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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
WELCOME TO SHARE THE SPIRIT 2020
Dear Readers: In a year of so much change, we all need more hope to inspire us. Welcome to the 2020 season of Share the Spirit, the annual East Bay Times holiday fundraiser. This year, unlike any other, proves that we can adapt, assist and endure. This is a thread that runs through the stories our award-winning journalists are sharing with you. These stories highlight individuals, families and groups who are experiencing an even more profound loss. To ease their hardship, whether it be financial, emotional, their careers or their health, is the best gift we can think of. The Share the Spirit edition is a joy for us to write and present to our readers. The holiday stories, which have been improving lives since 1994, address problems big and small. It is administered by the Contra Costa Crisis Center in partnership with East Bay Times, and serves the residents of Alameda and Contra Costa counties by distributing donations to nonprofit organizations. The program has raised more than $3.3 million since 1994. Last year readers donated a record $273,678 and for that we thank you so much. We hope you can help make more dreams come true this year. We are a community newspaper and supporting one another is especially crucial this year. Our community consists of small-business owners, delivery drivers, grocery workers, teachers, nurses, day care providers and more. With your help, we can improve the lives of Bay Area residents this holiday season. Donations may be made online at www.sharethespiriteastbay.org/donate, or checks can be made out to “Share the Spirit Fund” and mailed to Share the Spirit, P.O. Box 3485, Walnut Creek, CA 94598. Contributions of all sizes are welcome and are tax-deductible. One way to enhance the effect of your gift is to use your company’s matching donation program, if it has one. Your human resources department should be able to help with forms. The season for giving is upon us, and your donations will always stay in the East Bay to make your community a better place to live for those going through tough times. Thank you for your generosity. Happy Holidays!
Sharon Ryan Publisher
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ON THE COVER
Danika Anderson plays with her children Jalen, 7, Jabree, 6, and Amia’yiah, 3, from left, and their dog Spike, at home in Oakland. Anderson was helped through the Beyond Emancipation program, and will earn her associate degree in healthcare medical management this fall. JANE TYSKA — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
000 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 3
Civicorps
By Peter Hegarty
LIFTING YOUTH WITH PAID JOB TRAINING
ARIC CRABB - STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Waste Management apprentice driver Lily Nguyen works along her route in Alameda. Nguyen earned her high school diploma through the Civicorps program in Oakland while gaining job training that led to an apprenticeship with Waste Management.
phegarty@ bayareanewsgroup.com
There was a time when the future did not look all that promising for Lily Nguyen. When she was 18, Nguyen was expelled from Oakland High School on MacArthur Boulevard, after she ditched classes, dropped assign ments and had a history of disruptive behavior. Home life was not much better. She frequently fought with her Vietnamese immi grant parents. She admits she was “hanging out with the wrong crowd.” Nguyen left home and bounced from place to place, staying where she could. “I couldn’t stay focused,” she said. Then a friend mentioned Civicorps, which provides young people a chance to earn a high school diploma, develop job skills while get ting paid, and even do both at the same time. Nguyen enrolled in February 2015. Soon after, she faced an other hurdle. She learned she was pregnant. But Nguyen pushed on and got her diploma. Now, her son is 5 and she is work ing as an apprentice driver for Waste Management of Alameda County, a posi tion she secured in August through Civicorps. “They have a tremendous support team and counsel ors who will go above and beyond to help you out,” Nguyen, 28, said. Students at Civicorps range from age 18 to 26, and most have had difficult times in their personal lives. All want a better future for themselves. “It’s pretty extraordinary to talk with the students and learn about their lives and the barriers they face outside,” said Rachel Eisner, the director of development and communications at Civ icorps. “But we are here as a family to support them.”
