Rubicon’s Workforce Services team provides top-notch employment services to local Bay Area businesses looking to expand their workforce at no cost.

Our team connects you with pre-screened, qualified job applicants at no cost to the employer. Serving a geographic area spanning the entire East Bay with offices in Hayward, Richmond, Concord, and Antioch, we draw on a roster of over five hundred job seekers to find people who meet your unique hiring needs. Our business clients range from multi-national corporations to local small business owners.

Our Workforce Liaisons provide a comprehensive array of staffing services to employers including:

• Customized direct staffing assistance
• Pre-screening and referrals of qualified candidates
• Free distribution and advertising of current job postings
• Virtual recruiting and hiring events
• Pre and post-employment support
• Employee retention assistance

Wage Reimbursements:

• Mitigate new hire costs
• Wage reimbursements up to $5,000

No-cost Labor Assistance:

• Temporary labor assignments 
• Increase workplace productivity 

If you are a business owner or hiring manager and would like to learn more about how Rubicon can help solve your staffing needs at no cost to you, please contact:

Business Service Manager, Workforce Services 
Gloribel Pastrana
gloribelp@rubiconprograms.org

What happens when work that depends on the human element loses that face-to-face connection? Like countless other organizations across the globe, Rubicon has been grappling with a remote reality since March 2020. The emotional and technological challenges have been undeniable, but there have also been encouraging bright spots along the way thanks to the resiliency and innovation of staff and participants alike. 

Concord-based Career Advisor Greg Reimer is one Rubicon staff member who has seized the moment as a chance to get creative about how he works. Greg was, at first, trepidatious about having to connect with folks across a screen. Coaching depends on establishing “trust and a personal connection,” he says. “I knew the work would not feel the same, and I was curious to see how that would impact my relationship with participants.”  
 

Greg helps participants map out and achieve their career goals, a role he adores. “When I can help someone unlock their growth mindset and make a profound shift - that never gets old,” he says.   

In the early days of the pandemic, as meetings with participants switched from in-person sessions to video conferences and online classes, it was immediately clear that remote work was exacerbating existing challenges and inequities. “We identified digital literacy as an imperative,” Greg says.

Rubicon has provided laptops and stipends for WIFI to participants, but figuring out how to teach digital literacy at a distance took some ingenuity. Greg and others at Rubicon sprang into action, creating a teaching library of documents on everything from setting up an email account to using Google docs. Participants loved these new resources, consuming them quickly and asking for more. Still, technology hurdles persisted, so the team came up with an innovative solution: they hired a couple of computer-savvy former participants to staff a help line for those in need.  
 
Sarah A, who was a member of Concord’s first comprehensive program cohort, enjoys her new position as a Technical Assistant. She was working as a Community Resource Director at East Bay Works before the pandemic, but the position is currently on hold. In her new role at Rubicon, she is on the job for four hours a day, fielding phone calls from participants with tech issues.  
 
An aspiring social worker, Sarah does not identify as a techie but rather as a quick learner. She taught herself the ins and outs of Google Classroom in order to assist participants with that sometimes-confusing platform, but she says most of her calls are simple issues, like log-in problems or trouble with WIFI connectivity. Because she has been through the Rubicon comprehensive program, she knows that “it can be overwhelming at first. It’s a new way of doing things, a new way of thinking.” She is happy to be able to help participants with these issues so that they can concentrate on the content of the classes rather than on their frustrations with the technology.  
 
While remote meetings will never replace being with participants in-person, Greg is pleased that he is able to offer all of the same services, from teaching classes to conducting mock interviews to helping people access career training. In addition, he says, he loves that he can reach participants all over the East Bay because of the way remote work breaks down geographical barriers.  
 
Rubicon is committed to remaining connected with participants until the day in-person meetings and classes resume. 

As we begin this new year, we are taking the opportunity to wrap up our post-November 2020 election snapshots.  We realize that for most of us, that election is a dim memory, but the lessons we are hearing from all of the organizers with whom we speak include the need to stay vigilant—there is more work to do. In that spirit, this last piece covers Prop 22, the passage of which allows app-based delivery services to classify their drivers as independent contractors, rather than employees.

