Over the past year, Yammer has experienced many changes. Changes in leadership, changes in staff and changes in our Mid-Market Matters philanthropic program. Since Yammer is located in the Mid-Market/Tenderloin area of San Francisco, it is very important to us to concentrate our corporate citizenship in our neighborhood. Here, the tech divide is more evident than most other areas of San Francisco. If you’re like me, taking the bus to work, working at my desk all day then taking the bus home is a common practice. That was my reality until about a year ago when I was appointed Community Liaison, and I started to venture out into the Tenderloin to learn about the tight-knit community. I wanted the same for all my co-workers at Yammer, so a couple months ago, we set out to send every employee on a tour of the Tenderloin with somebody who knows the neighborhood better than most, Del Seymour.
Del lived in the Tenderloin for more than two decades. He was on-and-off homeless and battled drug addiction for more than a decade before radically changing his life. Now, he returns to the Tenderloin daily to give back what he claims he took out. Daily Tenderloin tours are a part of this. He leads donation-based tours for anybody who is interested, with the tagline “You’ll enjoy the Alcatraz tour, you’ll like Fisherman’s Wharf, but you’ll remember the Tenderloin tour.”
As such, we wanted every employee to experience the Tenderloin in a new way, leading up to our day of service. As we started to schedule tours and send out employees, there was a flood of mixed emotions and thoughts, the most common being “I had no idea that the Tenderloin was so complex.” Here are some examples of feedback from Yammer employees:
“It’s rare that we get to hear these personal stories, so it was great to get the chance.”
“The tour blew my mind. A window into a different San Francisco.”
“I think it’s healthy for us to keep some perspective and both recognize, and sympathize with, the consequence of our industry in the community.”
Over four weeks, Del toured 10 groups around the Tenderloin pointing out many of the long-standing establishments. Groups walked through the Gubbio Project at St. Boniface Church, where nearly 100 of the neighborhood’s homeless slept safely on the pews, the followed the yellow brick road that marks the route of Safe Passage and shuffled through the lunch rush at St. Anthony’s. The sounds of children laughing and playing flooded the streets as tours passed the De Marillac Academy and Boeddeker Park. Art and murals colored the walls on almost every block.
Tenderloin tours are definitely something we will keep up. Volunteering and giving back is important, but understanding the community we are a part of is key.
Link to original post on Yammer’s blog here.
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Cristina Fink joined Yammer summer of 2013 to manage the events in the Engineering department. In January 2014 her job shifted to Community Liaison, where she is actively establishing and maintaining Yammer’s relationships with local non-profits. Cristina coordinates all volunteer efforts, team community events and manages Yammer’s hyper-local grant program.
