Exploring and Developing Career Ladders in Manufacturing & STEM for Formerly Incarcerated Women
We will pilot the expansion of Roots’ Emancipators workforce initiative to include women-only cohorts, adding an array of gender-responsive support services for women to its proven job training and mentorship model. Two (2) cohorts of six (6) women each will receive light manufacturing training at the Clean360 natural bath & body product factory, in addition to gender-responsive workshops, trainings and support groups. Job training and intense wraparound services are provided for eight weeks, after which time graduates move into permanent employment, internship at Roots and/or continue to progress on their educational plan. Women can continue to receive ongoing care and navigation at Roots following the apprenticeship and/or internship.
Core Care Area: Empowerment
Program: Emancipators Initiative
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Clean360
ACOCAP
Program Delivery. Roots will conduct outreach in East and West Oakland, Hayward, San Leandro and Union City via community partners, events, and outreach teams using our mobile offices, reaching at least 250 low-income residents. We will screen a minimum of fifty clients for eligibility in the Emancipators Initiative. Clients with active substance use, unstable mental health conditions, or disabling physical conditions will be referred to treatment, GA, and/or SSI advocacy if appropriate. Twenty-five qualified individuals will participate in self-sufficiency activities that improve their living conditions as they engage in hands-on training in the Clean360 soap factory, receive a stipend, engage in barrier removal, receive service navigation and ultimately gain stable employment.
ref. ACOCAP_RFP_Response.pdf, 2017-2019 – Dan Abrahamson
Core Care Area: Empowerment
Program: Emancipators Initiative
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Clean360, Substance Abuse, Mental Health
East Oakland Building Healthy Communities
In 2012, Roots implemented its Emancipators workforce initiative which gave rise to the design and implementation of our social enterprise, Clean360 where we train individuals who have been marginalized from the workforce in our model soap factory. This social enterprise model is a community development strategy that serves to train and employ increasing numbers of individuals who have been excluded from the workforce, while reinvesting revenue into the community. We recently opened our third retail location in East Oakland, where community members are demonstrating their support of our investment in East Oakland by making this our most successful retail location to date, despite its location in the highest poverty neighborhood. Roots and Clean360 are employing increasing numbers of East Oakland residents, fiscally sponsoring community groups and smaller non-profits, and supporting entrepreneurs and incubating small businesses, all as part of our mission to reduce poverty and dependency in our community, by promoting self-sufficiency and community empowerment.
Core Care Area: Empowerment
Program: Emancipators Initiative, East Oakland Building Healthy Communities
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Clean360, Emancipators Workforce Initiative
Clean360 Workforce
Clean 360 began as a social enterprise of Roots Community Health Center, linking people with employment barriers to job training and stabilization services. When you purchase our handmade products you are supporting the mission of The Emancipators Initiative, a program developed to educate and empower those who have been separated from the workforce. The Emancipators not only strive to provide you with a quality product but work simultaneously to establish themselves professionally while giving back to their community and families. It is our belief that in those often discredited there is a wealth of potential. Through education and empowerment, we seek to close the gap in learning and initiative left by insufficient school programs and community resources. Our program is living proof that a story of adversity can also be one of success.
ref. Packing Rephrasing – Dan Abrahamson
Core Care Model: Empowerment
Program: Emancipators Initiative; Clean360
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Workforce
Exploring & Developing Career Ladders in Manufacturing & STEM for Formerly Incarcerated Women
…a flexible and expandable program model for reentry engagement and empowerment which addresses critical barriers and can be replicated by other providers and agencies. This will include delivering a condensed version of the training curriculum and exercises/lesson plans/agendas we developed in our Round 2 Innovations “Reentry Engagement Framework.” We will also document our program model for reentry consumer forums, building upon our experience holding listening sessions and community forums in Round 2 innovations among others. Importantly, we will maintain a specific focus on aligning these activities such that participants meaningfully engage with the CCP-EC, its subcommittees and the CAB.
Core Care Model: Empowerment
Program:
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Workforce; Incarceration; Women
Exploring & Developing Career Ladders in Manufacturing & STEM for Formerly Incarcerated Women
We piloted our Women’s Empowerment Initiative in spring of 2018 in response to the need for gender-responsive services for women experiencing barriers to enter the workforce. This pilot included job training in health administration as well as gender-specific groups and workshops. Of our four participants, all successfully graduated, three obtained continued employment, one enrolled in residential recovery, and all reported increased skills and confidence as a result of the initiative. We have kept in contact with these women and intend to invite them back to participate in this scope of work, if awarded.
Core Care Model: Empowerment
Program: Womens Empowerment Initiative
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Workforce; Women
Exploring & Developing Career Ladders in Manufacturing & STEM for Formerly Incarcerated Women
Our workforce program that provides ongoing support, training and employment for difficult-to-employ reentry individuals. Initiated in 2011 with support from Alameda County Social Services Agency, we developed the platform in which we train at-risk individuals: our model soap factory. Through ongoing support and a best practices curriculum, Emancipators demonstrate a high level of success in building employability skills, personal accountability and a strong work ethic. We graduate an average of 50 individuals per year from the Emancipators Initiative, with a 96% success rate with respect to long-term stabilization and employment. Roots is well-positioned to build upon this success by incorporating gender-responsive services for reentry women experiencing barriers to enter the workforce.