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By Nate Gartrell ngartrell@ bayareanewsgroup.com
In September 2019, Joseph Sickler walked out of High Desert State Prison with plans and optimism, but just as many questions about his future. He’d taken advantage of a premier community college program at the prison and used his credits to gain admission to Sacramento State University. And he had a job lined up through a family member. But faced with a parole condition to live in Contra Costa County while working and attending classes an hour away started to be too much. “I had to drive to Sacramento twice a week for classes and I couldn’t realistically work at my job part time like that,” Sickler said. Sickler attended a mandatory outreach fair for socalled returning citizens — people who are coming back into society after a stay in jail or prison — and it was there he connected with the Concord branch of Rubicon Programs Inc., a nonprofit that combats poverty by promoting economic mobility. Some of Rubicon’s programs are geared towards assisting people like Sickler. The organization receives funding for an employment program through AB109, a law designed to reduce state prison populations. It’s also the backbone agency for the Reentry Success Center in Richmond, a county effort designed to assist the formerly incarcerated in Contra Costa. “I signed up for it and it was actually pretty cool. The people there were actually really supportive,” Sickler said. “They offered me a part time job… They gave me gas cards. When I would buy books for school they would pay me back.”
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
Rubicon Programs
OPTIMISTIC FUTURE FOR FORMER INMATES
ARIC CRABB — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Joseph Sickler spent 18years as an inmate in the California prison system where he started taking college courses. When he was released, he found financial and employment support through Rubicon Programs.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
000 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 5
Swords to Plowshares
HELPING VETERANS GET ON THEIR FEET
JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Vietnam veteran Shannon Scott, 65, was homeless and living under a bridge in Oakland when Swords to Plowshares stepped in. The nonprofit placed him at this Alameda hotel room and made sure he got the medical care he so desperately needed.
By Judith Prieve jprieve@ bayareanewsgroup.com
When help finally arrived for Shannon Scott, the then-64-year-old diabetic Vietnam veteran could hardly move. Bound to wheelchair with a broken femur, he had spent weeks barely existing in a tent under the bridge of a downtown Oakland overpass. That is until Swords to Plowshares, a veterans’ nonprofit, found him. A concerned resident had called and warned them of Scott’s dire situation and a couple of staff members quickly sprung into action. “He had no business being out there on the streets, he was on dialysis,” outreach coordinator Dennis Johnson said. “He was near death when we found him. His eyes were yellow and he was in a permanent stupor where he couldn’t put words together; his energy levels were horrific.” Scott, a tall lanky man whose legs spill out well past the hospital wheelchair’s footrests, spoke quietly and deliberately as he recalled his rescue from the streets two months earlier, now safe in the comfort of an Alameda motel where he was temporarily staying courtesy of the nonprofit. He is one of the many veterans Swords to Plowshares helps each year with housing, legal assistance, employment and other services. “He was like an angel in disguise,” Scott said of the outreach coordinator. “I was on my last leg. I could hardly move anymore.”
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By Rick Hurd rhurd@ bayareanewsgroup.com
In the back of her mind, Sharon Lobato never doubted that the summer of 2020 would be personally challenging. The 69-year-old San Pablo woman needed hip repair surgery, and the recovery plan called for two months in a rehabilitation care facility. That stay was extended after a fall in October. Add one of history’s worst global pandemics to the equation, and “not only does that change the game, it changes the sport,” said Sharon Lobato, 49, the elder Lobato’s daughter who happens to be the activities director at Legacy Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where her mom is convalescing. “But you get through it the best you can.” They both say the efforts of LITA of Contra Costa, a 40-year-old public charity based in Port Costa, has been vital in a year that has seen almost all socialization stop because of COVID-19. The charity provided the facility with 14 iPads to enable some social contact between patients and their families. “In the first two weeks (after the surgery), I kind of lost it,” the older Lobato said. “I was crying because I wasn’t able to be in touch with anybody or see anybody. Now (with the tablets), I can see my grandchildren, and just being able to see them means so much. “Without that time, I don’t know that I would have the strength to get better,” she said. “But with it, I know that I do.”
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
LITA of Contra Costa
SENIORS REGAIN HOPE WITH SOCIAL LIFELINE
JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
With help from the nonprofit LITA of Contra Costa, Sharon Lobato, 69, was given access to an iPad while she’s convalescing at Legacy Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Martinez.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
000 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 7
Brighter Beginnings
GIVING FAMILIES A HEAD START
RAY CHAVEZ — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Sofia Ramirez, 4, with her siblings Oliver, 9, and Magali, 14, at their apartment in Oakland’s Fruitvale district. While their mother Juanita Lopez was hospitalized with COVID-19, Brighter Beginnings provided meals weekly, educational materials, baby clothes and diapers to the family.
