Contra Costa County ranked last out of the nine Bay Area counties in chronic absences of its elementary school students last year, according to a grand jury report released last week.

Fewer students are truant, kids are reading at a higher level and more parents are taking an active role in their children’s education. These positive changes can be attributed to Chris Stoner-Mertz, who has dedicated her life to giving families the support they need to break them out of the cycle of poverty and trauma. Her work to help them thrive at home and in school earned her this week’s Jefferson Award.

Lincoln, a nonprofit based in West Oakland that works to empower children and families in low-income communities, announced today that the organization has secured four grants worth $1.4 million in total from the City of Oakland’s Oakland Fund for Children and Youth (OFCY). 

In a classroom adorned in bright colors, ten young scholars sit in a circle. One by one, they take turns reading aloud. At various points, the facilitator asks for examples of how their lives reflect those of the characters in the book or to share what they think will happen next in the story.

This racial educational debt is a huge problem with no easy fix but even with the most complex problems, there are always factors that can show significant promise, despite persistent systemic patterns that continue to do a disservice to black & brown students.

We have a great team at Lincoln! Our employees are mission-driven, passionate individuals who have come together from all walks of life and experiences to serve children, youth and families. In order to try to acknowledge these outstanding employees, we will be highlighting several of them over the course of the next few months. 

Students are more successful if they have to have a positive identity of themselves as a learner. The negative framing of the language of exclusion amounts to adults judging the student and their family. These judgements condemn and leave little room for intervention.

Last New Year’s Day, when 13-year-old Lee Weathersby III was shot and died in Oakland, Calif., nearly 200 of his middle school peers and teachers received therapy.

In Spring 2016, the Dean & Margaret Lesher Foundation provided a generous grant of $30,000 in support of Lincoln's HOPE (Helping Open Pathways To Education) Program in Contra Costa County. 

Of the 3 million students identified as gifted in the U.S., English Language Learners are by far the most underrepresented. And nobody knows that better than 17-year-old Alejandra Galindo.

A kid gets in a fight at school or yells at a teacher. What happens next might be suspension or expulsion. Or on a campus with a school resource officer, what happens could easily be an arrest. Out of school and on the streets, with nothing but time on their hands, it's not hard for suspended or expelled kids to find more serious trouble. 

Researchers at the Child Mind Institute say 50 percent of U.S. children will have a diagnosable mental illness, but less than 8 percent will get treatment in any given year. There is a cavernous gap between the number of children struggling with mental health conditions and the number who actually get help.

Nearly half of young children in America live at or near the poverty level. Those millions of children are more likely to be raised in an environment of substance misuse, neglect, violence, and family turmoil, with limited access to food or clothing, ultimately causing long-term toxic stress. The impact poverty has on health creates a ripple effect that doesn’t stop at childhood.

One of Lincoln's consistent champions over the past several years has been the Bernard E. & Alba Witkin Charitable Foundation, which has been a supporter of Lincoln's programming since 1998. In particular, the late Alba Witkin -- who was well known in the Bay Area for her generosity and support of many local organizations -- had a special interest in supporting early childhood education, due to its long-term impact on children. 

Young people who come into contact with both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems---also known as crossover youth---are among the most vulnerable of California’s children. These young people are more likely to be separated from their families, experience frequent placement changes, suffer behavioral health problems, and have poor educational outcomes when compared with children not in contact with both systems, according to a 2011 Los Angeles County Report.

We’re excited to announce our new name, Lincoln, and the launch of our new logo, graphic identity and website. With the move back to our roots in West Oakland, we embarked on an exciting journey to give the Lincoln brand and website a fresh new look.

For 14 years, Lincoln has offered kinship services to all relative caregivers, their children (under 18), the kin children they are raising, and the children's birthparents in Alameda County. Last week, our U.S. Senate adopted the Kinship Care Month Resolution. This Resolution helps endorse the importance of kinship care services and family-based care. 

On the evening of Tuesday, October 13, 2015, many long-time volunteers gathered at Trader Vic’s in Emeryville to honor this year’s recipients of Lincoln’s James Mann Award. Since 1978, this award, named for Lincoln’s leader from 1957-1975, has annually recognized extraordinary contributions to Lincoln’s work in the community. 

The S.H. Cowell Foundation recently awarded Lincoln's Family Resource Center, located at the joint campus of New Highland Academy and RISE Community School, $70,000. A portion of this funding will be used to support the hiring of a new, part-time Program Coordinator, whose primary job will be to help gather program data and evaluations for more than a dozen services and programs offered at the FRC.