Silicon Valley is one of the most privileged, entitled, accomplished, and prosperous places on earth. In reality, it’s not even strictly speaking a place so much as an idea embraced by a region, the San Francisco Bay area.
For a blissful, emotional, difficult hour Thursday morning over breakfast at the posh St. Regis hotel in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood, Silicon Valley became an empathetic place too. The tech elite gathered to celebrate the accomplishments of its most prominent charitable organization, the Tipping Point Community, modeled after New York’s poverty-fighting Robin Hood outfit.
For people here, like me, who spend their days with overachievers who’ve been dealt all the right cards, the stories of the groups Tipping Point helps are an important reminder of just how fortunate those who’ve made it in tech are.
Akiko-Ariele White, a property manager for the Community Housing Partnership, told the heartbreaking tale of her own family’s descent into homelessness when she was growing up. Now her organization helps put roofs on people’s heads—and then encourages them to find homes of their own. Barrie Hathaway, a former up-from-nothing tech executive himself, runs an organization called The Stride Center, which trains adults for entry-level tech jobs. AnnJane Osborne, a mom whose own upbringing would move the most callous cynic to tears, explained how she was helped by the Nurse-Family Partnership, which works with at-risk pregnant women to provide prenatal and postnatal care.
Before it was time to jump on conference calls and attend meetings and dash off to another holiday party in a land of almost unimaginable wealth, Silicon Valley paused Thursday morning to remind itself that poverty, violence, homelessness, and despair are the reality for too many among us. From time to time, even the privileged are forced to confront the situation on San Francisco’s frightening streets. “I know people are scared and frustrated,” said Daniel Lurie, the prominent San Franciscan who founded Tipping Point a decade ago. Thanks to his group, they can be at least a little hopeful that some of those who are less fortunate have reason to be hopeful too.
This article first appeared in the daily Fortune newsletter Data Sheet. Subscribe here for a daily dose of analysis from Adam Lashinsky and a curation of the day’s technology news from Heather Clancy.