MEDIA ADVISORY: August 7th, 2024
CONTACT:
Tri Nguyen: 415-608-6237
tnguyen@glide.org
The Alternative to Encampment Sweeps: Connect People to Services
Shadow a Cecil Williams Community Ambassador in the Tenderloin Neighborhood to observe how they provide low-threshold case management to those most in need.
WHAT: We are offering members of the press an opportunity to shadow one of GLIDE’s Cecil Williams Community Ambassadors: starting last month, these ambassadors have begun providing case management and referrals to unhoused people in a ten-block radius around GLIDE, from Ellis to Sutter and Mason to Polk.
WHY: KTVU and ABC 7 recently featured GLIDE’s CEO Dr. Gina Fromer critiquing the city and state’s movement towards harsher and more frequent encampment sweeps. The public should see we have a meaningful alternative to encampment sweeps that is more compassionate and humane. Not only that, working towards lasting, sustainable solutions is better than taking down a tent that will only go up again the next week.
WHEN: On your schedule. Please reach out if you would like a vital, on-the-ground perspective, of what it means to sow hope and transformation in one of San Francisco’s most challenging and most promising neighborhoods!
BACKGROUND: Our community ambassadors program is part of the City of San Francisco’s 30×30 plan for economic revitalization, and was launched to honor the life and legacy of Reverend Cecil Williams. Our co-founder relentlessly emphasized the importance of being “in the streets” working “for the people,” which is why this program is in his memory.
Newly launched this July, this program focuses on creating safer and cleaner streets, neighborhood placemaking, connecting people to services and support groups, and community-building with residents, businesses, and service providers. Ambassadors are encouraged to keep GLIDE’s core value of unconditional love front-and-center as they do their work. As well as removing trash and graffiti, they provide help across ten life domains: food, shelter, life skills, family, community, substance use, mental health, medical health, education, and income.
The conversations Community Ambassadors have with Tenderloin’s unhoused and vulnerable people will inspire GLIDE’s ongoing program work. GLIDE relies on the people we serve to guide us, inform us, and educate us.
Additional Resources:
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About GLIDE:
GLIDE is a nationally recognized center for social justice dedicated to fighting systemic injustice, creating pathways out of poverty and crisis, and transforming lives. GLIDE’s integrated comprehensive services, advocacy initiatives, and inclusive community empower individuals, families, and children to achieve stability and thrive. GLIDE is on the forefront of addressing some of the most pressing issues including poverty, housing shortages and homelessness, and racial and social injustice.