Larkin Street Youth Services
The First 25 Years
Excerpts:
“Larkin Street’s tireless staff . . . is fighting an outmanned battle with scant government ammunition.” Newsweek, April 25, 1988
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To most people, the homeless youth on San Francisco’s Polk Street in the early 1980s were part of the landscape. To some, they were a nuisance. To predators, they were there to exploit. A small number of residents came to see these young people as kids who needed help.
These concerned residents not only saw a need, but they realized “if not us, who?” What they started in a church fellowship hall became an internationally lauded organization.
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An observer of Larkin Street will see several themes through its history. One is the singular passion that its board, staff, and volunteers share: a passion to help kids who have been dealt a bad hand and deserve better. Another is remarkable insight that has enabled Larkin Street to understand barriers that youth face and to offer innovative solutions, starting with the decision to locate a multiservice drop-in center in a street level space near the youth who needed help finding their way in life.
Still another theme is the rigor with which Larkin Street has confronted such questions as: For what results will we hold ourselves accountable? How will we achieve them? What will it cost, and how will we fund that cost? And how will we create and sustain the organization that we need to achieve results? A 2008 Harvard Business Review article featured Larkin Street’s strategic planning process as a model of rigorously taking on these questions to deliver real impact.
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