By Annie Sciacca asciacca@ bayareanewsgroup.com
When COVID-19 hit the Bay Area earlier this year, the staff at Brighter Beginnings shifted into a sort of emergency center. The organization, which offers a Head Start early education program to help families prepare their young kids to be successful in school and provides basic medical services at its clinics, started providing emergency support as the region shut down. “We turned our offices into a mini food bank,” said Angelica Ayala, senior program manager for the Head Start programs. The staff worked to do safe dropoffs of food, diapers and other supplies that families needed, and they helped families file for unemployment. Juanita Lopez, a client of Brighter Beginnings and mother of four, said through a translator that she was scared to go out as the pandemic swept the area. Deliveries of food and diapers have meant she can be home with her kids, and have removed the burden of paying for some of those necessities. Before the pandemic, parent-child instructors would meet weekly with families, providing early education through both home and group visits at the organization’s Oakland center. Ramirez’s favorite part about the Head Start program was going to the local library or to a nearby park with her kids to meet with her parent educator, or taking her two youngest — ages 6 months and 4 years — to the family center. She and other clients look forward to the day they can meet in person again. “I like it because it’s encouraging to practice colors, numbers — whatever to advance my child’s development,” she said.
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By George Kelly gkelly@ bayareanewsgroup.com
Christopher Underwood served his country for more than two decades. From 1990 to 2012, he handled deployments at U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard sites around California, as well as in Germany and the Middle East after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. He rose through the ranks with an interest in politics honed by a bachelor’s degree in political science from St. Mary’s College. But those years took a quiet toll, not just on his body but his spirit, and led to a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. Although he sought help through VA programs, his PTSD affected his relationships, and his downward spiral and isolation eventually destroyed his marriage. “I was feeling the onset of PTSD, but I wasn’t really knowing what was going on. Everything was turbulent upstairs,” Underwood said. He said he can see those years differently now, after getting help from the Berkeley Food and Housing Project. The organization offered him temporary housing and skills training through its Veterans Transitional Housing program. With funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs, project staff can provide veterans with support to find and keep housing, including the modest condominium where Underwood is now living in Oakland. The stable living situation allows him to help co-parent his 9-year-old son. “I needed help with permanent housing for my son and I,” Underwood said. “They were really on it. My case manager went through the program and its expectations. I found them to be caring and attentive.”
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
Berkeley Food and Housing Project
TROUBLED VETERANS FIND HELP, STABILITY
ARIC CRABB — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Christopher Underwood, a U.S. Air Force veteran, struggled with PTSD and housing insecurity for several years before getting help from the veteran’s transitional housing program at the Berkeley Food and Housing Project. “I found them to be caring and attentive,” he said.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
000 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 9
Eden I&R
211 ALAMEDA COUNTY A LIFESAVING CALL
ANDA CHU — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
VM and her Siberian husky Neiko lived in this vehicle at the Alameda County Safe Parking lot in San Leandro after contacting 211Alameda County. The live phone service run by Eden I&R connects callers with local resources for housing, healthcare, disaster relief and more.
By Joseph Geha jgeha@ bayareanewsgroup.com
VM always considered herself “an overcomer,” especially when it came to helping others overcome their own adversity. There was the time she and her husband aided her parents when they hit financial shoals at the church they ministered. Or when she paid for nieces and nephews’ school uniforms when they couldn’t afford it. And once, she gave up her share in the family’s longtime Oakland home so her cash-strapped sister could benefit. “My mom was truly our best friend, and she always told us to stick together like the five fingers on your hand,” said VM, who asked that only her initials be used. But even survivors need a little help every now and then. VM’s husband died in 2005 after a long illness, and in late 2018 she became ill and fell into financial hardship. The family support she hoped to get did not materialize. That’s when she called 211 Alameda County, run by nonprofit Eden I&R, which connects people with services and resources such as shelter and housing, medical care and food. By that time VM was camped out in her car with her Siberian husky service dog Neiko. She had no place to go and didn’t have enough money for rent. Through perseverance and the kindness and knowledge of people like Khadija Onyeije, a supervisor at 211 Alameda County, VM managed to take small steps toward improving her situation, such as connecting with a Safe Parking program in San Leandro, and eventually finding a place to live. “I knew that there were resources out there to be had, I just needed to find out what they were. And so I called 211, and spoke with Khadija, and from there it was just uphill, really,” she said.
