Fathers & Families of San Joaquin

By testing and contact tracing we will be able to slow the spread of #COVID19. The more people who answer the call, the more lives and jobs #California saves. For more information visit: californiaconnected.ca.gov #wearamask #YourActionsSaveLives... California Department of Public Health

Not Using is a Political Act, Loving Yourself is a Revolutionary One" Love, Hope, and Healing comes from the community." Join our Stockton Underserved Demonstrating Success (SUDS) program every Wednesday at 4 PM at our Brandon Harrison Memorial Garden (320 S. Sutter St, Stockton, CA 95203) as we build our wellbriety up and support people in their process! Interested in participating? Please register using this link: bit.ly/SUDSREGISTRATION ... If you have any questions, please contact our SUDS program through Daniel Mendoza at [email protected]

As we continue this month in celebration of #BlackHistoryMonth and #BlackExcellence we are uplifting Black leadership and achievements. Over the past year, Black Women have achieved truly remarkable things, surpassing historic milestones, saving lives, championing democracy and have astonished the world with their talents. Today we are highlighting Jeanette Epps the first Black Woman to join an international Space Crew. Epps will join NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Josh Cassada for a six-month expedition planned for a launch in 2021 to the orbiting space laboratory. Check back on our Facebook throughout the month as we continue to spotlight and celebrate Black History and Black Excellence!

In December of 2020, youth from O.H. Close Del Norte unit graduated our 15 week Creating Noble Men program. Our Creating Noble Men program facilitated by our staff from our Stockton’s Underserved Demonstrating Success (SUDS) program, Raymond Aguilar and Family Strengthening department, Tomas Vargas focuses on character development, criminal and addictive thinking, and the lifestyle of criminal behavior centering around la cultural cura and trauma informed care. We want to... give a huge shoutout to Tomas for being able to connect with the young men through his art and his passion for healing through his drawings and indigenous art. Also, Raymond for being consistent with the youth for two years & sharing the rawness of his lived life experience. Thank you both for letting our youth know & allowing them to feel that they are cared for & loved! We are super proud of our young men who graduated through our Creating Noble Men program! See more

This Christmas all we want for our people is... #EducationNotIncarceration, equity, freedom transformation, healing, and liberation! Michael Provencio’s son, Anthony, has been impacted by the school-to-prison pipeline since he was 6 years old. He is now 8 years old. Anthony was expelled from the Manteca School District by the New Haven Elementary schools. In the interview we conducted with Michael, he mentioned that Anthony would get in trouble for simply being a youth pla...ying games like freeze tag. Michael shares that since he hired a lawyer to help stand up for the injustice that was happening to Anthony, the New Haven Elementary principal is no longer working at the school. Also, Michael mentioned his concerns about the school system as a parent regarding teachers being too over capacitated to give our babies one on one. We celebrate and thank Michael for standing up for his son and every other youth who is facing injustice in the school system! Sign up to pledge and subscribe to our OLLIN newsletter to be apart of bringing justice and learn more about concerning issues in our communities at bit.ly/OLLINPledge Read our NOW! (Not on Our Watch!) Magazine to learn more about how incarceration, policing, addiction and more has impacted our people of color at bit.ly/NOWISSUU Download our NOW! (Not on Our Watch!) Magazine at: bit.ly/FFSJNOW

Together, we are reconnecting, sharing, and healing. As we gather with our immediate family to celebrate the holiday season and usher in a new year, we are reminded of the year-round gifts that are our elders. Confronted with unimaginable adversity, we can look to them for guidance on how to remain in community with one another, and how to sustain our mind, body, and spirit in these times. Indeed, our Wisdom Keepers have built a legacy around this work and we cannot forget them, as our journey is a shared journey. On behalf of our Wisdom Keepers (elders) program, we want to wish our community a happy holiday and a prosperous new year!

Pictured is the Fathers & Families of San Joaquin Back 2 Work crew hard at work cleaning up Highway 4! Fathers & Families of San Joaquin operates (3) Back 2 Wo...rk crews covering San Joaquin County. In the month of September they have employed 26 returning citizens who have collectively put in over 3000 hours of work picking up litter to beautify the highways in San Joaquin. Also in September, the Back 2 Work program picked up over 3,400 bags of litter in Stockton, California . In partnership with Caltrans, District 10 we are determined to keep Stockton Beautiful! Stockton Beautiful The Back 2 Work program is a transitional employment program for underserved and marginalized adults. Through innovative partnerships with Caltrans, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and amazing community based organizations such as Fathers & Families of San Joaquin, these programs provide temporary paid employment along with supportive services for men and women reintegrating back into the workforce. For more information about the Back 2 Work programs, our partners and the areas we serve check out our website www.b2w.bcoe.org Caltrans HQ, Caltrans District 10 office, Michael Tubbs , Stockton, California, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce (California), San Joaquin County Probation Butte County Office of Education #Back2Work #Caltrans #Stockton #CaltransDistrict10 #Reentry #Secondchances #ButteCOE Here are some organizations in the Stockton area that work with re-entry populations: Friends Outside Families Center - The County Reentry Mode (Friends Outside ), Root and Rebound (Root & Rebound), Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, or All Of Us Or None (Legal Services for Prisoners with Children ).

