how about drones? It’s the creativity of what people bring to the table.”

Flexibility to Changing Needs and Informed Decision-Making

Behind the scenes, these homelessness agencies use internal tools to seamlessly operate, track their data and gain insights into their programs.

“HandUp has backend tools where caseworkers can work with clients to set up profiles or set up campaigns,” says Belda. “We also have accounting tools and log transactions, so that everything can be reported on and how it was spent. We track our offline gift cards, and have backend tools to manage the organizational fundraisers on our site too.”

“Hamilton Family Center uses Salesforce as our data management system for all our participants of our programs,” says Kenemore. “It’s been integral in tracking the success of our work, how we need to change what we’re doing, and how we can continuously grow to serve a changing population.”

“Our system is also really phenomenal way of capturing data and capturing stories. It’s allowed us to become even more data-driven than we were in the past. We’re working on a new campaign to scale up our housing solutions, that was driven by the data we captured and reported on in our system. Since the recession, the number of homeless families in San Francisco has doubled. The current provider system of Hamilton and other nonprofit organizations can carry about 250 families. We know that some families will be in crisis, and homelessness is going to occur. But we’re experiencing a huge backlog of over 800 families experiencing homelessness in San Francisco. Driven by the data we’ve seen, we’re working to scale up a command center of the housing solutions office to house this backlog by 2020.”

Events Happening on June 29

Homelessness agencies often work together to address the challenges of this huge issue. “Collaboration is really necessary for tackling this problem,” says Kenemore. “All of the organizations in the Bay Area focus on different things, but we’re coordinating efforts to end homelessness.”

Today you can see the collaborations in action. Lava Mae’s pop up “Care Village” is during the day, and you can attend HandUp’s thought provoking panel tonight.

Lava Mae’s Pop-Up Care Village June 29, 10am-2pm PT Main Public Library at Civic Center, San Francisco

The Pop-Up Care Village is designed to be a one-stop shop of services for people in need. Shah, Lava Mae board member and Code Tenderloin Director of Development and Partnerships, notes, “The idea for this popup care village stems from Project Homeless Connect’s quarterly event, which brings together many service providers in one place. Lava Mae wanted to do that, in a way that brought our signature ‘hospitality’ aspect to the streets. They even got a design firm called SITELAB to design the layout to make it a very smooth experience for someone going through it, so it won’t be overwhelming.”

There will be showers courtesy of Lava Mae, clean clothes, ID vouchers and access to dental care from Project Homeless Connect, $25 gift cards from HandUp, mental health response courtesy of Concrn, and much more. There will even be free coffee from Equator and live music. “It’s about bringing the whole community together,” Shah says. “If you go anywhere near the Central Public Library on Wednesday, you can’t miss it! It’s a big party, it’s a big celebration, it feels good to be there.”

Thank you Exponent Partners for this great article. The original post at http://www.exponentpartners.com/san-francisco-homelessness-agencies-innovate-strategy-heart-tech/

[lavamae]

#EverybodyShowers: World Water Day 2016

Here at Lava Mae we talk about showers a lot.  To all types of people. Other service providers, young techies in San Francisco, high-powered execs and political powerhouses, to the skaters on Haight St. and artists in the Tenderloin.  And to thousands of men, women, and children sleeping on the streets, often overlooked, who rely on our mobile hygiene service for their showers.

Close your eyes and it all sounds the same.  A shower is a reset.  It brings a sense of calm, a change in attitude. It makes you feel like yourself again.

A shower is universal.  It’s a basic human right; a tool we all use for our self care.  And yet in San Francisco - and in communities across the globe - people living on the streets are forced to go without. 

Imagine what that would feel like.  What would that do for your energy level?  Your motivation?  Your sense of hope?

For our first ever UN World Water Day, Lava Mae is taking a moment to think about something most of us take for granted: our showers.  Being clean can mean the world of difference in how people see you, treat you - how you feel about yourself.  Help us level the playing field: we want to remind the world that #EverybodyShowers and fuel more showers for the homeless in 2016.

It only costs $7/shower to deliver hygiene and restore dignity for our guests. Our goal is to provide 21,000 showers in 2016.

