San Diego nonprofits help formerly incarcerated people reintegrate into workforce

Posted on: CBS8
Author: Rocio De La Fe
Published: 9:17 AM PST February 24, 2024
Updated: 9:17 AM PST February 24, 2024

Through their partnership, the organizations combine their resources to provide wrap-around services tailored to the needs of formerly incarcerated people.

SAN DIEGO — The most recent state report shows California’s recidivism rate is at around 46%, that’s the rate that former incarcerated individuals find themselves back in jail. 

Several nonprofits in San Diego County are helping many people break that cycle by equipping them with the tools they need to reenter the workforce.

From job training to mentorship programs, these nonprofit organizations offer a wide range of services to break down barriers to employment and help create a smooth transition back into society.

“A job is a key element in success and not becoming a statistic of the recidivism rate that California has," said Tracy Holt, who has rejoined the workforce after serving time in prison.

Holt now works as a backup driver and also spends his time performing litter abatement, highway maintenance, and landscaping.

Holt, a Navy veteran, has successfully reintegrated into society thanks to the support of San Diego’s Five Keys Schools and Programs, which offers transitional employment to formerly incarcerated individuals.

After serving two decades in prison, Holt says he faced significant barriers to employment after his release.

“There’s always the uncertainty of what’s going to be next. And a job is the most important. Without a job your odds and chances of going back are greater than if you have the stability," said Holt.

The Five Keys Schools and Programs works closely with a network of 18 other nonprofit partners in San Diego County, including Back 2 Work and the San Diego Workforce Partnership.

“It’s very difficult when you have been out of the workforce for x amount of years or even have a background," said Kimberly Castillo, with Back 2 Work. "We support in providing essentially a temporary employment while they look for permanent employment or rejoin the education system."

Through their partnership, the organizations combine their resources to provide comprehensive wrap-around services tailored to the needs of formerly incarcerated people.

“The workforce partnership is very important when it comes to the vitality of our economy and our community," said Tony Young, Interim President and CEO, San Diego Workforce Partnership.

Recently, the San Diego Workforce Program received a nearly $5 million grant from the California Workforce Development Board. The money aims to bolster employment services through its reentry works services.

“We want to support these individuals and they have all the ability to do the work. They just need our support," said Young.

Young says the grant will further help the nonprofit and its regional partners to provide life-changing services to individuals like Tracy.

“Tracy really embodies what we’re about. We have resources to help individuals like Tracy really make a different not only in his life but in the lives of others," he added.

Young says Tracy’s story serves as a testament to the transformative impact organizations like Back 2 Work and San Diego Workforce Partnership can have.

“It made all the difference in the world there’s no way that I could’ve made it without the resources that was made available to me," said Holt.

Tracy is currently working to obtain his commercial driver’s license which will help him take the next steps into a full-time, permanent career.

Read The Original Post on CBS8

After controversy, Mission’s tiny homes to open early April at 16th St. BART plaza

Posted on Mission Local by XUEER LU FEBRUARY 23, 2024, 6:50 PM

Construction site of Mission Cabins, also known as "tiny homes", on Feb. 23, 2024. Photo by Xueer Lu.

Mission Cabins, a village of 60 tiny homes serving up to 68 adults experiencing homelessness, hopes to open by the end of March at 1979 Mission Street next to the 16th St. BART plaza, and to begin services in early April. 

The city recently awarded a two-year $2.9 million a year contract to manage the site to Five Keys Schools and Programs, a nonprofit. Five Keys also manages the Embarcadero SAFE Navigation Center, a site for shorter stays for people with substance use disorders. 

Steve Good, president and chief executive officer of Five Keys, said that the nonprofit will be offering 24/7 services such as property management, case management, cleaning inside and outside of the site, room checks, and maintenance. “It’ll be pretty comprehensive services not just for the site,” Good added. “But also to be good neighbors with the community.” 

On Friday, the former parking lot was busy with activity: trucks and workers were going in and out transporting construction materials, some white cabins and metallic bathrooms had been installed, and eight-foot poles for the fences had gone up. 

