Faithful fools intends to foster awareness and analysis of deteriorating social conditions in the United States in the world at large seen from the level of the streets and to facilitate individual and collective responses thereto. 
(Faithful Fools Bylaws)

Faithful Fools began in 1998 when the paths of Kay Jorgensen, social justice minister of UUSF, and Carmen Barsody, of the Franciscan Community in Little Falls, MN, converged on the streets of the Tenderloin District in San Francisco. Kay had been opening a path between the church and the Tenderloin Neighborhood, inviting people from the church into the community and people from the community into the church.

Beginning in 1999 Kay and Carmen taught a class at Starr King School for the Ministry titled: Bearing Witness at the Crossroads of Community and Parish. It was through that class that people preparing for ministry,  began walking up and down the hill doing a shared internship between UUSF and Faithful Fools. Kay and Carmen were also a part of Urban Disciples, a coalition of UU congregations and ministers from around the U.S. who were funded by the Veatch Foundation to develop and share diverse models for effective, accountable social justice ministry.

Through Street Retreats, volunteering and collaborative works for justice, people of all ages and many walks of life have shared in the ongoing mission and work of Faithful Fools as we “discover our common humanity on the streets.”