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.

Going Paperless: BACS Milestone

BACS is excited to share that our Intensive Case Management team is pioneering paperless client charts for the agency! This is a huge milestone for BACS, as it will reduce time spent by staff on paperwork, cut down on the carbon footprint and paper waste, decrease necessary storage space,  increase efficiency, and cut costs, allowing more time and resources to go to BACS clients.

Congratulations to our ICM team, which has paved the way by piloting many BACS innovations throughout the years, on the successful implementation! We look forward to watching each program go through this process until the very last program has no more paper charts. 

Dr. Porshia Mack Joins BACS Board

BACS’ Board of Directors is delighted to welcome its newest member, Dr. Porshia Mack. Dr. Mack has 13 years of experience with non-profits and FQHC programming, and worked for LifeLong Medical Care for 9 years.

Dr. Mack is currently the Chief Medical Officer at a FQHC, where she is committed to advocating for under-served individuals and ensuring quality of care. We are so excited to have her expertise and oversight!

Two New Housing Programs

BACS opened the North County Housing Resource Center, serving Berkeley, Emeryville, and Albany. We are so grateful for the community support that allows us to continue on the work towards ending homelessness in this region.

BACS is also replicating our Berkeley program, the Pathways STAIR Center, in Hayward. BACS is bringing our signature rapid re-housing services that help people transition from encampments into permanent housing, with mental health and job supports to help the housing ‘stick.’

BACS Leaders Emerge

This month, we are celebrating and congratulating three excellent BACS team members who  will use their talents to have an even greater impact on the agency and the community! Ann Marie Ramos, Eric Johnson, and Terrell Hegler  were all recently promoted. Ann Marie is now leading the charge for our Oakland Housing Resource Center, and we are very excited to have her in that role.

Terrell is moving into a new agency wide position, overseeing all property management functions throughout the agency while also continuing his work with the Keep Oakland Housed Program.

Last, but certainly not least is Eric Johnson. Eric has been promoted to program manager of the Stair Program in Berkeley.

Staff Appreciation BBQ

BACS celebrates our wonderful staff members each year at our Annual Staff Appreciation BBQ! This year, we celebrated the 240+ staff, and their friends, family members, and pets who help lift them up and make BACS special. Our team celebrated each other and the hard work each person has done over the last year. BACS is fortunate to have an incredible, talented, and dedicated staff. Thank you to everyone who came!

Program Anniversaries

BACS is celebrating the anniversaries of two of our programs: IPS Supported Employment (2013) and OPC (2011). OPC provides outreach, housing and financial support, mental health and care management, substance use, and primary care to individuals who are homeless and have mental health issues. IPS provides job placement services to help individuals with complex needs find competitive, satisfying, and sustainable employment to uplift them from poverty.

Invest in Your Community

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.