Opportunity Junction fights poverty by helping low-income Contra Costa residents gain the competence and confidence to support themselves and their families.
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March 2007 Newsletter Opportunity Junction fights poverty by helping low-income Contra Costa residents gain the competence and confidence to support themselves and their families. |
In this issue... Class 22 Graduation: Please join us and Antioch School Board member Teri Shaw in congratulating the graduates of Class 22 on March 29th, Thursday! More... Tickets Available Now: Individual tickets are on sale for our April 21st Gala Fundraiser presented by Chevron with Platinum Sponsor Wells Fargo. More... Heads Up for Recruiting: More than 100 prospects have signed up to apply for our job training and placement class, but we want more (especially in Bay Point). More... What Goes Around: The new cycle of Computer Basics evening classes kicks off April 17th, while free tax assistance is winding up April 14th. More... Volunteers Honored: Five Opportunity Junction volunteers received special recognition at a recent ceremony sponsored by Wells Fargo. More... |
Featured Alumna
A criminal history caused Mira to be the last person from her class to get a job, but she has been working for almost two years now. Here's her story... |
Mira Williams: Climbing Out of a Deep Hole
Mira's mother had died of cardiac arrest when Mira was two weeks from full term during Mira's second pregnancy. A nursing student at the time, Mira tried in vain to resuscitate her mother using CPR. Mira was unable to reconcile the grief of losing her mother, the joy at her daughter's birth, and the 17 units of schoolwork she was carrying. She began using, then trafficking in, methamphetamines. When she arrived at Opportunity Junction a few years later, Mira was clean and sober but not out of the woods. She was working with a lawyer to regain custody of her son, to get her convictions expunged, and to demonstrate to Child Protective Services that she could care for her children. She was trying to prove to her family and herself that she could get her life back on track. "OPTIC gave me the stability and support I really needed at that time in my life,” recalls Mira. “It was a place where there were expectations of me every day, but also a place where I didn't have to pretend if I was having a hard day." Mira was grateful for the on-site counseling available, too: "I didn't trust the county's psychologists, so it was hard for me to open up to the issues that had landed me where I was. It was so wonderful to have a psychologist on-site at OPTIC who I felt I could trust and who didn't necessarily expect me to fail." Mira had a remarkably positive attitude and influence on her class. Her dependability and maturity were exemplary, and she communicated well about schedules, deadlines and project parameters. So it was that much harder when Mira's internship ended without her having received a job offer, the only member of her class not to receive one. Staff encouraged Mira to keep using the Alumni Center, and their support helped Mira keep her spirits up. She maintained a high energy job search, using the computers at the Opportunity Junction Alumni Center and also visiting the local One Stop Career Center for additional job leads. It took some time, but Mira was offered and accepted a job as a Medical Assistant. "I really needed all the computer and networking and job search skills I learned at OPTIC," Mira reports. "And I'm using those skills still, looking for ways to advance my career," possibly with a lateral move. "This was where I needed to be," said Mira on a recent visit to the office, following up to let us know how she was spending the tax refund that our Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program helped her with. "I'm so grateful that you accepted me to the program and stuck with me through all these years." Class 22 Celebrates Graduation March 29th; CCTV to Televise
The ceremony will feature special guest speaker Teri Lynn Shaw, the first African-American woman elected to the Antioch School Board and the founder of Club P.R.I.M.P. (Positive Results if Maintained Periodically), an organization devoted to helping young women make positive choices. Class 22 is the largest graduating class ever at Opportunity Junction, with fully 17 trainees preparing to receive their certificates and move on to the paid internship part of the program. "With this many class members, our staff can really identify with the stretch that each trainee has made to get this far," reports Alissa Friedman, Executive Director. "We're glad to see them graduate, and we'll be glad to get them placed!" In case you can't make it (or just want to see it again), CCTV -- Contra Costa TV -- will tape and televise the graduation on Monday, April 16th at 9 p.m. and Wednesday, April 18th at 3:00 pm. CCTV is Comcast channel 27. Tickets on Sale for April 21st Gala
Individual tickets are on sale for our Gala Fundraiser on April 21, 2007, at the Lafayette Veterans Memorial Building, presented by Chevron and featuring MC Sara Sidner of KTVU, gourmet dinner by Blake's at Boundary Oak, live and silent auctions, plus a live band for dancing. Our web event page will be updated soon to include descriptions of the fabulous auction items that have been donated. Enjoy a week at Lake Tahoe, Oceanview, or at one of hundreds of condominiums around the globe. Golfers can bid on their choice of foursomes from several excellent courses. We'll have everything from a day's trip to the wine country to a football autographed by Jerry Rice. Quick Links: Invitation Reply Form, Sponsorship Form, Auction Item Donation Form.
