Care Through Touch Institute (CTI) has partnered with the Mission Neighborhood Resource Center’s Ladies Night program for over ten years, providing consistent, trauma-informed massage services to women in the Mission District. Ladies Night is a long-standing weekly program, held every Thursday evening, serving female-identifying individuals and offering a safe, welcoming space focused on health, safety, and community connection.

The Mission Neighborhood Resource Center offers a wide range of essential services, including showers and laundry, hygiene and harm reduction supplies, meals, case management, access to a primary care clinic, and a supportive daytime environment where women can build relationships and find stability. For more than 20 years, Ladies Night has been a cornerstone program for women in the Mission community.

CTI’s contribution to Ladies Night is a core and deeply valued component of the program. Each week, a CTI massage therapist provides two hours of seated massage, offering approximately 4 to 8 sessions per evening, with individual sessions lasting between 15 and 30 minutes. These massages provide immediate physical relief and meaningful emotional support for participants, many of whom experience chronic pain, stress, and trauma.

Beyond physical care, CTI’s presence fosters trust, dignity, and emotional healing. The massage therapist takes time to listen to each client’s needs, ensuring that every individual feels seen, respected, and cared for. Over time, this consistency has allowed strong relationships to form between the therapist and participants, strengthening the overall sense of safety and community within Ladies Night.

This long-term partnership exemplifies CTI’s collaborative, on-site service model and its commitment to meeting people where they already receive support. Together, CTI and the Mission Neighborhood Resource Center create a holistic care environment that restores dignity, eases suffering, and offers moments of relief and connection for women navigating hardship.

CTI has partnered with the Harm Reduction Therapy Center (HRTC) in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood since 2021, providing consistent, trauma-informed massage as part of a broader harm reduction and mental health support model. Services are offered weekly during a two-hour on-site shift alongside HRTC social workers who provide therapy, harm reduction supplies and education, and meals.

The partnership serves a diverse and highly impacted community, including people who are unhoused or living in single-room occupancy hotels, immigrants and non-English speakers, formerly incarcerated individuals, and people navigating substance use, isolation, severe mental health challenges, and trauma. Massage is provided outdoors near HRTC’s harm reduction van and tent, where CTI sets up a massage chair on the sidewalk, meeting clients where they already receive trusted services.

Over the past four years, CTI’s massage program at the SoMa site has grown into a deeply valued and reliable resource for the community. Clients regularly use massage to manage chronic pain, emotional and environmental stress, and recovery related to substance dependency. The long-term presence of CTI has allowed strong relationships to form, fostering trust, consistency, and a sense of safety.

The SoMa site also plays a critical role in CTI’s volunteer training and onboarding. It reflects many of the environments and populations CTI serves across the city. While generally calm, the outdoor setting requires therapists to navigate real-world street conditions, including conflict, active substance use, or mental health crises. New volunteers are supported by experienced CTI therapists and HRTC social workers, allowing them to build clinical skills, adaptability, and confidence within a well-established and welcoming program.

Care Through Touch Institute (CTI) has partnered with Martin de Porres House of Hospitality since 1999, providing consistent, trauma-informed massage as part of Martins’ long-standing commitment to caring for people experiencing poverty and housing instability. CTI offers a weekly two-hour massage shift during lunch service, alongside Martins’ core offerings of hot meals, showers, and supportive services.

Martins primarily serves people who are unhoused, living in single-room occupancy hotels, or marginally housed and struggling to meet basic needs. Massage is understood within this setting as a form of nourishment—supporting guests who experience chronic pain, stress, trauma, addiction-related challenges, and profound loneliness.

CTI’s massage services provide both individual relief and a broader calming presence within the dining space. The steady, grounded work of the massage therapist contributes to an atmosphere of safety and care amid the intensity of daily street life, benefiting not only those receiving massage but the wider community gathered at Martins.

Services are typically offered indoors near the entrance to the dining room, with occasional outdoor work in good weather. Over more than two decades, CTI has built deep, trusting relationships with Martins staff and guests, with many individuals returning regularly over years.

Martins also serves as an important training site for CTI volunteers. Guests represent many of the populations CTI serves across San Francisco, including people who are unhoused, living with mental health or substance use challenges, elders, formerly incarcerated individuals, sex workers, and people from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. New volunteers are supported in developing clinical skills, presence, and confidence within a calm, welcoming environment rooted in CTI’s trauma-informed care model.

Care Through Touch Institute (CTI) has partnered with Tom Waddell Urban Health Center since 1997, providing trauma-informed massage within a public health clinic serving low-income communities in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District. CTI offers weekly and bi-monthly massage shifts for clinic patients, primarily supporting individuals referred for chronic pain and mental health–related concerns.

As part of Tom Waddell’s Integrative Pain Management Program, CTI practitioners collaborate closely with physicians and other healthcare providers. Massage is recognized as a key non-pharmacological tool, and referrals continue to grow as providers see its impact. In addition to hands-on care, CTI participates in a weekly online chronic pain support group and teaches self-massage and body awareness skills.

CTI has been deeply embedded at Tom Waddell for decades, evolving from early street outreach work to specialty clinics and, since 2012, full integration into the pain management program. This long-term partnership reflects CTI’s commitment to collaborative, trauma-informed care within public health systems and its belief in touch as an essential component of healing.

Care Through Touch Institute (CTI) has partnered with Central City Hospitality House since the late 1990s, providing trauma-informed massage at two Self-Help Centers: Tenderloin Self-Help and Sixth Street Self-Help. CTI offers weekly two-hour massage shifts at each site, serving people in the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods, with a focus on individuals who are unhoused or precariously housed.

Hospitality House is a long-standing, trusted provider in the community, operating within a harm-reduction framework that supports people navigating substance use, mental health challenges, and chronic instability. CTI’s massage services offer relief from pain, stress, and trauma, while contributing to a sense of calm and care within these challenging environments.

Massage is provided indoors at both Self-Help Centers in spaces that allow for privacy and safety. CTI has maintained a consistent presence at Tenderloin Self-Help for more than 25 years and at Sixth Street Self-Help since it opened in 2010, building strong relationships with staff and participants.

The partnership also includes ongoing collaboration and mutual support. CTI provides massage for Hospitality House staff wellness and participates in shared training and education, reflecting a deeply rooted, reciprocal relationship grounded in trauma-informed and harm-reduction-based care.

Care Through Touch Institute (CTI) has partnered with The Gubbio Project since the early 2000s, providing weekly, trauma-informed massage therapy to unhoused and marginally housed individuals in San Francisco’s Mission District. Services are offered at St. John the Evangelist Church, a quiet and sacred daytime refuge where guests can rest, feel safe, and receive compassionate care.

Each week, a CTI therapist provides seated massage for guests inside the church sanctuary and, when weather permits, in the outdoor courtyard. Massage supports physical relief, emotional grounding, and moments of dignity and connection for people experiencing chronic exhaustion, stress, and trauma.

Over more than two decades, CTI’s consistent presence has built deep trust with guests and partners, making massage an integral part of The Gubbio Project’s holistic network of support. The site also serves as an important training environment for CTI volunteers, offering a calm yet real-world setting to develop trauma-informed skills while working with diverse and highly impacted communities.