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By David DeBolt ddebolt@ bayareanewsgroup.com
The sound of a basketball pounding the hardwood floor can transport Ben Thornton back to Berkeley and a time that changed his life. He was 12, and playing hoops for the first time competitively when his mother, Angel, let out a gasp as Ben fell out of his wheelchair. “For my mom to see that when I was so young was kinda scary,” Thornton said. “I remember enjoying it because it got me out of my bubble of being a shy kid.” Those early days playing on the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program (BORP) wheelchair team led the 18-year-old resident on a path to a full-ride athletic and disability scholarship this fall at the University of Arizona. BORP was formed by two UC Berkeley students denied participation in an athletic class and became a trailblazer credited with helping start the adaptive sports movement. The organization offers power soccer, wheelchair basketball, fitness and dance classes and tai chi to some 800 children, youth and adults with disabilities. Many of its fitness programs went virtual when the pandemic struck. And with California parks closed, Lori Frey, who is blind, took her adventures and outings class online. She fills them with descriptions: the pungent smell of a bay leaf, or the sound of fish jumping in a stream. “This has become a bit of lifeline for them,” Frey said. “The blind people will say things like, ‘I’m closing my eyes and I’m there, I can feel the wind, I can hear the birds.’ It takes people out of where they are right now and transports them to someplace different.”
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program
ADAPTIVE SPORTS A LIFE-CHANGING GIFT
ANDA CHU — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Ben Thornton dribbles the ball during practice at the James Kinney Recreation Center in Berkeley two years ago. Thornton, who was a member of the BORP Junior Road Warriors wheelchair basketball team, currently plays on the University of Arizona wheelchair basketball team.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
000 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 11
Legal Assistance for Seniors
ON THE CASE WITH FREE ADVICE, AID
JANE TYSKA — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Diana Dominguez sews a quilt at her home in Fremont. Dominguez, 72, received help from Legal Assistance for Seniors to obtain a restraining order on her son who struggles with mental health issues. “They got help for me and help for him,” she said.
By Harry Harris hharris@ bayareanewsgroup.com
It was the most difficult and painful decision Diana Dominguez ever had to make. But the 72-yearold widow knew she desperately needed help to restore her peace of mind and personal safety. Her son, a drug user with untreated mental health issues who exhibited bizarre and sometimes threatening behavior while he lived with her, had made the situation untenable. She loved him but was frightened of him and wanted him out of her home and to get treatment. But try as she could on her own, she was not able to, until she was told about Legal Assistance for Seniors (LAS). The organization serves thousands of mainly Alameda County seniors 60 and older each year by providing free legal advice and representation, including help with health insurance and housing. After some court hearings, both civil and criminal since her son was in jail for violating previous protective orders and for other crimes, she was granted a five-year civil elder abuse restraining order against him in June. She said her son, who “is a very pleasant, helpful person,” when not in an agitated state, never got the proper treatment for his depression and mental health issues. Even though taking action against him was painful, she knows it was necessary, “It’s something I needed to do,” she said. “LAS helped me accomplish that. They got help for me and help for him.”
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By Joan Morris jmorris@ bayareanewsgroup.com
Karol Padilla knew she and her family were in trouble. She and her husband had both contracted COVID-19. Padilla’s symptoms were far worse. Coughing spells wracked her body, making it difficult to breathe, and she needed help performing even the simplest of tasks. Yet with two children to care for, she had to press on. Padilla, speaking through a Spanish interpreter, explained that even before they got sick, the family was struggling in the pandemic. Her husband’s hours at his landscaping job were severely cut back, and they were ordered to quarantine for 14 days after contracting the virus. They had little money for food or bills they owed, and the rent was due. Padilla and thousands like her have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Few have financial safety nets, and many have no family in the area that can help them, says Julie Clemens, director of development for SHELTER, Inc., which serves more than 3,000 people in Contra Costa, Solano, and Sacramento counties each year, helping with housing and emergency assistance. Padilla said she was desperate, and the family waited in lines at food pantries and schools to get help. It was there that she learned about SHELTER, Inc. Padilla said she is grateful for all the organization was able to do for her, and that the family’s situation has improved. She and her husband have recovered, and he recently returned to work full time. “It’s like having angels that helped me,” Padilla said, “and I don’t know how to thank them enough.”
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
SHELTER, Inc.
