Maria Rigazio is still foggy about some of the details of her life before becoming clean and sober. How she was able to get out of her 25 year prison sentence and attend a residential treatment facility for her drug dependency? All she knew was that when her grandson asked her where she had been and when she was coming home, she had to make a change in her life.

Maria remained clean, working hard to be a strong voice and source of strength for others struggling with the same addiction, and maintained employment with the steel mill. After almost a decade working at the mill suffering back injuries and less than desirable conditions, Maria lost her job. She soon discovered that sporadic disability support from the mill and unemployment benefits were not enough to pay the bills, much less support her family and her grandchildren who remained the source of strength for her sobriety.

Maria also discovered that she did not have the skills necessary for today's workforce. She had been with the mill for so long, she was uncertain about everything in the job search process, from what to wear and how to write a resume, to even what skills she had. That's when a friend and Opportunity Junction alum told her about the Job Training and Placement Program.

After a little hesitation about going back to school, but with a desire to continually improve herself, Maria applied. "I didn't know what I wanted to do or what was out there. I really didn't have any hope for the future," Maria recalls. "Opportunity Junction gave me a chance to look outside of the boundaries I set for myself."

Maria had always loved her work with Narcotics Anonymous and knew she wanted a job where she could make a difference. With confidence developed through learning new skills and the assistance of staff members, Maria applied for a position as a program assistant for Ujima Family Recovery Services, a treatment facility for women with children. In addition to completing reports and maintaining files, Maria's is the first face women see when they enter the building and the first voice they hear when they call.

"Opportunity Junction helped me build the skills I needed to find a job where I feel appreciated and involved, which is something I never had in the workplace before. I truly feel like I can do this job," states Maria. "I enjoy working closely with these women and hope to be with Ujima for a long time."

Win the Whole Enchilada, or Just Eat One

Players at the Showdown at the Junction poker fundraiser will be treated to dinner from La Tapatia, a great Mexican restaurant in Concord that also happens to be an Opportunity Junction Hiring Partner.

For an admission fee of $80, players will start with $1,000 in chips (the kind you bet with), dinner, and one free drink ticket. Early Bird web sign-ups, which have been extended to Friday, January 25 at 5:00 pm, will get $200 extra in bonus chips.

The tournament takes place at Cue Productions, 1835 Colfax in Concord. Dinner begins at 5:00 pm, with the tournament kicking off at 6:00 pm. Cash prizes start at $500 for the first place winner. Click here for more details.

Once the tournament begins, supporters who don't play (and who just want to cheer from the sidelines) may be able to purchase dinner and a drink for the reduced price of $20, if food is still available.

Class 24 Graduation Features Supervisor Glover's Chief of Staff David Fraser and Opportunity Junction founder Meryl Natchez

While the graduates of Class 24 moved us with their words and accomplishments, the fifteen of them were in turn inspired by Special Guest Speaker David Fraser, Chief of Staff to Supervisor Federal Glover, and Special Presenter Meryl Natchez, CEO of TechProse and the founder of Opportunity Junction.

Fraser's oratory was inspired by his work side by side with Opportunity Junction alumna Tonya Smith, who has served as an Assistant to Supervisor Glover for the past six years. "You will sleep well on windy nights," he told the graduates, "if, like Tonya, you can live by the principle that whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might."

Natchez, whose company TechProse is the 23rd largest woman-owned business in the Bay Area, reached back to the time before her successful business career to explain the inspiration for Opportunity Junction. "I was a welfare recipient. I know about that hunger," she told the crowd. "I remember so clearly the first time I had to buy a new pair of jeans for my oldest daughter. I can remember standing in the department store with my hand shaking while I wrote the check for those jeans wondering where I was going to find the $35 to pay for them."

Natchez then presented the organization with a personal check for $5,000. "Do you have any idea what that means to me? I mean, what a huge change in my life!" Natchez capped off the presentation with two pieces of advice for the graduates: her personal motto – underpromise and overdeliver – and "comfortable shoes."

"I was so inspired," recalls Class 24 intern Aisha Patterson. "She was so determined, and she did what she had to do to reach her goals. And that's what I'm doing now."

The graduation ceremony will air again on CCTV (Comcast Channel 27 and Astound Channel 32) on Monday, February 4, at 4 pm, Wednesday, February 6, at 8 pm, and Friday, February 15, at 3 pm.

Event Website Provides Latest Auction News, Ticket Links, and More

Looking outside at the weather and wishing it were May already? We're not. Staff and volunteers at Opportunity Junction are hard at work putting together our May 3rd Function for the Junction, and we're not quite ready yet.

