Announcement: uu is a 2024 recipient of the CA Rise Grant

Good People,
I am amazed, grateful and excited that our beloved social enterprise, urban furniture and boutique, has been selected as one of the 61 awardees of the new CA Rise grant!

I’m amazed because, as we head into our 15th year operating our social enterprise, I can’t help but think about the entire community we do this work with to include you, Oakland residents, the City of Oakland’s Departments on Homelessness, the REDF Foundation, the Altamont Education Advisory Board, Stop Waste, local employers, small businesses on Grand Avenue like Alyce on Grand, Brother and Sisters Flowers, Radbird, and supporters like Ken Katz and Bob Lycette to name a few. In the midst of our world being on fire in many places and the uncertainty of things ahead, we stand as a small and mighty social enterprise on Grand Avenue that is nestled in a neighborhood of kind people, and we’re chugging right along and facilitating life-changing impact. We are an example of what can happen when people come together in community.

I’m grateful because through our social enterprise, we’ve had the opportunity to serve beautiful Oakland residents that needed a chance. Like our beloved Wayne, a single father that we hired our first year, to drive our truck and pick-up furniture donations. When Wayne came to interview with us, we could tell he was a solid man and deserved a job in spite of his felony conviction looming over his head. After Wayne completed his two year placement, we hired him permanently and he became a trusted member of our team for more than seven years. Today, Wayne is a successful truck driver with a major trucking company. We used to laugh together when he would say, “I have a felony, but I kept my damn driver’s license.” I appreciated his resilient spirit and courage to stick with his goals. I don’t see Wayne much but when I do, I feel so grateful that our organization’s social enterprise was his first driving job in Oakland back in 2009.

Then there’s Donna, a single mother we hired in 2011. Donna was a go-getter. energetic and raising two young men in Oakland while working hard to transition from public assistance. I appreciated Donna’s can-do mindset and how she always wanted to make sure that I knew she had my back in the store. While finishing up her job training with us, she applied to Home Depot. Today, Donna is an opening manager at Home Depot and will soon celebrate more than 10 years of employment with the company.

And today, there’s Eneisha, a single mother, who is our current Social Enterprise Lead. Eneisha successfully completed our job training program in 2022 and when we saw her competence and maturity in handling store operations and her professionalism with customers, we promoted her to a keyholder position. I was extremely happy that we could offer her a permanent position with us, for 2 years she has been working by my side learning operations, training new single mother participants and coordinating events. Today, Eneisha is our new Lead and I’m looking forward to strengthening our retail business so that she can continue to promote and show her full leadership potential.

And finally, I’m excited about receiving this grant, and my excitement comes from a deep place for me; that place where hope lives, along with our desire to help make this world more just for ALL people, in spite of their barriers, zip codes or experiences. In a world that is often focused on negativity and problems, and in a town that is steadily moving towards haves and have nots, I’m excited and hopeful that our future is bright and centered around lifting single mothers into their best lives.

In closing, as a new CA Rise grantee – we’re going to fly y’all. And what does that mean you may ask? Well I’ll tell you, the CA Rise initiative is California’s first statewide investment in social enterprises. As an awardee, not only do we receive funding but we also receive social enterprise and business development support to build our capacity for growth. Additionally, we will be in a cohort with 60 other social enterprises that blend business and a mission, just like us. We’ll be able to learn and grow along the way. This is big for us because social enterprises are unique and can’t always access business development funds or support. With this support – we’re going to position urban furniture and boutique as Oakland’s premier work readiness training platform for low-income single mothers with barriers. And we’re going to do that 2 ways; first by hiring our first Social Enterprise Program Manager and securing our first ever training space, where we will hold learning workshops for new program participants, current team members and the larger nonprofit community.

Amazed, grateful and excited is how we’re feeling right now. And in other words, we’re ALL living the dream.

Thank You for supporting our wonderful mission.

In community,
Tracey