Core Care Model: Empowerment
Program:
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Workforce
African American Steering Committee for Health & Wellness
In 2011, we implemented our HealthyMeasures Initiative, a best-practice strategy to facilitate reentry afterincarceration via short-term transition and overallstabilization at our primary care facility. Roots established a formal relationship with San Quentin Prison Health so that inmates could make an appointment to enroll in medical care prior to release, immediately linking them to Roots as their primary medical home upon release to jump-start their transition. In 2013, with support from Alameda County Health Care Services Agency, we expanded HealthyMeasures to provide pre- and post-release services to individuals in/released from Santa Rita Jail, incorporating the training/hiring of Roots Health Navigators – formerly incarcerated community members who become certified healthcare workers and provide wraparound services for reentry individuals, many of whom have chronic health conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and asthma; and mental health diagnoses, including those associated with exposure to violence, such as PTSD. Currently eight full time Health Navigators provide immediate and ongoing access to clients to ensure effective reintegration into their communities. This work is demonstrating that individualsin transition are more likely to successfully reintegrate when they maintain a trusting relationship with their primary care medical home coupled with mental/behavioral health diagnosis and treatment, and enhanced through culturally and situationally congruentNavigators who work closely with each patient and ensure they receive stabilizers including public benefits programs, employment training/jobs,stable housing, food, family, mental health and addiction counseling, and peer-centered mentoring.
Core Care Model: Navigation
Program: Healthy Measures
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Incarceration; Mental Health; Reintegration; Employment; Job Training
African American Steering Committee for Health & Wellness
Roots’ goal for this work is to extend our culturally-defined, trauma-informed behavioral, health and wraparound services to an increased number of African American reentry individuals with a mental health diagnosis. Our goal is undergirded by Roots’ theory of change, which identifies priority conditions that must be addressed to reach positive, whole health outcomes: chronic disempowerment; lack of positive/pro-social community engagement; few employment opportunities; unstable family relationships; low self-esteem and underdeveloped relationship skills; and attitudes/beliefs that lead to poor decision-making. Roots’ underlying theory of change—whether in the clinical setting, in service navigation, or in workforce development—is that empowering those who have been marginalized with skills that enable them to engage positively with themselves as well as their communities in the context of wraparound services delivered in a safe and therapeutic environment, improves morale and self-efficacy, ensures successful integration/reintegration into society, and reduces the risk of recidivism and institutionalization.
Core Care Model: Navigation
Program: Healthy Measures
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Reentry; Health Trauma; Employment; Workforce Development
Bridging the Gap: Reducing Disparities in Diabetes Care
ACDDRI will feature multidisciplinary teams that integrate paraprofessionals with diabetes and hypertension specialization and, where appropriate, offer group medical appointments to supplement individual visits and ADA-recognized DSME and diabetes support groups. ACDDRI will offer care tailored to patients’ risks and responsive to their culture and language through:
- Community Health Workers/Paraprofessionals: On the teams, the paraprofessional will serve to connect patients with diabetes and hypertension to medical and social services and education, supporting the development of individualized Action Plans that address the most will feature multidisciplinary teams that integrate paraprofessionals with diabetes and hypertension specialization and, where appropriate, offer group medical appointments to supplement individual visits and ADA-recognized DSME and diabetes support groups.
ACDDRI will offer care tailored to patients’ risks and responsive to their culture and language through:
- Community Health Workers/Paraprofessionals: On the teams, the paraprofessional will serve to connect patients with diabetes and hypertension to medical and social services and education, supporting the development of individualized Action Plans that address the most
Core Care Model:
Program: ACDDRI
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Diabetes; Community Health Workers; Paraprofessionals
Bridging the Gap: Reducing Disparities in Diabetes Care
Key partners in ACDDRI—including ACPHD, Roots, and TVHC—have extensive expertise in deploying paraprofessionals into these communities, supporting underserved patients and families in navigating health insurance and access to care, as well in finding needed nutrition and economic supports. Roots has focused on the needs of African Americans who are homeless and/or re-entering the East Oakland community from incarceration. Roots’ multidisciplinary teams include Patient navigators who assist clients in affordable housing options, employment, benefits and health coverage enrollment, as well as in accessing health care. TVHC has centered its community outreach through its Promotoras de Salud program in the Latino community of Southern Alameda County, including the Ashland/Cherryland area, an area that has one of the County’s largest re-entry populations. TVHC recruits and works with a network of promotoras who serve as health promoters in their neighborhoods and schools, largely serving a monolingual Spanish-speaking population. While paraprofessionals in the targeted clinics and communities have extensive experience with helping families navigate a range of health and social service systems, they have not yet been trained or deployed as full members of diabetes or chronic disease care teams. To fill this unmet need, ACDDRI will expand on these demonstrably successful models to train a cross-agency cohort of paraprofessionals in diabetes self-management. In terms of food access, ACDDRI will build on and adapt a range of innovative programs focused on nutrition and health equity developed by ACPHD in partnership with a range of community-based clinics and partners. ACPHD’s Community Health Services Division includes not only the Chronic Disease Program (including the Diabetes program) but also Nutrition Services and the WIC program. ACPHD has long convened the County Nutrition Action Plan for Alameda County, coordinating nutrition education activities, especially those that prioritize low-income communities such as the targeted neighborhoods, among public agencies and community-based partners.
For example, in 2011-2014, ACPHD’s health equity and nutrition services teams coordinated a large-scale effort called Food to Families (F2F), an innovative partnership project, funded for three years by the Kresge Foundation, with overarching goals to 1) transform the food landscape; 2) provide local economic and employment opportunities for young adult residents; and 3) to reduce the risk of obesity and overweight in West Oakland and Ashland/Cherryland. ACPHD partnered with the County-run social enterprise Dig Deep Farms and Produce and TVHC in Ashland Cherryland and with Mandela Marketplace and another FQHC in Oakland. F2F developed interventions including Produce Rx, a clinic-based program to provide pregnant women with produce “prescriptions” connecting them with local food access points and consumer training developing skills around food purchase, preparation, storage and healthy life skills. Successes included strong partnerships between community-based organizations, the FQHC’s, and ACPHD; enhanced interventions; strong participation by pregnant women and their families; the creation of one model adapted to serve two different communities; integration of young adults into staffing of partner organizations. For ACDDRI, we envision adapting the Produce Rx model to meet the needs of people with diabetes, working with a similar range of community-based food distribution, farm stands/farmers markets, and community-supported agriculture partners.