The easy victory of Proposition 22 is a cautionary tale - a lesson in the power of money and a slick disinformation campaign to sway voters. According to Rey Fuentes of the Partnership for Working Families, “They spent 200 million dollars. With money like that, I don’t know what else can be said.”  

By “they” Fuentes means Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and other gig economy companies who will no longer be required to treat workers as employees entitled to labor protections and benefits. The measure was designed to exempt the companies from a state labor law that would have forced them to employ drivers and pay for health care, unemployment insurance and other benefits. Widely condemned by workers' rights advocates, the passage of the proposition has wide ranging ramifications for the future of gig economy companies nationwide.

With early indicators that Prop 22 would not pass, the companies mobilized, setting a spending record to flood TV and digital ad spaces. Perhaps most insidious, says Fuentes, is the way these companies “co-opted the message of worker advocates.” They bombard drivers and customers alike with in-app notifications and emails touting worker freedom and flexibility and suggesting that the drivers themselves wanted to remain independent contractors. For workers’ rights advocates like Fuentes, the counter-message—“there is nothing flexible about a job where you lose a week’s wages if, say, a family member gets sick”—was drowned out by a sea of Prop 22 propaganda.  

Featuring drivers’ voices front and center was a major key to the Yes on 22 side’s victory. In addition, Fuentes says, the gig companies found some high-profile community partners to deliver their misleading message, among them the California chapter of the NAACP, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and the state’s Hispanic, Black and Asian American chambers of commerce. 

Moving forward, Fuentes says his organization is focused on helping individual workers get what they are owed, including the unemployment benefits for which they are still eligible. “The Passage of Prop 22 should have no impact on past liability -- workers should explore how to preserve their claims before the statute of limitations runs out. Enforcement can and will still take place to capture back wages due, regardless of the companies' position on the effect of Prop 22” he said, adding that they will be keeping an eye on whether or not companies are delivering on what they promised to workers under this new 'independent contractor plus' status.   

Meanwhile, Albertson’s, one of the largest grocery chains in the nation, recently announced that they will be ending their home delivery service in favor of third-party gig workers, drawing swift backlash from unions representing workers at Albertsons who say the chain’s decision will end up degrading good delivery jobs. And on Monday, a labor union and a group of drivers are suing to overturn the proposition. The groups filed suit Tuesday in California’s Supreme Court, alleging Prop 22 violates the state constitution and limits the power of state legislators to implement certain worker protections.  

A fruitful partnership between Rubicon, Diablo Valley College (DVC), and the Foundation for California Community Colleges (FCCC) is breaking down the stigma around student food insecurity and removing financial barriers to higher education for community college students. 

According to Special Projects Manager Kimi Barnes, far too many students go hungry and drop out of school for financial reasons because they are not aware that they qualify for - and deserve - help on their academic journeys. Through the Fresh Success program at DVC, Rubicon has been able to connect these students to CalFresh benefits and food pantries; provide money for textbooks, school supplies and remote learning expenses; and offer coaching and referrals to campus and community resources like housing assistance and mental health services.

Rubicon’s partnership with DVC and the FCCC is a response to a widespread problem affecting almost half of the student population at

community and public colleges across the nation. As school costs continue to climb and the economic gap widens, students are forced to pour all of their resources into tuition, textbooks and other expenses, sometimes at the expense of food and other basic needs. A study published in 2019 by Temple University’s Hope Center for College, Community and Justice found that 45 percent of students at 100 institutions had experienced food insecurity while at school. At the same time, according to Barnes, many of those students are “far along in their self-determination.” In other words, they are used to doing things on their own and sometimes uncomfortable asking others for support.

But LaReese Stitts, the Fresh Success Impact Coach at DVC, is an expert at breaking down barriers and stigmas around student hunger by reframing what it means to get help. For example, she might tell a student, “This is short term and it will allow you to get to the place where you can support others.” 