By the way, we are grateful for and recommend the design work of Thomas Morris Design. Thomas Morris has created all of the materials for the gala -- from the event logo to sponsorship forms to the invitations -- and we are thrilled with the results. Heads Up: Job Training Application Sessions Begin April 16
Natalie Georgia, Program Coordinator for the Job Training and Placement Program, isn't entirely sure what to expect on April 16th at 10 am, when the first application session for our May 14th class kicks off. "We have 110 candidates who have expressed an interest in the class since we closed applications for Class 22," she reports. "That's twice as many as we've ever had before." Georgia expects many of those 110 will no longer be interested at this point, since in some cases months have elapsed. Nonetheless, she has kept in contact with them through postcards and will make sure every prospective applicant gets a reminder call the week before application sessions begin. "We don't like turning people away," she says, "but we do appreciate the opportunity to select a class that will need and take advantage of every service we provide in the program." Development Director Jesse Golden, who spearheads marketing efforts including participant outreach, isn't sitting back on her heels. "I want to make sure that potential participants from Bay Point to Brentwood know about how we can help them reach their goals," she says. "We won't really know how well we've done with our outreach until the application sessions begin." A large applicant pool opens up other opportunities, of course. "We ourselves often refer applicants out to other organizations that can better suit their needs," explains Georgia. "We may send a medical professional from Mexico to Global Exchange, or a young person who wants to become a network administrator to StreetTech. We're also hoping that more positions open up in the Los Medanos College Process Tech program." This session, Executive Director Alissa Friedman has some additional plans for what she hopes will be the largest pool of applicants yet. "I'd like to do a formal needs survey of our applicants," she states. "I know it won't represent the community at large, because these are just the folks who thought our specific program would be right for them, but I think we can learn a lot about what other services we might offer to provide life-changing opportunities to the area's low-income residents." As to the reasons for the larger volume of "pre-applicants," Friedman speculates that the name change may have been a factor. "When we applied to the Taproot Foundation for the name-change grant, this is exactly what we predicted would happen. That's not to say that our staff, volunteers, and supporters aren't doing a lot of other things right to spread the word, but I do think our new name and brand help." What Goes Around: Evening Computer Basics Classes Begin a Cycle, While Tax Assistance Winds Up
Meanwhile, only three Saturdays are left for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, which cycles out of existence for the year on Tax Day (April 17th). Appointments for those three dates -- March 31, April 7, and April 14 -- are by reservation only. Reservations may be made by calling (925) 776-1133 between 1:30 and 5:00 Monday through Friday or between 9:00 and 4:00 on Saturday. Volunteers Honored at Recognition BreakfastOpportunity Junction volunteers were thanked and honored for their service at a breakfast ceremony on March 23rd sponsored by Wells Fargo. Volunteers are vital members of the Opportunity Junction family: they teach... they inspire... they advise... they host... they plan... they reach out... they raise money... they make our programs possible! Five of the volunteers received special recognition and will be nominated for Jefferson Awards. The five individuals honored have provided key services to both our programs and our organization. They are:
In the MediaWe are tremendously grateful for the broadcast and print media's help in publicizing our programs and mission:
Wish ListMany thanks to those who have already responded with gifts and offers. Here is our current wish list:
