BACS Throws Out First Pitch for Oakland A’s

The Oakland A’s and Kaiser Permanente announced BACS is the recipient of the inaugural Kaiser Permanente Community Excellence Award! As part of this recognition, BACS received special on-field recognition on before an A’s vs. Yankees game, and BACS Executive Director Jamie Almanza threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

“We are proud to recognize BACS with the inaugural Kaiser Permanente Community Excellence Award,” said Oakland A’s President Dave Kaval. “BACS was selected because of their big and bold initiative to end homelessness in Oakland.” Thank you to the Oakland A’s and Kaiser Permanente for honoring BACS and inviting us to join the game – go A’s!

Keep Oakland Housed

Keep Oakland Housed (KOH) has finished its first year!

1,812 families stayed in their homes, and 1,812 units of affordable housing were preserved – rather than falling into homelessness.

Compared with the vast spending on housing solutions after someone is homeless, this is strong evidence that an upstream intervention was a crucially missing component in the housing system of care.

KOH is a partnership between BACS, Catholic Charities, and East Bay Community Law Center, funded through: The San Francisco Foundation, in partnership with the City of Oakland, Kaiser Permanente, and generous philanthropists.

Lemonade for the Homeless

“We wanted to give back to our community for our final 8th grade project. We realized the main problem in our community was the rising number of homeless people in the Bay Area. So we decided to raise money and donate our proceeds to the trusted Bay Area Community Services, and we thought holding an old-fashioned lemonade stand was the best way. We had a great outcome, many of our friends came. Many of my neighbors made very generous donations… We raised over $235 dollars, and we were extremely proud and wanted to continue. I lead another team this summer to raise more money, and I am still doing whatever I can to help my community.” – Prisha Nag

Rapid Response to Homelessness

BACS is expanding our Street Outreach & Rapid Response programming – and we are excited to announce that Markos Gonzalez will be leading this innovative initiative!

There has been a clear need over the last year to increase capacity, expertise, and reach for clients who are in the community and do not yet have access to services they need.

Markos says, “The goal is to meet people literally where they are at and connect them to the services that will best address their individual and specific needs. Our main focus for each interaction will always be to successfully connect individuals to services and at the very least, inform them of how to access the support they may need most. We want people to know that someone on the BACS team will be there to support them when they are ready.”

Jamie Almanza, Executive Director welcomed Markos, saying “BACS has learned from its recent partnership with Kaiser Permanente –  we can quickly and immediately scale our work so that we are rapidly responding every time someone who is homeless needs our help. This new position – and Markos in it – will be able to create the quick response to our communities who need our help.”

Invest in Your Community

You can help BACS make a difference for the folks that we help in many ways!  Donate Your Car/Truck: BACS has a program to help you get that vehicle donated in a way that helps our homeless folks. Learn more online, or email us with questions. Shop Amazon: You can also help BACS if you buy things on Amazon, by going to smile.amazon.com and choosing Bay Area Community Services (BACS) as your charity of choice. Every little thing you can do helps people in need.  Donate on BACS’ Website:  You’ll be glad you helped folks who need a little boost or a big boost, and you can make that happen.