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| LiveFree and Start | |
|---|---|
| Name | LiveFree and Start |
| Type | Nonprofit |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
| Area served | United States |
| Focus | Youth homelessness, transitional housing, employment |
LiveFree and Start
LiveFree and Start is a nonprofit organization founded to address youth homelessness and transitional housing in the United States. The organization operates programs aimed at housing, employment, and legal support while collaborating with municipal agencies and philanthropic foundations. LiveFree and Start engages with service providers, educational institutions, and technology partners to scale transitional services and workforce training.
LiveFree and Start was established in 2014 after meetings involving leaders from San Francisco, Oakland, California, Bay Area nonprofits and social entrepreneurs, following dialogues that included representatives from United Way, Corporation for National and Community Service, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation advisers and local officials from City and County of San Francisco. Early pilots drew on models from Covenant House, Shelter Partnership (Los Angeles), Lutheran Social Services, and YMCA programs, adapting practices used by Coalition for the Homeless (New York City), National Alliance to End Homelessness, and Homeboy Industries. Initial funding rounds involved philanthropy from trusts associated with Gates Family Foundation, grants from Knight Foundation, and program support from Google.org and Facebook (Meta Platforms, Inc.). The organization expanded operations through partnerships with county agencies in Alameda County, Santa Clara County, and Los Angeles County and by aligning with statewide initiatives in California and federal initiatives under the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act.
LiveFree and Start operates drop-in centers, transitional housing sites, and employment training programs modeled after initiatives from Year Up, Job Corps, AmeriCorps, and Goodwill Industries International. Its legal clinics follow approaches used by Legal Aid Society, National Lawyers Guild, and Public Counsel, while mental health referrals coordinate with providers such as Kaiser Permanente, Johns Hopkins Medicine behavioral health teams, and YMCA counseling partnerships. Educational transitions invoke techniques from Teach For America, Stanford University outreach, and community-college programs at City College of San Francisco and San Francisco State University. Youth employment pilots leverage relationships with LinkedIn, Uber Technologies, Inc., DoorDash, Starbucks Corporation, and local small-business coalitions modeled on Chamber of Commerce chapters. Programs include vocational certifications aligned with standards from CompTIA, Cisco Systems, and National Center for Construction Education and Research.
Operational tools for client intake and case management draw on software platforms developed by Salesforce, Palantir Technologies, Microsoft Corporation Dynamics, and open-source projects inspired by Mozilla Foundation initiatives. Data-sharing agreements reference privacy frameworks used by Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance teams and data models influenced by research at Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University urban studies labs. Logistics for housing placements coordinate with municipal systems in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City via interoperable tools similar to those used by Electronic Health Record vendors and city portals developed by Code for America. Security and payment processing are handled with providers like Stripe (company), Square, Inc., and cloud hosting through Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform.
LiveFree and Start's funding model combines private philanthropy, government grants, and corporate partnerships, engaging donors such as Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and local community foundations that include San Francisco Foundation. Government support has included contracts and grants from Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Labor, California Department of Social Services, and county-level agencies in Los Angeles County and San Francisco County. Corporate partners include Salesforce, Google (Alphabet Inc.), Meta Platforms, Inc., Patagonia (company), and Levi Strauss & Co. for workforce placements and apparel donations. Collaborative research and program evaluation partnerships have been formed with University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, Columbia University, and policy centers such as Urban Institute and Brookings Institution.
Independent evaluations by researchers at University of California, Berkeley, analysts at Urban Institute, and policy scholars at Harvard Kennedy School report improvements in housing stability and employment outcomes among program participants, citing comparisons to results from Covenant House and Coalition for the Homeless (New York City). Media coverage has appeared in outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, and The Washington Post, with commentary from advocates associated with National Alliance to End Homelessness and critiques from watchdogs tied to ProPublica. Awards and recognition include honors from California Health Care Foundation initiatives and citations in reports from Corporation for Supportive Housing.
The governance structure includes a board of directors with members drawn from civic leaders with prior service on boards such as United Way, Red Cross, Robin Hood Foundation, and executives formerly at Salesforce, Google, and Levi Strauss & Co.. Executive leadership has included professionals with backgrounds at Department of Housing and Urban Development, AmeriCorps, Teach For America, and nonprofit management experience from Covenant House and Goodwill Industries International. Organizational units mirror functional divisions used by nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity and Salvation Army, including program operations, development, finance, legal, and research partnerships.