San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Susan Wojcicki
YouTube Official Blog • Nov. 21, 2019 • By The YouTube Team
Today, CEO Susan Wojcicki stood with San Francisco Mayor London Breed at Hamilton Families, a nonprofit organization that supports families experiencing homelessness, and announced a combined grant of $1.35 million to the program. The grant comes from Google.org and from Wojcicki and her husband, Dennis Troper.
Here are her remarks from this afternoon:
"Thank you, Mayor Breed. I’m so glad to be here with you, and all of your leadership in fighting homelessness. I also wanted to say thank you to everyone here at Hamilton Families and the impact you've had in our community and in the lives of so many families.
Sometimes the scale of an issue can make us feel like it’s impossible to solve.
And even though we know it’s important, we wind up doing nothing because it feels overwhelming for us.
The work at Hamilton Families shows how we can make a difference in a tangible way, one family at a time.
Over the years, I’ve always recognized how serious a problem of homelessness is in the Bay Area, and I’ve contributed — along with my husband — to support many local organizations that help meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness.
I’m here today because of an idea that first started with a school project. Earlier this year, my daughter worked on a project about homelessness.
As I listened to her questions and reactions, I realized I didn’t have a lot of answers for something that was so important and affecting so many families. We spent time researching different solutions, including coming here, and that’s how we got in touch with Hamilton Families.
We were impressed by the services offered here that give families a fresh start.
And that’s why we’re gathered today — to announce a new grant to further support all the incredible efforts done by Hamilton Families to find families permanent homes, and along the way meet their needs by providing shelter, meals, and more. We appreciate everything you do, from offering counseling and job resources to giving children the chance to succeed at school.
Today, Google.org is contributing $850,000. And together with my husband, Dennis, we’re contributing $500,000 — for a total of $1.35 million to boost the work of Hamilton Families.
Over the next year, this grant will make an impact in our communities, and it will help Hamilton serve 700 families and find housing for another 200.
And it will also fund an outreach effort — a series of videos and podcasts — that will tell the stories of individuals who are facing homelessness.
Our goal is to help the community understand the problems that can lead to homelessness and also inspire others to get involved in whatever way they can.
Sometimes, the greatest gift we can offer is our time. And in that spirit, next year, we will organize an event for the YouTube employees to come to the shelter. We're very excited about that.
Homelessness is an incredibly complicated challenge for our society. But if we all come together to look out for one another, our combined contributions can make a big difference."