Faithful Fools was founded in 1998 as an educational and charitable 501(c)3 organization when the lives of Kay Jorgensen and Carmen Barsody converged in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco. Kay, a Unitarian Universalist minister, had been a presence of compassion on the streets of the Tenderloin for three years. Carmen, a part of the Franciscan Community of Little Falls, MN, had just arrived in the Bay area after seven years working in the barrios of Managua, Nicaragua. Faithful Fools learn and educate through engaging in relationships with people who are impoverished and without housing, as well as those with homes and economic wealth. Together we address the policies, attitudes and lack of knowledge that perpetuate injustice and poverty not just locally in San Francisco, but nationally and globally. Walking and working together people of privilege and people who are impoverished help one another bridge gaps and shift perceptions that inhibit personal and social change. We work to build community by breaking through boundaries that separate us, such as economic power, religious beliefs, class, race, gender, ethnicity, and together we discover what connects us.