Stitts also acts as a resource and an advisor for Rubicon Comprehensive Program participants who enroll at DVC, forming a bridge between the foundation classes and a college education. 

To qualify for the Fresh Success Program, students must be Contra Costa residents who are eligible for CalFresh benefits and enrolled in at least one career education, ESL, or basic skills class at DVC. Once they are part of the program, they begin their coaching sessions with Stitts, who directs them to on- and off-campus resources to support them. Many students are unaware of services and benefits available to them, Stitts said, recalling one participant who did not know he qualified for a Promise Grant to pay his tuition costs and had therefore been struggling mightily to make ends meet. Other students struggling with food insecurity had no idea they qualified for CalFresh benefits and had access to a food pantry on the DVC campus. By simply guiding students toward existing avenues of support, Stitts is able to profoundly impact their experience of college for the better. 

The Fresh Success program has been nimble during the pandemic, adjusting its services to meet current needs. For example, what used to be a transportation stipend is now monthly financial support for WiFi and other remote learning necessities. While students everywhere are facing challenges during the pandemic, Stitts is proud of the Fresh Success program in its first year of existence at DVC. “The program’s coaching model has assisted students in highlighting their own self resilience and strengths during this difficult time,” she said. 

This week we are continuing our examination of state proposition that did not go the way we recommended in the November 2020 election. A couple of weeks ago, we looked at Proposition 16. This week we are looking at Proposition 25. 

The state Legislature approved a new system that would eliminate cash bail, in Senate Bill 10 in 2018, but the multibillion-dollar bail industry, which represents some 2,500 bail agents in the state, qualified a referendum that put that law on hold until voters could decide whether to approve it.

In response, organizations opposing cash bail put forward Proposition 25 on the November 2020 ballot.

Proposition 25, which failed 55%-44%, would have made California the first state to end cash bail by allowing each county to use an algorithm to assess a person’s flight risk or likelihood of reoffending while awaiting trial. Supporters pitched the referendum as the legislature’s best plan for advancing racial justice by upending a system that preys on communities of color for profit. 

Opponents of Proposition 25 included, predictably, the bail industry and law enforcement groups, along with several racial equity and criminal justice reform organizations who spoke out against the measure.  
 
According to Rubicon Staff Attorney Sarah Williams, who was a member of the panel that wrote the Rubicon voter guide and recommended supporting 25, criminal justice reform organizations were divided on Prop 25 from the beginning. At issue were the risk assessment tools that would have been used to determine an individual’s likelihood to flee or reoffend.  

“There were legitimate concerns that these risk assessment tools could lead to an increase in incarceration across the state, and particularly an increase in incarceration for Black and Brown folks. Historically, the risk assessment tools have been racially biased, and there was no evidence to show that these tools would be any different,” Williams said.  

According to Williams, SB10 at first contained more robust oversights against racial bias, but these oversights were compromised in order to get SB 10 passed in the legislature. This is when organizations such as the ACLU came out against SB 10. Because Prop 25 would have enacted SB 10, these same concerns persisted. 

 “While organizations we trust, like the California Public Defenders Association and A New Way of Life Reentry Project, supported Prop 25, several racial equity and criminal justice reform organizations did not. For example. the Bail Project, Human Rights Watch, and Essie Justice Group opposed Prop 25. There were legitimate concerns that these risk assessment tools could lead to an increase in incarceration across the state, and particularly an increase in incarceration for Black and Brown folks,” Williams said.  

There was also concern that the newly created Pretrial Assessment Service would increase surveillance and supervision of people who have not been convicted of a crime, and lead to an increase in funding for law enforcement. Lastly, these organizations were concerned about giving so much discretion to judges. “In my opinion, these legitimate concerns, combined with funding from the bail industry, led to Prop 25's defeat,” Williams said.  

The fight to end cash bail is far from over. The focus is shifting to the Supreme Court of California, where civil rights groups will argue that it is unconstitutional to continue a system that favors people who have money and punishes those who don’t. That case could allow the court’s seven justices to order their own reworking of the bail system, perhaps as soon as the next several months.