Across from the site, at Capp and Adair streets, some 10 neighbors stood in a circle with city staff for a community meeting to go over a draft of an agreement with the Healthy Streets Operation Center and Departments of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, Public Works, and Police.

The draft proposed a list of policies to ease concerns previously raised by nearby residents, as well as some parents at Marshall Elementary School, a K-5 public school located adjacent to the site.The city agreed that the Capp Street entrance and exit to the cabins will only be used for emergencies, any tents on the sidewalk in front will be immediately reported to 311 by staff, and HSH will create an incident dashboard to track service requests and 311/911 calls. 

“I’m happy to see them add in a lot of the things that we requested,” said Naomi Fox, PTA president at  Marshall, listing more items such as a minimum of three perimeter inspections daily, and collecting litter around the site. “It’s happy to see a step in a positive direction.”

A man who gave his name as George, who has been living on Adair Street since 2002, asked about the program’s opening date.

“I’m going to say April 1 but it might shift,” said Emily Cohen, deputy director for communications and legislative affairs at HSH. It might shift depending on where we are with construction.” 

The preparation for move-in, Cohen said, has been an ongoing process: Outreach workers from HSH have been quietly identifying a list of over 100 people who have been living for many months in nearby encampments. They plan to invite 10 to 20 people per week into the site until it reaches full capacity.  Upon moving into the tiny homes, guests will have access to on-site bathrooms, showers, community space, case management, and up to two meals a day. 

“We will literally walk people over with the outreach team if they’re in an encampment or if they’re just like an individual hanging out in the street,” Cohen said.

Cohen emphasized the role of Santiago Lerma, Supervisor Hilary Ronen’s former legislative aide and the director of Mission Streets Condition Response. Ronen promised Lerma’s participation last October in a community meeting where she was bashed by residents for quietly agreeing to the cabins. Cohen said Lerma would be out on the street on a “daily basis, leveraging city resources to address challenges.”

“I can’t stop somebody from smoking fentanyl on the street. But I can be out here,” Lerma said. “I can talk to people. I can communicate with Captain Harvey [of SFPD’s Mission Station] on a daily basis about things all around the Mission. I’ll be coming here every day.”

“I was worried but now I think it’s looking pretty good,” said Aaron Wojack, a resident who has been living on the block for two and a half years. “Better than the old parking lot.”

Read The Original Post on Mission Local

Five Keys: Incarceration Meets Aspiration

“Hope.” This overworked noun can read like a blasé greeting card shorthand to those who have no need of it. For Tammy Johnson – who spent 28 years in prison for a murder her abuser committed – “hope” was the high-octane fuel powering her decades of determined self-work. “We help everybody,” she says today with cheery swagger. Johnson is Program Director for Home Free, transitional post-prison housing for unjustly incarcerated women; an initiative begun in 2020 by San Francisco nonprofit Five Keys. In their own words: Five Keys provides traditionally underserved communities the opportunity to improve their lives through a focus on the Five Keys: EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT, RECOVERY, FAMILY, COMMUNITY.

Tammy, Five Keys Home Free Director.

But Five Keys’ inaugural mission began in 2003 with education as its theme, the nonprofit launching the first accredited charter high school in the U.S. to provide diploma programs for adults in California county jails. Lack of a high school diploma has long had a statistical correlation with incarceration and repeat offending. 

“Recidivism drops by over 50% when a high school diploma is earned,” says Lisa Pitters, Chief Education Officer. Five Keys made high school graduation available to the imprisoned, in 2008 adding to their program of educational determinism by providing a path to both a high school diploma and vocational skills outside the jail system in underserved neighborhoods all around California. Today, more than 100 such community learning centers serve aspiring students of any age, background, or circumstance. “The education is self-paced,” says Pitters. “There are lots of single moms and people working several jobs. The teachers are really what make it so wonderful.”  

