Share the Spirit 2020 stories of help and hope.

 

Introducing the 2021 Share the Spirit Grantees

The Bay Area News Group and East Bay Times Share the Spirit are pleased to announce the 2021 Share the Spirit grant recipients. These organizations are doing great work in the community and making the holidays brighter for many East ...
Continue reading...
Photo: Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group

East Bay readers dug deep to donate record amount for those most in need

Amid the tragedies and hardships wrought by a worldwide pandemic in a tumultuous year, generous East Bay Times readers reached deep into their pockets to help neighbors in need. Readers have contributed a record-breaking $482,134 so far to this news ...
Continue reading...

Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center helps people turn good ideas into thriving businesses

Savory aromas of ropa vieja – the “old clothes” of slow-cooked pulled stewed beef with bell peppers, garlic and onion — often float from the kitchen space at Co-Biz in Richmond. Here is where chef Yaqueline Martinez prepares traditional criollo ...
Continue reading...

Rainbow Center works to support LGBTQI+ community

Over his 23 years, Marsai Turbin hasn’t often enjoyed the smoothest of life paths. Nor has he had the best of luck. An Oakland resident, Turbin spent much of his childhood in the foster care system. As an adult, he ...
Continue reading...

East Bay nonprofit aims to support children, families in early education

When COVID-19 hit the Bay Area earlier this year, the staff at Brighter Beginnings transformed their organization into a sort of emergency center. Brighter Beginnings, which offers a Head Start early education program to help families prepare their young kids ...
Continue reading...

ShowerHouse Ministries is there with soap, food and hope

A warm breeze wafts over the motley assortment of people and dogs trickling into the expansive clearing along the San Joaquin River. Some wander around sipping coffee while others snack from brown lunch bags marked with the Bible verse John 3:16 ...
Continue reading...

Davis Street provides food, holiday cheer for East Bay families

Things haven’t always been easy for Gina Harris and her son, Oliver. But, fortunately, they’ve had the Davis Street Community Center in times of need. “I’ve been going there for like three years now,” said the 26-year-old San Leandro resident, ...
Continue reading...

Fred Finch therapists find new ways to reach socially-distanced clients

As the coronavirus pandemic forces many people to stay at home, Fred Finch Youth & Family Services is finding ways to embrace distance technologies for mental health therapy. The youth center uses a combination of music, video chats and different technology ...
Continue reading...

211 Alameda County helps thousands each year connect to services

VM always considered herself “an overcomer,” especially when it came to helping others overcome their own adversity. There was the time she and her husband aided her parents when they hit financial shoals at the church they ministered. And when ...
Continue reading...

Beyond Emancipation helps Oakland woman find stability after a life bouncing from place to place

Growing up in a whirlwind of households – spun around from her parents’ home to foster care, to apartments of various relatives and back to multiple foster homes again – it was hard for Danika Anderson to consider stability as ...
Continue reading...