This holiday season, Rubicon Programs is hosting the “Together We Can…” campaign to continue our work of breaking poverty in the East Bay. The campaign will officially launch on Giving Tuesday, although those eager to learn more can check out the campaign website in advance here.

The campaign will help Rubicon further our ever-adapting work in the community, including through collaborations with workforce development organizations, educational institutions, government agencies, and community-based advocacy groups. In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, we rose to the challenge of shelter-in-place restrictions and the associated increased needs in the communities we serve by participating in the following:

• Bounce Back Contra Costa – We supported over 5700 calls from impacted community members on the warm line in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties and responded to 588 service and support requests initiated on the website.
• Better Careers Design Group – Along with Alameda County Workforce Development Board, Alameda County Probation Department, Growth Sector, and Third Sector, we formed a collaborative to engage the community to learn more about the barriers and opportunities that influence justice-involved individuals from finding quality jobs. The result has been a community-driven system-change solution to increase the resources available to our most marginalized workers, better coordinate local service providers, and change the hearts and minds of employers.
• Collaborative Advocacy and Power Partnership (CAPP) – Rubicon’s CEO, Dr. Carole “DC” Dorham-Kelly, represents Rubicon as a CAPP Steering Committee Member. CAPP’s short-term objective is that residents, direct-service providers, and advocacy organizations work in deep partnership to effect significant changes in inequitable policies, systems, cultural norms, and narratives that prevent residents from thriving.
• Contra Costa Workforce Collaborative (CCWC) – As a public-private partnership of workforce development organizations spanning CBOs, Community Colleges, and Adult Schools, the CCWC aims to provide Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) career services in a coordinated effort that leverages existing resources to increase access to WIOA services throughout Contra Costa County.

Our work shows us that together, we can achieve real change for the communities in which we live, both at the systems and individual levels. That’s why, in addition to our collaborations with other community-centered organizations, we partnered with over 1400 participants during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic to build a more equitable East Bay through our individualized supportive services.

As we head into the new year, Rubicon knows that our impact will only continue to grow as we partner with more individuals and organizations that are looking to make real changes to the systems that keep people in the cycle of poverty. If this sounds like you, join us in our mission to end poverty in the East Bay by contributing to Rubicon Programs today. Your tax-deductible donation is an investment that will truly change the lives of so many of our East Bay neighbors.

Together, we can.

At Rubicon, we understand that participants are why we’re here, and we want the participant voice to be deeply involved in our decision-making process. One way we’re tapping into and developing the participant voice is the Participant Advisory Board (PAB). The PAB is an organized group of Rubicon participants with the purpose of enhancing Rubicon’s services and our community. The PAB was just a model on paper until October of 2018, when Alisha Semplar joined Rubicon as our Community Connections Program Manager. Thanks to Alisha’s desire to “put the rubber to the road,” the PAB soon shifted from theory into reality.

Alisha says she “sees the diamonds in every participant” and desires to bring out “their shine” for all to see. In launching the PAB, she sought for it to help participants build their self-efficacy through leadership development and active involvement in helping their community. Alisha loves to see how the PAB. “creates leaders and change agents.” “PAB members are leaders in their communities and drivers of change that are constructing a pathway to success to break the cycle of poverty,” Alisha proudly proclaims. Alisha occasionally helps organize and facilitate PAB procedures, but the PAB is mostly run by the participants themselves.

Alisha feels the PAB “creates a conduit” for Rubicon participants to develop their leadership skills, grow their personal networks, and contribute to making changes that will help their community. The PAB meets once a month, where members vote on action items to determine which ones resonate most with their desired community impact. Examples of PAB action items of the past include creating a voter guide, partnering with Healthy Richmond, working with The Safe Return Project, and contributing to the Contra Costa County’s Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice. PAB members also sit on various public committees to help guide the work and provide a voice for their community.

The PAB is also involved in civic activities, including making recommendations for legislative items affecting the community, such as housing and environmental laws. “These are issues directly affecting PAB members' lives, and we know some communities are disproportionately impacted, so the PAB voice is vital”, Alisha says. Alisha adds that discussions at PAB meetings “are guided by the temperature of society,” meaning whatever issues are relevant to the members are those discussed. But they’re not only discussed; the PAB is focused on creating solutions and “taking actions to better the communities directly impacted,” states Alisha.

