Click here if you are unable to view this gallery on a mobile device.
OAKLAND — Tyneisha Crooks’ late father didn’t want his children “stuck on stupid,” she said. It was his way of telling her and her 10 siblings that to get anywhere in life they needed an education.
“Education was a big thing to him. You have to get a high school diploma to support yourself,” was part of his mantra, she said. “Without it you can’t do anything.”
Crooks admits it took her awhile to heed his wisdom. At Antioch High School her senior year, “I wasn’t feeling it. I would leave for school and not even go to school almost every day.”
But she came to appreciate her father’s words as a 23-year-old struggling dropout and single mother. She needed help. In 2013 she sought it at Civicorps, an Oakland-based nonprofit that runs job training programs and a charter high school that allows young adults to earn diplomas.
Crooks credits the organization for changing her life. By helping her with childcare and education, Crooks has broken the cycle of poverty in which she was trapped.
Civicorps had such a profound impact on Crooks, she said she intends to stay there to help others. She’s currently an intern and is working toward joining the nonprofit’s staff.
Civicorps has received funding this year from Share the Spirit, an annual holiday campaign that serves needy East Bay residents. Donations support programs at more than 50 nonprofit agencies in Contra Costa and Alameda counties.
The organization “serves youth who have been failed by many systems — the criminal justice system, the child welfare system, the traditional school system,” said Bill Zenoni, interim executive director. “With the appropriate supports in place, we find there is no limit to our corps members’ potential.”
The programs allows students to get a high school diploma, not a just a GED. It also provides job training in environmental management in recycling, and preps students to go on to college. Students pay nothing, and get help with housing, childcare, even food. Whatever gets in their way of success.
Few can tell a Civicorps success story better than Crooks.
Still, when she first arrived, she was hesitant. Was this really the place for her?
“I was kind of iffy at first,” she said in an interview. “Different people, different attitudes.”
Then four months in, her father died. While his death motivated her to do well, Crooks admits she was also “a little bit of a hothead; nobody can tell me what to do.” She said she had to take some time off from the program.
But she returned, knowing it was her last chance.
“I knocked it out,” she said. “I did everything I needed to do. I got my high school diploma. My attitude was better, my communication skills were way better.”
She found work as a security guard in San Francisco. But then one of her brothers was stabbed in Oakland and nearly died. She stopped working to care for him and when he recovered she returned to Civicorps once again.
“I knew I wanted to come back here,” she said. Now she sees herself in the other young people who turn to Civicorps for help.
“A lot of the students here, I can relate to them because I have been through some of the same things they have been through,” she said. I let them know that having a kid, or having housing issues, they can still do it, because I did it.”
SHARE THE SPIRIT
The Share the Spirit holiday campaign, sponsored by the Bay Area News Group, serves needy residents of Alameda and Contra Costa counties by funding nonprofit holiday and outreach programs.
To make a tax-deductible contribution, clip the coupon accompanying this story or go to www.sharethespiriteastbay.org/donate. Readers with questions, and individuals or businesses interested in making large contributions, may contact the Share the Spirit program at 925-472-5760 or sharethespirit@crisis-center.org.
