San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Dolby Laboratories Announce Partnership with Downtown Streets Team to Help San Francisco’s Homeless Residents

Mayor Ed Lee and Dolby Laboratories will officially kick off the San Francisco branch of Downtown Streets Team, a Bay Area nonprofit restoring hope and rebuilding the lives of unhoused community members through work experience and neighborhood beautification. Downtown Streets Team’s San Francisco launch will be marked by an event on Tuesday, March 29, 2016, at 10 a.m. at the east end of Civic Center Plaza.

Downtown Streets Team will host guests following the ribbon cutting at its Weekly Success Team Meeting, held for unhoused community members interested in joining the Team. All are invited to attend the meeting at the Friends of SF (Quaker) Meeting House, 65 Ninth St. SF, CA. 94103 at 12:30 p.m.

“Having the City behind us and innovative tech companies like Dolby supporting us, we really couldn’t ask for a more thrilling and more supportive partnership to join us in the fight to end homelessness in San Francisco,” said Eileen Richardson, Executive Director and founder of Downtown Streets Team. “We’re ready to rebuild lives and restore hope.”

“The Downtown Streets Team program will help change the lives of some our most in need residents through innovation, compassion and dignity,” said Mayor Ed Lee. “The Downtown Streets Team shows how people coming together from the business and nonprofit sectors with government can help find new ways to lift people up out of poverty, provide them with skills to succeed and improve the conditions of our City’s most important public spaces, like Civic Center Plaza.”

“Dolby is proud to partner with Downtown Streets Team and the Mayor’s Office,” said Kevin Yeaman, President and CEO, Dolby Laboratories. “Downtown Streets' ‘work first’ approach has transformed hundreds of lives throughout the Bay Area. We are excited to work together and support them as they empower people and improve our neighborhood.”

“This is a program that has benefitted individuals and public spaces in several cities,” said Phil Ginsburg, SF Rec & Park General Manager. “We’re proud to partner with the Mayor’s Office and Downtown Streets Team at Civic Center Plaza to affect change and find solutions that work for all of our communities.”

Unhoused and unemployed volunteers (aka Team Members) can be spotted wearing bright yellow shirts as they beautify streets around San Francisco’s Civic Center, focusing on the public area that stretches from Civic Center Plaza to United Nations Plaza, as well as around Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. They’re on the job Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 12 noon, sweeping up debris as well as safely disposing of hazardous materials, including discarded needles. In addition to beautification efforts, Team Members engage with other unhoused community members, inviting them to join the Team and take advantage of housing and employment services.

Since hitting the ground in February, three people already have gained employment through Downtown Streets Team’s work-first model in San Francisco. To date, the organization has helped 413 people find employment, and more than 489 people find housing across the Bay Area. Downtown Streets Team’s primary objective is to end homelessness, but the additional benefits include the reactivation of public spaces, increased awareness of homeless and poverty issues and fostering safe places for everyone to thrive.

Homelessness is a major issue facing San Francisco and was recently cited by residents in a Chamber of Commerce poll as their No. 1 concern. According to the 2015 Point-In-Time Count, homelessness increased 7 percent between 2005 and 2013 and there are more than 6,600 people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco. Downtown Streets Team was founded in 2005 in Palo Alto after the same concern was raised, where there has since been a significant decrease in homelessness. Downtown Streets Team was recently recognized by the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce as Nonprofit of the Year, bringing attention to the organization’s strategic and unique approach to ending homelessness.

About Downtown Streets Team: In 2005 the Palo Alto Business Improvement District conducted a survey of local business owners to determine the biggest issues facing downtown businesses. The group identified cleanliness and homelessness as the most pressing challenges. Downtown Streets Team (DST) emerged as result of the collaboration of local businesses, law enforcement and community leaders striving to make Palo Alto a better place to live and work. DST does three things uniquely: 1) is a low-barrier “gateway” to jobs, housing and other services using work experience as the way to rebuild a person’s dignity and hope; 2) puts the person at the center to drive their unique path out of homelessness and 3) brings the community and businesses to understand there is a solution and they can be part of it too. The model is simple: provide unhoused and low-income people with the resources they need to rebuild their lives so they are no longer in survival mode. First, they join one of our teams and begin working collaboratively on beautification projects. Meanwhile Team Members work together with our case management and employment services to find housing and employment. In 2011, DST expanded to serve the Coyote Creek corridor in San Jose and in 2012, launched a new project in collaboration with the City of Sunnyvale and Sunnyvale Community Services. In 2013, DST expanded to San Rafael. With franchisees elsewhere in California and Florida, and inquiries from all over the country, DST is positioned to become a national solution to help end homelessness and restore dignity for those most in need. DST kicked off 2016 with two honors: “Nonprofit of the Year” from Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce and “Outstanding Accomplishment in Human Compassion, Dignity and Innovative Leadership” from Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce. It was also recognized as one of the Top 50 Innovations in Government by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2010. To learn more about the Downtown Streets Team or to make a donation, please visit www.streetsteam.org.

About Dolby Laboratories

Dolby Laboratories (NYSE:DLB) creates audio, video, and voice technologies that transform entertainment and communications in mobile devices, at the cinema, at home, and at work. For 50 years, sight and sound experiences have become more vibrant, clear, and powerful in Dolby. For more information, please visit www.dolby.com.

About Dolby Cares

Dolby Cares strives to inspire the next generation of innovators in science and art, by actively engaging with our neighbors to address the most critical needs in our community.

Contacts:

Downtown Streets Team
Eileen Richardson, 650-462-1795
Executive Director
eileen@streetsteam.org
or
Dolby Laboratories
Joy Nestor, 415-558-0164
joy.nestor@dolby.com

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