‘LIKE HAVING ANGELS THAT HELPED ME’
DOUG DURAN — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Karol Padilla with her children Amaya, 2, and Christian, 6, at their home in Concord. Earlier in the year, Padilla and her husband were diagnosed with COVID-19, and the struggling family received food and rental assistance after calling SHELTER, Inc.’s COVID-19hotline.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
000 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 13
Assistance League of Diablo Valley
BOOST TO CONFIDENCE AND COLLEGE DREAMS
JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Socoro Tamayo-Perez, 21, of Concord, earned an associate degree in sociology and social justice from Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill and a scholarship from the Assistance League of Diablo Valley fulfilled a desire to continue her education at San Jose State University.
By Martha Ross mross@ bayareanewsgroup.com
Socoro Tamayo-Perez doesn’t come across as a young woman who has ever doubted herself. At 21, she is friendly, upfront and admits she loves to talk and win arguments — a possible lawyer in the making. Yet Tamayo-Perez grew up fighting the sense that she didn’t fit some people’s idea of who should go to a fouryear university. At her high school in affluent Walnut Creek, she often felt discounted as college material because her parents are immigrants from Mexico, who never finished high school and who always struggled to support their three children with low-wage jobs. The Assistance League of Diablo Valley provides scholarships of up to $4,000 to full-time community college students planning to transfer to four-year colleges. So receiving a scholarship from the organization to attend San Jose State University was a big boost to her self-esteem, TamayoPerez said. It validated her desire to seek a higher education and pursue work helping people like herself and her parents. “When I received the call about the scholarship, it made me want to cry,” said Tayamo-Perez, who now lives in Concord. “I was thinking, ‘I can’t believe you want to invest in my education. The fact that you’re saying that I can succeed, I was just, like, ‘Thank you.’ It helped me feel worthy to transfer and be at a four-year university.”
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By Jim Harrington jharrington@ bayareanewsgroup.com
Things haven’t always been easy for Gina Harris and her son Oliver. But, fortunately, they’ve had the Davis Street Community Center in times of need. “I’ve been going there for like three years now,” said the 26-year-old San Leandro resident, who has received food, clothing and other assistance from the organization. “They have honestly really helped me through the hardest times I’ve been through.” Some of those hard times happened earlier this year as Harris, who supports herself and 4-year-old Oliver in part by cleaning homes, suddenly found herself in financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “In the beginning, a lot of my clients didn’t want me to come clean their houses,” she said. Once again, Davis Street was there for Harris and her son — just like the nonprofit organization has been there for thousands of others who have been impacted by the pandemic. Over the past six months, the nonprofit has seen a huge increase in demand for its services, which include rent and utility assistance; medical, dental and behavioral health services; childcare services; and food assistance. “It’s a really great feeling to be able to help people like Gina,” said Kristal Gonzalez, Davis Street’s basic needs director. “Everybody is struggling right now with COVID and people are losing their jobs left and right.”
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
Davis Street Community Center
FULFILLING BASIC NEEDS DURING CRISIS
JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Gina Harris, 26, of San Leandro, and her son Oliver Salas, 4, inside the food warehouse at the Davis Street Community Center in San Leandro. “They have honestly really helped me through the hardest times I’ve been through,” Harris said of the assistance she’s received from the center.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
000 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 15
Meals on Wheels Diablo Region
ROLLING TO HELP WITH MORE THAN MEALS
ARIC CRABB — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Katharine Broadnax, 77, turned to Meals on Wheels Diablo Region to supplement items such as these tomatoes from a friend’s garden.
By Joan Morris jmorris@ bayareanewsgroup.com
Katharine Broadnax, who has successfully fought cancer twice, including a recent battle, was doubly worried about her health when the COVID-19 pandemic descended. She knew that older people were susceptible, and that cancer patients and survivors were at twice the risk. Broadnax, 77, knew her best chance for survival was to hunker down in her San Ramon apartment, avoiding outside trips and exposure to people, even her friends and family. She wasn’t sure how she could manage that until someone suggested she contact Meals on Wheels Diablo Region, which offers Contra Costa County seniors meal deliveries to their homes, along with an assortment of other programs. “I wasn’t even sure they would accept me,” Broadnax said. “I thought with all the budget cuts and so many people needing food that this service didn’t exist anymore.” Many seniors have taken the order to shelter in place seriously, and people who used to visit and help them with daily activities have found themselves cut off for now. Caitlyn Sly, executive director of Meals on Wheels Diablo Region, says the program has seen the number of people needing help increase by 40% during the pandemic, on top of the 6,000 they already serve monthly. One client in her 90s, Sly said, told the group that a “young friend” had been helping her. “Her young friend was 79 years old,” Sly said. “More and more, older seniors are relying on younger seniors to step in and fill that void, but they can’t always.”
