By David Gray
Multiple nonprofit groups statewide providing mission-critical services through contracts with counties are at risk of closing if the California State Legislature adopts Assembly Bill 1250. This bill would put many high-quality community based organizations out of business. Examples include Rubicon Programs, Shelter Inc. and Early Childhood Mental Health.
“When you suspend a person’s license there is supposed to be a finding of willfulness,” said Sarah Williams, a staff attorney with Rubicon Programs, a Contra Costa County-based nonprofit that led a coalition of Bay Area legal aid organizations in filing a class action lawsuit last year. “When someone doesn’t pay a ticket that doesn’t mean it’s willful if they can’t afford to pay it.”
East Bay Times: Landmark settlement offers some relief from crushing traffic ticket fines
A formally incarcerated man from San Pablo cleared his credit, earned his driver’s license, and purchased a car with insurance. Meanwhile, a homeless mother of two got help to achieve sobriety, a job, an apartment and the title “Best Mom.” Local residents have emerged from seemingly insurmountable situations through the help of Rubicon Programs at 101 Broadway in Richmond.
Rubicon Programs providing locals with tools for economic mobility
RICHMOND — For more than 40 years, Rubicon Programs, an East Bay nonprofit, has assisted residents, many of them with rap sheets, get housing and employment. The organization has won accolades for its work, but all too often, participants returned, needing help again and again.
Even more depressingly, years later, their children would come in asking for help, underscoring the immense challenge of eradicating poverty, even in one of the wealthiest regions of the country.
A mural that was designed to encourage hope for those touched by incarceration was unveiled at the Reentry Success Center in Richmond on Monday. The mural, titled Freedom's Expressions, was designed and created by formerly incarcerated local residents and family members affected by incarceration.
Mural by Formerly Incarcerated Residents Unveiled in Richmond
Described as “bright and beautiful,” the mural was created over a four-month period with guidance from two professional mural artists.
In a statement, participant Albert G. described the project, which was largely funded by a $7,000 grant from the Richmond Neighborhood Public Arts Mini-Grants program, as “a way for me to start coming back while giving back.”
The Hearst Foundation has awarded $725,000 in grants to nine organizations in the Bay Area, according to the San Francisco Gate. The awards go to organizations and institutions that reflect the philanthropic interests of William Randolph Hearst in education, health, culture and social services.
The San Francisco Film Society and Richmond’s Rubicon Programs were awarded with $150,000 each. The Film Society will be able to use the grant to strengthen education programming for youths. The Rubicon programs will be able to support their education and employment programming.
The Hearst Foundations awarded $725,000 worth of grants to nine Bay Area organizations this summer for their work spanning a wide gamut from mentoring programs for children in low-income communities to aiding the construction of an experimental learning ship.
The biggest awards, $150,000 each, were given to Richmond’s Rubicon Programs, to support education and employment programming, and the San Francisco Film Society, to strengthen education programming for youth.
A repayment program established by the state last year to protect low-income Californians from losing their driver’s licenses over unpaid traffic fines is not working in many California counties, according to a coalition of civil rights advocates, who say local courts are failing to take a person’s ability to pay into account.Led by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, the coalition filed suit Wednesday against Solano County Superior Court — one of dozens, it says, that have been intractable on the issue — and warned 26 others that they could be next.
The ACLU is joined in the suit by Rubicon Programs, Bay Area Legal Aid, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Western Center on Law & Poverty, and the Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman law firm.
Yanking Licenses Over Unpaid Fines Harms the Poor, Suit Charges
Rubicon was recently featured on the Finch Files. Peter Finch introduces Rubicon’s program designed to help men released from prison be better dads.