Five Keys’ vital Home Free initiative was launched in 2020. “Home Free is a home for abused women, and women who have been human trafficked,” says Johnson. She adds plainly, “These are women who have defended themselves against their abusers.” 

Thousands of women, nationwide, have spent decades in prison convicted of homicide in trials that didn’t allow them to present evidence of the horrific abuse they’d suffered. There were other unjust evidentiary problems. “Some of these women were at the scene of a crime under the coercive control of their abuser,” says Sunny Schwartz, co-founder of Home Free, describing Johnson’s own lockdown detour of 28 irretrievable years. 

A belated change in California law led to commutations, and after decades in prison, women found themselves eligible for release. Incarceration follows a grand ceremony of gavels, bailiffs, sonorous speeches, and rules of order. No such decorum attends one’s release after being shut away for 30 years. A door opens and you walk through it clutching whatever you can carry. The prospect of beginning anew is Everest-like. 

To these women, Home Free is not just four walls and a ceiling, but an instructive re-launch pad. There are workshops in financial and tech literacy, computer and job training classes, and a long-awaited embrace where counseling, healing – and an underpraised energy source called love – help women rebuild brutally interrupted lives; and self-regard. 

“My abuser used to get other young girls,” Johnson says, “and I would take them and put them on the bus home. I would get beat up afterwards, but I never stopped. I always cared for other people, but I didn’t care for myself.” Johnson’s gorgeous smile is right around 1000 watts, and here it comes. “Now I do.” 

Read the Original Article on The Giving List

Are SF's Navigation Centers a Magnet for Crime? Here's How Data Refutes Public Perception

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco's first navigation center opened in 2015. Since then, the city has built several others in an effort to move some of the homeless into permanent housing. They have always been controversial.

In August 2019, a surveillance camera caught a resident of a building near San Francisco's Embarcadero being attacked by a homeless man with mental health issues.

The timing could not have been worse as the city had announced just several months before that a navigation center for the unhoused would be built just a few paces from where the attack happened.

A battle ensued between residents of the South Beach and Rincon Hill neighborhoods and City Hall, arguing that the navigation center would bring in more homeless, attract crime, and more drug use.

It turns out, it never did any of those things.

Let's compare crime incident reports in that area before the navigation center opened with the most recent incident reports provided by SFPD. Turns out, the neighborhoods with a navigation center, like the rest of San Francisco, have seen a decrease in crime.

Some of the residents overlooking both the Bay and the courtyard of the navigation center have also argued they've been financially affected.

"The people that own here in this condominium probably lost about 15% of the value of their home," says resident Dirk Etienne.

According to the data, residents have lost 13-15% of their value, but they can't blame the navigation center because every neighborhood in San Francisco has seen a similar or higher decline.

Read the Full Article on ABC News

The Five Keys EAT! Program included in USDA’s $28M investment to Support Beginning Farmers and Ranchers

Press Release | Release No. 0236.23

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2023 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small today announced an investment of $27.9 million across 45 organizations that teach and train beginning farmers and ranchers, including programs for U.S. veterans who are entering into agricultural careers and starting new farming businesses.

“The next generation of farmers and ranchers hold the promise for future American agriculture and rural prosperity,” said USDA Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small. “Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is providing our newest producers with the support they need to succeed and the educational resources to guide their operations on the path toward long-term sustainability and profitability.”

This investment is part of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP), which supports a wide range of professional development activities and topics, such as managing capital, acquiring and managing land, and learning effective business and farming practices.

“This investment reflects USDA’s commitment to helping new farmers and ranchers realize their dreams,” said USDA Chief Scientist and Under Secretary for Research, Education an Economics Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young. “As the average age of our U.S. producers continues to increase, USDA is accelerating efforts to provide meaningful support to a rising cadre of farmers and ranchers—including military veterans interested in starting new careers after their service—so they can cultivate the skills needed to be productive, profitable and resilient.”

According to USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service’s Ag Census data, one-third of the United States’ 3.4 million farmers are over the age of 65.

