Episcopalians founded Good Samaritan Center in 1894 as a settlement house for new immigrants and their families. The early settlement house movement, the foundation of modern-day social work and anti-poverty institutions, served as the model for the Center. Today, Good Samaritan aims to help preserve, protect, and retain healthy families in San Francisco and enhance their quality of life. Although services are accessible to all families in San Francisco, 85% choosing to utilize the agency’s services are low-income Latino immigrants from Mexico, Central America, and South America. As economic forces changed San Francisco’s demographics and many low-income households of diverse ethnicities relocated to the southeastern neighborhoods, Good Samaritan has adapted to serve this section of the city in recent years.
Utilizing an evidence-based, two-generation, and multi-generational approach, we now support low-income families across the age spectrum with multiple pathways to opportunity and directly coach and instruct children and parents—together and separately— to improve families’ educational, social-emotional, and economic prospects.