After just a few minutes of listening to Warnisha speak, it’s easy to see why a career in caregiving suits her. Her passion for working with the elderly and disabled is apparent as she describes her hopes for the future, including a goal to one day open her own care facility. “I can’t really explain why,” Warnisha says. “This is just what I’m supposed to do.”
Not too long ago, her goal seemed a distant, unattainable dream. In 2018, Warnisha was struggling on her own to clear her criminal record, which showed a felony robbery charge for which she was never tried or convicted. As a young mother with her second child on the way, Warnisha came to Rubicon to get back on her feet and connect to resources that would help her move forward with her life.
“It was really good getting into the program,” Warnisha says. “Once you start hearing everybody’s story, you start knowing that you’re not the only one like this, you’re not the only one who needs some type of support, help, or redirection. Half of the people there, we still communicate; we became like a family.”
Warnisha connected with Pat Kaspar, Senior Staff Attorney for Rubicon Programs, after being turned down for a job opportunity due to her record. “I wasn’t really worried about my record, I was like, ‘Oh, it’s not that serious,’” Warnisha says. “I didn’t know it could prevent me the way it started preventing me once I got older and actually trying to look for work, actually trying to become the young adult that I was supposed to be.”
Pat ordered a RAP sheet (Record of Arrests and Prosecutions) on Warnisha to find any information that might prevent her from obtaining employment. She found that a first-degree robbery charge appeared incorrectly on Warnisha’s report and immediately began working to correct the information with the CA Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI. After six months, Pat finally received Warnisha’s RAP sheet with the felony case corrected.
In the meantime, Warnisha worked with a team of coaches at Rubicon, including Financial Coach Kenneth Street and Career Advisor Greg Reimer, to build and restore her credit, improve her housing situation, and complete certifications that would lead to higher income jobs. “Before the program, I was doing some of the work I wanted to do, but I wasn’t really getting paid what I should’ve been getting paid,” Warnisha says. “I was going from a regular minimum wage job where I was living check to check, to where I’m doing okay where I’m able to have a little.”
Three months after her criminal history had been corrected on her DOJ RAP sheet, Warnisha applied to work in a residential health care facility and was denied. The inaccurate felony robbery charge had triggered an automatic lifetime ban with the Community Care Licensing Board at the Department of Social Services (DSS) prior to the record correction. Warnisha was devastated.
“I’ve been working my whole life since I was 18 with the autistic and elderly,” Warnisha says. “I applied, and I got denied. So now my hope and everything was down, I’m like, ‘I’m never gonna get the job I want.’ All my hope and joy, all my pride, everything is going down. I’m not gonna want to work. I’m getting jobs, I’m quitting jobs, because they’re not actually the jobs I want.”
Warnisha turned to Rubicon for support, and Pat once again immediately got to work to appeal the lifetime ban and apply for an exemption. “She made me a believer and she showed me that, ‘Look, we can get this cleared, we can get this fixed, we can appeal this, we can appeal that, and we’re going to get you there,’” Warnisha says. “And by her telling me that, it brought me more joy and spirit, like, ‘Warnisha, you can do this, keep pushing. Don’t let this one thing take you all the way back.’”
Due to a combination of DSS staff turnover and bureaucratic delays, Warnisha’s lifetime ban appeal went unanswered for over 14 months. During that time, Warnisha continued to work with her coaches at Rubicon and set new goals for herself and her family. She earned her guard card, HAZMAT certification, and forklift operator certification during this time, and she restored her credit and started earning enough at her new job to be able to move into stable housing. After achieving all of these goals and setting more for the future, Warnisha and Pat finally learned that their appeal had been successful; the lifetime ban was removed from her record and Warnisha’s exemption to work with the disabled and elderly was granted.
“Now I have a goal of getting my own facility one day,” Warnisha says. “When I was talking to Greg and Kenzo [Street], I was told so many things I can do, like how to get sponsors and going back to school, getting the certifications I need for this specific goal that I wanted…So if I keep my mind focused and stay on the right track, I’m going to get paid to where I’m able to live comfortably. And once I’m living comfortably, I can work on my main focus and goal, and that’s getting my facility and talking to the people I need to talk to and getting everything together.”
“I went from having no hope, not really doing anything with my life, bouncing from job to job to now having my own stable housing, stable income, and better opportunities ahead of me right now,” Warnisha says. “The opportunities I wouldn’t have had the chance to get if it wasn’t for Rubicon Programs and their help.”