You can check out our progress at http://www.opportunityjunction.org/gala2008 from now until then. We'll be updating the sponsor and auction item lists, and you'll also find a link to purchase tickets online (even though we only sent out the Save the Date postcards this week). All event details are available on the new web page.

A Collaborative Staff Effort Makes for a Smooth and Record Recuitment Period

There is excitement in the air as Opportunity Junction gets ready to welcome Class 25 of the Job Training and Placement Program February 4. A record number 93 started the application process before Class 25 was selected (we're still tallying how many actually completed all of the application requirements).

"It was wonderful to see so many people interested in our Job Training and Placement Program," states Manager of Technology and Reporting Brianna Burkman. "We only wish we were able to serve more deserving people in this county."

Applicants hear about the Job Training and Placement Program through advertising, word of mouth, and referrals from various agencies servicing our target population. Staff also refers applicants to the County (CalWORKS and other programs), Shelter Inc., the Child Care Council, several other agencies.

"Whether or not they end up being accepted in the program, I want to help applicants connect with agencies who can assist them in overcoming employment barriers," shares Natalie Georgia, Manager of Personal Development. "Many people just haven't heard about all of the excellent programs available through organizations like Pittsburg Adult Education, Los Medanos College, and One Stop Career Centers."

Low-income residents of Contra Costa County can apply to the Job Training and Placement Program each May, September, and January. Those who are unable to commit to the full time program, or who may not be accepted into the current class, are encourage to attend our Technology Center in the evenings for free English as a Second Language classes and introductory computer classes.

Opportunity Junction Job Training and Placement alumni will be returning to the computer lab this tax season to lead tax assistance sessions for alumni and families who earned less than $52,000 in 2007.

Do-It-Yourself Tax Assistance will help taxpayers use the I-CAN eFile web interface to prepare their own taxes and file electronically, for free. I-CAN enables users to have refunds deposited directly into their checking and savings accounts.

Sessions will be held every Saturday at 10 am and every Monday at 6 pm, beginning January 28th, with some extra sessions scheduled near the beginning and end of the tax season. Taxpayers may sign up to attend a session by selecting a session at http://www.opportunityjunction.org/taxes [which links to EventBrite). Three of the sessions will be held entirely in Spanish, using the Spanish-language version of the I-CAN website.

"The Do-It-Yourself concept is a great mission fit for us," explains Alissa Friedman, Executive Director. "We're teaching and we're empowering. For those taxpayers who cannot use a computer at all, though, we will provide referrals to the traditional Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Sites at 800-358-8832."

Volunteer Recognition Breakfast Coming Up

Recent studies suggest that volunteer time in the Bay Area is worth over $20 an hour. When you add up all the time volunteers donated to our program in 2007 -- doing administration, fundraising, consulting, IT support, training, mentoring, guest speaking, tutoring, event staffing and more -- well, we've only just begun our volunteer hours tracking system but we are comfortable in saying that it comes to a very large contribution. Without these many volunteers, we would have no program.

As part of Opportunity Junction's mission - to fight poverty by helping low-income Contra Costa residents gain the skills and confidence to support themselves and their families - we've brought in volunteer speakers to conduct workshops on different aspects of financial literacy. In our Job Training and Placement Program, we have three regular volunteers who come to speak to each class of trainees about budgeting and financial management – Debbie Friesen of WestAmerica, Ginger Littleton of Washington Mutual, and Curtis McAdams of Citibank. These volunteers manage to make topics like basic budgeting and credit scoring interesting, thanks to creative use of jellybeans and some great personal stories.

Volunteers also taught these same job training participants introductory bookkeeping and basic QuickBooks this past session. In a series of four three-hour sessions, Elizabeth Ferring-Olson and Karen Schwerdtfeger from the Antioch CPA firm of Temen, Kaiser & Cameron, gave trainees a crash course in small office accounting.

As funding and time allow, we hope to offer more workshops targeting financial awareness in our evening program.

Volunteers, you should have received your invitation to breakfast with us. If you're not a volunteer, but are interested in becoming one, please call (925) 776-1133 to request a Volunteer Application. Not sure what you want to do? Just fill out the application and we'll help you figure it out!

Rotary sponsors Art for Opportunity

The Antioch Rotary presents Art for Opportunity: an art show featurin renowned local artists. Wine and hors d'oeuvres will be served. Proceeds from the $25 admission will benefit Opportunity Junction. This event takes place Thursday, March 27, 7-9 pm, at the Antioch Historical Society. Thanks to the Antioch Rotary and participating artists for making this happen! Please watch our website for advance ticket information.

