The Delancy Street Foundation was founded by Mimi Silbert and John Maher in 1971. It is considered the nation's leading self-help residential education center for former substance abusers and ex-convicts. Over 14,000 of society’s former misfits and castaways have graduated from Delancey. More than 90% of them successfully complete the program and go on to lead law-abiding lives. They currently have residents located in five facilities throughout the country: New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. If the best of us care for and believe in the least of us, hope reigns—as on Delancey Street.

Delancey Street Foundation

600 Embarcadero

San Francisco, CA 94107

Telephone: (415) 957-9800

FAX: (415)512-5186

www.eisenhowerfoundation.org/grassroots/delancey/

”We take only the worst.”

"And by “worst,” Mimi Silbert, co-founder and president of the San Francisco-based residential program "Delancey Street Foundation," means just that: ex-felons, prostitutes, substance abusers—just about anyone who has hit rock bottom. Residents apply for admittance, just like they would to a university. But unlike the protocol at Harvard or Stanford, Delancey Street only accepts the bottom 1 or 2 percent. For the past 32 years, Delancey Street has provided its residents with academic, vocational and social skills. This includes the discipline, values and attitudes needed to legitimately succeed in society. Currently, 2,000 men and women are served through their centers around the country. More than 14,000 of their successful graduates are fully integrated back into society as taxpaying..."