Community

Richmond Nonprofit Helps Ex-Felons Get Back on Their Feet

For 20 years now, at a small center in North Richmond, Men and Women of Valor (MVOV) has been helping to rehabilitate ex-felons, giving them a second chance at life. Pam Saucer, the founder and CEO of MWOV, has long been a leader in the community, advocating for — and educating — at-risk youth and formerly incarcerated men and women.

Published

2 years ago

April 20, 2024

Oakland Post

Volunteers at the Men and Women of Valor center in Richmond. Photo by Magaly Muñoz

By Magaly Muñoz

For 20 years now, at a small center in North Richmond, Men and Women of Valor (MVOV) has been helping to rehabilitate ex-felons, giving them a second chance at life.

Pam Saucer, the founder and CEO of MWOV, has long been a leader in the community, advocating for — and educating — at-risk youth and formerly incarcerated men and women.

The center offers these newly released ex-felons opportunities to get their GED, participate in community service projects, and obtain transitional housing while they get back on their feet.

“We’re giving back to the community and have had a positive impact. We go as far as cleaning up the area because you have to have a clean heart and a clean mind to want to do something productive,” Saucer said.

Take the case of Kiaira Fluker, 35, who had a probation violation in 2019 that caused her to spend 105 days in jail. After that experience, Fluker swore she’d do everything she could to never go back.

Fluker shared that she was referred to MWOV and, soon after, she learned about the rehabilitation program Saucer ran.

Fluker said the program provided her with job opportunities and life skills that have allowed her to stabilize herself and her three kids, who often visit the center as well. Being around the team at the center created a positive atmosphere for Fluker and made her realize that the people she was surrounding herself with in her past was not what she needed in her life anymore.

“I was blessed. If I hadn’t found Ms. Pamela, I would’ve lost everything from my housing and probably custody of my children,” Fluker said.

Although the center has been operating since 2005, Saucer’s work with disadvantaged youth and the formerly incarcerated has gone beyond the Richmond center. Many of the volunteers working there had known her for years before she took on the challenge of running her own organization.

Antayon Alexander, one of MWOV’s volunteers, shared that he has worked with Saucer since the ’90s and that she helped him develop the skills to run a transitional housing unit in Sonoma for two years.

Alexander had served three years in prison on a narcotics charge and has been on parole for over 30 years. He wasn’t proud of where he wound up at such a young age and did the work “day-in-and-day out” to not end up back in prison.

Alexander stressed to the men in the housing that this was their opportunity for a second chance at life and to better themselves, similar to his own experience after meeting Saucer. Alexander could relate to them on a level of understanding that transitioning out of incarceration was never easy work, but it was up to them to maintain clean and healthy paths in order to not recommit their crimes.

“We were all cut from the same cloth,” he said.

Alexander had spent a few years with Richmond Unified School District working with kids in group homes and running a special education school. He wants to work towards starting his own nonprofit, similar to MWOV, to continue giving back to the community in the way he knows best.

To ease the growing costs of gas and in some cases, not being able to obtain a drivers’ license because of prior convictions, MWOV is partnering with the city of Richmond to potentially build an e-bike rack outside of the center to make it more accessible for those in the area to get to doctors, appointments, job interviews, work or school. The program is called “Ride Today” and will feature five access points around Central Richmond with over 70 bikes.

Saucer says the e-bikes will be available at a low-cost or with a free membership for those involved with MWOV.

The center shows no signs of slowing down soon as they take on new projects regularly, including inviting aspiring musicians to use their onsite music studio, partnering with community members to provide vocational truck driving lessons, and hosting a celebrity fundraising competition with well-known Bay Area rapper, E-40, in March.

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Arts and Culture

COMMENTARY: Black Music is the Sound of Black Freedom: Let Us Reclaim Both This Juneteenth

Black Music Month started when Black Music Association members Ed Wright, Kenny Gamble and his wife, journalist and radio host Dyanna Williams were able to persuade President Jimmy Carter to establish the observation on June 7, 1979.

Published

5 days ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) is thought of as the godfather of blues music, especially Delta blues. The 29 songs recorded by him during his short life have been of massive inspiration to guitarists and musicians over the last 80 years. Public domain photo.

By Wanda Ravernell

Black Music Month and Juneteenth are inextricably linked – Black music is the sound of our freedom.

From the plaintive moans of the enslaved Africans’ ‘sorrow songs,’ to the fields of Civil War battle where Black soldiers picked up abandoned bugles, to the upright piano played in juke joints on Saturday night and churches come Sunday morning, our ancestors’ innovation in the face of want, fear, degradation, and hopelessness has yielded genres of music imitated ’round the world.

