CROP Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony: Top Row L-R: Ryan Hoppe, Ted Gray, Jason Bryant, Matt Braden, Ken Oliver, Richard Mireles, Anastasia Mallillin, Board Member Roger Low, Julia Root, and Aila Malik. Bottom Row: Oakland City Council Members Dan Kalb and Carrol Fife, Fmr. State Controller Betty Yee, Asm. Wendy Carrillo; Terah-Lawyer, Akhtar Badshah, Board Member Lisa Ling, Board Member Shelley Winner, District Attorney Pamela Price, Head of SAP Academy for Engineering V.R. Ferose, and Founder and Co-Chair of Beneficial State Bank, Kat Taylor.
A dream decades in the making, Creating Restorative Opportunities and Programs (CROP) celebrated the opening of its flagship West Oakland campus on February 13, 2023. CROP’s new career development facility provides a continuum of care and career development all in one place.
The event consisted of a ribbon-cutting ceremony and an open house where guests could tour the building. Speakers included former CA State Controller Betty Yee and Assemblymembers Wendy Carrillo and Mia Bonta. Other speakers included Kat Taylor, Co-Founder and Board Chair of Beneficial State Bank; CROP Board Member and award-winning CNN journalist Lisa Ling; and Head of SAP Engineering Academy, V.R. Ferose. We were also grateful to have other local elected officials at our event including Oakland Councilmembers Carroll Fife and Dan Kalb and Alameda County D.A. Pamela Price.
During the ceremony, CROP and SAP Engineering Academy announced a formal partnership to co-create portfolio-style career training curricula in design and sales with a long-term goal of five-month engineering lesson plans for our fellows. Afterward, attendees were invited to refreshments and to tour the campus and residential facility.
CROP began in 2008 as an in-prison program developed while the organization’s four founders – Richard Mireles, Matt Braden, Jason Bryant, and Ted Gray – were incarcerated at Soledad State Prison. Serendipitously, the founders were released around the same time in 2020 and early 2021. The founders immediately got to work obtaining unprecedented state funding for wraparound reentry programming to support justice-involved folks returning from incarceration.
With the state investment, we are currently developing holistic, human-centered programming designed to transform lives and heal communities. CROP is gearing up to launch our Ready 4 Life program at the West Oakland campus to provide tech-focused training and credentials, supportive housing, and personal leadership workshops. By connecting fellows to these resources, we are seeking to disrupt the cycle of recidivism that affects 70% of returning community members within three years of release. CROP’s innovative approach is establishing a blueprint for successful, sustained reentry.
In the words of Lamar Simms, one of CROP’s Ready 4 Life incoming fellows,
“It takes a lot of effort to sustain the dream. It takes a lot of effort to dream beyond prison, but you have to dare to dream…” and “you never know how far that dream can take you if you don’t envision another future”.
Here at CROP, we are working on making the dream of a more sustainable reentry experience possible by investing in people over punishment.
