For organizations
Join the Operation Iron Gate Vallejo Pilot.
This is where an organization can join the Operation Iron Gate Vallejo pilot before it opens. Operation Iron Gate has not launched. We are looking for the nonprofits, agencies and NGOs that will run the Vallejo pilot, and we would rather tell you what that involves than sell you on it.
What you are probably worried about
Is this more data entry?
It is the first question every director asks and it is the right one. The pilot is scoped to the handoff — the moment a person moves from you to someone else — rather than to everything your staff already record.
Will you take my clients?
No. The people you serve are yours. Pathfinders for Hope is not a service provider and is not becoming one. The pilot exists so that a person you refer actually arrives somewhere, and so you can show that they did.
Will you take my funding?
No. Joining does not route your funding through us and does not put your contracts in our name. A confirmed handoff is a number you can use in your own reporting.
Could my data leak?
Every system that holds data carries that risk, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. What we can tell you is exactly who can see what, which is written out below — and that your data stays yours. You can export it, and you can leave.
What your organization gets
A confirmed handoff
Nonprofits can confirm that a referral was received and acted on when the receiving organization acknowledges the handoff, records the next action, and reports a final outcome.
When you refer someone, you find out whether they arrived, not merely that the referral was sent.
A closed-loop referral system means the handoff only counts once it is confirmed, not once it is sent.
A record you can cite
Your own numbers, in a form you can put in a board report or a renewal application.
No ID at the door
A person without government ID will not be turned away at intake.
Your data, exportable
You can take your organization’s data out at any time, in a standard format.
Someone to call
Each participating organization will be assigned a named point of contact at Pathfinders for Hope when the pilot opens.
What do you get?
Participation in the Operation Iron Gate Vallejo Pilot under documented partner terms established before launch.
Vallejo pilot
Partner terms before launch.
Participating organizations will work under documented Vallejo pilot terms established before launch.
What we ask. You bring your organization in, and you bring the people you already serve in with you. They stay yours — the system is only where the handoffs are recorded.
Nothing about your organization’s participation changes without your agreement in writing.
What it takes to join the Vallejo pilot
A conversation. You tell us what your organization runs and where handoffs break.
A written outline: what you would do, what we would do, and what neither of us would do.
You decide. There is no obligation to continue.
Who can see what
A person’s file is visible to the staff working with that person, not to everyone who holds a login.
Every time a file is opened, that is recorded.
The public view carries counts and rates only. No names and no case identifiers, ever.
Your organization’s data belongs to your organization. You can export it and you can leave.
Questions directors ask
What does participation require?
Operation Iron Gate is a program of Pathfinders for Hope, a California 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Participating organizations bring their existing workflows and the people they already serve. Each organization retains responsibility for its own services, decisions, and records.
How does this fit with what we already use?
We’ll walk through how this fits alongside what you already use.
How many organizations have joined?
None yet. We are recruiting the first cohort, and we would rather say so plainly than show you a wall of logos.
Is this a government program?
No. Pathfinders for Hope is a California 501(c)(3), and Operation Iron Gate is its program.
What if we join and it does not work for us?
You leave, and you take your data with you.
Has any of this been tested?
Not in the field. There are no results to show you and none are claimed anywhere on this site. What exists is the build, the measurement standard published in 04, and the commitment to publish the numbers whether they are good or bad.
The problem itself is well documented even though our response to it is not yet tested. The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness and the HUD Continuum of Care program guidance both treat coordination between providers as a core function rather than an optional one. What neither addresses is who is accountable when a person is referred and never arrives. That is the narrow gap this pilot is built to close.
We would rather you judge us on that distinction than on a claim we have not earned. If a confirmed handoff turns out not to change anything in Vallejo, that will be in the published numbers too.
Open now
Join the Operation Iron Gate Vallejo Pilot
The Operation Iron Gate Vallejo pilot has not launched. Recruiting for it has. Fill this out and a person on our team reads it. Nothing is verified or approved until they do.
Cohort 01 is deliberately small. We would rather start with a handful of organizations that actually refer people to each other in Vallejo than with a long list of names that never send a handoff between them. If your organization sits at a point where people arrive and then get sent somewhere else, that is exactly the position this pilot needs.
You are not committing to anything by applying. The next step is a conversation about what your organization runs and where your handoffs break, followed by a written outline of what each side would do. If it does not fit, you say so and nothing happens.
The map underneath
Before anyone can be tracked to a resource, someone has to know the resource exists.
The hardest part of any referral is not sending it. It is knowing where to send someone in the first place — what they qualify for, what the door requires, and whether it is currently available.
Organizations often maintain resource information in different systems, documents, and staff workflows. Those sources may not answer the same practical questions or remain current at the same time.
Pathfinders for Hope is developing a community resource map for pilot planning so participating organizations can review what exists, who it serves, and what information should be confirmed before a handoff.
What we're asking for
What you do. Who you can serve. What someone needs to bring, and how they actually get in the door. That's it.
What it requires
About five minutes. Nothing to sign, nothing to install, and no information about the people you serve — this is about your organization, not your clients.
What it prevents
Someone being sent across town to a door that was never going to open for them — an access point that was never theirs to begin with. Every referral that fails on eligibility is a person who spent the last of something getting there.
You do not have to join the pilot to be on the map.
Being on the map means that when someone walks into a front door somewhere in this county and needs what you provide, the person helping them knows you exist, knows whether that person may qualify, and knows what to confirm before they make the trip.
That information remains useful whether or not your organization participates in the pilot.
Review the referral planning guides for organizations, or use the cohort application above when your organization is ready to discuss the pilot.
Not ready to apply yet?
This is for organizations, officials, funders and press. If you need services yourself, do not use this — go here instead. Nothing on this page asks a person in crisis for their details.
OrganizationsApply through the cohort form.
Officials and fundersRequest a briefing. To leadership with Pathfinders for Hope or call 707-205-7588.
PressRequest a briefing and mark it press.
No mailing address is published on this site. A map is deliberately absent: one is added only if a publishable business address exists, and never a home address or a dropped pin on a city.