The list of artists showing their work is not complete, but we do know that Nancy Roberts Thomas Morris, and Cynthia Brody will be among them. Nancy will be coordinating the show, drawing on her experience as former curator of the Antioch Lynn House Gallery. Nancy, is a working artist, art instructor, and retired architect.  She is an avid plein air painter, and has been invited to participate in several regional events including the Carmel Art Festival, Alameda's Jewel by the Bay, and the Scene on the Strait in Martinez.  

Thomas Morris, who has donated many volunteer hours of graphic design services to help Opportunity Junction improve our marketing materials, will show rock posters such as this Northern California Folk-Rock Festival poster, which hangs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. A cross-section of his rock posters is chronicled in the collector's edition book "The Art of Rock".

Cynthia Brody has been an exhibiting artist for 30 years. She combines photo imagery with oil paints and found materials to create allegorical images and moods. Brody has created pieces that depict women, often in surreal surroundings and utilizing varied media, who seem to be looking toward what will come next in their lives. Themes are represented are; love, relationships with men and children, and the place of women within society. The piece shown, "And We Never Even Know We Have the Key," is an example of her three-dimensional work.

Donors Double Dollars Responding to Challenge Grant

Sixty-two new Opportunity Junction donors have doubled the impact of their donations by responding to a challenge grant from the Anonymous Fund at the East Bay Community Foundation.

The terms of the challenge are designed to help us build critically-needed individual donations. From now through the end of June 2008, your individual donation will be doubled to the extent that it exceeds any donation you made in the 06-07 fiscal year. So far, 93 donors have contributed $28,495, with $17,545 of that eligible for the match. That's a total of $46,040 raised to support job training and our other programs!

Through January 23, 2008, our FY2007-08 individual donors include:

Opportunity Junction Welcomes John Quintanilla and Josie Monaghan

Opportunity Junction is pleased to welcome John Quintanilla to our full time staff as our Business and Operations Coordinator. This new position blends together several different elements and responsibilities including managing our DataWorks program and helping to build relationships with hiring partners. Brianna Burkman, formerly the Project Manager for DataWorks, has the new title of Manager of Technology and Reporting.

Working as the Technology Center Program Assistant in our evening program since May, 2006, John is not a new face to Opportunity Junction. "Having known and worked with John for so long, we knew he would be a great addition to our organization," shares Alissa Friedman, Executive Director.

In addition to his evening work with Opportunity Junction, John has spent the last few years as an Eligibility Worker for the County. He also serves in the California National Guard where he was recommended for a Bronze Star for bravery in the apprehension of a fleeing felon. "When I heard about the position opening with Opportunity Junction, I was immediately interested in hearing more," states John. "I know the organization and am excited to be working towards such a worthy mission."

With John accepting a full time position during our day program, we're happy to announce that Josie Monaghan is joining our staff as evening Program Assistant. Our evening Technology Center program can be a bit of a juggling act, since we have Computer Basics classes, open lab access, and ESL (English as a Second Language) classes running simultaneously. The Program Assistant welcomes new users of the center and keeps it all running, helping to create a welcoming and effective evening program.

Josie served as a volunteer bilingual peer counselor in our Technology Center program during her internship with the BEST Now program in 2006, providing tutoring and mentoring to Technology Center learners. Josie is the founder of Wingz to Fly, a nonprofit organization which helped East County teens to transition from foster care to independence. She also founded the support group, Antioch Military Family and Friends, which organizes community events and rallies support for our troops. She holds a certificate in bilingual peer counseling for consumers of mental health services.

You may have seen Josie's photo on the front page of the January 4 issue of the Antioch Press, with her husband of 15 years, Jeff, and their son Joey, who just finished two tours of duty in Iraq. The story focused on Joey's return home to celebrate the holidays with his family for the first time in four years.

Technology Center learners who remember Josie's volunteer service will be very happy to have her return and bring her welcoming spirit to our evening program.

• Refrigerator;
• Secretarial chairs;
• Wrist rests;
• Folding chairs in good condition;
• Personal printer;
• Palm Pilot;
• Digital camera (at least 4 megapixels);
• Video camera;
• Licenses you don't need for Windows XP or Windows 2000 and Office 2000 or Office 2003, for our Computers for the Community program (sending computers home with our alumni and participants);
• Computers (minimum Pentium III, 256 MB, 20 GB hard drive, 1 GHz); and
• Utility shelves.

Opportunity Junction wishes to acknowledges all of its corporate, foundation and government funders, sponsors, and in-kind providers:

To join them and to help us place Job Training and Placement participants into good jobs with opportunities for advancement, fill out our very simple Memorandum of Understanding. Many thanks to our other Opportunity Junction Hiring Partners:

• Ascot Staffing
• Contra Costa Child Care Council
• CASA of Contra Costa County
• Contra Costa Council
• Contra Costa County Superior Court
• Eichleay Engineering
• La Tapatia Mexican Restaurant
• Nelson Family of Companies
• Office of Supervisor Federal Glover
• Springboard Advisors
• USS Posco Industries
• Venturi Staffing Partners

The 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.

