Endorsed by
California Organizations and Frontline Workers

The Helpers’ Alliance

Lifting Those Who Lift San Francisco

The Helpers' Alliance is a five-year, fifty-million-dollar living-wage support, health coverage, and practical help for the community organizations and peer workers we depend on every day.



2026 Applicant Entry

Investing in the people who make services work.


People helping others find housing should be able to pay their own rent. The worker supporting someone through a crisis should be able to afford their own care. The Helpers’ Alliance proposes five years of living-wage support, health coverage, and practical help for San Francisco’s community organizations and peer workers—so helping others does not cost them their own stability.

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Residents are asking:
 

"Why isn’t all that money producing the change communities need?"

In FY2025, the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing paid $487 million to 73 nonprofit organizations. These organizations play an essential role in the city’s delivery of care and housing support. [1]


When homelessness and unmet health needs persist, progress can feel painfully slow. For the funders and organizations, it can feel like running harder without getting closer to the person who needs help. Understanding why means looking at what it takes for the people delivering services to stay in the work.


San Francisco’s public investment supports housing, shelters, outreach, and essential care. A funding total alone cannot tell us whether workers can afford to stay. The City’s 2024 staffing analysis found that licensed clinicians at a subset of DPH-funded nonprofits earned 73% of the average salary of City-employed clinicians in fiscal year 2022–23. Nonprofit staff interviewed identified low wages as their leading recruitment and retention challenge. [2]


The report recommended compensation improvements, contract review, and stronger support for understanding operational costs.


These conditions matter to clients: when a worker leaves, someone may lose a trusted relationship, remaining staff carry more work, and organizations must rebuild. The Alliance would invest in frontline compensation and shared organizational expertise to help stabilize essential services.

LOW PAY
Helpers are asked to carry other people's hardest moments on pay that cannot carry their own.
OVERLOADED LEADERS
One executive director may carry a caseload, billing, hiring, finances, and audits at once.
COVERAGE GAPS

Gaps in health coverage and emotional strain keep opportunity out of reach.

BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS
Those needing services get repeated introductions. Organizations spend time replacing staff instead of improving services.

who is taking care of the people taking care of us?

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This Moment Matters Because 2027 Raises the Stakes

LOCAL CHANGES:

San Francisco is re-awarding its homelessness services and housing contracts through May 2029, emphasizing measurable outcomes. Providers need the people and operational capacity to deliver them. [3]

Federal changeS:

DHCS lists new work requirements for some adults beginning January 1, 2027, and six-month eligibility checks for some adults beginning March 1, 2027. Exemptions apply. [4]


These changes make dependable navigation support more important.

New programs and higher expectations cannot rest on the same fragile workforce.
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"No one should have to live in poverty to help someone else escape it."


—Katie Mayeda, LCSW
CEO & Founder of Mayeda Consulting
FIX IT FROM THE FRONT LINE UP.
 

Lifting Those Who Lift San Francisco with The Helpers' Alliance

The Helpers’ Alliance invests in the people San Francisco already pays to do this work and the small organizations that employ them. Over five years, it would strengthen 25 community organizations and about 250 peer positions, with providers and peers setting priorities.


After a detailed application and acceptance process, assessments would be conducted on participating organizations to identify the San Francisco providers most in need of the following support:

Staff Support

  • A living-wage supplement with health benefits and paid time off


  • Paid certification as Medi-Cal peer support specialists and community health workers, so the pay outlasts the grant


  • Training, coaching, and live office hours with nurses, clinical social workers, and educators through an online platform called The Helpers’ Community

Organizational Support

  • A funded administrative position where the assessment shows the need: billing, finance, hiring, or compliance


  • A continuity fund, available all five years, to keep peer positions intact when federal rules or City cuts hit



  • A seat on the governing committee, provider councils, and a shared workforce standard the City can adopt

promoting greater equity across the service system

Investing in the people who make services work.


People helping others find housing should be able to pay their own rent. The worker supporting someone through a crisis should be able to afford their own care. The Helpers’ Alliance proposes five years of living-wage support, health coverage, and practical help for San Francisco’s community organizations and peer workers—so helping others does not cost them their own stability.

Investing in the people who make services work.


People helping others find housing should be able to pay their own rent. The worker supporting someone through a crisis should be able to afford their own care. The Helpers’ Alliance proposes five years of living-wage support, health coverage, and practical help for San Francisco’s community organizations and peer workers—so helping others does not cost them their own stability.

Introducing:

The Helpers' Alliance

A multifaceted solution that addresses the complexity of public health systems while demonstrating that the solution starts with the people on the front line.

LIVING WAGES & HEALTH COVERAGE
The Alliance would provide wage supplements and health-benefit support, so peer workers can build more stable lives while helping others. Participating employers would remain responsible for baseline compensation and supervision.
ADMINISTRATIVE CAPACITY

The proposal includes funding for dedicated administrative positions at selected participating organizations. These roles would give providers more capacity to manage day-to-day operations and support their frontline teams.

TRAINING THROUGH
THE HELPERS' COMMUNITY
Learning would focus on Medi-Cal Peer Support Specialist certification and Community Health Worker training, with coaching, a navigation help desk, and live office hours staffed by nurses, clinical social workers, and educators. Each pathway follows its own qualification requirements.
Certification that outlasts the grant
San Francisco already bills Medi-Cal for peer support. The Alliance pays for certification and the enrollment and contracting work that turns a certificate into revenue, so wage supplements can taper as verified billing replaces them, and the pay continues after the grant ends.
INNOVATIVE CRISIS MANAGEMENT
& FUNDING

The proposal retains a continuity fund, available for all five years and to help protect workforce and service continuity, alongside provider-and-peer advocacy for fairer contracts and simpler administrative processes.