16 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 000
By Chuck Barney cbarney@bayareanewsgrup.com
Over his 23 years, Marsai Turbin hasn’t often enjoyed the smoothest of life paths. Nor has he had the best of luck. He spent much of his childhood in the foster care system. As an adult, he has endured stretches of homelessness and bouts of depression, and has had little contact with his biological mother. Recently, Turbin was the victim of a freakish double-whammy. First, he was struck by a hit-andrun driver while crossing a street. Just a few weeks later, misfortune struck again as he strolled to a corner store. Nearby, two people were arguing. A gun was fired and Turbin was hit in his upper left leg by a stray bullet. “I’ve had some hard luck,” admits Turbin, who was hospitalized and temporarily had difficulty walking after the shooting. “But I’m not a hater. I do my best to stick it out and stay positive.” Supporting him in that quest is the Rainbow Community Center of Contra Costa County, a Concordbased nonprofit that serves the LGBTQI+ community by offering counseling, clinical needs, training and social programs for youth and seniors. “We work with folks who are marginalized — folks who can’t catch a break,” says Rasheedah S. Blake, the director of Rainbow’s Youth Housing Program. Earlier this year, Blake helped Turbin secure an apartment. At the time, Turbin explains, he “was sleeping here and there, and worried about catching coronavirus.” “She’s always there for me when life gets rough,” he said of Blake. “I think she sees something in me that others might not.”
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
Rainbow Community Center of Contra Costa County
FINDING SUPPORT FOR A FRESH START
ANDA CHU — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Rainbow Community Center of Contra Costa County helped Marsai Turbin, 23, secure his apartment in Oakland during a challenging time in his life. The nonprofit serves the LGBTQI+ community by offering counseling, clinical needs, training and social programs.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
000 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 17
Fred Finch Youth & Family Services
STAYING CONNECTED WITH TECHNOLOGY
JANE TYSKA — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Therapist David Millen stands in front of a sculpture at Fred Finch Youth & Family Services in Oakland. During the pandemic, the nonprofit has begun using more technology and video platforms to help young people and their families.
By George Avalos gavalos@ bayareanewsgroup.com
As the coronavirus pandemic forces many people to stay at home, Fred Finch Youth & Family Services is finding ways to embrace distance technologies for mental health therapy. The youth center in Oakland uses a combination of music, video chats and different technology platforms to help deliver therapy to clients and keep them engaged in the sessions, now that the coronavirus limits in-person meetings. “This is not just about going to telehealth, this is about going to tele-mental health,” said David Millen, a therapist at the center who has been using a music studio production program to connect with youth. Fred Finch first opened as an orphanage in 1891. Today, the center helps young people and their families overcome homelessness, poverty, developmental and psychiatric disabilities, and significant trauma. The pivot to successful video health services hasn’t always been smooth, with varied levels of engagement. With that in mind, the youth center has spiced up video chats with varied activities such as music, arts, games and cooking. The use of music or other forms of art creates an additional comfort level for a young person who might feel shut off or disconnected from a video therapy session, in Millen’s view. “It opens up an emotional door that the kids might not normally have access to,” Millen said. “They take anger or other emotions that would turn into violence and instead they put it into art.”