PAB members are also heavily involved in the structure of Rubicon. PAB members are asked to be a part of interview panels for potential Rubicon employees. Rubicon wants to get the participant perspective on potential hires, so PAB member feedback is invaluable. Some PAB members are also involved in the Program Implementation Committee (PIC), which is composed of program directors and managers. The PIC evaluates and updates Rubicon’s practices and model; similar to the interviews, PAB members' input is critical.

When recruiting new participants for PAB, Alisha mentions that PAB members share a strong desire for social action and change in their community. PAB members are focused on improving the lives of their fellow community members while at the same time experiencing their own personal growth. Alisha emphasizes that "PAB empowers participants to be the change that they are seeking.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has given many workers, especially those working remotely for the first time in their careers, a chance to look at their lives from a fresh perspective in what some are calling the “Great Reassessment.” For Rubicon Career Advisor John Cunningham, he saw an opportunity for growth.

“Working from home and the pandemic had me rethinking what I was going to do with all of this time I was going to have,” Cunningham said. “I saw the 8 minute and 46 second video of George Floyd, and I felt kind of helpless because I saw that being myself or one of my children. And I just kept hearing all of this rhetoric around how these types of things continue to happen and have historically been a part of the narrative between policing and black men and women and people of color in general in America, and I was like, ‘Man, I need to do something, I can’t just sit here and not do anything.’”

After consulting with people in his network, Cunningham received a recommendation from Pat Mims, Director of the Reentry Success Center, to connect with Project Rebound. Their support led Cunningham to enroll in a summer math camp, where he was the only student from the initial cohort who stayed through the entire series of classes.

The experience added to his desire to learn more. “I think it really showed me that I had the ability to accomplish things in an educational setting that I had never accomplished before, and it gave me a lot of confidence,” Cunningham said. “So I decided to give it a shot and go for a degree.”

Cunningham enrolled in classes at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and immediately began looking for ways to apply his learning outside of the classroom. He participated in the SFSU President’s Leadership Fellows Program, where he enhanced and added to the job-readiness skills he uses to support Rubicon participants in his role as a Career Advisor. He then set his sights on the Willie L. Brown, Jr. Fellowship. After a rigorous application and selection process, he was selected to participate as one of ten fellows for the Fall 2021 semester.

“I was interested in continuing the work I do with Rubicon, but expanding that into an understanding of how legislation and policies are created,” Cunningham said. “Seeing the whole process from beginning to end, reading these reports and seeing these recommendations and how they put all of this together to make legislation out of it—that’s the part that’s beneficial to me. It takes me out of the hands on and gives me a behind-the-veil experience on how government comes to some of the decisions that they come to.”

As a Willie L. Brown, Jr. Fellow, Cunningham works directly in government as an intern for Shamann Walton, President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Cunningham participates in three primary focus areas in this role: closure of the San Francisco juvenile hall, a project that will be finalized in December; the African American Reparations Advisory Committee, a group created by the Board of Supervisors that is assessing what reparations could look like for the city; and the Racial Equity Task Force, which looks at spaces in the city to ensure that people are treated equitably.

For Cunningham, the opportunity to create systemic change is one that he encourages others to join in. “Being formerly incarcerated myself, I love to see those systems of oppression dismantled and destroyed,” Cunningham said. “The one thing I would tell people is that they always have a section in every open meeting to the public where you can make comments. So many people do not take advantage to express their disagreement or support for whatever these committees are doing. The people who are going to be affected by the decisions do have a voice in the process, but we don’t take advantage of it.”

After his fellowship ends next month, Cunningham is looking forward to pursuing his degree in Race and Resistance Studies from SFSU while continuing his work with Rubicon. “Honestly, the degree is great,” Cunningham said. “But as I was going through the first semester, I realized that the degree—the piece of paper—was not really that important to me. Obtaining the knowledge and allowing me to network and be in spaces where I would be effective is what matters.”

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CALIF., OCTOBER 7, 2021 … The Contra Costa County Measure X Community Advisory Board (CAB) voted last evening to accept a report listing first-year recommended funding priorities for submission to the Board of Supervisors. The list contains five goal areas supported by 43 strategies, many of which are aligned with Rubicon’s comprehensive programs.

Community-based services—including those that Rubicon provides such as mental health support, training and employment, and reentry support—are prioritized strategies in all of the goal areas highlighted in the report. The strategies were each rated as a top priority by at least 51% of voting board members at the September 8, 2021 meeting.

