SF's Safe & Sound highlights child abuse prevention ahead of Blue Ribbon Celebration

Well, for more than five decades, Safe and Sound has been working to strengthen families and prevent child abuse and neglect in San Francisco. The organization provides support and resources for parents and caregivers with the goal of helping families reach a crisis, helping families that are in a crisis. And tomorrow night, supporters will be coming together for one of the organization's biggest fundraisers of the year. So we want to talk more about what this organization does and that big fundraiser. Joining me now live this afternoon is Pega Fayed, the CEO of the Safe and Sound Foundation. Really appreciate you joining me. So let's talk a little bit about what your organization does and the types of parents and caregivers and circumstances that you encounter. Of course, thank you so much for having me this afternoon. Safe and Sound, as you mentioned, a non-profit that's been around for over 50 years based in San Francisco. We're a child advocacy organization that really combines services for families, research, and advocacy to work on strengthening families within their communities in order to address childhood trauma and prevent abuse. Our direct services reach thousands of individuals each year, helping families really build on their unique strength. And we also help pull together a web of nonprofits here in San Francisco, over 45 agencies that work together to ensure that we have a bit of support for all families where there's no wrong door to get what they need. Yeah, I know that you also really emphasize prevention right before they get to that crisis point. Why is that so important? Well, it's so important because if we're able to prevent and support these families before they get to the point of crisis, we save them from so much trauma from entering into the child welfare system and many of our other systems that really serve families further downstream. We want to build on the strengths that they have and avoid the exposure to early trauma in a child's life. I'm sorry. No, go ahead. Go ahead. I was just going to say in 2025, we served about 11,754 individuals with our services through counseling, therapeutic child care, care coordination, and we distributed over 350 food bags, 415 hygiene kits, and over 4,430 meals. I'm glad that you were able to share those numbers with us because those are really important numbers. When a parent or caregiver comes into Safe and Sound for Help, what are they often dealing with and how exactly do you help them through that time in their lives? It could be a variety of things. We all know families are facing some of the hardest economic conditions today. In addition to the usual stressors that families experience, we see a lot of families struggling to make ends meet. And so when a family comes through the door, not only are we trying to support with parenting education and healing from their own trauma and preventing future generations of exposure to trauma, but we're also helping with concrete supports. Do you need food? Are you looking for housing? And how can we best support whatever need the family is facing? And obviously, all of those resources that you provide, you know, come at a price, meaning you've got to be able to make that happen for folks, which brings us to tonight's big fundraiser. Tell us about what people who are attending tomorrow night can expect and really what that money is going to be used for. Yes. So tomorrow night, October 16th, we'll be hosting our 29th annual Blue Ribbon Celebration. And the event is really meant to celebrate all that we are able to accomplish together and to fundraise, of course, for families that Safe and Sound serves. The event takes place at the Fairmont Hotel tomorrow night at 6 p.m. And really those funds help pay for all the services that I just talked about, whether it be the counseling or child care, care coordination, the concrete supports that a family may need. we cannot do it without the generosity of our donors and the fundraising that happens tomorrow night. All right. Well, wishing for a really big fundraising effort tomorrow night. Thank you so much for what you do again. Five decades of helping people there in San Francisco. Here's to five more decades. Appreciate your time. Thank you so much.