Case Study: Hewlett Packard & Project Homeless Connect

Every six to eight weeks, the San Francisco Mayor’s office and city agencies partner with nonprofits to serve San Francisco’s homeless residents.  Project Homeless Connect serves over 2000 homeless people, providing them with food, clothing and health, social and legal services all at once, in one single place. The Bar Association of SF’s Volunteer Legal Services Program has been running the Legal and ID Area, collaborating with the DMV to provide ID assistance to clients.  HP has been staffing these Legal & ID Clinic areas.

The Opportunity

San Francisco’s downtown homeless population consists of a 60-square block area in the Tenderloin District where 85% of the city’s social services currently exist. Data proves that when people are approached in a respectful and kind manner, and with available and appropriate resources, they are eager to accept help towards self-sufficiency. National outreach professionals agree that it takes multiple contacts to build trust towards accepting assistance.

Hewlett Packard’s Pro Bono Investment

Twenty HP Volunteers participated in the San Francisco launch event on December 2006 offering legal expertise involving landlord-tenant, criminal, family, consumer, personal injury, employment law, and administrative services.  In the ID area, HP Lawyer and Non-Lawyer volunteers interviewed the clients and filled out appropriate forms in collaboration with the DMV for obtaining free California ID cards which are critical to obtaining other public services.  In the Legal area, HP volunteers helped to provide clients with legal advice, assistance, referrals to an agency that can help, or appointments with an attorney or intake clinic.

The Impact

In the December 2006 Project Homeless Connect event, 267 clients were served in the ID Area and 84 clients in the Legal Area that were staffed by the HP Volunteers. HP participants submitted very positive feedback:  “I feel that our area was extremely well organized and that things went very smoothly. I would like to do it again and look forward to the opportunity to participate in future worthwhile causes such as this. It is great to be able to put back into the community and I hope that all of the clients who went through our area found some satisfaction in our efforts. Many felt they made a difference, and that the opportunity served them as well: “I really enjoyed volunteering at Project Homeless Connect. It was not only a good way to help people who are in need but also a nice way to use and fine tune interviewing skills with a different type of client from those who I usually work with. This was an extremely interesting and rewarding activity and I am glad to have participated”.

About Project Homeless Connect

The mission of Project Homeless Connect is to rally the city to support and create lasting solutions for homeless San Franciscans. Every other month, over 1,000 community volunteers in 106 cities partner with city government, non-profits and the private sector to provide a one-stop shop of health and human services for homeless San Franciscans. Services include medical, mental health, substance abuse, housing, dental, benefits, legal, free eyeglasses, California ID, food, clothing, wheelchair repair and more.

About Hewlett Packard

HP focuses on simplifying technology experiences for all of its customers – from individual consumers to the largest businesses. With a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure, HP is among the world’s largest IT companies, with revenue totaling $110.4 billion for the four fiscal quarters ending April 30, 2008.  For information on HP Global Social Investment programs, please visit http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/grants.