Poverty and the Role of Safety Net Organizations Delivered during the SV2 Philanthropy Forum
By Sally Osberg, 02.06.02
Thanks, Jim--
Pleasure to be with you tonight-approach you're taking to philanthropy (thoughtful, rigorous, appreciative) a model for building a more effective and engaged community of donors and doers.
Like many of you, I'm no expert in the issues we'll be exploring tonight-but I'm a great believer in the power and potential given almost all of us to make the world-and our own homes, neighborhoods and communities-better for everyone. It's that belief, that passion that makes me as proud-and as humble-to be doing what I do on behalf of the Skoll Community Fund and our mission.
Knowing Jeff as you do, you probably have a good feel already for our mission-- To empower…
"Those with the most potential" really translates into 2 constituencies: individual social entrepreneurs changing lives and communities here in Silicon Valley and around the world (people like Bill Strickland, whom most of you met in November at Jeff's home), and disadvantaged populations-folks who but for want of a bit of help have the ability to succeed and the potential to benefit their communities and the world. Our charge as a foundation is to identify the means-tools, programs, resources-that show folks the way and help them help themselves.
To Jeff's and my mind, the strategic thrust of our mission is to empower folks to defeat poverty, not to alleviate suffering-and that seemed to rule out the "safety net" social services: food banks, community relief agencies; shelters and the like.
But then 9-11 hit, and Jeff felt business as usual was not in order-that the combined effects of the recession and donations directed to New York and Washington D.C. would make life very, very tough for the nonprofits in Silicon Valley. This thinking, and leadership from Jeff and the Skoll Community Fund in the form of $2.5 million to seed the effort-was what gave rise to the Urgency Fund.
And it's really through the Urgency Fund that my own learning about "safety net" organizations kicked into high gear.
Image-Reality
Person pushing the shopping cart, or the scruffy characters I had to wake up and move from Children's Discovery Museum's outdoor alcoves
Portrait of poverty in our own backyard is far more complex. Many faces:
The elderly. The mentally ill. Immigrants. Families. Children. Victims of domestic abuse. The working poor. The newly out-of-work. Young adults. Those who thought they'd made the welfare to work transition, but find themselves laid off, or facing loss of the child care credit they need to ensure their children are safe.
Almost all of the Urgency Fund agencies told us that they were seeing many, many more First-time clients. One that sticks in my mind is a man laid off after 7 years at Hewlett Packard, who found himself unable to pay his rent and was forced to seek housing in a shelter. "I don't need rehabilitating…I need a job.")
The stark truth is that thousands and thousands of Silicon Valley folks are one paycheck away from homelessness and hunger. And many thousands more are already there.
So, where do they turn?
Image-Reality
Impression of shelters, food banks, agencies serving the poor very much colored by my paradigm of old-fashioned compassion: My mental image was soup kitchens on Thanksgiving-that City Team Ministries picture in the paper…
Reality is that just about every organization who received an Urgency Fund grant is far more than a roof, a bed, a hot meal. Almost all incorporate programs designed to break the cycle of poverty-they offer case management, job training, clothing for interviews, computers for their clients to circulate resumes and check on-line listings.
Did you know-I didn't-that most of the community services agencies provide that extra something folks and families may need to tide themselves over between jobs or when extra costs for illness hit? That support comes in many forms: sometimes it's a motel voucher rather than a shelter referral; sometimes it's a food basket, to stretch a grocery budget-organizations also go to great lengths to ensure that foods are customized to meet ethnic preferences as well as nutritional needs; organizations even provide checks, to help pay utility bills or the rent.
During the holidays, the Sunnyvale Community Services Center creates a remarkable facility where families can shop for free-for food, household necessities, and toys for their children, all new items, beautifully packaged and presented-so families feel respected as well as supported.
Finally-something I did know was reinforced. These organizations, like most nonprofits, are complex, challenging, progressive enterprises managed by some excellent managers and superb leaders.
These are folks managing double bottom line businesses, responsible for returning both social benefit and a break-even or better budget performance.
During the process of learning about these organizations, chances are you will get to know many of their staff members and leaders: Diane Saign at Catholic Charities, Dave Sandretto at Second Harvest, Barry DelBuono at Emergency Housing Consortium-and of course, the great folks here tonight.
Thanks to their great work and with all our support, Silicon
Valley's safety net-every knot and every strand-will stay strong.
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