Five Keys Schools & Programs

Happy Here at Home! Thanks to the folks at Emeryville IKEA for helping create a happy and cozy living space for the women who live at Home Free on Treasure Island. IKEA donated $8,472.91 of drawers, shelving units, a dining table, a loveseat and chest drawers and more. ... Special shoutouts to some of the IKEA IKEA - Emeryville California team who delivered the furniture and made this happen including: Scott Renshaw, area west manager, Nathaniel Disch, Business navigator, Patrick Hind-Smith, selling manager who helped load the donation into the truck, Towny Yath, and Tuyet Vu, product quality leaders, Scott Jackson, IKEA Emeryville market manager and Nels Sundquist, loyalty manager.

For Rosemary Rosie Dyer, it is the simple things. The sunsets. The smell of the ocean and hearing the waves. And she enthuses, shopping. In the spring of 2020, Dyer, 67, was released from prison after serving 34 years of a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the fatal shooting of her abusive husband after years of physical and emotional torture. She is one of thousands of abused women unjustly serving prison time for either defending themselves against th...eir abuser or because they were at the scene of the crime under the coercion of their abusive spouse or boyfriend. Trying to protect themselves cost them life in prison because they were not allowed to bring evidence of their abuse at their trial. They were placed into state prison to become forgotten by the criminal justice system. Enter Five Keys/Home Free, which is creating a home for Rosie and other women who are experiencing freedom for the first time in decades. Home Free is a first-of-its-kind transitional housing program that helps criminalized domestic violence survivors reenter communities and thrive. Here, formerly incarcerated women will experience peaceful and humane transitions from prison to freedom, from victim to survivor while correcting a gross injustice that diminishes our civil society. https://www.fivekeyshomefree.org/about @5KeysHomeFree #domesticviolenceawareness #domesticviolenceprevention

Thanks to @RisingUpSF for sharing the story of one of our students and Five Keys grads, Dahlia, who has pulled herself out of homelessness and is on her way to a successful career in childcare. Thank you to Larkin Street Youth Services.

I tell them, ‘I will hold your hand the first-time for the first few appointments. When you start to walk on your own, I will be right behind you and when you become like a rebel teen, I’m here if you ever need me. - Gilda Serrano, Home Free program services coordinator. How this dynamo is reaching back to help other women survive and thrive after domestic violence #HomeFree #domesticviolenceawareness #changinglives Five Keys Home Free #secondchances #makingadifference

Thanks BCOE Back-2-Work, Caltrans HQ and all our community partners for working with us to provide good jobs and meaningful work to good people!

In the news, in the news...go Five Keys Home Free...thank you Smitten Ice Cream...go Kamala!!!

Get your Madame Vice President pint from http://Smittenicecream.com today. A portion of the proceeds go to http://fivekeyshomefree.org as seen on FOX2 https://ktvu.com/video/891371

I scream, you scream, we’re all screaming with joy (and ice cream) for our first-ever woman vice-president Kamala Harris. The Madam Vice President (MVP) ice cream, a salty and sweet vanilla and pecan Praline flavor was created just for this magical moment by the Bay area’s Smitten Ice Cream, ranked the #1 best ice cream in the state, by MSN. Smitten’s founder and CEO Robyn Sue Fisher says her team wanted to celebrate this momentous occasion. It just felt so important tha...t we recognize this historical moment by doing something to celebrate Kamala and this big day for all girls and women. We’re a Bay area company founded by a woman and we designed this campaign with its beautiful artwork done by a San Francisco designer. (Sheila Von Driska) At the same time, we wanted to give back to help benefit women who need a voice. This brings everything full circle. The exciting scoop: A portion of the proceeds from the ice cream sales are being donated to Five Keys/Home Free, a transitional housing program for criminalized survivors of domestic violence who were serving life or life without parole for killing their abusive husbands. The women were unjustly serving anywhere between 15 to 40 years in prison for either defending themselves against their abuser or were at the scene of the crime under the coercion of their abusive spouse or boyfriend. At its transition home on Treasure Island, Home Free provides trauma-informed survivor empowerment programs to help the women transition to the 21st Century. Programs include financial and technology literacy, job and computer training classes. Learn more: https://www.fivekeyshomefree.org/. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK HOW COOL IS THAT? Another perk of being the first female vice president in U.S. history: a new ice cream flavor, created specifically in Harris’ honor. Women-founded, beloved Bay Area-based Smitten Ice Cream has whipped it up just in time for the Inauguration. MVP as in Madam Vice President is a combination of malted salted vanilla ice cream laced with chewy pecan pralines, all served up in a container graced with Harris’ likeness and designed by a local artist, Smitten founder Robyn Sue Fisher told POLITICO. Fisher noted Bay Area native Harris loves ice cream. And for fellow ice cream lovers who need another excuse: A portion of MVP pint sales will be donated to Five Keys Home Free, a California-based transitional housing program for criminalized survivors of domestic violence.

Thank you, Smitten Ice Cream. A portion of proceeds will be generously donated to Five Keys Home Free!!! Order your pints today, please!

"It feels like Christmas," remarked the physician who administered the COVID-19 vaccine to 45 of our frontline staff today. These staff work daily with more than 170 unhoused, medically vulnerable guests at our Project Homekey site in Oakland. Building defenses against COVID-19 is a team effort. And we are so proud of our Five Keys frontline workers who are a key part of that defense. Getting the COVID-19 vaccine adds one more layer of protection for you, your coworkers, our guests, and your family.