In 2000, Congress made it official. In 2009, Pres. Barack Obama changed the name to African American Music Heritage Month and in 2023, Pres. Joe Biden changed it back to Black Music Month, two years after he declared Juneteenth a national holiday, the result of a movement led by Opal Lee.

Our ancestors battle for freedom over these last 400 years and the music that allowed them expression of their humanity deserved to be honored.

But we may be losing sight of the value of their sacrifices.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Faith That the Dark past Has Taught Us…’

Along with the long-known exploitation of Black musicians whose recordings were stolen by record companies, the commercialization of Juneteenth feels like another kind of theft.

I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to the Bay Area from my hometown of Philadelphia. I didn’t know it was one of many freedom festivals celebrated by descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

Emancipation Day was Jan. 1 in Pennsylvania, April 16 in Wash., D.C., May 20 in Florida, and Aug. 8 in Kentucky. But Juneteenth, June 19, has the most renown, known in Texas as the ‘colored peoples’ Fourth of July.’

It was marked by parades, beauty pageants, rodeos, backyard barbecues and church picnics.

Yes, church.

The formerly enslaved began the day praying in thanks for their freedom just as they had prayed for Jubilee – the day of freedom – when they had chains on their feet and hands. They ‘testified’ about their past suffering and how they had managed to overcome.

And they sang.

Although, we will not hold it this year, Omnira Institute’s Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance recalled this part of Juneteenth with prayers in the languages of the African captives. In the middle of the ceremony, a soloist would lead us in singing “Many Thousand Gone” while we took turns reciting portions of the Emancipation Proclamation, the news of freedom that took more than two years to reach Texas – two months after the Civil War ended.

“Many Thousand Gone” was famously recorded by Black luminary Paul Robeson in 1947:

“No more auction block for me,

No more, no more

No more auction black for me

Many thousand gone.”

Other verses refer to the ‘pint of salt’ and the ‘driver’s lash,’ the realities of enslavement that they had survived.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Hope That the Present has Brought Us’

All of the genres of African American music have at their root songs like that, the essence being, as Stevie Wonder, wrote, “the joy inside our pain.” So Black music is not just music. It is our story, our history, our very strength.

During the Civil Rights Movement, which peaked 100 years after slavery ended, the people testified that it was the freedom songs – based on spirituals – that gave them the heart to march, face attack dogs, fire hoses, beatings, and shootouts with vigilantes.

The music reminded them that power was in the people. That music, our music, can do so again. We don’t have to accept the commodification of the products of our culture.

The power of those songs is showing a resurgence across the South as we battle again for the right to self-determination through the ballot box.

Those songs are the voices of our ancestors, voices forged in their blood, their sweat, their tears, joy and, above all, faith. Those songs, those prayers live in our blood and our very breath.

This Juneteenth, let us reclaim those holy voices expressed in Black music for ourselves. It is our birthright. It can neither be bought nor sold. No more. Never again.

Wanda Ravernell is the executive director of Omnira Institute, sponsor for 18 years of the Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance and Oakland’s 11^th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival, which will take place on Sept. 12.

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Oakland Post: Week of June 3 – 9, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 3 – 9, 2026

Published

5 days ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

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Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled

BLACKPRESS USA NEWSWIRE — “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”
The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

6 days ago

June 8, 2026

Oakland Post

By National Women’s Law Center

The National Women’s Law Center released its annual State Child Care Assistance Policies report, finding that the number of children placed on waiting lists for federally funded child care assistance nearly doubled between 2024 and 2025 — and that number has only continued to grow.

The report serves as a key resource for state lawmakers, advocates, and policymakers by tracking state child care assistance policies and identifying where states are strengthening support for families and early educators — or falling behind.

“This deeply troubling increase in the number of children on child care waiting lists is the result of a failure to invest in this crucial sector,” said Karen Schulman, senior director of state child care policy and author of the report. “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”

Key findings in the report related to waiting lists for child care assistance include:

• 17 states had waiting lists or a freeze on intake for child care assistance in February 2025, up from 13 states in February 2024.

• Approximately 106,700 children nationwide were added to waiting lists between February 2024 and February 2025, bringing the total to 225,500 children in February 2025 — a 90 percent increase compared to February 2024.

• The numbers climbed even further between February 2025 and summer/fall 2025, with more than 175,000 additional children added to state waiting lists in just a few months — a 78 percent increase.

• At least seven states newly began placing families on waiting lists or freezing intake, while at least 10 additional states saw their waiting lists grow, after February 2025.

The report also includes state-by-state data on key child care assistance policies, including income eligibility limits, parent copayments, provider payment rates, and eligibility policies for parents searching for work.

Click the link to learn more: Warning Signs: State Child Care Assistance Policies 2025.

The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.