18 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 000
By Shomik Mukherjee smukherjee@ bayareanewsgroup.com
There are plenty of images Avalon Glucksman could recount from her early morning escape in 2018 from the deadly Camp Fire: the darkened sky, the frenzied packand-go, the sights of her town, Paradise, perishing in her rearview mirror. But she prefers to stick to the positive. “I don’t watch horror movies anymore,” Glucksman said. Instead, the 40-year-old and her husband, Rocky, direct their focus to how others have helped them recover from the traumatizing event. Among the biggest helpers, Glucksman said, are food banks — including the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano — that keep the couple and other families afloat two years out from the destructive wildfires that have shaken the West Coast. When she isn’t busy dealing with the unending logistics of rebuilding her home, she still manages to find time and energy to cook food for people staying in temporary housing after escaping wildfires. She buys the food at grocery stores, and relies on the food bank so that there is enough for herself and her husband. Lisa Roehling, who manages local distribution in Butte County for the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano, said nothing about the healing process is easy or cheap. She knows firsthand: Her home in Paradise was one of more than 18,000 structures claimed by the Camp Fire, a life blow that she said gives her stronger empathy and know-how when engaging with people who rely on the food bank’s services. “Whether they had insurance or not, the thing that’s becoming very obvious is that rebuilding is going to cost a lot more than expected,” Roehling said.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano
FOOD BOXES FILL GAP FOR FIRE SURVIVORS
JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Camp Fire survivor David Turnbow, 58, of Paradise, is happy to see apples while unpacking a food box from the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano. Turnbow and his wife Debbie, who have lived in their home for 35years, lost half their house and a work shed in the fire.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
000 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 19
Opportunity Junction
TEACHING SKILLS THAT WILL LAND JOBS
DOUG DURAN — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Gwenette Moore, a graduate of Opportunity Junction’s Administrative Careers Training program, works at her job as an administrative operations coordinator for Semper Solaris in Concord,
By Rowena Gonden Correspondent
There’s pride in the portrait Gwenette Moore uploaded to her LinkedIn profile, head erect and smiling directly into the camera. But the job title that appears under her name offers no hint of the struggles the 51-year-old Concord mother of three overcame to claim it. Life dealt Moore a blow in 2011 when work-related injuries forced her to quit her long-time job as a school bus driver and trainer. She later got back on track with a new job and career, but then Moore’s husband of 16 years died three days before Thanksgiving in 2017, and less than two years later, her younger sister succumbed to a heart attack. At work, the mounting pressure caused Moore to lose focus, and she eventually made mistakes that cost her job. So Moore reached out to Opportunity Junction, an Antioch nonprofit that offers a smorgasbord of career help, from job training to resume writing and mock interview coaching. The agency also offers counseling that helps clients recognize and cope with life stressors that could derail their success. Moore had previously received training from the organization and had mastered Microsoft certifications in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The nonprofit’s Business Services Manager Shaun Samuels passed her resume on to a hiring manager at a solar installation company in Concord. Moore had two interviews in as many days and received a job offer from Semper Solaris the evening of the second one. “I was actually in shock,” Moore recalled. “I was like, ‘Are you serious? Really? No way!’ ”
20 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 000
By Rowena Gonden Correspondent
A warm breeze wafts over the motley assortment of people and dogs trickling into the expansive clearing along the San Joaquin River. Some wander around sipping coffee while others snack from brown lunch bags marked with the Bible verse John 3:16 in black felt pen. Arranged in neat rows, the meals consist of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bananas, cookies, candy and chips. A man sits on a picnic bench reading aloud from the book of Psalms. Most here lack a physical sanctuary, so they’ve come for the hot showers that Ken Rickner trucks in every Saturday morning on his 16-foot trailer. The founder of ShowerHouse Ministries has spent the past five years caring for the bodies and souls of Antioch’s homeless. “I don’t like to be dirty at all,” said Deana Pozar, 59, who’s been living on the streets sporadically for the past five years and currently calls her 1997 Honda Civic home. “To be dirty to me, it’s shameful. It’s the way people look at you, like you’re a disgrace, that you’re going to harm them.” During the week, Pozar supplements Rickner’s gift with what she calls “bird baths,” slipping into parks’ public restrooms with soap and a washcloth to freshen up. Around 15 people typically use the showers in the course of a morning, although on one occasion a record-breaking 27 left feeling refreshed. “This is a blessing,” said Robert Watson, 48, a former beneficiary of Rickner’s ministry during his years of homelessness and drug addiction.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
ShowerHouse Ministries
FRESH PERSPECTIVE FOR THE HOMELESS
RAY CHAVEZ — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Doris Dossman, who is homeless, gets dressed after showering in a trailer provided by ShowerHouse Ministries parked next to the San Joaquin River in Antioch. ShowerHouse Ministries founder Ken Rickner offers showers, hygiene kits, clothes and meals to those in need.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
000 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 21
Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center
GROWING IDEAS INTO THRIVING BUSINESSES
ARIC CRABB — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Yaqueline Martinez, owner of the catering business Yaqueline y Su Sabor Cubano, prepares meals in a shared kitchen space at CoBiz in Richmond. The Cuban immigrant’s dream became a reality with small-business training and support from Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center.