Core Care Model:
Program:
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Diabetes; Community Health Workers; Paraprofessionals; Housing; Employment; Food Access
ACOCAP
An estimated 12.5% of Alameda County residents lived below 100% of the federal poverty level in 2013, according to the 2009-13 American Community Survey. Our target population lives in cities with some of the highest poverty rates in the county, including Oakland, where 20.5% live below the poverty level, Hayward with 14.4%, San Leandro with 10%, and Union City with 8.4%. AC-OCAP’s 2016-17 Community Action Plan describes income conditions faced by many Oakland families: “27% of Oakland’s residents had an annual income less than $24,999 and 39% of female- headed households with children under 5 years of age had incomes below the poverty level.”2 Staggering racial disparities in child poverty also persist with African Americans at 30%, compared with Whites at 6%.” Similarly, nearly one out of four (24.9%) individuals in Roots’ East Oakland service area live below the poverty; as a result, we are all too familiar with the magnitude of unmet needs compounded by no insurance, little income, and/or job insecurity. More than one in four of our service area residents above the age of 17 lack even a high school diploma. Age-adjusted death rates for diabetes and hypertension are at least 50% higher in our service area than in the state – health conditions that if diagnosed early and managed properly would not lead to premature death. Our service area is also home to the greatest concentration of supervised individuals (probation/parole), and comprises 7 of the top 10 stressor beats in Oakland, indicating higher rates of violent crime. Roots staff and board recognize that as the gap in resources and opportunities continues to grow, our target population will experience disproportionate impact – reinforcing what data and experience tell us: high poverty and unemployment correlate with lower quality of life, shorter life expectancy, lower educational attainment rates and greater exposure to violence and incarceration. Roots clients tell us that their greatest current needs are stable housing; culturally congruent/competent counseling, health care and mental health services; and training that leads to permanent and sustainable employment.
Manufacturing is the fifth largest employment sector in Alameda County, and for 13 of the top 50 county manufacturing jobs, only short-term training is required. Per Made in the East Bay: A Study of Advanced Manufacturing in Alameda County, “By any measure, Alameda’s manufacturing sector is a major contributor to the local economy. High wage jobs provide workers with a livable wage well above the median…An economically healthy and vibrant manufacturing sector is, therefore, very important to the Alameda County economy.” In their manufacturer survey representing >16,000 employees, 74% of employers indicated a need for “new or more effective pre-employment or soft skills training. Work ethics and communication skills, including language deficiencies and poor reading comprehension, are of primary concern, as is basic math and computer skills.”
ref. ACOCAP_RFP_Response.pdf, 2017-2019 – Dan Abrahamson
Core Care Model:
Program: Emancipators Initiative
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Unemployed; Homeless; Incarceration; Employment
ACOCAP
We match participants with appropriate employment as indicated by their skill level, criminal record and other relevant factors, through regular job-searches as well as a reliable – and expanding – network of 6 employers (3 high-volume) with whom we have ongoing relationships, and who hire our participants into 4 fields. Once employed, we continue regular check-ins with employee and employer and are available for conflict resolution and assistance with any new barriers, should they arise, with the ultimate goal of keeping the participant employed. Participants are also supported to go to school and/or to seek opportunities for career advancement.
ref. ACOCAP_RFP_Response.pdf, 2017-2019 – Dan Abrahamson
Core Care Model: Navigation
Program: Emancipators Initiative
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Employment
ACOCAP
In 2012, Roots implemented its Emancipators workforce initiative which gave rise to the design and implementation of our social enterprise, Clean360 where we train individuals who have been marginalized from the workforce in our model soap factory. This social enterprise model is a community development strategy that serves to train and employ increasing numbers of individuals who have been excluded from the workforce, while reinvesting revenue into the community. We recently opened our third retail location in East Oakland, where community members are demonstrating their support of our investment in East Oakland by making this our most successful retail location to date, despite its location in the highest poverty neighborhood. Roots and Clean360 are employing increasing numbers of East Oakland residents, fiscally sponsoring community groups and smaller non-profits, and supporting entrepreneurs and incubating small businesses, all as part of our mission to reduce poverty and dependency in our community, by promoting self-sufficiency and community empowerment.
Core Care Model: Empowerment
Program: Emancipators Initiative; East Oakland Building Healthy Communities; Clean360
Themes, Keywords & Tags:
East Oakland Building Healthy Communities
Because economic and employment barriers are primary deterrents to whole health, Roots strengthened our job training/employment programming through the launch of the Emancipators Initiative, providing on-the-job training in light manufacturing; barrier removal and “soft skills” training; and upon individual readiness, linkage to permanent employment. Roots’ Emancipators Initiative began as a workforce pilot with Alameda County Social Services Agency to transition individuals off of General Assistance, and led to the design and implementation of our social enterprise, Clean360 (www.clean360.org), in which we train at-risk individuals in our model soap factory. Emancipators learn how to make small batch, handcrafted soaps while they receive paid on-the-job training, barrier removal assistance, and ongoing support. Our social enterprise is a vehicle for individual empowerment and a critical component of the program’s own sustainability model, as all revenue generated goes directly to fund more jobs. Through paid, on-the-job training and comprehensive support to individuals with significant barriers to employment, Clean360 has graduated 34 soap-makers to date with a 97% success rate for stabilization and long-term employment.
