Rubicon’s Participant Advisory Board (PAB) is full of individuals who have completed one or more of the organization’s programs. Members of the PAB are leaders who are passionate about serving others and improving outcomes, both inside Rubicon and in their communities.
No one embodies this description of a PAB member better than Ricardo. When his temporary job renovating homes was ending, Ricardo came to Rubicon in search of new opportunities. At the time, he was also in the middle of a difficult child custody case, and he needed to find another job in order to stay in good standing with the family court.
“I got connected with Rubicon, and things started falling into place,” Ricardo says. “The Impact Coaches have been really having my back, taking care of some things that I didn’t know—they even got me clothing for work. There’s been a lot of things that I’ve really been appreciative of.”
Ricardo connected with Santos, his Impact Coach, and together they created a plan to move forward, both professionally and legally. “At the time when I first got into Rubicon, Santos was there for me a lot with his mentoring, because I was continuing to go through a lot of things,” Ricardo says. “He was really there and instrumental with helping me. He’d say, ‘No, it’s cool, I can figure this out, you just finish that. I’ll help you with this; let’s figure it out together.’ I just felt like I had some type of assistance that made everything a lot easier.”
After completing Rubicon’s Foundations workshops and working closely with Santos on his career plan, Ricardo started a job as an admissions officer at a local vocational school, where he supports students with similar backgrounds to him in their pursuit of developing employable skills. The new living wage job allowed Ricardo to move out of transitional housing while also covering his child support obligations.
In addition to employment assistance, Ricardo has received support from Rubicon’s legal team on his court case. He is looking forward to returning to family court with his pro bono counsel provided by Rubicon and reconnecting with his son. “I just want to try to make things right, to be a father in his life,” Ricardo says. “And I think that everything I’ve been doing, all of this stuff, that’s the only goal.”
During his time outside of work, Ricardo dedicates his life to helping others who are in similar situations to what he has gone through. When he began asking Santos how he could refer other people to Rubicon’s programs, Santos connected Ricardo with Alisha, Rubicon’s Community Connections Program Manager. Alisha recognized Ricardo’s leadership abilities and passion for helping his community and invited him to join the PAB.
Ricardo appreciates the PAB’s role in giving a voice to those that the organization serves. “The best thing about it is that the input of individuals who have obviously gone through and participated in the program and completed them successfully, and having that input being implemented inside,” Ricardo says. “Those types of ideas and conversations I really appreciate having and seeing that, yeah, there are actually people concerned with the people that they’re working with versus them just trying to make a quota for the state to ensure that they can receive funding again.”
Including his membership on the PAB, Ricardo volunteers his time with five community-based organizations in Richmond and surrounding cities. He provides information about resources and one-on-one mentorship to community members who are referred to him by the organizations, and he hopes that his story can show others that there are opportunities available to them.
“I just want to be a representation that you can try to do things the best way you possibly can. You do have options not to always fall back into some bad path,” Ricardo says. “I just want to be that one person that, if there’s any example of going through this program and saying it works, it definitely works. You gotta follow through, you gotta figure some things out yourself, but you’ve got a lot of help and resources behind you.”
Ricardo also credits his fiancée Roma with being a major reason for his optimism and the advances he’s made over the last year. “A big solid part of why I’ve kept together is my fiancée Roma. She has been there for me throughout all of this,” Ricardo says. “Having her and Rubicon, they have been the two pillars or legs I can stand on. I’ve had her support through all of this.”
While continuing to work with Rubicon’s lawyers on his child custody case, Ricardo is planning to build a career that aligns with his values of serving others. He says the support he has received from Rubicon and other community-based organizations has inspired him to help others going through the same challenges.
“It’s made me realize that there are more resources and more options to go to,” Ricardo says. “You don’t have to sit there and let the anxiety or the stress take over.”
