News
News
We at Lincoln Families are thrilled to share our 2024 Annual Report, which features our new vision for the future as well as stories celebrating youth and families thriving in our communities. These stories highlight how your support and partnership help us respond to needs in our work to strengthen and support our communities.
Throughout the years at Lincoln Families, young individuals have developed confidence and nurtured aspirations for the future. We are delighted to announce that 51 teenage graduates from Lincoln Families programs have enrolled in postsecondary education this autumn! They will be pursuing studies at institutions like UC Merced, Laney College, and different trade schools, marking a remarkable achievement in their educational paths.
For a leader of a company or nonprofit, one of the best ways to be recognized is through employees’ admiration. That’s why the 2024 Energage awards for top leaders in three categories (small, midsize and large businesses) are so meaningful.
Sonya Mughal, CEO of Bailard, a wealth and asset management firm, won in the small business category. Allison Becwar, CEO of Lincoln Families, won for midsize employers. Andy Mastorakis, president and CEO of Fremont Bank, won for large companies.
Based in Oakland and founded in 1883, Lincoln Families’ mission is to disrupt cycles of poverty and trauma and help people build strong futures through therapist-guided mental health services, Becwar said.
Asked to describe her leadership style, Becwar said it’s “service.” The “best way to show up as a leader is to be in service to others,” she said. “The priorities of our organization are defined by those we serve.”
Dear Lincoln Community, For the past year, we have been engaged in a strategic planning process to evolve our mission and to clarify our vision and the values that guide our work. This process has involved deep listening, and we appreciate the time that so many of you took to provide your input and feedback.
We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who attended the Lincoln Families' Emerald Ball for Mental Health Awareness. Thanks to your incredible generosity and support, we raised an amazing $190,000 for our school- and community-based programs.
New Year, New Successes, and New Opportunities!
As we enter 2024, we would like to take a moment to reflect on all the successes that we accomplished in 2023. We are immensely proud of what we have achieved, and we know that we could not have done it without the generous support of our partners, donors, and funders.
Lincoln Families has begun our strategic planning for the next five years and we invite families, Lincoln team members, board members, and partners to join us. Just five minutes of your time will do so much to help guide our future!
Aurora Sanchez was confident she was doing the right thing following her husband to start a new life for her family in the U.S. Adjusting to a different language, culture, and way of life in her new country was filled with unknowns and isolation. Aurora felt stressed, lonely, and depressed.
That's when she found Lincoln’s Family Resource Center (FRC) at her East Oakland neighborhood’s elementary school.
Happy Fall and Seasons Greetings, Lincoln Families' Community!
We are excited to share Lincoln Families' 2023 Annual Report highlighting our community impact over the last 140 years. Discover how we've innovated and adapted since 1883, creating ripples of impact and multi-generational change.
In 1883, the year of our founding, people across the nation were beginning to see electric lights, new bridges, and extended railroad lines. As cities and populations grew, so did the number of children living under desperate circumstances. Options for quality care and necessary services for families were rare. It was in that world that our founder, Rebecca McWade, made history by incorporating the Little Workers Home, the first racially integrated orphanage in Northern California.
While the world is significantly different today, children remain the poorest age group in America, with children of color and children under five and their families suffering from the highest poverty rates. This year, the U.S. Surgeon General declared the nation’s level of loneliness and isolation an epidemic, having widespread impacts on the mental health, physical well-being and educational outcomes of Black and Brown youth in particular. The most recent Nation’s Report Card shows students in almost every state performing at their lowest levels in decades.
We are grateful for everyone that was able to join and share their thoughts, reflections, and recommendations in regards to the findings. Lincoln is excited to continue growing partnerships and building relationships with community stakeholders across sectors in Pittsburg and throughout Contra Costa County.
As we promised, we are sharing the final report of the Pittsburg Community Needs & Strengths Assessment here.
This month marks 140 years that Lincoln Families has worked to disrupt cycles of poverty and trauma in Bay Area communities. As the oldest operating nonprofit founded in Oakland, we have grown to offer critical mental health, family resources, and literacy programming throughout Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. We are proud to be a part of a legacy that has supported children and families since 1883.
Over the past year, despite the significant impacts of the nation’s mental health crisis, we at Lincoln Families have seen stories of resilience everyday. We are truly stronger together. We are all part of the wellness ecosystem that every child needs to thrive and flourish.
Giving Tuesday is just around the corner!
End 2022 with what matters most, spreading joy to children and families. A gift of any amount on Giving Tuesday next week, 11/29/22, changes lives and strengthens communities!
Welcome to Community Perspectives, Lincoln Families' (Lincoln) introductory E-newsletter. I am humbled to have led this incredible organization over the past three years and celebrate our transformative work in the community.
We at Lincoln Families are excited to share some highlights of our work in 2021. These accomplishments would not have been possible without the hard work of our staff and the commitment of you and all of our partners.
National Kinship Care Month in September is where we come together to honor and support our kinship families across the community.
Lincoln pursues collaborative partnerships with mission-aligned organizations to find creative ways to empower and serve children and families. These partnerships allow for mutual strategic thinking, resource sharing, and problem-solving for greater collective impact in Lincoln’s service hubs in Contra Costa and Alameda counties.
Traditional ways of thinking can exacerbate trauma and cause long-term mental health issues in students. The school-to-prison pipeline demonstrates that many kids with mental health needs or behavioral disorders are poorly supported in schools.
Lincoln’s ECMHC program works with some of Lincoln’s youngest children, serving mainly 3-5-year-olds. The model is preventative, relationship-based, and culturally responsive. We focus on early identification and building resiliency within families and school communities.
March 13th, 2020, was the last day students roamed the halls of their campuses. It was the last day the school bell rang. On the last day cars and busses lined the streets creating traffic jams, and on the last day, students congregated in large groups without masks.
Mark your calendars! We are thrilled to announce "At Home with Lincoln," a special virtual ROOT event on Wednesday, June 2, 2021, from 5:30 – 6:30 pm! Join us as we look back at a year, when many of us sheltered in place, worked from home, and had experiences in which all of our lives changed. Come celebrate the many stories of hope and resilience that have inspired us.
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.