We need your help:

1. Take a photo with a few words about what a shower means to you.

2. Share on your social media platforms - Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  

3. Add the hashtag #EverybodyShowers and follow this link: http://bit.ly/LMwwd

Hi! My name is Leah, and to me a shower means Lava Mae. It’s the people we meet, and the connections we make. #EverybodyShowers

[lavamae]

Sleuthing For Good in For Profits

As customers and employees demand the companies they buy products from or work for be committed to not only cultivating social good but embracing good at the core of their brands, the number of events targeted to helping those companies find that path has grown.

As customers and employees demand the companies they buy products from or work for be committed to not only cultivating social good but embracing good at the core of their brands, the number of events targeted to helping those companies find that path has grown. 

Panels and conversations focused on everything from authenticity and building community to the value of happiness and successfully scaling.  A few companies grabbed our attention and left us beyond inspired.

Miki Agrawal, founder of THINX – which by reimagining feminine hygiene products aims to eliminate shame, empowering women and girls around the world – was a force.  Her kick-in-the-ass, taboo-breaking presentation drove home how innovation, boldness, and a commitment to good can fuel meaningful change.

We were inspired by two companies whose missions spoke to our passion — homelessness.  Robert Egger of LA Kitchen and DC Central Kitchen spoke about how he was delivering on his mission to reclaim local, healthy food by bringing volunteers, people experiencing homelessness, transitional age youth and seniors to the table to work side by side. His kitchens are a nationally recognized, culinary arts job training program, and his model has supported kitchens all over the world.

Brit Moore, president of The Giving Keys shared inspiring stories of employing homeless and down-on-their-luck folks and great advice: 1) say “yes” to everything, 2) shorten the time it takes to fail –prototype!, and 3) be okay with the way your organization/team evolves as long as it remains true to the mission.  The pay-it-forward message in their keys is beautiful:  you pass along the key with its engraved “word” to someone who may need a message of strength or inspiration at that time… love it!

#HaveHeartDoWell

Thank you for EVERYTHING Heart Series, see you next year!

Kathlena Gagnon and Jasmin Kozowy

[lavamae]

You’ve Been Challenged...

Our new friends at YouCaring are helping us pay it forward, digital style.  Take a moment to take action, spread the word, and be a part of our campaign to #UnleashCompassion

Your challenge is to give a homeless person a meal and strike up a conversation with them, because why not? New friends that have many stories to share are the best kind of friends!

With boxes of handmade lunch bags made with love and compassion, the good people at YouCaring visited us yesterday and set forth a perfect example of this compassion action.

Mr. Bruce was delighted to have been able to receive a nice meal and connect with one of YouCaring’s team members!

Now, this is what I call compassion! 

Thank you so much YouCaring! It was so great working with you! 

[lavamae]

Lava Mae 2.0

Lava Mae’s “front door” - our website - has been in need of a face-lift ever since we turned from an idea to an up-and-running reality in June 2014.  Unfortunately, low-budget nonprofits like us are rarely able to compete in the rapid-changing world of technology. We spent nearly six months fishing in our network for a developer to take us on, but it was just one Facebook post that brought the good folks at Skona our way.

We are excited to announce that the new face of Lava Mae is officially live!  The talented team of designers and developers at Skona skillfully teased through our vision and created a highly interactive site that gives our story the visual it deserves.

If you’re looking for our bus you can explore our locations and partner orgs on a live map, or you can download our schedule flyer to share with anyone in need.  Volunteers and supporters can explore a range of opportunities to get directly involved in what we do.  Press and brand assets are available to download.  Most importantly, the heart of what we do and why is laid out beautifully through a multimedia map of image and video content.

Skona’s deep commitment to giving our story the platform it deserves represents the kind of “tech for good” contribution all companies in San Francisco should be making to the community.  We have an abundance of resources - technical and financial - in this city, and there’s no reason any community organization should go without the vital tech tools we need just to stay accessible.  Hat’s off to you, Skona.  We feel as good as if we just jumped out of a long, hot shower, with a new haircut and outfit to boot :).

Take a look for yourself - www.lavamae.org.

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New homepage: