Voices of the Community

Compass Family Services

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Episode notes

"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. To find out more and support the Compass Family Services’s Central City Access Point, Family Resource Center, Family Shelters, and Wrap Around services go to compass dash sf dot org

After listening to how Compass Family Services is helping our families stay in housing we hope that you will  get engaged in advocating for our state legislators to both extend the rent moratorium, and provide more funding payments to help families, to reduce their back rent as well as support other programs

Over the 14 months of this series we wanted to bring voices from wonderfully powerful organizations supporting our families, youth and adults while being unhoused as well as providing the necessary wrap-around services to help stabilize them. We hope that you will take the time to listen back to incredibly insightful interviews with Kevin from Miracle Messages in Episode 1, Doniece and Kris of LavaMaeX in Episode 3, Meghan from Simply the Basics in Episode 16, Doug from Huckleberry Youth Programs in Episode 19, Charles and Demaree from At the Crossroads in Episode 29 along with our conversation with Lyslynn of BMAGIC and Sakeenah from Third Street Youth Center and Clinic in Episode 51 as well as conversation with George and Kenneth of GLIDE in Episode 42 and our conversation with one of the oldest family services agency in San Francisco Edgewood Center for Children and Families with Justine and Gregg Biggs in Episode 54