UPLIFT
Transforming Lives, Uplifting San Diego
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
UPLIFT serves to accelerate community transformation and lift vulnerable populations to their full potential through free services to low income students & people experiencing homelessness.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Student Services - Kids At Heart Tutoring
Kids at Heart provides free one-to-one tutoring advancing academic achievement and accelerating literacy skills to lift low income students above their circumstances.
Student Services - Swimming Upstream
Swimming Upstream young adult mentoring offers leadership training and life skills through multi-week speaker sessions and group activities to help navigate the rough waters of modern teen life.
Homeless Services - The Home Team
The Home Team steps up to fill gaps and move obstacles in the flow to housing for people experiencing homelessness with Volunteer Advocates assisting professional Case Managers & Client with added supports moving through the housing placement process.
Homeless Services - Triple Cross
Triple Cross unlocks housing options for homeless neighbors by providing free application assistance and transportation to the DMV for CA ID’s, the essential document for all homeless services access.
Where we work
Awards
Community Advocate Award - Monica Ball 2022
Regional Task Force on Homelessness
Affiliations & memberships
San Diego Chamber of Commerce 2023
Association of Fundraising Professionals 2023
San Diego Council on Literacy 2023
Downtown San Diego Partnership 2023
San Diego Regional Task force on the Homeless 2023
Downtown Fellowship 2023
Urban Landuse Insitute 2023
Rock Church Homeless Service Ministry 2023
Rock Church Youth Tutoring Minisrty 2023
External reviews

Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of backpacks filled with school supplies distributed
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Student Services - Kids At Heart Tutoring
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Covid interrupted our free site-based tutoring, so we have been working our way back to pre-Covid enrollment numbers.
Number of households that retain permanent housing for at least 6 months
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Ethnic and racial groups
Related Program
Homeless Services - The Home Team
Type of Metric
Other - describing something else
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
These are approximate minimums,
Number of families assisted with rent or mortgage to avoid eviction
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Homeless Services - The Home Team
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Hours of literacy instruction delivered
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Student Services - Kids At Heart Tutoring
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Covid halted on-site tutoring & launched virtual tutoring. It took a couple of years to recalibrate. Now we are growing in both formats.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
UPLIFT San Diego has served vulnerable populations in two major areas of need since 1987.
HOMELESS SERVICES:
Help all who have experience homelessness navigate the system back to housing with appropriate services. We seek to expand the number of Clients & their Case Managers we assist with housing placement & stability at least 100% through The Home Team Volunteer Advocate Program. Increase basic services of CA IDs & clothing requests to clients in shelters to meet full demand.
STUDENT SERVICES:
Help all students living at or near poverty advance academically. We seek to restore our site based free tutoring to students from low income families closed during Covid and expand our virtual tutoring launched during Covid, growing back to 100+ students & tutor teams for both formats.
Re-launch the free Swimming Upstream multi-week leadership & lifeskills workshop mentoring teens from low-Income neighborhoods.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
HOMELESS SERVICES:
• Expand the Home Team program to provide permanent housing placement, stability services & follow-up exit surveys to 100+ clients transitioning from homelessness.
• Recruit and train 30 Home Team Community Volunteer Advocates to work with clients and their case managers on housing opportunities.
• Build partnerships with landlords and property management companies to expand available rentals by hosting six Landlord Events to promote incentive programs
• Assist 1000+ Triple Cross clients experiencing homelessness with their California ID
and birth certificate, both necessary documents for employment and housing.
• Provide 500+ Triple Cross individuals & families access to basic needs and clothing.
• Encourage greater faith community participation by hosting four Come & See Saturdays with Blue Wagon Ministry
STUDENT SERVICES:
• Provide free Kids at Heart Tutoring and Mentoring for 100+ students from historically excluded and low-income backgrounds.
• Recruit and onboard 80-100 Kids at Heart tutors to provide compassionate and diligent tutoring services for homework assistance and literacy.
• Maintain and improve virtual tutoring program and reopen six in-person Kids at Heart tutoring sites at libraries and other community locations.
• Re-launch the free Swimming Upstream multi-week leadership & lifeskills workshop mentoring teens from low-Income neighborhoods.
• Expand our partnerships with relevant community-based organizations & sponsors.
• Provide students and their families access to basic needs such as school supplies, backpacks, meals, books plus assist with rental & utility assistance as necessary.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
UPLIFT San Diego is a robust volunteer based organization with a great capacity for meeting community need. We now have 3 fulltime employees and a strong participative Board of Directors.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
STUDENT SERVICES:
We have successfully reopened 2 on-site tutoring locations & our mentoring program for young women, Swimming Upstream. Next is expanding both.
HOMELESS SERVICES:
We have assisted with client housing placement & stability for 40+ Clients over a 12 months. Next is expanding the Volunteers trained to be advocates.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, This part of capacity building currently in progress!
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
UPLIFT
Board of directorsas of 04/27/2023
Monica Ball
UPLIFT
Term: 2021 - 2023
Dr. Ethel Sims
Co-Founder SK Connections
Rev. Alfie Webb
Associate Pastore Bethel Baptist
Bob Link
COO, CNN Modular Structures
Jan Magot
Retired Realtor
Tommie Morrow
Founder Blue Wagon Ministry
Lauren Cook
Director San Diego Architectural Foundation
Kevin Jones
Retired Software Executive
Jexsi Grey
Student, Lived Experience Veteran
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.
Equity strategies
Last updated: 03/04/2021GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.