Since 2005, Downtown Streets Team (DST) has been providing a volunteer work experience program for individuals experiencing homelessness, creating opportunities to clean and beautify their communities in exchange for case management, employment support, and a basic needs stipend. Recognized as one of the top five Best Practices in California for ending homelessness, DST has now expanded to 14 Northern California communities.
Downtown Streets Team's mission is to end homelessness through the power of community and the dignity of work.
Downtown Streets Team is seeking to increase support for our 75+ Team Members who are currently experiencing homelessness in Sacramento, West Sacramento, and Davis. This funding will help us stabilize the lives of our Team Members as we provide entry-level employment opportunities through our workforce development program, Streets Team Enterprises. It will also further access to employment readiness skill-building, non-cash basic needs stipends, and intensive Case Management to our volunteer Team Members.
The unique DST approach to Case Management is essential to ending homelessness. Our Case Managers perform outreach, provide shelter referrals, find housing, connect job seekers with employers, help navigate and advocate within the health care system, and much more. Support for Case Management means we can ensure that we can keep caseloads low and successes high.
Unrestricted funding allows to address immediate and urgent needs that arise for our Team Members. As we navigate our new endemic world, this has ranged from purchasing portable solar phone chargers to funding Serve Safe food safety trainings required for employment. Access to unrestricted funding means that we can meet the changing needs of our Team Members and respond to crisis appropriately.
We believe that homelessness is not an identity, but an experience shaped by intersectional identities.
At Downtown Streets Team diversity, equity, and inclusion are fundamental to our organization and our mission of ending homelessness through the dignity of work and the power of community. DEI is a core value for Downtown Streets Team because we are profoundly aware of the impact identity, and multi-marginalization, has on someone’s experience of homelessness. We acknowledge that homelessness as an experience is shaped by matters of inequality, especially racial and economic disparities. Our direct service staff is committed to fostering an inclusive community for our Team Members that supports each member as they chart a path out of homelessness.
Likewise, Downtown Streets Team is committed to fostering an inclusive community within our organization that makes all staff members feel welcome and accepted as their whole selves. We value diverse voices and experiences and strive towards a more inclusive and equitable workplace.
Organization name
Downtown Streets Team
other names
DST
2005
Mission Category
Community Improvement, Capacity Building
Operating Budget
$10,000,001-$100 million
Organization Need
Funding: Program, Funding: Unrestricted
Demographics Served
Homeless/Underhoused/Unhoused
Local Counties Served
Sacramento, Yolo
Equity Statement
Equity Statement
Address
817 W. Capitol AveSacramento, CA, US
West Sacramento, CA, US
Davis, CA, US