Core Care Model: Empowerment
Program: Emancipators Initiative; Clean360
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Employment
West Oakland Street Outreach
Roots’ East Oakland sites, reentry program, and our North Oakland workforce site have seen increasing numbers of West Oakland residents, which has necessitated expansion of our services to West Oakland. As a result, Roots has deployed mobile services to high-risk and vulnerable West Oakland populations every week for the past year: our outreach bus targets the reentry population, and our mobile clinic targets homeless and substance using populations. WAFC works with hundreds of high-risk West Oakland residents through their programs including Word Academy and Fun Sunday. Twice weekly Brotherhood Gatherings, currently held in East Oakland, will be expanded to West Oakland for the proposed project. Roots and WAFC share OU’s vision to reduce violence in Oakland among youth/young adults, and create a well-integrated violence intervention system that results in healthier communities and long-lasting, positive results for perpetrators and victims of violence.
ref. OU_Narrative_FINAL_1020am.docx West Oakland Street Outreach Proposal, April 2018 – Dan Abrahamson
Core Care Model: Navigation
Program: Healthy Measures; West Oakland’s Word Assembly a Family of Churches (WAFC)
Themes, Keywords & Tags: History; Vision; Reentry; Workforce
PATH
Roots offers additional drop in office hours from 8:30–5 M-F at our Empowerment Center located in East Oakland (9925 International Blvd.), where community members can access computers and resources to assist with job readiness/resume prep, interview prep, job search, housing search, etc. They can also enroll in or renew benefits such as Medi-Cal and CalFresh, and pick up their mail (many of our homeless clients utilize Roots as their address of record).
ref. PATH Strategy 8 Narr_FINAL, April 2018 – Dan Abrahamson
Core Care Model: Empowerment
Program: Empowerment Center
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Employment
Proposition 47 Housing Assistance Support Services
In addition to our expertise working with the focus population(s), Roots possesses the organizational capacity to integrate housing assistance into our programmatic and fiscal processes alike. Roots holds several master contracts which include subcontracts, and provides fiscal sponsorship for four organizations/groups, helping them build their internal capacity, broaden their scope and deepen their impact in their respective communities. We also accommodate approximately 60 individuals per year in stipended apprenticeships and internships, and have offered a multitude of paid opportunities for participation in leadership and constituency-building opportunities. As a result, we have developed protocols for processing payments in a timely manner for individuals and small groups who may not have the capacity or experience with more complex accounting processes.
Core Care Model:
Program:
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Housing; Reentry; Employment
Proposition 47 Housing Assistance Support Services
In addition to our expertise working with the focus population(s), Roots possesses the organizational capacity to integrate housing assistance into our programmatic and fiscal processes alike. Roots holds several master contracts which include subcontracts, and provides fiscal sponsorship for four organizations/groups, helping them build their internal capacity, broaden their scope and deepen their impact in their respective communities. We also accommodate approximately 60 individuals per year in stipended apprenticeships and internships, and have offered a multitude of paid opportunities for participation in leadership and constituency-building opportunities. As a result, we have developed protocols for processing payments in a timely manner for individuals and small groups who may not have the capacity or experience with more complex accounting processes.
Core Care Model:
Program:
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Housing; Reentry; Employment
Sobrante Park
Roots’ mission is to address long-standing health inequities by providing culturally responsive, comprehensive physical and mental health services; education, employment and training; and wraparound services that build self-sufficiency and promote community empowerment. Roots provides health resources, broadly defined, to low income individuals and families, prioritizing the needs of vulnerable community members who live in neighborhoods with high levels of violence and entrenched poverty. Roots combines culturally responsive physical and mental healthcare grounded in a commitment to empowering individuals, families and communities. To this, Roots adds health navigation services to enhance persons’ access to benefits and linkages to appropriate programs and opportunities.
Given the unprecedented needs of East Oakland residents and low-income communities of color, Roots works to promulgate, deepen and expand its commitment to whole health. We continuously refine our methodology that integrates empowerment, self-advocacy and participation with Roots as a health home in East Oakland with an eye towards creating a replicable model for whole health that can benefit even distant communities that traditionally lack culturally responsive healthcare services and access to economic, educational and cultural opportunity. Individuals who come to Roots initially for basic primary medical treatment, establish relationships with Roots staff and through those relationships become empowered to self-advocate for their wellbeing and are introduced to the tools necessary to pursue greater opportunity. Some Roots members participate in Roots training programs to become health professionals (approximately 60 individuals annually); other members become Roots Health Navigators who, in turn, use their skills and lived experience to care for new clients, thereby perpetuating a cycle of whole health.
ref. RFP#HCSA-900218_Sobrante Park_narrative.pdf, March 2018 – Dan Abrahamson
Core Care Model: Navigation
Program:
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Violence; Whole Health; Education; Employment
Sobrante Park
Roots is a nationally recognized leader in addressing entrenched barriers to economic opportunity for East Oakland’s impoverished and hard-to-employ residents. We know how to positively influence behavior. We begin by empowering individuals. We get them to understand that they have choices, and to exercise those choices, including the manner in which they receive health services. And we strengthen partner organizations in this field by providing them with fiscal sponsorship, incubation, technical assistance and capacity building. More specifically, and by design, Roots’ clinics are training grounds for Oaklanders who aim to serve their home community as health professionals. Roots trains more than 60 individuals annually in healthcare professions ranging from community health outreach worker to nurse to physician. Roots launched its Emancipators Initiative in 2012 to provide on-the-job training in light manufacturing and then link graduates to permanent employment. The success of the Emancipators Initiative (begun as a workforce pilot with Alameda County Social Services Agency for persons on General Assistance) led to the creation of Roots’ social enterprise, Clean360 (www.clean360.org), in which at-risk individuals study and work in our model soap factory, learning how to produce, market, sell and ship small batch, handcrafted soaps, for which they receive stipends, barrier removal assistance, and ongoing support.
ref. RFP#HCSA-900218_Sobrante Park_narrative.pdf, March 2018 – Dan Abrahamson
Core Care Model: Empowerment
Program: Emancipators Initiative; Clean360
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Reentry; Whole Health; Employment
Health Care Connection Services for Formerly Incarcerated
Roots Community Health Center focuses on the health of its patients and the entire community. We believe a healthy community requires access to basic services, economic vitality, and community empowerment. Community empowerment requires that its people have the ability to speak on their own behalf and provide their own direction. As such, Roots has enabled community empowerment and patient-engagement–a critical component of community empowerment–by staffing the clinic with members of our immediate East Oakland community. Thus, Roots operates with the belief that the most effective way to care for our patients is to provide medical and support services that are truly congruent with their needs. Building a clinical team whose majority is composed of community members ensures the provision of culturally-competent medical care and empowerment for our community as a whole. In this manner, Roots enacts its mission to heal the community from within.
