Mural Unveiling at the County of Santa Clara Reentry Resource Center
Meet the Artists of this NAACP Funded Art Project that Kicks Off the Center’s 10-Year Anniversary Celebrations
WHAT:
The County of Santa Clara’s Office of Reentry Services invites the media to the unveiling of a new mural gifted to the Center by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was created by Briena Brown, who recently earned a BA degree from SJSU in sociology and studio art, and artist Urna Bajracharya, a UCLA design media arts student. The artwork celebrates our diverse community, displays hope and resiliency, and helps memorialize the Reentry Resource Center’s 10th Anniversary next February. Members of the media are invited to photograph the mural and interview speakers.
WHO:
Supervisor Otto Lee
Jeffrey V. Smith, County of Santa Clara County Executive
Miguel Márquez, County of Santa Clara Chief Operating Officer
Javier Aguirre, Director of the County of Santa Clara Office of Reentry Services
Bob Núñez, President of the San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP and former Milpitas Vice Mayor
Briena Brown, mural coordinator, BA in sociology and studio art SJSU
Urna Bajracharya, mural artist, UCLA design media arts student
Members of the Reentry Resource Center’s Lived Experience Advisory Board
**Interviews in Spanish will be available**
WHEN:
October 21, 2021
11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Event speakers will address attendees from 11:00 to 11:30 am.
WHERE:
County of Santa Clara Reentry Resource Center Courtyard
151 West Mission Street, San José, CA 95110
WHY:
We are celebrating a decade of helping some of Santa Clara County’s most vulnerable residents reenter community with dignity and the tools they need to achieve their goals. The new Reentry Center Mural represents unity and rising up together. None of us succeed alone. As clients utilize the resources provided by the Center to improve their lives, many of them give back to the community, helping others through the reentry journey. Several members of the Reentry Resource Center staff, who have experienced incarceration and are now full-time County employees, will be speaking at the mural unveiling. Their unique perspectives and their ability to connect with reentry clients are the most effective tools we can embrace for breaking the revolving door of incarceration. We invite you to hear their stories.
ABOUT THE REENTRY RESOURCE CENTER
The County of Santa Clara Reentry Resource Center (RRC) opened in San José in 2012 and expanded to a second location in Gilroy in 2015. The Centers strive to build safer communities by providing resources to formerly incarcerated individuals and helping them heal and reintegrate back into the community. The RRC collaborates with community-based entities and State and County Departments such as the Sheriff’s Office, Behavioral Health Services Department, Social Services Agency, Adult Probation, Office of the Public Defender, Valley Homeless Healthcare Program, Office of Supportive Housing, Office of Reentry Services, Pretrial Services, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and faith-based community partners. Representatives of these organizations and departments reside in one building and work collaboratively to provide resources and services to clients. Those services include referrals for mental health and substance use treatment, public benefit enrollment, counseling, health care, education, record expungement services, employment referrals, and housing and shelter information.
ABOUT THE COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA
The County of Santa Clara government serves a diverse, multi-cultural population of 1.9 million residents in Santa Clara County, California, making it more populous than 14 states in the U.S. The County provides essential services to its residents, including public health protection, environmental stewardship, medical services through the County of Santa Clara Health System, child and adult protection services, homelessness prevention and solutions, roads, park services, libraries, emergency response to disasters, protection of minority communities and those under threat, access to a fair criminal justice system, and many other public benefits.
Visit the County of Santa Clara at: https://www.sccgov.org
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Media Contacts: María Leticia Gómez, Office of Communications and Public Affairs, (408) 299-5119, [email protected]; Lynn Madden, Office of Reentry Services, (408) 535-4277