Current Situation:
We are out of deodorant, and almost out of lip balm. We don’t have the money to pay full price for these items. Either we get them donated, extremely heavily discounted (paying 5% or less), or we don’t carry them. Once in a while, the Food Bank, one of our favorite nonprofits, will have these items, and we grab them all and hoard like crazy. The last time they had lip balm was five years ago, and we grabbed about 20,000 of them. We are down to our last few hundred. Our clients will be very sad when we run out.

Why do these items matter so much

1) Some of the kids we work with don’t identify as “homeless,” and don’t take items from us on outreach that would seem to label them as “homeless,” like PB&J sandwiches. However, most people, if while they were walking down the street were offered free lip balm, would happily say yes. These clients are no different. Having items like lip balm is essential to our ability to start new relationships with these youth, who are often the most difficult to reach, and are therefore highly disconnected. The first reason that kids talk to us on outreach is because they like the supplies we have to offer.

2) Just like anyone else, our clients don’t want to have chapped lips or smell funky. They deserve to feel clean and good.

3) When you are broke and homeless, neither lip balm or deodorant is your highest priority. They become “luxury” items.

4) When ATC carries these “luxury” items, it sends the message to our youth that we are not just out there to help them survive, but to help them thrive. It tells them that we think they deserve nice things in life. It is these little extras that make our clients like us. When they like us, they open up to us. And when they open up to us, that is when we can really help them move forward in their lives. It might sound silly, but having items like this makes a huge difference to our ability to form connections with our youth.

Who can help us/what can you do

Do you work for, or do you know someone who works for, any of these places:

• A store that sells lip balm or deodorant (think Origins, Body Shop, Walgreens, etc.)

• A company that makes lip balm or deodorant (think Chapstick, Burt’s bees, Aveda, Carmex, etc.)

• A business that uses lip balms for promotional give-aways (think places that set up booths at conferences and events)

If you, or someone you know, meets one of the criteria above, please email Rob Gitin, ATC’s Executive Director, at robg@atthecrossroads.org. Let him know what your connection is. Then the two of you can figure out together how to make it happen.

Or simply steer someone who works at one of these places to this site. And then they can take it and run with it.

Donations of these items can be sent to:

At The Crossroads

333 Valencia Street, Suite 320

San Francisco, CA 94103

Our tax ID # is 27-2603924

If you are able to help us with this, you will be making a GYNORMOUS impact on our youth and on ATC.

Volunteers will help prepare and organize supplies that ATC’s counselors will distribute to homeless youth and young adults during our street outreach in the Mission and Downtown/Tenderloin neighborhoods of San Francisco.

For more information and to sign up for this event, visit the One Brick website.

Volunteers will help prepare and organize supplies that ATC’s counselors will distribute to homeless youth and young adults during our street outreach in the Mission and Downtown/Tenderloin neighborhoods of San Francisco.

For more information and to sign up for this event, visit the One Brick website.

Volunteers will help prepare and organize supplies that ATC’s counselors will distribute to homeless youth and young adults during our street outreach in the Mission and Downtown/Tenderloin neighborhoods of San Francisco.

For more information and to sign up for this event, visit the One Brick website.

Volunteers will help prepare and organize supplies that ATC’s counselors will distribute to homeless youth and young adults during our street outreach in the Mission and Downtown/Tenderloin neighborhoods of San Francisco.

For more information and to sign up for this event, visit the One Brick website.

Volunteers will help prepare and organize supplies that ATC’s counselors will distribute to homeless youth and young adults during our street outreach in the Mission and Downtown/Tenderloin neighborhoods of San Francisco.

For more information and to sign up for this event, visit the One Brick website.

Volunteers will help prepare and organize supplies that ATC’s counselors will distribute to homeless youth and young adults during our street outreach in the Mission and Downtown/Tenderloin neighborhoods of San Francisco.

For more information and to sign up for this event, visit the One Brick website.

Volunteers will help prepare and organize supplies that ATC’s counselors will distribute to homeless youth and young adults during our street outreach in the Mission and Downtown/Tenderloin neighborhoods of San Francisco.

For more information and to sign up for this event, visit the One Brick website.

Volunteers will help prepare and organize supplies that ATC’s counselors will distribute to homeless youth and young adults during our street outreach in the Mission and Downtown/Tenderloin neighborhoods of San Francisco.

For more information and to sign up for this event, visit the One Brick website.