Last week, our amazing Julie who is a Community Healing Arts Initiative (CHAI) and owner of Stockton Floral hosted our second and last Healing Artists Garden Series workshop in our Brandon Harrison Healing Garden Memorial funded by Stockton Arts Commission! We had a successful session during Julie’s workshop! The workshop was hosted on Zoom and in person with safety precautions using personal protective equipment (PPE). Julie taught us how to take care and transplant our b...eautiful plants into our new CHAI planter boxes! Participants who showed up received their very own CHAI planter boxes along with plants of their choice! We also announced the winners of last week’s workshop to win a free CHAI planter box! #stocktonca #healingarts #chai #zoom #workshop #stocktonartist #florist #planter #HealthJustice #healing #BrandonHarrison See more

We are registered and have joined the map of Formerly Incarcerated Programs (FIP) from Witness to Mass Incarceration's website! #FormerlyIncarcerated led services and businesses are joining the map everyday. If you are a Formerly Incarcerated Program (FIP) and want to also, add your service or business to #TheMAP, please call 1-833-9WITNES (1-833-994-8637) or go to www.witnesstomassincarceration.org/mapping-project to add your service or business. #Stocktonca #FIP #Formerlyincarcerated #nonprofit #schoolsnotprisons

The #WeSeeYou Campaign represents the tremendous creativity and strength that those traditionally blocked from opportunity are bringing to our ongoing public health crisis and the growing call to finally reckon with our shared past, rooted in systemic racism and oppression. The We See You Campaign specifically seeks to support work with multiply vulnerable children and adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse who are at the greatest risk of harm. Young people belonging to th...ese groups are often overlooked by institutions,which makes efforts to center them all the more essential during this critical time. Our Just Beginnings participant Alyssa Castellano talks about her survival in this video. To find out more about how we are shaping and mobilizing the social & racial justice landscape in Stockton and throughout the San Joaquin Valley, visit us at: www.ffsj.org or follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @ffsjstockton

We are celebrating the news of our new administration in the U.S. by releasing our Liberate the Vote recap of our event! Our Liberate the Vote event was hosted by our OLLIN team on October 16th, 2020. We were able to encourage our South Stockton residents to vote! Again, we are beyond proud to say we were able to register 75 South Stockton residents to vote for our 2020 election! We want to give a special to our talented Street Artists Daniel Paniagua (IG: g.fngrz_) and Kone... Lathipanya (IG: koniack) for coming out and giving our people a good time with the graffiti art! Also, thank you to Pastor Leon Scoggins from Life City Church for showing up for our people! Our OLLIN team will continue to fight for justice for our black and brown people! #OLLINUntilWeWin #2020Election #2020vote #Blackandbrown #FFSJ #Stocktonca #ILoveStockton #Liberatethevote #registertovote #southstockton #healing

In honor of Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), we are lifting up one of our youngest ancestors, Adrian Sanchez. He passed away four years ago, a week into hi...s 17th birthday. Last Wednesday, our Youth and Racial Justice staff went with Adrian’s family to visit our beloved Adrian at the cemetery for his 21st birthday. Adrian was a young movement builder and a graduate from our Youth and Racial Justice’s Joven Noble program (indigenous based youth development program) created by @la.cultura.cura. During our Joven Noble program, Adrian was able to connect with other youth through our indigenous based curriculum. He also started to change his life around and be a positive example to his younger brother Reggie, who is now part of our Joven Noble program. We are sending our condolences to his loved ones, friends, and all who knew him. May our loving youth Adrian rest in power. #DiaDeLosMuertos #DayoftheDead #inlovingmemory #stocktonca #traumainformed #indigenous #JovenNoble #NationalCompadresNetwork #youthgroup #YouthandRacialJustice #Healing See more

We are proud of our graduates who were dedicated to finishing our Just Beginnings program! Our Just Beginnings graduation was held yesterday at our beautiful Brandon Harrison Healing Garden Memorial. They also were able to receive a certificate of completion from us along with a $500 check. We played games with our graduates and had a personal cake made for them as well. Spiderman was our special guest who came by to show our graduate’s kids some love! During our Just Beg...innings program our graduates were able to utilize their voice and tell their truth and support one another through the process of healing. Our Just Beginnings program brings awareness to child abuse survivors who have been impacted by the system and vulnerable children. Shoutout to our Youth and Racial Justice team for putting together an awesome graduation for our Just Beginnings graduates, facilitating workshops for our participants, and creating a safe place for our folks to heal and support one another through love! #WeSeeYou #JustBeginnings #Healing #Childabuseprevention #FFSJ #Healing #TraumaInformed #Celebration #BlackandBrown #Impactedbysystem #BabyShower See more

Congratulations to President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris! Together we will continue to lead with love and justice for the years to come!

This is a throwback video of our OLLIN team voting together earlier this week! We admire our OLLIN team for their strive to stand by our Stocktonians! They are always thinking of our black and brown people and incarcerated folks! Thank you to our OLLIN team for voting for those who can not vote and continuing to fight for what our ancestors fought for, which is JUSTICE.... Shoutout to one of our Family Strengthening Case Managers, Lea Volk for creating this video! #OLLINUntilWeWin #Schoolsnotprisons #RacialJustice #Blackandbrown #Indigenous #Stocktonca #FFSJ #Vote2020 #2020election #LieratetheVote #IVoted See more

During our Liberate the Vote event a few weeks ago, we were able to register 75 South Stockton residents to be able to vote for this year’s 2020 election! Great work by our OLLIN team! #Election #Stockton #FFSJ #OLLIN #YesonProp17 #YesonProp19 #NoonProp20 #NoonProp25 #Healing #Justice #registertovote

We are proud to announce from election results propositions 17 and 19 passed and propositions 20 and 25 did not pass! These are victories for us here at Fathers and Families of San Joaquin! Shoutout to our OLLIN team for advocating for folks in our communities to VOTE! #ElectionResults #Stockton #FFSJ #OLLIN #YesonProp17 #YesonProp19 #NoonProp20 #NoonProp25 #Healing #Community #Justice