Stakeholder Identified Needs
Organization What Services does your organization provide? The biggest need for communties they serve? Alameda Family
Services
Early Childhood Education (Head start, Early Head Start, State Preschool), Family Resouce Center, Senior Connections, School-Based Services-Therapy for Students at all 14 AUSD schools, Health and Wellness Centers on the high school campuses, community mental health clinic with in-home services for 0-7 and a satellite office on the base to serve APC clients, and Crisis Services-The CARE Team.
Ability to access mental health services immediately. Assistance in accessing services and resources. Support in making connections to reduce isolation. Compassionate and out of the box engagement for hard to reach clients.
Alameda Food Bank We provide free groceries to those in need who live, work, or go to school in Alameda. Our clients can shop once a week in the Island Community Market and choose from a large selection of fresh produce, dry goods, protein items, deli, and bread. We can save approximately $800/month in grocery bills. We provide the food for the weekly Dine & Connect dinners for the homeless, ready-to-eat meals and snacks to the Village of Love, and biweekly mobile pantries at the housing authority's Independence Plaza and Anne B.
Diamant residences. We are also providing fruit and snacks to Paden School and a mobile pantry at Island high before holiday closures.
Our Alameda neighbors are feeling the effects of inflation on their grocery bill. For many of our neighbors, keeping a roof over their heads and paying for utilities takes priority over the ability to provide a healthy, balanced diet for their loved ones. The demand for our services continues to grow at a rate that is unsustainable in our current facility.
We've already signed up 800 new families in 2022 and we've seen a 23% increase in the number of children under 18 being served since May. This Wednesday alone we provided food to a record 381 households, and we expect that number to grow dramatically in the coming weeks. The tech layoffs and looming recession are also concerns that many more Alamedans may need our help.
Alameda Meals on
Wheels
We provide a hot daily meal every day of the year and a daily check-in with our homebound neighbors.
Besides the homebound, our recipients also include veterans, disabled people, and persons that are recovering from recent surgery or hospitalization and are unable to shop for groceries or cook their own meals. Our meals are delivered by our cadre of regular volunteers and oftentimes, our volunteers are the only person our recipients see that day. Fees for meals are based on a sliding scale and nobody is not served for financial or affordability reasons. There are about 190 meal clients in our program. Our sister program, Alameda Friendly Visitors provides a weekly visit of friendship and a check-in by volunteers at no cost to the recipient. There are about 50 clients served by this program.
Many of our meal clients are seniors that suffer from isolation and food insecurity. Delivery of meals helps with both problems and assists our clients maintain their independence. A recent survey of our recipients suggested that about 25% of respondents indicated that they felt that they did not have enough food at least sometime during the week.
As a result, we recently added delivery of protein drinks to supplement the meals for additional nutrition, made it known that recipients can request larger portions if desired, and connected recipients with other food resources such as Mercy Brown Bag and Alameda Food Bank.
Alameda Shelter in
Peace
Identify and develop transitional housing opportunities for a negotiated period of time for refugees, immigrants, and low-income families of Alameda. They are all supported by a sponsoring group, organization, or church. Serves as a liaison for the transitional period housing and will work with independent groups which are willing to sponsor an individual or family.
Problems identifying housing for those in need. It is hard to find a willing landlord or management company to rent out to an individual; or family who do not have established credit history, bank account, or good reference from previous landlord.
Bananas Child care resources and referrals, financial assistance for child care tuition, parenting workshops & education, supportive services and resources, investment in the education and technical assistance for early childhood educators, playgroups, Head Start (Tiny Steps).
Housing Security, access to child care, and early educator pipeline.
Boys & Girls Club After school and summer youth programming in Education, Technology & STEM, Social Recreation, Athletics, Arts & Music, & Leadership and Character Development.
Affordable and accessible quality afterschool and summer youth programs. Currently our annual membership fees are $100 for children under 12, and teens are free.
Building Futures with
Women and Children
The two most significant needs in the community are affordable housing and mental health support.
Supportive Affordable Housing is needed in our community because when it becomes time to house our clients they do not want to leave Alameda since this is where they are from. Currently rents are too high and when we find places, the landlords don’t want to work with us. Robust Mental Health Support is also need to engage people long term as they seek services.
COVID outbreaks are still impacting our shelters, clients, and staff. It has been difficult to keep our doors open and continue serving clients in light of outbreaks.
Stakeholder Identified Needs
Organization What Services does your organization provide? The biggest need for communties they serve? Echo Fair Housing We provide Fair Housing Counseling and Investigation, Tenant/Landlord Counseling and Mediation, Rental Assistance, Homebuyer Education, Pre-Purchase Counseling, and we administer rent and just cause ordinances for various jurisdictions in our service area.
The most pressing need for our clients is affordable housing and support services. So many of our clients are being priced out of the Bay Area rental market. People are living in overcrowded and sometimes unsafe and illegal spaces.
One of our clients is a single mom with a teenage daughter who is currently living in a garage because she has nowhere else to go right now.
