(top): Early GGCI team at the Oak Street House.
(bottom): Grand opening of the new Ashbury Images facility in May 2007.

New Door Ventures was founded in 1981 as Golden Gate Community, Inc. (GGCI), a compassionate ministry to the homeless in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco.

With initial support from the Nazarene church and community, GGCI provided emergency and crisis care (food distribution, clothing and shelter) and later began providing casual work opportunities for its clients.

Eventually, the agency shifted its programming direction to focus on job training, skills development and supportive relationships, and also changed its name to New Door Ventures.

Today, New Door serves at-risk youth (14 to 21) from distressed neighborhoods such as the Mission and Bayview/Hunter’s Point in San Francisco. Core programs include:

• The On-Site Job Training Program, which employs and trains at-risk youth in social enterprises owned by New Door and also places high school students in part-time jobs in the community; 
• The Job-Readiness Program which offers work readiness workshops and activities at New Door’s Youth Space and at John O’Connell High School; and 
•  Supportive Community Programs which include case management, mentoring, tutoring, field trips, service projects and fun, recreational activities.