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We Can All Help: Home for the Holidays

By Salesforce.org December 21, 2011

Home for the Holidaysby Barbara Kibbe, Chief Operating Officer

Recent headlines have shed much needed light on the crisis of homelessness in San Francisco. The number of homeless families on the waiting list to enter shelters in San Francisco skyrocketed from 75 back in 2007 to more than 250 today. This holiday season, the San Francisco community is coming together to help these families get back on their feet, and we want your help.

Today, I am asking our community to help raise money to furnish the rooms these families will be moving into and provide them with other essential items. Donations can be made to www.cccyo.org/starcommunity, and 100% of donations will go to the Star Community Home.

The Salesforce.org, working with a $1.5M donation from Lynne and Marc Benioff, is partnering with the City of San Francisco and Catholic Charities CYO to rapidly house an estimated 60 families.

Catholic Charities CYO, working closely with Star of the Sea Parish and the Archdiocese of San Francisco, will offer immediate housing for a dozen or more homeless single mothers and their children. Preparations are underway and families will begin moving in before New Year’s Day at the new Star Community Home, located at the former convent at Star of the Sea Parish on Geary Street.

More than 85% of homeless families across the nation are headed by single mothers. The joint effort between Salesforce.org and Catholic Charities CYO will help these San Francsico families stabilize their living situation by providing basic needs, parenting education, housing placement assistance, children’s activity programs, and intensive case management services for up to 18 months.

Generous donations from businesses in the community are helping to furnish each family room for just $1,500, but more is needed for supplies so that these families will have the basic necessities required to help them stabilize their lives.

If you can help, please visit http://www.cccyo.org/starcommunity immediately. I hope you will join me this holiday season in giving back to our community.