As a project of the YWCA, International Institutes across the country coordinated and planned for the welfare and training of immigrant women and girls who were taking on employment responsibilities while adjusting to life without the support of their men who had gone off to fight in the war. In October of 1918, one month before the Armistice that ended World War I, the first staff meeting of The International Institute of San Francisco convened at 1812 Washington Street, an office space the Institute rented for $50 a month. At the time, 72% of San Francisco’s population was made up of immigrants and their children. Members of the Russian, Greek, Chinese, Spanish, Armenian, Swedish, French, Scottish, Japanese, Czech, and Yugoslavian communities attended the Institute’s inaugural reception, celebrating the new agency. In its first year of operation, the Institute served 12,000 people.