Housing, Shelter

FIRST STEP COMMUNITIES

a bridge out of homelessness

aka First Step Communities

Sacramento, CA

www.firststepcommunities.org

Mission

First Step Communities will create interim housing and emergency shelter for people experiencing homelessness. Here they will live in safety and dignity, receive the services they require, and take a first-step away from homelessness toward self-sufficiency and permanent housing.

Ruling Year

2015

Executive Director

Stephen Watters

Board President

Bill Knowlton

Main Address

PO Box 188228

Sacramento, CA 95818 USA

Keywords

Homelessness, Homeless: Persons, Services persons, students, Shelters , veterans, women, Older, Senior, Elderly , Mentally ill, poverty, hunger, underserved, impoverished, vulnerable

EIN

35-2537631

 Number

6954083458

Cause Area (NTEE Code)

Low-Cost Temporary Housing (includes Youth Hostels) (L40)

Temporary Shelter For the Homeless (L41)

Homeless Services/Centers (P85)

IRS Filing Requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

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Programs + Results

What we aim to solve

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Our programs

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Winter Sanctuary

North A Street Rehousing Program

North A Street Sanitation program

Pilgrimage Program

Where we work

Charting Impact

Five powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What is the organization aiming to accomplish?

What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?

What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?

How will they know if they are making progress?

What have they accomplished so far and what's next?

1) To engage homeless individuals in the business of caring for their own by providing their time, skills and experience to tasks of leadership, administration, security,maintenance, inventory, warehousing, etc.

2) To help individuals (the most destitute and underserved homeless individuals) move from the hopelessness of homelessness to the hopefulness of self-sufficiency.
by:
a) supplying the basic necessities of life 365 days/year including shelter, meals, warmth, bathrooms, friendship plus...
b) supplying access to services including home-seeking, health care, job-seeking and more.

3) To create and implement a Homeless Village model that will be acceptable to any neighbors' scrutiny and be more cost effective than current low income housing models.

External Reviews

Financials

FIRST STEP COMMUNITIES

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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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FREE: Gain immediate access to the following:

  • Address, phone, website and contact information
  • Forms 990 for 2018, 2017 and 2016
  • A Pro report is also available for this organization.

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Board Leadership Practices

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section, which enables organizations and donors to transparently share information about essential board leadership practices.

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

BOARD ORIENTATION & 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?

No

CEO OVERSIGHT

Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year?

No

ETHICS & TRANSPARENCY

Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year?

No

BOARD COMPOSITION

Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership?

No

BOARD PERFORMANCE

Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years?

No

Organizational Demographics

In order to support nonprofits and gain valuable insight for the sector, GuideStar worked with D5—a five-year initiative to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in philanthropy—in creating a questionnaire. This section is a voluntary questionnaire that empowers organizations to share information on the demographics of who works in and leads organizations. To protect the identity of individuals, we do not display sexual orientation or disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff. Any values displayed in this section are percentages of the total number of individuals in each category (e.g. 20% of all Board members for X organization are female).

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Sexual Orientation

This organization reports that it does not collect this information.

Disability

This organization reports that it does not collect this information.

Diversity Strategies

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We track retention of staff, board, and volunteers across demographic categories
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We track income levels of staff, senior staff, and board across demographic categories
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We track the age of staff, senior staff, and board
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We track the diversity of vendors (e.g., consultants, professional service firms)
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We have a diversity committee in place
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We have a diversity manager in place
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We have a diversity plan
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We use other methods to support diversity
Diversity notes from the nonprofit
As you can see from the few high level demographics that we have that we are a new operation. In fact the Pilgrimage Program has been operating under another 501(c)3 organization, Safe Ground Inc. for over 5 years. On April 1, 2016 First Step adopted the Pilgrimage Program. One very unique trait of Pilgrimage is that 90%+ of its workers are volunteers from the homeless community in Sacramento. Although we have not tallied the numbers, it is very diverse in every way quizzed by your questions about diversity above. Diversity is the crux of our success in serving the homeless community in a way that impacts the lives of every homeless guest we have the opportunity to serve!