Impact
Demographics and Program Outcomes 2009-2010
We measure results through CICERO (Consumer Information Collection, Entry and Reporting for Organizations), our custom database system, which allows Rubicon to manage client information, capture information about the outcomes of programs through on-line functions, and measure outcomes in real-time.
In 2009-10, total persons served: 4,109
Persons receiving intensive services in all Workforce Services programs: 1,882
Persons served in our Housing/Case Management programs: 890
Persons served in our Behavioral Healthcare program: 500
Persons served by Legal Services: 508
Gender
Female Male |
47% 53% |
Race
African American Asian/Pacific Islander Hispanic/Latino White/Non-Hispanic Multi-racial, other or declined to answer |
52% 6% 11% 26% 5% |
Age
Under 21 21-30 65 and older |
4% 18% 19% 58% 2% |
Status at Entry
Reporting Psychological Disability Homeless (including at risk) Unemployed
|
21% 64% 89% |
2009-10 Results
Economic Empowerment
Program year 2009-10 was the first full year that Rubicon operated three One-Stop Career Centers, in addition to providing employment services to homeless and low-income residents of Contra Costa and Alameda Counties. This added capacity enabled us to serve 1882 customers this year, a 33% increase over 2008-09. Nearly 60% of the persons we placed in jobs retained employment after 13 weeks, and greater than 40% were still employed at 26 weeks. The number of individuals we served was further bolstered by ARRA stimulus funds we received at our North Cities and Eden Area One Stop Career Centers to meet the increased demand from job seekers due to the ongoing economic recession.
Mental Health and Wellness
During the past year, behavioral health services have focused on continuing to emphasize a recovery-based approach to services, where program participants are supported in developing and implementing wellness plans that support functioning in a wide array of domains: family, community, physical health, spirituality, housing, employment and other forms of meaningful daily activity, and mental health. Programs have focused on becoming more flexible and individualized, so each consumer receives the right amount of care to support their forward progress. More and more of our services are being done off site (in the community or at participants' homes), and care management is central to all behavioral health programs.
Housing and Case Management
Our efforts to achieve a deeper rather than broader impact resulted in better caseload management and roughly 10% decrease in total people receiving housing services across all divisions. The largest decreases occurred in Housing Placement and Support Services, which better targeted their services to those project participants who were ready (with income) for housing search. Despite an overall decrease in persons served, we achieved a higher rate of placement. The improvement in housing retention resulted from more diligent efforts to verify participants' living situation at follow-up.
Legal Services
Rubicon exceeded all service outcome goals for the year in our Social Security Advocacy Program. Demand for services increased consistent with the increase in disability applications filed nationwide. This is no doubt attributable to the economy. When jobs are scarce and competition for those jobs high, work opportunities for people with disabilities dry up. As in past years, we maintained a very high success rate (95%) at the hearing/appellate level. Our success at the pre-hearing stages increased significantly this year to 79% compared to a national average of approximately 35%.
HIV Legal Services Program
We significantly exceeded our annual program goals. Our goal is based on the services and work plan goals set forth in our contracts with the Contra Costa Public Health AIDS Program and the Family Care Network of Alameda County. Clients served in this program are all very low income, with most depending on SSI or SSDI disability benefits as their primary income source. In addition to HIV, a significant percentage of clients served in this program have mental health issues. As is generally the case year to year, greatest demand for legal services was in the primary areas of housing and public benefits. Additional areas of coverage include debt relief, medical and financial directives, and discrimination and privacy issues. The program also conducted numerous trainings and workshops for consumers and other providers of HIV services.
Legal and Workforce Services Program (LaWS)
Through the LaWS program, we provide legal services to participants in Rubicon's Economic Empowerment programs in Berkeley and Richmond that address legal barriers to employment. We focused services primarily on issues related to barriers resulting from an individual's criminal history. This included obtaining expungements of past records, reducing felony convictions to misdemeanors, and clearing DMV records. The LaWS staff attorney continued in his active participation in the Contra Costa Reentry Network. The Reentry network brings together public and private stakeholders involved or interested in working with individuals leaving prison or jail and reentering the community. We also continued developing related collaborations with other legal service providers and established strong connections with local County and State elected officials who are becoming increasingly involved in reentry issues.
