THE GILROY COMPASSION CENTER IS A PATHWAY TO STABILITY THAT MAINTAINS SELF-RESPECT AND RECOGNIZES THE DIGNITY OF EACH HUMAN BEING.ITS MISSION IS TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE SERVICES HOMELESS PEOPLE NEED TO SURVIVE, BECOME STABLE, AND ACHIEVE SELF-SUFFICIENT LIVES.THE SOUTH COUNTY COMMPASSION CENTER'S GOALS AND OBJECTIVES ARE:PROVIDE BASIC NEEDS SUCH AS BATHROOMS, SHOWERS, LAUNDRY AND FOOD;PROVIDE A ONE-STOP CENTER WITH REFERRALS AND RESOURCES

Our vision is that we all may one day live in a community without homelessness.

Goal One: Provide a one-stop center with referrals and resources. Objective: 500 homeless people annually have access to showers, laundry, food, mail delivery, clothing, referrals, and other resources.

Goal Two: Provide a safe and legal alternative to sleeping in the streets. Objective: Double safe and legal alternatives with establishing a Safe Parking Program in Gilroy.

Goal Three: Grow our long-term organizational capacity. Objective: Increase our organizational capacity at the management level by 2.5 FTE, an investment of $100,000 additional annually by 6/30/25.

We hired our first full-time Executive Director Director in September 2020 who has more than 20 years leadership experience. We've subscribed to a training portal at Relias providing a variety of training certifications including issues related to safety, conflict de-escalation, trauma informed care, and other work place related training. We are providing access to management training courses to senior staff whom we have identified for supervisor positions. Also, our Executive Director participates in an paid Executive Directors' leadership circle that provides real-world training and support and is facilitated by a leadership consultant. For Fiscal Year 2022-23, we have included more professional development training in our budget for each staff member, and set goals for each staff member to complete specific training related to their position. Next year's employee performance evaluations will measure their success at completing, and incorporating this training in their workflow.

During the pandemic, fewer unhoused individuals came to our Drop-in Center for basic needs services because some vulnerable individuals were provided temporary hotel accommodations by the County. In September 2020, we began bringing our services directly to unhoused individuals encamped throughout our service area two days per week. We encountered more individuals, whom we had not previously served who required basic needs services such as food, water, clothing, showers, laundry, and hygiene. In August 2021, we shifted entirely away from providing services via our Drop-in approach in favor of offering these service exclusively through our new Outreach model. Additionally, we launched our Unhoused Popup Marketplaces two additional days a week at parking lots near encampments where recipients could self-select a week's worth of non-perishable food, receive hygiene supplies, underwear and socks, clothing, and other important supplies and services. They could also meet with one of our case managers to assess their needs and provide services and referrals to help them meet these needs, like medical care, benefit access, legal assistance, transportation, job training, and mental health referrals. We also provided shower vouchers via a local business partner, and secured a mobile shower and laundry unit to provide showers and laundry once per week. A medical van stationed nearby also offered medical treatment. As a result of this shift, we served 40% more individuals over the first six months since the program launch than we had for the same period the year before. Also, we hired two additional seasoned case managers who made a concerted effort to administer updated vulnerability assessments for all our unhoused clients. This assessment puts them into the queue for housing, and prioritizes them according to their vulnerability. We facilitated twice as many assessments as the same period the year before, and 12% of our unhoused population secured housing as a result.