How GLIDE fights for social justice

One of San Francisco’s largest social services agencies is living its core values — and growing its impact

Guest post by Stacy Coleman
Vivanista

Located in the Tenderloin, one of San Francisco’s harshest urban environments, GLIDE is an oasis that has served poor, homeless and disenfranchised individuals, families and children for more than 45 years. A leading organization for social justice, GLIDE’s core values are rooted in empowerment, recovery and personal transformation for the community it serves. Those values also guide its mission to create a radically inclusive, just and loving community mobilized to break the cycles of poverty and marginalization.

Since launching its first social services in 1969, GLIDE has continually built on its strong foundation of acceptance of and connection to its community and has evolved into one of the largest social services agencies in San Francisco. GLIDE now provides support services that range from meals, housing, primary and behavioral health care, substance abuse recovery, domestic violence abatement, family services, youth literacy, nutrition and wellness programming, housed in five buildings.

I spoke with GLIDE’s communications manager, Joyce Sood, about how the organization continues to thrive in a changing economic environment and its approach for scaling impact. Sood says one of the approaches it takes to quantifying the impact of its programs is by putting into place a strategy and evaluation team. The team looks at each of GLIDE’s programs individually and tracks participant demographics, program services and client outcomes. Each year, GLIDE programs conduct client evaluation surveys to gauge the effectiveness of the program and inform new program integration, design and strategy.

The constant evaluation that GLIDE performs has allowed the organization to consistently expand its services. Twelve years ago, GLIDE built a model housing program for support services and mixed population homeless individuals and families. Sood says the program has served as a nationwide model for affordable and low-income permanent housing. Over the past two years, under the GLIDE Economic Development Corporation entity, GLIDE has built two additional affordable and low-income permanent housing buildings for working families and for homeless individuals, she says.

Another way that GLIDE is able to continually provide a comprehensive set of services is by partnering with a range of funding partners, which includes corporations such as Wells Fargo and GAP, government agencies such as the the San Francisco Department of Children and the California Department of Education, as well as non-profit and private foundation partners. GLIDE has a 23-member Board of Trustees who works with staff to strategize fundraising, partnership building and other means of raising funds for the agency. In addition, GLIDE has an 11-member Legacy Committee of young professionals who work with staff on fundraising events and to cultivate partnerships with next generation audiences, Sood says. Partnering with corporations and professional organizations also helps to spread the word and raise awareness about GLIDE among the younger generation.

GLIDE is diligent about showing appreciation for its donors and volunteers. “We invite donors to become more involved in the organization and community through special events, tours and volunteerism, and to follow the lives of the people being helped,” she says. “We thank our donors through acknowledgement letters, event sponsorship recognition at events, donor profiles in the quarterly newsletter (mailed to 28,000), on our website and through press releases.”

One of its most successful events, the Warren Buffet Power Lunch eBay Auction, was held in June and raised $2.63 million this year. GLIDE also holds an annual themed Holiday Festival in December. This year, the theme is “The Love Grove,” a Jam Session for the Hungry. The event will take place at the San Francisco Warfield Theatre; honorary co-chairs already include Carlos and Cindy Santana, Pete Escovedo, Joan Baez, Huey Lewis, Paula West, Sweet Honey and the Rock.

In addition to the standard social networking platforms of Facebook and Twitter, Sood says GLIDE is an active user of YouTube, Vimeo, PodOmatic, First Giving, and Give by Cell, which all aid in its outreach efforts and in building its community.

To learn more about GLIDE, watch their video above and visit their website at http://www.glide.org.

This article originally appeared in a modified form at Vivanista and is republished with permission.