When a group of civic-minded women started an orphanage in San Anselmo in 1895, they couldn’t possibly have imagined the vital and diverse agency this organization has become. From an orphanage that housed 100 children in Marin County, we now serve nearly 2,000 youth and their families across the Bay Area.
Those founders may very well have helped what was then the San Francisco Presbyterian Orphanage and Farm (yes, our original name!) through the 1918 influenza pandemic, so they would probably have sympathy for the challenges that we face today. Managing through times of crisis is in Side by Side’s DNA.
We meet our young people exactly where they are. We work with them to heal from trauma they may have suffered previously and provide coping strategies to handle the additional stress that our youth currently face. That’s been our job for 125 years…and hopefully for another 125 years to come.