“Ensuring there will be a new generation of beginning farmers and ranchers – regardless of age or production choice – is essential to the continuation of agricultural production in the United States,” said USDA NIFA Director Dr. Manjit Misra. “Beginning farmers and ranchers have unique educational, training, technical assistance and outreach needs. Access to capital, land and knowledge that assists in ensuring profitability and sustainability are vital to farmers and ranchers in their first 10 years of operation.”

NIFA’s BFRDP funds three types of projects:

  • Standard Projects to new and established local and regional training, education outreach and technical assistance initiatives that address the unique local and regional needs of beginning farmers and ranchers.

  • Educational Team Projects to develop seamless beginning farmer and rancher education programs by conducting evaluation, coordination and enhancement activities for standard projects and other non-funded beginning farmer programs.

  • Curriculum and Training Clearinghouse to make educational curricula and training materials available to beginning farmers and ranchers and organizations who directly serve them.

Examples of the 45 newly funded projects for FY2023 include:

  • Calypso Farm and Ecology Center: This project, Growing Alaskan Farmers: An Agricultural Training Program for Alaska Native People and Their Communities, aims to train a growing population of beginning Indigenous farmers in rural Alaska. This supports the broader vision to foster food sovereignty across Alaska by providing the training and support necessary for Alaskan villages to grow their own food. The project is an Indigenous-led, hands-on, farmer training program.

  • Farm Boot Camp: This project will provide in-depth training, technical assistance, and hands-on internship opportunities to transitioning active duty and veteran beginning farmers obtaining the knowledge, skills and tools needed to make informed decisions for their farming operations. The training and materials will be based on the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework aimed at addressing the needs of service-related disabilities.

  • In Her Shoes, Inc.: This two-state project aims will provide education and support to 90 new and beginner women and Black farmers each year in West Georgia and the Mississippi Delta. The goal of the project is to increase women and Black operated farm businesses through farm business expansion and new market access. The project also will lead to increased fresh food in local communities.

  • La Semilla Food Center: This project will advance a regional practice of climate smart agriculture solutions while removing individual and systemic obstacles for socially disadvantaged and colonia farmers of the Chihuahuan Desert Ecoregion and providing them with opportunities to prosper.

USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. In the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate-smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean-energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.

READ THE ORIGINAL RELEASE ON THE USDA WEBSITE

San Francisco Receives $18.2 Million Project Homekey Grant to Support Adding New Permanent Supportive Housing

Homekey funds, which have allowed the City to expand permanent supportive housing by nearly 900 units in the last three years, will cover the purchase and operating costs of 685 Ellis Street

San Francisco, CA - This week, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) announced that San Francisco was awarded $18.2 million in capital and operating funds from the state’s Project Homekey to purchase the 74-room property at 685 Ellis Street to operate as Interim Housing, and eventually convert to Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) for adults exiting homelessness.  

Governor Gavin Newsom launched Project Homekey in 2020 as an innovative strategy for addressing homelessness by providing local public jurisdictions with critical federal and state funding to develop a broad range of housing types, including hotels, motels, and hostels into permanent housing for those experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness.

This most recent Project Homekey award is the seventh given to San Francisco since the program started three years ago. In total, San Francisco has been awarded $230 million in Homekey Grants to expand permanent supportive housing by 873 units for adults, families, and young adults across seven properties.

San Francisco provides shelter and housing to nearly 16,000 homeless and formerly homeless individuals every night; 13,000 of these people are in City-supported housing programs. The new homes at 685 Ellis Street will add to the City’s permanent supportive housing portfolio, which is larger than any county in the Bay Area, and the second highest per capita among any city in the country.  

Read The Full Story on SF.GOV Here

San Francisco to spend $19 million to operate 74-unit building for homeless

By Shirleen Guerra | The Center Square

The Center Square) – San Francisco is spending $19 million on expanding an agreement with a non-profit to run a homeless hotel for four years through 2026.

The total cost of the operation is $27.3 million.

The city and county of San Francisco had a resolution on Tuesday approving the first amendment to the contract between Five Keys Schools and Programs and the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.

