One of my favorite things about working for Lincoln is that the decisions are truly guided by the mission and values. Being strength-based, family-centered, and culturally aware are not just tag lines but the expectation for how you meet the youth and families where they are. We are invited to bring ourselves to the work, to be creative, and to bring our passions here because if we are inspired that energy is met and mirrored by the youth.

I'm inspired by the history of Lincoln, as well as the hard work and dedication of the Lincoln teams: yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Their work is extremely difficult and uniquely taxing, made even more so by the pandemic. The Lincoln team finds creative ways to confront new challenges and continues to deliver services to the families who need it most.

The ACEs Aware provider engagement grant lets us share a creative mind-body approach with school-based Medi-Cal providers and the youth they serve, all around the state, in a time of tremendous uncertainty, loss, and stress.

Meeting clients where they’re at, both literally and figuratively, is one of the hallmarks of community mental health, and the team in the Therapeutic Behavioral Services (TBS) program at Lincoln Families demonstrates this quality day in, day out. In TBS, we are charged with serving children and youth across Alameda County whose behaviors have resulted in them being at risk of losing their home placement.

Unlike our community-based Mandela Family Resource Center in West Oakland, Lincoln pioneered a school-based model to serve our families in East Oakland in 2014.

When I accepted the position of Administrative Assistant at Lincoln in 2014, my goal was to play a small role in supporting mental health access in marginalized communities in Contra Costa County.

For Chris Nguon, Supervisor of the Lincoln’s Mandela Family Resource Center, and Mandela’s entire team of Family Navigators and Residence Service Coordinators, West Oakland is not just the place wherein Mandela resides, nor is it merely the community they serve: above all, for Chris and many of the team, Mandela is home.

Lincoln has received $100,000 in grant funds from the California Surgeon General’s Office and the Department of Health Care Services to participate in the state’s ACEs Aware initiative.

During September’s National Kinship Care Month, Lincoln Families held a virtual forum on Kinship Care in Alameda County to discuss the state of hidden foster care in the county, the impacts of COVID-19 and remote learning, and how we can move forward together to better serve caregivers raising relative's children.

Lincoln knows that children do best when they remain in the safe, stable, and familiar environment that relatives can provide.

One reason Freedom Schools is so beautiful is that while it’s about literacy, it’s also about connection, celebrating who you are, and feeling pride for your community and culture.

“We all know that the early development years are critical for youth in helping to shape their path in life and I love that Lincoln has positively impacted youth and their families lives for over 135 years.”

I have worked for Lincoln in both the West Oakland Initiative (WOI) program as an Academic Mentor, as well as Oakland Freedom Schools in the summer as a SLI (Servant Leader Intern). This summer I’m back as an OFS Site Coordinator.

June has been an important month for the LGBTQ+ community celebrating the anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising as well as important Supreme Court verdicts affecting not only the LGBTQ+ community but all people. This year June has seen the intersection of the Pride and Black Lives Matter movements, opening the conversations about racial equity, civil rights, and health and well-being.

“I think people are learning more about these inequities now while we are in our current state with COVID-19 bringing education as we knew to its knees. Kids in low-income families are dealing with things like lack of access to technology and wifi (how does one learn remotely when you don’t have a computer?), lack of space to study quietly, underfunded schools, teachers who aren’t properly trained...the list goes on. As I learned more, I wanted to do more to make a difference in the world.”

I’m the Program Supervisor of Lincoln’s West Oakland Initiative (WOI) that works with students, parents, and West Oakland schools to support Social Emotional Learning and literacy gaps. At school, our focus is empowering youth, increasing literacy and parent involvement. We also built in an at-home component to support parents with home structure.

We are all experiencing deep outrage and sadness over the recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many other Black lives lost. As so many of you are acutely aware, racism has always existed and is deeply rooted in America. The horrific events of the past few weeks remind us that we have a long way to go to fight for justice.

I am the Program Manager of Lincoln's Intensive Home Based Services (IHBS) program that serves children and families in Contra Costa County. As a part of the services offered to children who are impacted by the foster care and child welfare system, we get to work with amazing children with some of the most challenging stories while they are working to stabilize in their placements. Most of the children or youth in our program have been subjected to multiple placement changes in a short period of time and experienced the direct harm of being removed from their parents care. Whether in the process of reunification, living in a foster home, or being placed in a group home, these foster youth have a plethora of experiences that have made placement a challenge.

As my family ushered in the new year, I sat with my daughters to design vision boards. “2020 Vision” boldly positioned in the center of my board; short term goals, inspirational quotes to myself, dreams and aspirations, and milestones reached…that is what I envisioned. Never could I have imagined an event of this magnitude, storming onto the scene and forcing every living being to re-think life.