Our Philosophy
1. Beauty and Order
Everything at Raphael House should reflect beauty and order. This is the first healing antidote, which Raphael House offers for families in crisis and turmoil. Daily, healthy, and safety are the first steps in helping children learn to behave and overcome the feeling of being homeless.
2. Neighborly Relationship
We treat residents the same way we would want to be treated if we were in crisis and in need of help.
Combining firm boundaries with the Golden Rule helps make Raphael House the kind of place where people in many different stations of life feel comfortable coming together.
All material help is given in a context of neighborly relationship. In every aspect of service delivery, we treat people as neighbors, not units of service. Raphael House operates in such a way that donors and former residents can give.
3. God Heals
Staff expect and act on the belief that healing occurs in peoples’ lives through Raphael House when we don’t get in the way through judgment, anger or fear. Terrible events happen in this world, including much physical suffering. We can’t change the fact that tragedy happens in many different ways, but life outpaces tragedy and new opportunities exist almost immediately.
4. Virtue and Responsibility
In our services for families, we operate in accordance with traditional Judeo-Christian virtues. We don’t require families to adopt our religious faith or practices, but we do require staff to be proactive in the presentation of virtue and responsibility in daily life. Our operational principle is to help families find strategies to negotiate the world that are honest and responsible.
5. Children must grow as children
All of our children’s programs are aimed at nourishing the developing child rather than on premature adaptation to adulthood.
6. Entrepreneurial Spirit
We are entrepreneurs, not social workers. We are always looking for ways to improve on what we do, getting the most out of the resources we are given.
Our entrepreneurial approach goes hand-in-hand with our belief in personal responsibility. Hence, our operational models are not drawn from the pervasive government-social work continuum, but from the spirit of small business and traditional religious philanthropy.
7. We tell our story
We keep track of what we do and we communicate it to our volunteers, donors, and the San Francisco Community.
8. God blesses us to grow
In accordance with our Christian foundation, we must grow, not simply stay the same. God brings us opportunities and we feel a deep and divine mandate to do what is in our power to help the families we serve.
The more wisely and aggressively we do this, the more God will grant an increase. Even in times of massive economic recession (when our actual income may drop) we expect God to increase our ability to provide help.