Tips and Tricks: Free Tools for Event InvitationsMany of you have received email invitations from us for events like Job Training and Placement Graduations. For years, we used the well-known service Evite for sending invitations and tracking responses. Not this time. We had been frustrated by glitches on the Evite website that required us to re-design our invitations several times over, but we soldiered forth. Evite's 750 invitation limit, however, and the inevitable delays in getting customer service to grant an exception to that limit, were the straws that broke our collective event-planning back. Session after session, we tried to filter our graduation invitation list down based on zip code and other criteria (staff never received an email invitation). This last time, we just didn't want to leave anybody out. For some relief, Development Director Jesse Golden first suggested we Google "better than Evite," which yielded plenty of hits, then searched out a relevant article on the Techsoup.org website. That article, credited to Idealware, maps out some great alternatives to Evite. We chose Eventbright, and most of you have seen the results. We were still able to include a graphic with our invitation, and the reporting functions are easy to use. Very importantly, there is no cost to use Eventbright if your event is free. Please make sure to invite us to your next event, whatever tool you use! Funding and In-Kind Partners, and Funding NewsSince our last newsletter, we were grateful to receive significant grants from the following partners:
Opportunity Junction wishes to acknowledges all of its corporate, foundation and government funders, sponsors, and in-kind providers: Opportunity Junction Hiring PartnersOpportunity Junction Hiring Partners help us place Job Training and Placement participants into good jobs with opportunities for advancement. To join them, fill out our very simple Memorandum of Understanding. Many thanks to Opportunity Junction Hiring Partners:
Friends of Opportunity JunctionThe Friends of Opportunity Junction are an energetic, talented group of women dedicated to supporting Opportunity Junction's work in the community. We are thrilled with their efforts to publicize our work, help with special events and donor development, and support the staff in innumerable ways. They are: Anne Launt, Beth Bissell, Betty Stokes, Denise Silicani, Frances Wallace, Helen Loewenstein, Jan Monteyne, Jane Collett, Judy Johnson, Jules Campbell, Karla Massie, Kathy Burke, Kathy Leahy, Mary Ann Shattuck, Mary Jane Arnold, Mary Jane Hargrove, Maureen Wilhelm, Norma Evans, Pam Elliott, Pamela Halloran, Sarah Morrill, Sue George, and Sue Kidd. Ways to Get InvolvedIf you share our vision, we'll find a way to help you get involved - whatever your schedule, whatever your resources. You can:
Contact the Opportunity Junction StaffWe welcome your feedback and involvement in our program. You can reach any of us by telephone at (925) 776-1133. For inquiries about:
The Opportunity Junction Board of Directors
The Opportunity Junction Advisory BoardThe Advisory Board consists of community members who provide valuable advice and other assistance in support of our mission to fight poverty by helping low-income Contra Costa residents gain the competence and confidence to support themselves and their families. They are:
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Mira Williams (not her real name) had dug herself a huge hole to climb out of when she arrived at Opportunity Junction (then OPTIC). Convicted of dealing and possessing methamphetamine, she had lost the trust of almost everyone she knew. And the feeling was mutual.
Jane Collett: One of the founding members of the Friends of Opportunity Junction, Jane has been a key volunteer in organizing and providing support for all of our events. Whether she is hanging streamers to decorate the office for graduation, or strategizing with partners from the Keiretsu Forum, or chairing our Events Committee, Jane brings tremendous enthusiasm and organization to all of her work.
Selma Moore: Retired from the corporate world three years ago, Selma teaches Business English as part of the Academic Skills component of the Job Training and Placement Program. Selma has served in this capacity for almost two years, providing a tremendous amount of stability. Selma has also generously volunteered after class to tutor participants who needed additional work.
Brianna Burkman: A recent arrival to Contra Costa County, Brianna is a teacher by profession. For us, she teaches Business Math and Test-Taking Skills as part of the Academic Skills component of the Job Training and Placement Program. Participants who hated math in school and who dreaded this part of the program have actually developed a fondness for the subject with Brianna's assistance.
Tonya Smith: An alumna of Class 5, Tonya has served since 2002 as a member of the Board of Directors. Like Janet, Tonya has courageously shared her personal story in order to help explain what Opportunity Junction does. Her speaking engagements have included presentations to the Keiretsu Forum, at our own Workforce Development Luncheon, and as part of several corporate partners' annual employee donation campaign kickoffs.