2023 San Francisco Community Ambassador Report
San Francisco’s street ambassador programs play a vital role in keeping our city clean and safe, as well as our businesses, residents, and visitors informed.
San Francisco's Ambassador Programs
Supporting Street Response
The City and County of San Francisco (The City) operates, funds, or coordinates with many of the roughly 34 street ambassador programs throughout the city via the Coordinated Street Response Program. Community Benefit Districts (CBDs) also operate many of the street ambassador programs in San Francisco’s commercial and mixed-use corridors. CBDs, also known as Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), strive to improve the quality of life within their self-taxing district. Additionally, San Francisco Public Works funds and manages 33 “Pit Stops” (public restrooms) in 13 neighborhoods and supports around 1,000 hours a month of street cleaning.
About Street Ambassador Programs
Ambassadors are people stationed in public areas to provide services like safety, wellness, cleaning, and hospitality. Ambassador programs are created and operated by government agencies, Community Benefit Districts/Business Improvement Districts (CBDs/BIDs), nonprofits, or other contracted companies. These programs provide a positive presence in specific neighborhoods. Each program has unique training to ensure that their staff can be successful in their services.
Connecting Programs
Watch this section for existing program resources.
See all locations for the Ambassador Programs
About
San Francisco’s street ambassador programs play a vital role in keeping our city clean and safe, as well as our businesses, residents, and visitors informed. Ambassador programs offer critical supplementary services, throughout many neighborhoods in the city, where services may not be present or offered at a sufficient level. Most ambassador programs offer services that fall into the following four categories:
- Cleaning – Sweeping, power washing, and other forms of waste removal.
- Safety – Presence to prevent or de-escalate threatening or challenging environments.
- Wellness – Proactive presence to check on the physical and mental health of people in the public right of way, with referral to services at times.
- Hospitality – Wayfinding, greeting the public, providing a friendly face in sometimes challenging environments, Public Space Stewardship (e.g., event support, staffing a point of interest, such as a playground or art installation).