Michelle Stewart, District 5 CAB member and the Antioch Site Manager for Rubicon Programs, says the decisions on how to prioritize the funding recommendations were challenging. “It was really tough, because we had a bumper crop of presentations from numerous people, and it’s very difficult to make these kinds of decisions because everything is important,” Stewart said. “Do you prioritize seniors over children? Do you prioritize a lab for the regional hospital over mental health services? Do you prioritize housing over transportation? It’s all important, and it makes a difference in the quality of life for people and their ability to survive.”

In order to ensure that the CAB heard a sufficient variety of voices in the discussions, a total of 94 subject matter experts, including five from Rubicon, presented on a variety of community needs, issues, and topics during CAB meetings that were held over four months. Members of the public also gave their input by writing in and attending meetings, with some community members appearing at the virtual meetings nearly every week.

Although public attendance at the meetings grew over time, Stewart thinks there are more residents to hear. “We did get a lot of public comments, but we could get a lot more,” Stewart said. “I would have liked to have seen more residents participate and make comments about what is needed in their communities, in their neighborhoods, and what are their concerns.”

The recommendations in the report are not tied to specific dollar amounts. Instead, the CAB assigned rankings to each strategy to help the Board of Supervisors understand the priority levels to determine funding allocations. The rankings are based on the relative popularity of each strategy based on the September 8 vote, with community-based mental health services, establishing a County Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice, expanded comprehensive healthcare for the uninsured, and tenant legal services among the top ten.

Stewart cautions residents not to get discouraged if they don’t see their priorities at the top of the list. “This is just the first year. Just because you weren’t prioritized now doesn’t make you not a priority,” Stewart said. “We’re going to make our recommendations in the next couple of weeks, we’ll have a few weeks off, and then we’re right back at it. So just continue showing up.”

According to the report, Measure X is a countywide, voter-approved half cent tax that is intended “to keep Contra Costa’s regional hospital open and staffed; fund community health centers, emergency response; support crucial safety-net services; invest in early childhood services; protect vulnerable populations; and for other essential county services.” The CAB was established in February 2021 and is made up of 17 members—10 supervisorial district appointees and 7 at-large members—who serve two-year terms with a maximum limit of six years total. The CAB currently meets Wednesdays at 5:00 pm on Zoom.

Rudy Howell, Impact Coach at the Rubicon Education Partnership (REP), was approved as the newest commissioner on the Oakland Police Commission (OPC) at last Tuesday's city council meeting. Howell will become the third justice-impacted community member to sit on the OPC since its establishment in 2016. 

"My initial motivation was just trying to be involved in the community," Howell said. "I just wanted to be able to explain my position as somebody impacted by a lot of these laws and policies that seem to really target minority communities. A lot of times, people who create policies don't know how they impact people. They're not really affected by certain policies because they're somewhat removed from the situations they're making the rules for." 

In his role on the OPC, Howell will be tasked with reviewing and proposing changes to the Oakland Police Department's policies and procedures related to police use of force, profiling, and right to assemble, among other responsibilities outlined in the city's charter.  

Howell's focus on civic engagement will play a key part in his work on the OPC. "I think it's important that the way gets paved for formerly incarcerated people to engage civically," Howell said. "Oakland is a very important place for as far as civil rights. There's been a lot of movement in Oakland about being equitable and having a fair shake. It's not enough to talk about it; let's be about it. Let's put in the work, and let's make policies that help everybody." 

In his position at REP, Howell connects justice-impacted individuals with resources to advance their education and obtain college degrees. "My role with Rubicon is to strengthen the community with education," Howell said. "Education is not a short-term endeavor. It's a long-term investment of mind, body, and soul. It's all about the community and improving the community. The Police Commission's work is also about improving communities." 

While he was incarcerated, Howell received his A.A. in Business Administration from Lassen College and was accepted into San Francisco State University, where he began taking classes immediately upon his release. He earned a B.A. in Criminal Justice in 2016 before joining Rubicon Programs as an Impact Coach. 

Despite his success in college, Howell acknowledges that studying the justice system is not a substitute for life experience. "No book will teach any criminal justice major the impact of these policies," Howell said. "I think I'm able to articulate the impact of certain policies that are in place. Let's revise those to make it more equitable for everybody in the community." 

The process to join the OPC began in April, when Howell first applied for the role that he will take over next month. In addition to the initial application, the selection process consisted of a public statement at an OPC Selection Panel meeting, interviews with the OPC Selection Panel, background and reference checks, and a final review and approval by the Oakland City Council. Commissioners on the OPC serve three-year terms and can be selected for up to two consecutive terms.