By Angela Hill Correspondent
Savory aromas of ropa vieja — the “old clothes” of slowcooked pulled stewed beef with bell peppers, garlic and onion — often float from the kitchen space at CoBiz in Richmond where chef Yaqueline Martinez prepares traditional criollo aboriginal Cuban food, each dish coming with a side of deep gratitude from the chef for the “road of blessings” she’s received along the way. Her business, Yaqueline y Su Sabor Cubano, was just a dream for the Cuban immigrant a decade ago, but it became a reality thanks in large part to small-business training and support from Richmond’s Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center. The organization not only helped her get started with a business plan, licensing and social media presence for catering large and small events, but also helped her pivot during the pandemic and continue to thrive by providing family meals and delivery services. Renaissance provides business courses and support services for people who face barriers to economic opportunity, helping them break the cycle of poverty by starting and growing their own small companies. “I am so very grateful to so many people at Renaissance,” Martinez said during a recent Zoom interview from her home, her bright smile shining through the computer screen.
22 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 000
By Angela Hill Correspondent
Growing up in a whirlwind of households — spun around from her parents’ home to foster care, to apartments of various relatives and back to multiple foster homes again — it was hard for Danika Anderson to consider stability as the norm. “I kind of got used to it, the constant moving — my brothers and I were in foster homes in Hayward, Richmond, Tracy, all over the place,” said Anderson who is now 27 and will earn her associate of arts degree this fall. She’s also living in a stable housing situation with her three kids thanks to several years of life-coaching, housing and jobsearch support from Beyond Emancipation (B.E.), an Oakland nonprofit that assists youth who have come from the foster-care or probation systems as they move into adulthood and independent living. Case managers, called coaches, first help young people with practical tasks like getting bus passes and opening checking accounts, and then guide them toward their long-term goals. “My life would’ve been terrible if it hadn’t been for B.E.,” Anderson said. “They really looked out for me when I needed somebody.”
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
BEYOND EMANCIPATION
COACHING FOR A STABLE ADULTHOOD
JANE TYSKA — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Danika Anderson plays with her children Jalen, 7, left, Jabree, 6, and daughter Amia’yiah, 3, at their home in Oakland. Beyond Emancipation helped Anderson, who will earn her associate degree this fall. “They really looked out for me when I needed somebody,” she said.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
000 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 23
East Bay Children’s Law Offices
LEGAL ADVOCATES ARE VOICE FOR CHILDREN
ANDA CHU — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Kendi Martinez Garcia, 19, right, has been represented by East Bay Children’s Law Offices attorney Roxanne Romell for the past three years, helping her navigate the legal system when the teen fled an abusive situation and a mother who didn’t believe her.
By Angela Ruggiero aruggiero@ bayareanewsgroup.com
Kendi Martinez Garcia was 16 years old when she ran away from home for what would be the last time, from an abusive situation and a mother who didn’t believe her. Garcia, now 19, ended up in the care of Alameda County Social Services. To help figure out what was best for her, an attorney was assigned to her — Roxanne Romell from the East Bay Children’s Law Offices. Romell represents Garcia and her interests in court hearings, and advocates for her. Romell was likely one of the first adults who believed Garcia’s story. Garcia ran away constantly, and her mother did not believe her allegations of abuse by a family member. “After I was in the custody of Alameda County, I told my story to Roxanne, and she defended me in court,” Garcia said. Attorneys from the East Bay Children’s Law Offices serve as appointed representatives for children during court proceedings — even young children or babies. It’s not something everyone thinks about that children need, said executive director Kristin Mateer. Their motto is “children should be seen, and heard,” she said. Garcia chose to remain with her foster mother in American Canyon. She recently finished her emergency medical technician program at a community college and is on her way to becoming a paramedic. She recently had a baby, Alejandro, but after maternity leave, is planning on returning to work as an EMT to complete her needed hours. “You have to take advantage of what you’re being offered,” she said.
24 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 000
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
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