The city purchased 685 Ellis Street, which is a 74-unit building, in May 2022 so it can be used as housing for homeless people. The units would come with supportive services, and tenants would have their own units and leases.

The building has a lobby, community lounge, a commercial kitchen, office space, and a laundry room. Each unit has a private bathroom and kitchenette.

The 2022 point-in-time survey conducted on Feb. 23, 2022, shows the number of people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco was 7,754.

Read The Original Article on The Center Square Here

From Drugs and Jail to a Second Act Changing Lives

“I’m here to do whatever I can to help these women get back on their feet.”

Chalia Broudes is a big believer in second chances.

Growing up in Oakland, she was the eldest of six, and the go-to sibling helping her single mom and brothers and sisters navigate “difficult” circumstances.

Not one to dwell on her past, she briefly fills in her background with words like abuse, crystal meth, homelessness and living in squalor, burglary and jail. She says she is still healing from the blurry nine years she moved to Atlanta, then Texas and back to northern California.

It is a past Chalia, 34, wants to lock in a closet behind her. Today she is dedicated to focusing her energy and 24/7 work life on reaching out to help other women struggling with addiction, and who also are experiencing their second chances. She is committed to raising the voices of women who may have unwittingly gotten themselves mired in crime and other horrible situations, but who now are re-starting their lives.  

In September Chalia will be two years sober.

Today, she is an ambassador for Home Free, San Francisco-based trauma-informed reentry program for criminalized survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking. She’s also enrolled in Five Keys charter schools program, studying for her GED. College is next on her bucket list. Prior to Home Free, Chalia worked for Five Keys’ Navigation Centers for the unhoused.

At Home Free, Chalia helps women recently released from prison. For some, she will be helping them apply for social security IDs. For others, she’s the tech advisor for setting up an iPhone or new laptop. For others, she is the companion for women who have been imprisoned for decades on their first trek to a happy place they’ve only dreamed about for years: the grocery store.

Driven by her mission

Chalia is passionate about her mission: “I’m here to do whatever I can to help these women get back on their feet.”

She can empathize with their suffering and knows firsthand what it feels like to be trapped. She calls it “being free from our narrow place.”

“My narrow place was when I was on drugs,” says Chalia. “I did not ever think I was going to stop until I went to jail for five months then God had something different planned. He gave me a second chance then, and the narrow place started to open wide doors to a new life. Then the doors started to open like a domino effect.”

Bring hope and faith to the women of Home Free

For the women of Home Free, she is a godsend.

Karen Souder, a resident, says: “Chalia has been my rock here! The one I can totally trust and talk to no matter what the situation is. Her moral values and beliefs bring a feeling of home and love to me. She inspires me and lifts me up when I am feeling alone and discouraged. She enlightens Home Free with hope and faith and empowers us to keep going and improving ourselves. She is fair and honest and truly has a
good heart.”

These days, the simple things are what give her great pleasure.

“I love cooking, even cleaning and going to movies is my favorite,” Chalia says. “I’m very tapped into my spiritual side and know God has plans for me to help others. I love helping others and know that no matter what anyone has been through, they always deserve a second chance.”

Sometimes, she admits: I still struggle with believing in myself, having the courage to start something that is not finished and being good enough. Working with Five Keys helped and still helps me a lot. I have a great support team so I take it day by day.”

About Five Keys

Five Keys was founded in 2003 by the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department as the first
accredited charter high school in the nation to provide diploma programs for adults in county jails. Today Five Keys serves 30,000-plus Californians annually, spanning 14 counties in 25 county jails and over 120 teaching sites. In addition to schools,
Five Keys operates multiple homeless shelters, permanent supportive housing programs, transitional employment programs, reentry programs and housing for women suffering from immense injustice. Five Keys is a second chance employer. Our goal is to restore communities through education and other programs that respond to the students’ and community needs — which in turn creates safer communities. To visit or donate: www.fivekeyshomefree.org.