Building on our mission and current practices, and drawing from our successful workforce program for reentry men (Roots Emancipators Initiative) integrating health navigators who have a history of incarceration is an intuitive next step in the expansion of our current service delivery model. Further, because Roots leadership has demonstrated expertise in training and hiring reentry individuals, we are certain that our HealthyMeasures health navigators will be well-supported and warmly-welcomed at Roots.
Core Care Model: Navigation
Program: Emancipators Initiative; Healthy Measures
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Employment; Reentry
East Oakland Building Healthy Communities
In 2012, Roots implemented its Emancipators workforce initiative which gave rise to the design and implementation of our social enterprise, Clean360 where we train individuals who have been marginalized from the workforce in our model soap factory. This social enterprise model is a community development strategy that serves to train and employ increasing numbers of individuals who have been excluded from the workforce, while reinvesting revenue into the community. We recently opened our third retail location in East Oakland, where community members are demonstrating their support of our investment in East Oakland by making this our most successful retail location to date, despite its location in the highest poverty neighborhood. Roots and Clean360 are employing increasing numbers of East Oakland residents, fiscally sponsoring community groups and smaller non-profits, and supporting entrepreneurs and incubating small businesses, all as part of our mission to reduce poverty and dependency in our community, by promoting self-sufficiency and community empowerment.
Core Care Model: Navigation
Program: Emancipators Initiative; Clean360
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Workforce; Reentry
Service Area Competition
There is a shortage of work opportunities for the service area population, despite the fact that job growth in the San Francisco Bay Area is slowly climbing out of the recession. More than two out of three (67.1%) working-age adults in Alameda County were employed on average from 2008 to 2012, yet only about 61% of those in the service area were working on average during that time. The average unemployment rate was 10.0% in the service area, much higher than the County average of 7.4% and the State average of 8.1%. Also, a greater percentage of working-age adults in the service area were not even looking for work (29.0%) than in Alameda County (25.3%), which indicates that more service area residents have experienced barriers so significant that they have given up looking for employment. These details on percentages of employed and unemployed residents are illustrated in the following table.
Core Care Model:
Program:
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Employment
Service Area Competition
Core Care Model:
Program:
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Poverty; Employment; ACA; Health Outcomes
Mental Health Prevention & Early Intervention (PEI) Services in Sobrante Park
Roots is a nationally recognized leader in addressing entrenched barriers to economic opportunity for East Oakland’s impoverished and hard-to-employ residents. We know how to positively influence behavior. We begin by empowering individuals. We get them to understand that they have choices, and to exercise those choices, including the manner in which they receive health services. And we strengthen partner organizations in this field by providing them with fiscal sponsorship, incubation, technical assistance and capacity building.
More specifically, and by design, Roots’ clinics are training grounds for Oaklanders who aim to serve their home community as health professionals. Roots trains more than 60 individuals annually in healthcare professions ranging from community health outreach worker to nurse to physician. Roots launched its Emancipators Initiative in 2012 to provide on-the-job training in light manufacturing and then link graduates to permanent employment. The success of the Emancipators Initiative (begun as a workforce pilot with Alameda County Social Services Agency for persons on General Assistance) led to the creation of Roots’ social enterprise, Clean360 (www.clean360.org), in which at-risk individuals study and work in our model soap factory, learning how to produce, market, sell and ship small batch, handcrafted soaps, for which they receive stipends, barrier removal assistance, and ongoing support.
ref. Sobrante Park RFP#HCSA-900218_FINAL .pdf Health Care Services Agency (HCSA) REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL No. HCSA-900218 for Mental Health Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) Services in Sobrante Park, March 2018 – Dan Abrahamson
Core Care Model:
Program: Clean360
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Employment
Mental Health Prevention & Early Intervention (PEI) Services in Sobrante Park
Empowerment Center – a drop-in site where community members receive assistance with resume development, skills trainings, job search and employment. We host hiring and financial literacy events, connect job seekers with our Better Dressed for Success closet and cultivate relationships with a wide array of employers, like Tesla, who are ready to hire our clients.
Core Care Model: Empowerment
Program: Empowerment Center
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Employment; Literacy
The Healthier California Fund
Empowerment Center – a drop-in site where community members receive assistance with resume development, skills trainings, job search and employment. We host hiring and financial literacy events, connect job seekers with our Better Dressed for Success closet and cultivate relationships with a wide array of employers, like Tesla, who are ready to hire our clients.Because economic and employment barriers are primary deterrents to whole health, Roots strengthened our job training/employment programming through the launch of the Emancipators Initiative, providing on-the-job training in light manufacturing; barrier removal and “soft skills” training; and upon individual readiness, linkage to permanent employment. Roots’ Emancipators Initiative began as a workforce pilot with Alameda County Social Services Agency to transition individuals off of General Assistance, and led to the design and implementation of our social enterprise, Clean360 (www.clean360.org), in which we train at-risk individuals in our model soap factory. Emancipators learn how to make small batch, handcrafted soaps while they receive paid on-the-job training, barrier removal assistance, and ongoing support. Our social enterprise is a vehicle for individual empowerment and a critical component of the program’s own sustainability model, as all revenue generated goes directly to fund more jobs.
Core Care Model: Empowerment
Program: Emancipators Initiative; Clean360
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Employment; Reentry
Systems & Services Research to Build a Culture of Health
Purpose: To evaluate the outcomes of a workforce training program within a community program which provides comprehensive health care, mental health and wraparound services. We seek to identify outcomes of health and well- being needed to align programs, and data across the organization, as well as to eventually inform, county delivery and financing systems. East Oakland has one of the highest rates of poverty, homelessness, unemployment, and supervised individuals (parole, probation) in the country, translating directly into poor health and decreased life expectancy. Few health centers are able to comprehensively address key social determinants, particularly in marginalized populations.
