(Music)
Tabitha Davis, program participant, Larkin Street Youth Services:
I lived in Florida. It’s where I’m from. I was struggling with homelessness down there. There were a lot of things that happened all at once: My brother died, my mom’s husband died, and I just decided Florida wasn’t for me. When I came here, I was homeless and I called Larkin Street. The person who did my intake had a client walk me here so I wouldn’t get lost.
The program I work for over at Chase is also hiring.
Sherilyn Adams, executive director, Larkin Street Youth Services:
The mission of Larkin Street Youth Services is to help young people who are experiencing homelessness, or at risk of experiencing homelessness, to come inside to get the support that they need in order to successfully transition out of homelessness and into their own independent, stable lives.
Davis:
Larkin has helped me with housing, they’ve given me a job, they’ve helped me with schooling. I went and got my registered nursing license. I got it because my parents have a lot of medical health issues, so I figured if I learned the medical knowledge then I could help them myself.
(Music)
Enrique Mejia, branch manager:
I’m here at Larkin Street, in a way, to pay them back. I was a client here 2001 to 2004, and coming over here just to help is my way to give back to them for everything that they did for me.
Adams:
And I know we’ve had Wells Fargo volunteers multiple times a year.
Today, we are super excited to have volunteers from Wells Fargo to help us organize our clothing closet. Young people often come to us without sufficient clothes or sometimes literally the clothes on their back. And so we provide a clothing closet of both regular daywear, also a clothing closet for job-related clothes, right, for interviews or jobs.
We need to keep that thing organized and Wells is here today to help us do that. And we’ve had thousands of hours of volunteerism from Wells Fargo over the years to do all the things that we need to do meet the needs of young people.
David Galloreese, head of Human Resources:
Shirts and I’ll do pants.
It was important for me to come out today during our Dedicated Day of Service. For one, to get better connected to our team members and our community. But I think this is really about us living our values. Both around the communities that we live and serve but also the team members that we work with every day. I’ve had the opportunity here to meet some wonderful members of our community who are doing really important work for our youth. It’s also given me a chance to meet team members that I wouldn’t normally meet every day, hear their perspectives and also hear their energy for the commitment that we have as Wells Fargo to the communities.
Davis:
They have this program which is like typing.
In a few weeks, I’ll be transferring officially over to the Rising Up program, which will get me my own apartment and I’ll be on my own completely.
Galloreese:
The work that the Larkin Street Youth Services is doing is so important not only to San Francisco but to some broader issues and I’ve been so impressed with the team that they have here. And the wide variety and creative ways that they’re thinking about tackling the many challenges that the youth have.