Thanks to the SFPD heroes who went above and beyond the call of duty who recently were lauded by the San Francisco Police Commission for coming to the rescue of one of our own: Rosie, a 68-year-old formerly incarcerated abuse survivor who was tasting freedom for the first time in three decades and got stranded when her electric wheelchair broke down on her first trek through the streets of San Francisco after being released from 34 years in prison on a commuted life sentence. San Francisco Police Department https://www.fivekeyscharter.org//above-and-beyond-the-call

Lifting Voices Toward Hope: Five Keys Schools and Programs helps inspire hundreds of people who are incarcerated and people experiencing homelessness to register and to vote Dozens of newly registered voters in Alameda County and San Francisco will be able to cast their ballots in the upcoming presidential election, and many of them likely did not know they could. #WeAreTheSolution #FreeEducation https://bit.ly/3dsSAR7

When ordinary life came to a halt at the start of the pandemic Sherwin Karunungan, Five Keys own geek squad on call, was tasked with setting up Internet access for guests at five San Francisco hotels, which became makeshift homes for the unsheltered; orchestrating online GED tests and configuring Chromebooks for the growing number of new hires at the navigation centers and hotels. https://www.fivekeyscharter.org//unsung-hero-powers-on-beh #WeAreTheSolution #FreeEducation

Every time I walk in my living room and see my diploma, I look at it and ask myself what’s next, she says. But now I know I can accomplish what that will be. I have learned to stay calm and work hard and that I can succeed. - Roshanda Shanda Howard, Five Keys Schools and Programs Graduate At Five Keys Schools and Programs, we are here to help Get You Back on Course. Congratulations, Shanda, and all our students and graduates who continue their studies during these unpr...ecedented times. https://bit.ly/2ZJSgYG #wearehere #fivekeysschoolsandprograms #restorativejustice #education #teachers #schools #students #teacher #backtoschool

Women Power! We are honored to partner with Rebuilding Together San Francisco and Swinerton to build a beautiful home and garden oasis for 12 women survivors on... Treasure Island as part of the Home Free Program from Five Keys Schools & Programs. This is a program created for women, led by women, with amazingly talented women designers and builders! CityBuild has a long history of empowering women to become changemakers in their communities, from our #citybuildacademy and #constructionadministration programs, to our partnerships for initiatives like #SheBuilds which creates real change for women through community revitalization projects. Thank you Academy of Art University and Mithun for volunteering for this incredible women helping women event. ---- , : ./. #fivekeyshomefree

On Saturday, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX featured Five Keys Schools and Programs, and our staff member, Kimini Randall, who helps guests living in SF's new or newly-enhanced shelters, cope with the reality of COVID 19. Thank you, Michael Montgomery, for telling the powerful and transformative work of Five Keys Schools and Programs and IPP. And thank you, Kimini, for sharing your journey and for the care you provide guests at the Navigation Centers and Shelter In Place facilities we manage. #fiveskeyschoolsandprograms #ipp #restorativejustice #socialjustice #wearehere #traumainformedcare #thankyou #prx #reaveal https://soundcloud.com//638-reveal-covid-former-prisoner-18

With shelter-in-place in effect, GED offered a new Online Proctored GED Test back in June as a pilot program in select areas of the U.S. With the Online Proctored GED Test, students can take the GED test from home while securely monitored by an online proctor. Five Keys had over 20 students participate in this new online GED test and took the test from their home. Now that our testing facility is open, students now have the option to either test at home or come into the testing site. #fivekeysschoolsandprograms #WeAreHere #freeEducation #freeGED

CA’s inmate firefighter program is decades-old and has long needed reform. Today, I signed #AB2147 that will allow inmates who have stood on the frontlines, battling historic fires to have the opportunity to become a firefighter.

At 45, eight kids and a grandson later, Jennifer Clark returned to high school and is poised to graduate during the coming year. I’m already thinking ahead to taking some college classes, she says. I want to do something in law enforcement. I really like helping people, especially when they are in trouble and need help. I still can’t believe I’ll be 45 when I finish high school. But hey, I finally am going to do it. READ MORE: https://bit.ly/2ET6RcS Novato Police Department

As schools across the country begin a new academic year under the shadow of a global pandemic, Five Keys educators and the Sheriff’s Office have pivoted to find creative ways to keep more than 300 inmates working toward their high school degrees. Thanks to The Independent for helping us give voice to this critical need. The Independent Newspaper, Livermore, CA https://www.independentnews.com//article_75d6c2c6-ed96-11e

https://www.instagram.com//courteney/2388158355065389428/ Thank you so much, Courtney, for your story about Home Free!!!

Generous donations from @swinerton make the renovations of the Home Free Program possible. Landscaping work has begun by @CitybuildSF and soon this beautiful awning will be part of a welcoming living space for our women survivors. Along with providing housing for domestic violence survivors, our Home Free Program will include recovery from trauma, survivor empowerment, job training, financial and computer literacy and housing assistance within a supportive peer community. We ...are providing the practical and emotional support needed as the women take their first steps toward determining their own future. Learn more at: fivekeyshomefree.org/1000-angels-please #fivekeyshomefree #citybuild #oewd

Every day what we do is all about giving people hope. What could be more powerful than that? Lillian Santos, Stables, principal for Five Keys Schools and Programs at the Alameda County Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, CA I READ MORE: https://bit.ly/2EBqnu7