Highlighting Partner Organizations: A Woman's Place & Downtown Streets Team
To reach one of our impact goals - saving nonprofits time and funding so they can achieve greater goals - we consider our Partner Organizations to be our clients in many ways. When we approve a new partner, we always ensure that they are organizations with profound programs in homelessness and that they use their additional time for a greater good - such as finding housing, mental health support, or addiction recovery. We love celebrating our Partner's work!
Get to know two of our Partner Organizations below...
What do you consider to be the most impactful service you provide the community? A safe place for those in need. In one word, "Resilience".
A Woman’s Place (AWP) is the only 24-hour supportive residential services in San Francisco offering emergency shelter and long-term treatment programs to women and transgender women with special needs due to mental disabilities, sexual or domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and HIV+/AIDS-related issues.
Inspirational Story: Nicole (Simply the Basics Changes All Names for Privacy) is a transgender woman who attended one of DST's first Team Meetings in San Francisco. She came to us through peer-to-peer outreach by two of our first Team Members on the streets of Civic Center/UN Plaza. Through an exchange of a hygiene kit (Simply the Basics provides 250+ Hygiene Kits to DST every month) and some words of encouragement, Nicole timidly joined our Team during its soft launch phase and was at the time hopping from shelter to shelter, in desperate need for stability.
While Nicole continued to volunteer four hours each day, she utilized her remaining time to apply for employment through support of our employment specialist and case management staff. Nicole went to many interviews and while we knew how hard she worked on the Team and what a great investment she was, it became obvious that there were some employment barriers she needed to overcome. After a few weeks of hard work and consistency, Nicole was offered a leadership position on our Block by Block Team, the perfect platform for her to prove herself beyond prejudice. Just a few months later, Nicole was hired full-time at Block by Block and received one of the highest-ranking performance reviews to date. She worked with her Case Manager to save money and stay in a hotel SRO week-to-week, until the SRO decided that they wanted to house her permanently.
Nicole just received the keys for her new apartment and continues working at Block by Block. She spends her free time looking for a career in her desired field of culinary arts, and has really enjoyed being a mentor to another LGBTQ Team Member.