Provider councils and mentorship: equity through Alliance
Providers and compensated representatives with lived experience hold most governing seats and set priorities under an approved charter. Monthly councils link mentoring organizations with smaller providers to share practical approaches, resources, and experience. By year four, a provider collective sustains the workforce standard beyond the grant.

stronger support for helpers means stronger organizations behind them.

Voices from the Front Line

Currently accepting submissions!
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Why San Francisco?



A San Francisco home-care study published in 2002 reported a 17% decline in annual workforce turnover during a period of substantial wage increases and expanded benefits. This historical finding supports investigating compensation and stability; it does not predict the results of the Alliance’s peer workforce model. [5]

WHAT WE'LL MEASURE

Mayeda Consulting will track wages, benefits, workforce retention, career advancement, and organizational stability, alongside client outcomes such as completed referrals and engagement in services. We will assess whether mentoring, shared expertise, and targeted technical assistance help workers and organizations strengthen daily practice. Cost analysis will compare spending with measurable results, including additional workers retained and successful client outcomes. Findings and limitations will be shared publicly and used to improve the Alliance’s approach.

Who shapes the work?

Under the proposed structure, providers and compensated representatives with lived experience would together form the majority of the Alliance’s governing committee, with peer representatives holding voting roles. The committee would help shape provider selection criteria, workforce priorities, and crisis fund recommendations within an approved charter. Mayeda Consulting would lead implementation and retain legal and fiscal responsibility.

MC will conduct the evaluation using predefined measures and publish annual findings, including unfavorable results and limitations. Nonrandom comparisons will not establish definitive cause and effect.
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Our first commitment is to San Francisco:

Strengthening the organizations already doing the work so essential services remain available and Helpers can build lasting careers. We will share findings transparently, including challenges and limitations, to help other communities adapt what works.

MORE THAN A 5-YEAR PLAN
 

Building Evidence for Lasting Change

The Helpers’ Alliance is more than a five-year investment. It is a starting point for changing how community-based service providers are seen, respected, funded, and supported.


Mayeda Consulting’s empirical study will examine whether living wages, health insurance, administrative capacity, and organization-to-organization collaboration improve workforce retention, client outcomes, and organizational sustainability—and whether those improvements justify the investment. The findings will inform fairer funding, stronger contracts, and administrative policy reform.


By investing in existing community providers, respecting their expertise, and supporting their people in creating lasting change, success in San Francisco can show the nation a path forward.

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stronger helpers mean safer neighborhoods

Stand with The Helpers of San Francisco


Tell your story. Show us. Choose what feels right for you.

Support a future where people with lived experience can build careers and community organizations can sustain them. Endorse the proposal, share your experience, or tell us you want to learn more

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FAQs

  • Is endorsing an application to be a part of The Helpers' Alliance?

    No. It is a public statement of support and commits you to nothing. If the Alliance is funded, organizations will join through a separate selection process.

  • If selected, who will run The Helpers' Alliance?

    Mayeda Consulting would administer and assume legal and fiscal responsibility. A governing committee with a majority of providers and compensated representatives with lived experience shapes priorities.

  • Where would the money go?

    Of $50 million, $33 million funds peer wages, benefits, and a dedicated administrative position at each organization. The rest funds training, a crisis reserve, tools, evaluation, accessibility, and administration. The full table is above.

  • Would you use AI to replace people?

    No. AI-assisted tools help staff find referrals and apply best practices, using reviewed, dated resources. Human review and live professionals are built in, and AI does not make clinical or eligibility decisions.

  • Why should I care if I do not work in public health?

    Because services cannot be dependable when the people delivering them cannot afford to stay. Everyone who needs care in San Francisco depends on those workers.

  • Can I stay anonymous?

    Yes to both. Choose the anonymous or private option, or email info@mayedaconsulting, and we will remove it.

  • What is Boundless SF?

    A competition to fund ambitious, credible plans that make San Francisco a better place to live. Learn more at boundless-sf.leverforchange.org.

  • Who is Mayeda Consulting?

    Mayeda Consulting is a women-owned consulting firm serving public health, government, and CBOs. We’re committed to equipping helpers who willingly face the fire to create authentic change through training, program development, strategic planning, and other services that help organizations thrive.


    Find out more at www.mayedaconsulting.com

Still have a question?

Please reach out to our team at info@mayedaconsulting.com.

Sources


  1. San Francisco Civil Grand Jury. At Scale, At Risk: Upgrading Data and Oversight to Improve Homelessness Services. June 23, 2026. View report (PDF)
  2. San Francisco Controller’s Office. Mental Health SF Staffing Analysis. 2024. View report (PDF)
  3. San Francisco Office of the Mayor. Mayor Lurie Launches Sweeping Effort to Redo All City Homelessness Contracts With Focus on Outcomes, Accountability for Results. August 31, 2026. View announcement
  4. California Department of Health Care Services. Tracking Federal Impact: Medi-Cal Eligibility. Updated September 21, 2026. View webpage
  5. Howes, Candace. The Impact of a Large Wage Increase on the Workforce Stability of IHSS Home Care Workers in San Francisco County. UC Berkeley Labor Center, November 1, 2002. View study


The Helpers' Alliance is a proposal by Mayeda Consulting, a women-owned consulting firm serving public health agencies, government entities, and community-based organizations in California. Submitted to Boundless San Francisco.



info@mayedaconsulting.com | Competition Terms