Core Care Model:
Program:
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Workforce; Training
Systems & Services Research to Build a Culture of Health
Roots Community Health Center is a local community-based organization whose mission is to eliminate Oakland’s health disparities by providing culturally competent, comprehensive healthcare, mental health, and wraparound services. Roots’ Whole Health approach is at the heart of all clinical and programmatic work, including coaching and navigation by peers. Whole Health key components are Care – integrated physical, behavioral and other direct service; Navigation – case management and service navigation led by peers with shared lived experience (Roots Health Navigators); and Empowerment – self-determination for individuals, families and the community. Our long term goal is to demonstrate that community programs such as Roots, which address the social determinants of health in conjunction with health and medical needs can improve individual and community health. This grant’s objective is to use an academic-community collaboration founded on a community based participatory approach, to evaluate the impact of Roots’ holistic, multi-dimensional programing on client and population health – in the broadest sense of the word. We hypothesize that culturally appropriate, quality mental and physical medical care, and wraparound social services can improve personal, community and population health. This project’s rationale is to add to the body of “practice based evidence” by aligning key components of Roots’ programming with social and health outcomes.
Specific Aim 1: Identify Roots’ clients perception of the impact of the workforce training program on their health. Methods: We will commence a community-based participatory research project that will engage Roots clients as co-researchers. The co-researchers will be members of the work force training program, and will work in tandem with the academic researchers to develop a study that reflects their indigenous knowledge in order to guide the research process and align with the cultural and social needs of the community. We hypothesize that participants in workforce training will have higher health status, including reduced measures of activity limited days and improved measures of self-rated health, self-efficacy and self-esteem, which will only be maintained with employment.
Specific Aim 2: Evaluate health and behavioral health outcomes among Roots clients enrolled in their work force training program. We will use Root’s electronic health “Whole Health” record as a foundation for creating an ongoing program evaluation of Roots’ programs aligned with county public health, social and medical services. Methods: We will conduct a prospective study of Roots clients enrolled in their work force training programs matched by age and co-morbidity with clients on the program waitlist. We will collect quarterly data on health indicators, measurement of life needs, and involvement in programs. Client records will be linked with county data. Outcomes will include, but not be limited to: activity limited days, patient engagement, stress levels and health care utilization. We hypothesize that wraparound programs will be effective in increasing client healthcare engagement and their utilization of preventative services while decreasing use of crisis social services and emergency department and inpatient medical and behavioral services. Our expected outcomes include a multi-dimensional understanding of Roots’ workforce training mechanisms and outcomes. We anticipate that this evaluation will identify and allow the identification of meaningful short- and long-term outcomes at individual, social, and system levels which are needed to align data and funding mechanisms across the county delivery and systems for medical care, public health, and social and community services. This project can inform Roots’ expansion into Santa Clara county, and provide lessons for authentic, sustainable improvement and possibly replication of this model. We are committed to disseminating the methods and outcomes of this research widely to inform other community-based health settings.
Core Care Model:
Program:
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Workforce; Training; Whole Health; Social Justice; Evaluation
Systems & Services Research to Build a Culture of Health
Employment is one of the basic determinants of health, and influences the ability to obtain other determinants, such as food, and shelter. In East Oakland, there is a growing gap in resources for Oakland’s reentry residents. Many men lack basic skills to gain employment, and those with criminal records face even more barriers to employment. For the majority of employers, the cost of doing business is “high enough”, and they prefer not to take risks/incur costs by employing the “difficult to employ”. While there have been some promising programs that focus on formerly incarcerated individuals, including those addressing employment needs (Bloom et al., 2007; Bushway et al., 2012; Duwe, 2015; Newton et al., 2016) and providing wraparound housing services (Lutze et al., 2014), there are few cohesive programs that combine health and employment services, and provide “standard” outcomes with generalizable programmatic evaluations from which to learn best practices. Additionally, most employment and/or reentry programs do not have a sustainability model built into them.
Core Care Model:
Program:
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Workforce; Reentry; Employment; Homelessness
Systems & Services Research to Build a Culture of Health
Roots clients have identified the need for workforce training and employment, as essential to their mental and physical health. However many inthis population, especially the formerly incarcerated,are in a cycle of poverty, poor education, drug abuse, and incarceration. After incarceration, community members often find themselves unprepared for (lack of education), and unable to obtain employment (jail record). Roots has twodifferent employment programs: the community health care worker program and Emancipators(see above), which uses the community health care workers tohelp individuals navigate workforce training, inclusive of obtaining employment, including at Roots’ sponsored manufacturing program. We hypothesize that participants in workforce training will have higher health status,including reduced measures of activity limited days and improved measures of self-rated health, self-efficacy and self-esteem, which will only be maintained with employment.
Core Care Model:
Program: Community Health Workers; Emancipators Initiative
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Workforce; Training; Reentry; Employment
Global Giving
Workforce Development. At the same time, Roots expanded our whole health model by launching our soap-making factory, Clean360 to train and employ low-income and majority formerly incarcerated African American community residents who participate in workforce development through the Emancipators Initiative. The Emancipators Initiative offers Roots apprentices a comprehensive workforce curriculum and paid, on-the-job training with whole-person support so that they are able to meet basic needs while gaining work experience at Clean360 or in partner employment settings. Over 30 months, 44 participants have graduated from the program, and 41 have successfully reintegrated into Oakland neighborhoods: 30 are in long-term, stable employment; 7 are in temporary employment; 4 are in school full time; 2 are in substance use rehabilitation programs; and only 1 has returned to prison. All participants are current on child support, restitution and probation/parole terms.
