Bay Area Community Services (BACS)

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Oakland’s New Rapid Re-Housing Program ‘The Holland’ Receives Major Grant from Anthem Foundation

BACS is thrilled to announce that the Anthem Blue Cross Foundation has partnered with BACS to end homelessness in the Bay Area, through a significant grant award.

Individuals who move in to The Holland are coming directly from the streets and encampments, and need support to immediately get basic needs met – food, clothing, hygiene, healthcare and medical needs, and more. Anthem Blue Cross Foundation is making it possible to provide every resident with a warm, healthy, filling meal every day in 2019.

BACS officially opened ‘The Holland’ in January, and immediately began to move community members out of encampments. The Holland is the second location in Oakland of a rapid re-housing program known as the Housing Fast Support Network (HFSN).

This program model is the largest and most effective effort to target homelessness in Oakland to date. At the Henry Robinson Center, BACS serves 300 people per year, and has an 88% success rate in getting people in to permanent housing after just 6 months. This is vastly shorter than similar models, which last 12-18 months.

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Teen Makes Incredible Gift to Homeless Community Members!

In 2011, Kenneth Prabhakar and his brother Kevin, who were only 9 and 13 years old, saw the impacts of homelessness during a school trip. They immediately formed Next Supper, dedicated to helping homeless community members. Every year, all year, they collect empty bottles and cans, bring them to the recycling center, and save the funds. Near the holidays, during the cold and wet season, they pool this money to buy brand new clothing for people experiencing homelessness.

In 2014, the Prabhakar family partnered with BACS and donated these items for us to distribute. Today, Kevin is in college, and Kenneth has kept up the initiative. Through his church community, family connections, extended social networks, and supporters of Next Supper, Kenneth raised more than ever – nearly $3,000!

Many of our participants have not had new clothing since they became homeless, and often experience the winter unprepared. This year Kenneth purchased jackets, gloves, socks, warm pants.  Furthermore, Kenneth made an inspiring personal sacrifice, donating money he earned from tutoring, to get 25 fleece blankets! His parents, Joseph and Padmini, matched his donation.

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BACS 2017-2018 Annual Report

BACS is thrilled to share our Annual Report for 2017-2018, a special anniversary edition as BACS celebrates our 65th anniversary of uplifting communities in and around the Bay Area.

This last year presented our community, our nation, with profound challenges – and BACS was there to step up and step in to meet those challenges, one life at a time. In and around the Bay Area, poverty, homelessness, incarceration, and more has changed the course of what it means to walk down the streets in our neighborhoods. At the same time, the cityscape of our cities is changing – cranes building new high-rise expensive buildings while more and more individuals are uprooted from their homes and fall in to homelessness.

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BACS Connections October 2018

Keep Oakland Housed

Keep Oakland Housed logo

This month, BACS launched a historic new program to address the housing crisis in Oakland – by preventing homelessness before it starts. Keep Oakland Housed (KOH) will prevent Oaklanders from losing their housing through emergency financial assistance, supportive services, and legal representation.

At BACS, we receive a thousand or more calls each month from people who are on the brink of losing their housing. KOH means that BACS can answer these calls and say YES, we can help you.

KOH is a partnership between BACS, EBCLC, and Catholic Charities of the East Bay, funded by The San Francisco Foundation and Kaiser Permanente, in partnership with the City of Oakland.

If you need help, visit us online here. If you want to sustain this initiative, make a donation today!

Honoring Patrick, Peer Lead at Towne House

Towne House

BACS’ Towne House Wellness Center team wants to celebrate Patrick, Peer Lead at the wellness center. Patrick is often the first person a visitor or member to Towne House sees.

His Towne House team says “Patrick is a pure pleasure to work with. Patrick’s calm and warm demeanor is always welcomed by staff and participants a like. Any task that he is asked to complete, or assist with is done with a positive attitude and smile. We here at Towne House truly appreciate you Patrick, and we just want to say thank you!”

Start a Career with BACS

BACS services are always expanding, and we are currently recruiting! Check out our career opportunities on our website, and learn more about what makes BACS special.

BACS welcomes people of all backgrounds and expertise to apply. Even if you have never worked in the mental health or homeless solutions fields, but you are inspired to make a change, reach out to BACS – we have many training and entry-level positions.

BACS provides benefits and perks like: fully covered medical/dental/vision/life insurance, tuition reimbursement for loans and tuition, clinical supervision hours towards licensure, internal growth opportunities, and more! BACS also works with a wide variety of populations, and has many opportunities for learning and advancement.

Oakland ADC Program Anniversary

BACS is delighted to celebrate the anniversary of our Oakland Adult Day Center! This Memory Care program started in 1987 in Oakland, and for 21 years has been a space where elders with memory disorders can connect with others, socialize, and participate in guided activities. Our services offer respite for caregivers and families.

Thank you to everyone who makes our programs special — caregivers, staff, and the participants who come every day!

Invest in Your Community

Micah square

Our work has profound individual and community impacts. Every person that comes to BACS for help can achieve stability, move off of the streets, get a job, live safely with their mental health issue, or stay out of jail. And for each of those success stories, our community gets better. We see fewer people living on the streets or in poverty. We spend less on emergency medical services. We see less of our tax money going to prisons. Your investment in BACS, and in the people we help, transforms our community.

Donate to BACS online by clicking here, or via mail to 390 40th Street, Oakland, CA 94609. Make an ongoing impact by donating monthly.

Announcing Major Oakland Homeless Prevention Program

Oakland is in the middle of an affordable housing crisis. From displacement to homelessness, existing tenants and people living in temporary housing need support to prevent homelessness.

Keep Oakland Housed (KOH), a program that will help prevent Oakland residents from losing their housing and help support those living in temporary housing, launched publicly on October 15.

KOH is a three-pronged approach to preventing homelessness before it starts: emergency financial assistance, supportive services, and legal representation.

At BACS, we receive a thousand or more calls each month from people who are on the brink of losing their housing.

“Homeless prevention is a critical piece of ending homelessness—for as many people who are living on the streets that BACS already helps,” Jamie Almanza, BACS’ Executive Director said. “Keep Oakland Housed means that we can say yes immediately to help people on the same day they need help.”

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BACS is accredited by CARF, an international independent accrediting body, whose focus is on ensuring high-quality services.