Eden I & R 2-1-1 is the 24/7 multilingual phone line that connects individuals and families to critical health, housing, and human services. Last fiscal year, 2-1-1 handled 3,202 calls and two-way text conversations from the City of Alameda, and provided 3,807 health, housing and human service referrals. This included screening for eligibility and transferring 111 callers to the Mid-County West Housing Resource Center, through the county's Coordinated Entry System.
The number one need for which Alameda residents contact 2-1-1, year after year, is housing. This has been exacerbated because of the Covid-19 pandemic and includes rental assistance, utility assistance, as well as emergency shelter and transitional housing. Other tops needs of Alameda callers this fiscal year to date include: Legal Information Services, Crisis Intervention, Food Pantries, and Public Assistance Programs.
Family Violence Law
Center
Founded in 1978, Family Violence Law Center (FVLC) helps diverse communities in Alameda County heal from domestic violence and sexual assault, advocating for justice and healthy relationships. We provide survivor-centered legal and crisis intervention services, offer prevention education for youth and other community members, and engage in policy work to create systemic change. With City of Alameda funds, we currently provide legal services in the areas of family and housing law, and crisis intervention and supportive services for survivors facing housing instability. With other funding, FVLC also provides longer- term case management and dyadic therapy for children aged O to 5 and their caregivers (Oakland families only). Additionally, FVLC has a policy team that advocates for systems changes with a significant focus on the intersection of gender-based violence and homelessness, and a youth department that provides youth leadership development, education about healthy relationships, and technical assistance and education for adults supporting youth.
The two biggest issues survivors face - and the accompanying needs - are:
a. Financial. Most of the survivors FVLC serves either were struggling financially before they experienced abuse and the abuse increased their financial instability or they became financially unstable because of the abuse. The existing safety net is inadequate to support survivors while they deal with the impact, including the psychological and physical impacts of trauma, of the abuse they suffered. It is impossible to heal if you do not have employment that covers your expenses, childcare so that you can go to work and a safe place to live. Survivors need direct financial support and well-funded supportive services to become financially stable which will help keep them and their children safe. b. Sexism. Although people of all gender identities can be victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, victimization overwhelmingly impacts women and female-identified people and the perpetrators overwhelmingly are men. Furthermore, the cultural roots of these issues are based on patriarchal views of gender roles and the place of women in society. Resource allocation is wildly insufficient to address both the immediate needs and the underlying issues. Survivors need their governments to prioritize domestic violence-the leading cause of homicide and homelessness for women-and other forms of gender-based violence by allocating resources for data collection, preventative programming, and supportive services.
Legal Assistance for
Seniors
Legal Assistance for Seniors (LAS) provides free legal services, community education, and health insurance counseling to older adults in Alameda County. LAS' legal program serves elder abuse survivors and those needing legal help with guardianship, citizenship, public benefits, health law and housing. Legal services include representation in court and administrative hearings, legal advice and counsel and referrals to other resources. LAS also provides free community education and outreach to older adults, their families, and service providers. Last but not least, the Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program (HICAP) provides free individual counseling on Medicare and related health insurance issues. State-registered volunteer HICAP counselors help older adults and people with disabilities enroll in Medicare, supplemental and prescription drug plans and apply for cost-saving programs. Counselors also assist to resolve coverage issues, referring to LAS' legal program for further help if necessary.
Programmatically, the biggest need for the communities we serve continues to be assistance for housing legal services in order to prevent displacement and homelessness. Cases in this practice area for LAS have skyrocketed from 201 in FY 2020-21 to 293 this last year. We anticipate that when Alameda County finally lifts the public health emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic, older adults will need access to our legal services in even greater numbers than they do today. Additionally, our housing clients almost always have unmet service needs, either outside of their legal needs or intertwined with them. Our population often has difficulty with transportation, complex paperwork, online research or transactions, being on hold for long periods of time, and navigating bureaucracies. As a result, our attorneys often end up providing non-legal support to our clients to ensure that the client will receive services in a coordinated way. Our LAS housing legal program video, released just a few months ago, helps to explain what is happening in the community right now, and how we are responding to the issues that older adults are facing at present: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_k2rSQ2XhY .
Stakeholder Identified Needs
Organization What Services does your organization provide? The biggest need for communties they serve? Saint Vincent de Paul Provide assistance with security deposits, hotel stays, care kits for the homeless, any number of household supplies for moving in, assistance with utility bills, back rent and food. Assist with asylum issues through the Pope Francis law center and other legal issues.
Housing and more funding for gas cards for people are now unable to get to and from work and school.
Village of Love For the Unsheltered in the City of Alameda: Day Center, Safe Parking, Overnight Sleeping at the Day Center, FEMA Trailer Coordination, Homeless Outreach Team, and Emergency Supportive Housing.
Daily regular access to showers, bathrooms, laundry facilities, and clothes. Access to medical health professionals to improve their physical health, hygiene, mental health, and overall wellbeing. Strong Supportive Motivation – a support system in the community.