ref. GG_accepted
Core Care Model:
Program:
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Workforce Development; Reentry; Employment; Whole Health
IRUSA Narrative
A grant from IRUSA will help Roots Community Health Center expand our Emancipators Initiative – Roots’ workforce training program based in our Clean360 social enterprise – to serve more individuals and include a critical focus on achieving housing stability for a minimum of 40 hard-to-employ, unstably housed Oakland residents in 2018. The proposed expansion will directly address housing stability via: a thorough assessment of housing status and needs, the provision of transitional housing when indicated, and substantial move-in support. This pilot will demonstrate that transitional housing, coupled with workforce training, provide key life stabilizers that challenge injustice and poverty, offering hope and a path to self-sustainability for those living on the margins of society.
ref. IRUSA Narrative
Core Care Model: Empowerment
Program: Whole Health; Empowerment Project; Clean360
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Whole Health; Workforce Development; Reentry; Employment
IRUSA Narrative
Emancipators are trained to make small batch, handcrafted soaps from natural, quality ingredients in our Clean360 workshop in Oakland, while receiving peer mentorship, intensive case management, and service navigation support. As a complement to the Emancipators Initiative, Roots recently secured a site in Oakland to house seven individuals at a time. Our leadership is committed to utilizing this housing to demonstrate the effectiveness of pairing transitional housing with transitional employment – all within the context of the primary care medical home and a supportive relationship with a Roots Health Navigator, who provides ongoing support and barrier removal assistance – resulting in a secure path out of homelessness. Emancipators who are homeless will have the opportunity to be placed in Roots’ new transitional housing as they complete the Emancipators Initiative, and until they are ready to transition to permanent employment and permanent housing. This grant would support 40 Oakland residents to complete the Emancipators curriculum; receive stipended training; successfully obtain stable employment through our storefronts, factory or partnering employers; and achieve stable housing, both during and after their apprenticeship.
ref. IRUSA Narrative
Core Care Model: Empowerment
Program: Whole Health; Empowerment Project; Emancipators Initiative; Clean360
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Emancipators; Employment; Los Angeles
IRUSA Narrative
The factory becomes the “employment home” for cohorts of up to 40 individuals who earn a living wage as factory employees until they are prepared to “graduate” to further their education or permanent employment. More experienced Emancipators welcome and facilitate the factory training of new participants.
Participants remain in Phase IV for two to nine months, depending on the outcome of their Competency and Stability Assessments. Upon passing competency testing for learning module 3, a search for suitable outside employment is initiated. As Roots Emancipators enterprise develops, permanent employment with Clean360 is included as “outside employment.”
ref. IRUSA Narrative
Core Care Model: Empowerment
Program: Clean360
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Employment; Los Angeles
IRUSA Narrative
Through existing relationships with employers, Empowerment Center staff match participants with appropriate employment as indicated by their skill level, criminal record and other relevant factors. Once employed, we continue regular check-ins with employee and employer and are available for conflict resolution and assistance with any new barriers, should they arise, with the ultimate goal of keeping the participant employed. Participants are also supported to go to school and/or to seek opportunities for career advancement.
ref. IRUSA Narrative
Core Care Model: Empowerment
Program: Empowerment Center
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Employment; Los Angeles
IRUSA Narrative
In 2013, Roots deepened our whole health model by launching our soap-making factory, Clean360, to train and employ low-income and hard-to-employ community residents who participate in workforce development through the Emancipators Initiative. As described above, the Emancipators Initiative offers Roots’ employment clients a comprehensive workforce curriculum that includes paid, on-the-job training with whole person support, so that they are able to meet basic needs while gaining work experience at Clean360 or in partner employment settings. Over the past 30 months, 44 participants have graduated from the program, and 41 have successfully reintegrated into Oakland neighborhoods: 30 are in long-term, stable employment; 7 are in temporary employment; 4 are in school full time; 2 are in substance use rehabilitation programs; and 1 has returned to prison. All participants are compliant with probation/parole terms where applicable and are current on child support and restitution.
ref. IRUSA Narrative
Core Care Model: Empowerment
Program: Clean360
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Employment; Whole Health
Irvine Leadership Nomination
Roots has multiple programs that educate and employ community members as health providers. 112 individuals have graduated from the Roots Health Academy, which provides on-the-job training and mentoring to East Oakland residents in all aspects of primary care. 16 individuals have graduated from Roots’ HealthcareWORKS initiative, a skills-building program designed to expand the capacity of frontline healthcare workers in East Oakland. And Roots’ Health Navigators program employs 8 local, formerly incarcerated community health workers who are available to clients 24 hour a day to help navigate health, housing, family and planning issues.
ref. Irvine Leadership Nomination 2017 – FINAL, 2017
Core Care Model:
Program:
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Training; Employment
Irvine Leadership Nomination
Because gainful employment is a critical determinant of health, Roots established a workforce development program for hard to employ individuals and established a natural soap factory to provide job training. That program, Roots’ Emancipators Initiative (described more fully under “Innovation”), boasts a 96% success rate with respect to long-term stabilization and employment. In its first two years, 26 participants completed the program – 25 of them reentry individuals. The program has a wait list of 189 individuals.
ref. Irvine Leadership Nomination 2017 – FINAL, 2017
Core Care Model:
Program:
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Workforce; Development; Employment
OPUS Prize Foundation Work Plan
Oakland Homecoming focuses on equipping homeless individuals with employment skills, coupled with housing and wraparound support designed to facilitate a smooth transition to a stable, self-sustaining life. We are confident that given our expertise working with Oakland’s unsheltered residents, and our success providing on-the-job training and skill-building for individuals who have been marginalized from the workforce, we will be able to demonstrate an effective, replicable model for ending homelessness for employable individuals living on the streets. The 2017 Alameda County Point-in-Time Count identified 1,902 individuals living on the streets in Oakland. Fifty-seven percent of Alameda County homeless residents surveyed indicated that “money issues” were their primary reason for homelessness. Forty-two percent reported that rental assistance could have prevented their homelessness, and 36% said that employment assistance could have prevented them from being homeless. Oakland Homecoming is intended to identify and engage individuals living on Oakland’s streets who could transition to a stable life, with critical stabilizers – housing and employment – along with navigation and case management services.
ref. Opus workplan_09082017 OPUS PRIZE FOUNDATION Work Plan,Spetember2017
Core Care Model:
Program: Oakland Homecoming
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Employment; Homelessness; Housing
Emancipators Initiative: Education, Empowerment, Enterprise
Emancipators Initiative. Roots is setting a new standard in Alameda County in implementation of a precedent-setting program that tackles these challenges through training and employment at our own social enterprise, Clean360. We build basic skills and provide on-the-job training, removing as many barriers to long-term stabilization as possible; develop relationships with outside employers willing to hire job-ready candidates despite criminal record history; and have launched a sustainable social enterprise that results in stable employment opportunities.