If you share our vision, we'll find a way to help you get involved - whatever your schedule, whatever your resources. You can:

• Volunteer with the day or evening program. We have positions for mentors, tutors, mock interviewers, and much more.
• Employ an Opportunity Junction graduate. Our candidates are proficient, experienced and motivated.
• Hire DataWorks. From database management to mailings, we're fast, reliable and cost-effective.
• Give. Your tax-deductible contribution will change a life.

We welcome your feedback and involvement in our program. You can reach any of us by telephone at (925) 776-1133. Staff emails are all in the form firstname AT opportunityjunction DOT org. For inquiries about:

• Job Training and Placement Program, contact Manager of Personal Development Natalie Georgia;
• Employment opportunities for alumni, contact Manager of Professional Development Michelle Stewart;
• Evening Technology Center, contact Director of Development and Adult Education Jesse Golden;
• Integrated mental health services, contact Director of Counseling Catherine Warren;
• DataWorks business services, contact Manager of Technology and Reporting Brianna Burkman;
• Communications and donations, contact Executive Director Alissa Friedman; or
• Accounting and human resources, contact Accountant Pam Elliott.

• Keith Archuleta, Founding Partner, Emerald Consulting
• Linda Best, Executive Director, Contra Costa Council
• George Birdsong, President, Springboard Advisors
• Janet Brown, Housing Specialist, Center for Independent Living
• Sandy Bustillo, Division Manager for Welfare to Work and Employment Placement Services, Contra Costa County Workforce Services
• Val Davis, Vice Chair, Delta 2000
• Sue George, Chair, Friends of Opportunity Junction
• Mary Jane Hargrove, Consultant, Accounting and Bookkeeping
• Rick Kaiser, CPA, CFP, Temen, Kaiser & Cameron CPAs, LLC
• Jack Kane, Vice-Principal, Pittsburg Adult Education Center
• Nancy Parent, Councilmember, City of Pittsburg
• Ricardo M. Perez, D.D.S., Owner, Cosmetic Dental Spa
• Jayne Sanford, Area Manager, Mechanics Bank
• Tonya Smith, Assistant, Office of Supervisor Federal Glover
• Ashoo Vaid, District Manager, Wells Fargo Bank

The Opportunity Junction Advisory Board

The 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:

• Iris Archuleta, Transitional Management Consultant, Emerald Consulting
• Philip Arndt, Franchising & Government Affairs Manager, Comcast Cable Communications, Inc.
• Robert Beck, Principal, Pittsburg Adult Education Center
• Sharon Beswick, Principal, Antioch Area Community Fund
• The Honorable Susan Bonilla, County Supervisor, Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors
• Timothy Carlisle, Senior Network Analyst, Contra Costa County Department of Information Technology
• Jennie Carpenter, Program Officer, United Way of the Bay Area
• George Carter, Business Services Representative, Contra Costa County Workforce Development Board
• Debrah Cook, Community Engagement Specialist, Chevron Corporation
• The Honorable Mark Desaulnier, Assemblymember, California State Assembly
• Aimee Durfee, Program Officer, United Way of the Bay Area
• Lester Ellis, Founder, 1200 Foundation
• The Honorable Federal Glover, County Supervisor, Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors
• Maria Gomez-Felix, President, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• Jim Jakel, City Manager, City of Antioch
• Mark Kehoe, Director of Environmental and Safety Programs, GWF Power Systems
• Devi Lanphere, President/CEO, Antioch Chamber of Commerce
• Danae Lui, Dow Chemical
• James Miner, Law Student, Golden Gate University
• Meryl Natchez, CEO, TechProse
• Juan Francisco Prieto, Family Development Specialist, California Human Development Corporation
• The Honorable Kevin Romick, Mayor, City of Oakley
• Timothy Silva, Community Development Manager, Wells Fargo Bank
• The Honorable Arne Simonsen, Council Member, City of Antioch
• The Honorable Tom Torlakson, State Senator, California State Senate
• René Tucker, Employer Liaison, EASTBAYWorks - Brentwood
• Carole Watson, Chief Investment Officer, Self-Sufficiency, United Way of the Bay Area
• Ronald Wetter, Community & Government Relations Manager, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc.
• Alma Williams, Staff Specialist, Kaiser Permanente

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Newsletter Contributors: Alissa Friedman, Jesse Golden, and Brianna Burkman