Beneficiary Programs
Did you know that 4000 troubled teenagers lived on the streets of San Francisco last year and more than 6000 at risk youth and their families received preventive, medical and crisis intervention services in our city? STREETSMART4KIDS aims to help these young people find a better life by raising funds that support the San Francisco Youth Network through equal donations to Huckleberry Youth Programs and Larkin Street Youth Services. These organizations offer services to aid physically, sexually and emotionally abused young people by providing them with the resources and the skills they need to realize lives of dignity and economic self-sufficiency. Unfortunately, because of severe budget cuts in this difficult economy, the TASK program could face a critical shortage in funding and the VIP will be terminated if new funding is not forthcoming. STREETSMART4KIDS contributions will help to support these programs.
Specifically, Huckleberry’s Violence Is Preventable (VIP) Project is a collaboration of San Francisco-based service agencies committed to assisting young women who are witnesses and victims of violence. By providing counseling, medical, health education, employment, and mentoring services, the program works to address the unique needs of these young women. VIP is supported through the Huckleberry Youth Programs agency, which has more than 35 years of experience working with youths and families. The agency started San Francisco’s Huckleberry House in 1967, the nation’s first program for runaways. Since that time, Huckleberry has helped thousands of young people and their families in San Francisco and Marin Counties.
Larkin Street’s Together Assisting Street Kids (TASK) Program offers a continuum of housing, education and supportive services that helps homeless youths aged 12 to 17 to reunify with their families or, if reunification is not possible, to receive the care and encouragement they need to finish school and build strong foundations for their futures. The TASK program pursues its goals by focusing on crisis intervention services, stabilization services, and long-term solutions to homelessness. TASK is one of an array of programs offered by Larkin Street Youth Services. Founded in 1984, Larkin Street Youth Services is a community-based non-profit dedicated to offering runaway and homeless youths alternatives to street life, and to inspiring them to move beyond the streets and realize their full potential.