Emancipators participants receive hands-on training as they learn how to make small batch, handcrafted soaps from the finest ingredients in its workshop and retail location in Oakland’s Uptown neighborhood. Clean360 was created by Roots leadership to demonstrate a productive, sustainable business model, so that increasing numbers of people could be employed without relying solely on outside funding. We knew the product had to be something healthy and natural, something that everyone needs, and something that makes people feel good. And so the idea for producing soap was born.
One hundred percent of the proceeds from the sales of Clean360 soap are used to grow and sustain the program. Through Clean360, the Emancipators Initiative is a source of hope and opportunity for those who have been disconnected from the workforce for an extended period of time, have experienced significant barriers to employment, and may not have basic job readiness skills.
From January to June 2016, the Emancipators Initiative will provide barrier assessment, on-the-job training and full-time employment to approximately twelve formerly incarcerated individuals. Physical and mental health services, including mentorship and life skills training will be provided. Participants will move through the Phases outlined below, based upon their readiness.
ref. REI_AASC_funding request_6 month Emancipators Initiative: Education, Empowerment, Enterprise
Core Care Model: Empowerment
Program: Clean360; Emancipators Initiative
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Clean360; Training; Employment; Emancipators
Emancipators Initiative: Education, Empowerment, Enterprise
The Emancipators Initiative of Roots Community Health Center brings employment opportunities to reentry and high risk Oakland residents, especially African American men, who are most vulnerable to negative social determinants of health, including violence/crime and unemployment. Full implementation of the Emancipators Initiative will result in service navigation and barrier removal for at least 30 individuals annually; of these, 25 participants will remove legal, psychosocial, competency, and health barriers to employment while they gain a living wage and stable employment, until they are ready to graduate into permanent, long-term sustainable employment.
The Emancipators Initiative is Roots’ workforce program that provides ongoing support, training and employment for the hardest to employ from our community, including individuals re-entering our community from correctional institutions. In the past year, with support from Alameda County Social Services, Roots piloted the Emancipators Initiative with 19 participants, demonstrating a high level of success in building employability skills, personal accountability and a strong work ethic that has led to long-term employment. The Emancipators Initiative was designed to expand our impact as part of Roots’ mission to address long-standing health inequities by providing culturally competent, omprehensive healthcare, mental health, and wraparound services that emphasize patient/client self-sufficiency and community empowerment. Roots implements its programs and services while honoring the “roots” of culture, heritage, and tradition by providing unprecedented access to services; by remaining community-aware and community-responsive; and by establishing partnerships to ensure a more efficient continuum of care in Oakland.
Roots Community Health Center piloted the Emancipators Initiative as part of a public-private partnership to provide new opportunities for General Assistance recipients, many of whom were recently released from incarceration. In the first months of implementation, we forged a social enterprise, Clean360 (www.clean360.org), as the platform in which we train at-risk individuals in our model soap factory. In the past year, 19 participants completed the program – 18 of them reentry individuals – with twelve employed in outside businesses and five employed through Roots. Of note, four Emancipators have gone on to further their education in the Health and Human Services professions, obtaining their Community Health Worker and Health Coaching Certifications.
ref. Roots_Emancipators_General Proposal_2016 The Emancipators Initiative, 2016
Core Care Model: Empowerment
Program: Emancipators Initiative
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Emancipators; Workforce; Reentry
Emancipators Initiative: Education, Empowerment, Enterprise
Roots is setting a new standard in Alameda County in implementation of a precedent-setting program that tackles these challenges through training and employment, including at our own social enterprise, Clean360. We build basic skills and provide on-the-job training, removing as many barriers to long-term stabilization as possible; develop relationships with outside employers willing to hire job-ready candidates despite criminal record history; and have launched a sustainable social enterprise that results in stable employment opportunities.
Clean360 is the business platform for this work. Emancipators participants receive hands-on training as they learn how to make small batch, handcrafted soaps from the finest ingredients in its workshop and retail location in Oakland’s Uptown neighborhood. Clean360 was created by Roots leadership to demonstrate a productive, sustainable business model, so that increasing numbers of people could be employed without relying solely on outside funding. We knew the product had to be something healthy and natural, something that everyone needs, and something that makes people feel good. And so the idea for producing soap was born.
One hundred percent of the proceeds from the sales of Clean360 soap are used to grow and sustain the program. Through Clean360, the Emancipators Initiative is a source of hope and opportunity for those who have been disconnected from the workforce for an extended period of time, have experienced significant barriers to employment, and may not have basic job readiness skills.
ref. Roots_Emancipators_General Proposal_2016 The Emancipators Initiative, 2016
Core Care Model: Empowerment
Program: Emancipators Initiative; Clean360
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Emancipators; Workforce; Reentry, Employment; Workforce
Sobrante Park Narrative
Roots also operates an Empowerment Center – a drop-in site where community members receive assistance with resume development, skills trainings, job search and employment. We host hiring and financial literacy events, connect job seekers with our Better Dressed for Success closet and cultivate relationships with a wide array of employers, like Tesla, who are ready to hire our clients.
ref. RFP#HCSA-900218_Sobrante Park_narrative.pdf, March 2018 – Dan Abrahamson
Core Care Model: Empowerment
Program: Empowerment Center
Themes, Keywords & Tags: Reentry; Whole Health; Employment