Weekdays, you'll find MUNI's Operator of the Month Carmelita Goff happily ferrying people across San Francisco in her 60-foot double bus. Carmelita's also a trusted MUNI line trainer, as well as a mom with a daughter at home and a daughter at college.
Life wasn't always this good. In October 2000, Carmelita was homeless and penniless. Her boyfriend had just left her, and she was living at a homeless shelter. While there, she heard about Rubicon.
"Rubicon helped when no one else was willing to gamble on me," she says.
We helped Carmelita find housing. She took our job skills classes, and we also taught her to budget wisely. Carmelita worked hard and never gave up - even when the going was the toughest.
Her efforts have paid off beautifully. "All I needed was someone to point me in the right direction. I took care of myself," she says. "I refer a lot of people to Rubicon. But only if they're ready to take responsibility for their lives."
Rubicon's success can be best told through our clients' stories. The following are real-life stories shared by three of the thousands of real-life people we serve.
Invest in Rubicon's programs so we can help more people like those described below.
He loves his job. He loves mowing the lawn around the chapel on Treasure Island. He loves the camaraderie of his work crew. And, most of all, he loves that he can support himself. Efrain came here from El Salvador in 1980. He'd tried to make a living doing odd jobs, but he was homeless and jobless when he came to Rubicon.
Efrain excelled at our landscape training. He's worked for Rubicon Landscape Services since 1998.
Efrain
Katrina is a Bakery Assistant at Rubicon Bakery. (The Chocolate Peanut Butter is her favorite.)
"Rubicon gave me my independence," she says. A former heavy drinker and drug user, Katrina had been attacked on the street one night. Rubicon helped her get her life together again. She got clean and sober. She found a place to live in Rubicon housing. And she graduated from our bakery training with flying colors.
"Now I have a job," she says. "And a way to take care of myself."
Katrina
Two years ago, she found herself homeless, unemployed and plagued by alcohol and substance abuse. Today, Juanita Allison has earned three scholarships and pursued a paid internship.
She has become a member of the Center for Science Excellence and an inspiration to her fellow students in the biology department.
Allison has won almost $3,000 in scholarships from Women in Science, Rubicon and the Contra Costa College Foundation, but just a short time ago the picture was not so bright.
"I had fallen into bad habits and endured a couple of stints in jail. I realized I needed to get back on my feet so I got into a rehabilitation program and then found the Rubicon Program," Allison said. "It was a place to go and try to get some new ideas, starting with a week-long training on how to overcome my past."
Click here to read more (link to the article in The Advocate, Contra Costa College).
Juanita (courtesy of Cyndy Patrick of The Advocate, Contra Costa College)
