RAMS Hire Ability Program Recognized for Highest Success Rates in the Bay Area

The California State Department of Rehabilitation, City and County of San Francisco Behavioral Health Services, along with several Non-Profit Organizations throughout San Francisco, met on July 27th to acknowledge and celebrate the phenomenal strides the San Francisco Mental Health Co-Operative (SF MH COOP) made in FY16-17. The SF MH COOP provides vocational services for residents with severe mental illnesses who want to work. RAMS Hire-Ability ended the fiscal year by meeting 97% (66 out of 68) successful closures (job placements lasting a minimum of 90 days). We look forward to exceeding our goals this current fiscal year.

The i-Ability Vocational IT Training Program is now accepting applications for Desktop and Help Desk!

RAMS is excited to announce that the i-Ability Vocational IT Training Program is currently seeking applicants for the upcoming cohorts for two tracks: (1) Help Desk and (2) Desktop. The i‐Ability Vocational IT Training Program is offered by Hire‐Ability Vocational Services, a division of Richmond Area Multi‐Services, Inc. (RAMS) with funding from the Mental Health Services Act. Participants in these 9‐month program tracks will receive intensive and supportive on‐the‐job training in the fields of information technology, technical support and customer service.

Please visit www.hire-ability.org, to access videos that provide information about how to prepare for the application process and the program itself, and to access the application, which is also available here: VIEW APPLICATION.

In order to qualify for this program, please note that interested applicants must be able to provide documentation showing that they meet the following requirements: 

1. At least 18 years of age 
2. Current resident of San Francisco 
3. Must be currently receiving services through SFDPH Behavioral Health Services (BHS) 
4. Have successfully completed at least a High School education or equivalent (GED acceptable) 
5. Be able to attend training which is held Monday to Friday, between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., 7‐12 hours per week 
6. Successful completion of in‐person interview and skills assessment 
7. Must actively participate in developing vocational goals with program staff 
8. Must provide consent for i‐Ability staff to reach out to clinical provider 

The program is accepting about 10 trainees for the Help Desk track and 8 trainees for the Desktop track. Interested applicants can attend information sessions that will be held at the 1st floor Avatar Training Room of 1380 Howard St. on the following dates and times:

• Thursday, May 11, 2017 @ 10:30 a.m. -12:00 p.m.
• Wednesday , May 17, 2017 @ 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
• Thursday, May 18, 2017 @ 1:00 p.m. -2:30 p.m.
• Monday, May 22, 2017 @ 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Application Due Date: 

June 2, 2017 (must be received by manager no later than 5:00 p.m.)

Interviews Conducted: 

Ongoing until June 30, 2017

Notification of Application Status: 

All applicants will be notified no later than July 21, 2017

First Day of Instruction: 

July 31, 2017 (Help Desk) & August 14, 2017 (Desktop)

For more information, feel free to contact:

John Cabiles, Vocational IT Services Manager at (415) 255‐3563 or iAbility@hire‐ability.org

Nancy Gobaleza, Intake Coordinator at 415-282-9675 ext. 207 or nancygobaleza@hire-ability.org 

Career Connections Now Accepting Applications for Summer 2017

Career Connections is pleased to announce that we are accepting applications for the Summer cohort starting the first week of May 2017.  Applications are due Friday, March 31, 2017.

The Hire-Ability Career Connections Program offers time-limited paid internships to transitional aged youth (TAY) ages 15-25, in order to provide healthy activities and entry-level work experience, and to help TAY consumers of behavioral health services achieve resiliency and maximize recovery.

We are looking for individuals who:
· Are between 15 and 25 years of age
· Are a resident of San Francisco
· Are currently receiving services through SFDPH Behavioral Health Services (SFDPH-BHS)

Contact Information:
Please feel free to contact us with questions about our program. We can be reached by phone at: (415) 282-9675.

Our brochure and application are available for download:

Link to Brochure:
http://www.ramsinc.org/pdf/CareerConnectionsBrochure.pdf

Link to Application:
http://www.ramsinc.org/pdf/CareerConnectionsApplication.pdf

The first group of participants enrolled in November 2016 have completed the initial skills and interest assessment, career exploration and vocational training and are now placed in internships as diverse as a radio station, a museum, and the Department of Public Health.

Career Connections congratulates the interns on a job well done and thanks our community partners for their support!

New Director at RAMS Hire-Ability Vocational Services

It is with great pleasure that we announce the appointment of Carmen Castorena-O’Keefe as the Director of Vocational Services at RAMS Hire-Ability Vocational Services.

Ms. Castorena-O’Keefe has over 20 years of management experience, with the past 14 years being in Vocational Rehabilitation Services.  As the Program Director for Hire-Ability, Ms. Castorena-O’Keefe manages and supports a team dedicated to enhancing San Francisco City and County residents’ lives through Vocational Skills Training and Competitive Community Job Placement.

Prior to joining RAMS, Ms. Castorena-O’Keefe managed (9+ years) Vocational Rehabilitation Services (VRS) within the Human Services Agency, which serves San Mateo County residents with disabilities and/or barriers to employment; she also held positions within VRS as the  Marketing Manager and Job Development Specialist. Ms. Castorena-O’Keefe began her career as a Career Counselor/Placement Director and eventually Corporate Director of Career Services for Heald Colleges over 20 years ago.

Ms. Castorena-O’Keefe obtained her B.S degree from San Francisco State University. She has lived in San Francisco for over 30 years and is dedicated to serving and strengthening her community.

Please join us in welcoming and congratulating Ms. Carmen Castorena-O’Keefe to her new leadership appointment as the Director of RAMS Hire-Ability Vocational Services.

You may contact Carmen Castorena-O’Keefe at RAMS by telephone at 415-282-9675 and/or by email at carmenokeefe@hire-ability.org.

Introducing Career Connections—A New Hire-Ability Program Designed to Serve Transition Aged Youth!

RAMS is excited to announce that our Hire-Ability division will be launching a new program, called Career Connections, in the fall of 2016. The Hire-Ability Career Connections Program will offer time-limited paid internships to transitional aged youth (TAY) ages 15-25, in order to provide healthy activities and entry-level work experience, and to help TAY consumers of behavioral health services achieve resiliency and maximize recovery.

We are looking for individuals who:

·         Are between 15 and 25 years of age

·         Are a resident of San Francisco

·         Are currently receiving services through SFDPH Behavioral Health Services (SFDPH-BHS)

Application and Course Timeline:

August 2016- Application Released

Friday, Sept. 16th--Applications Due

Monday, Sept. 19th-Friday, Sept. 30th--Notification of Application Status

Thursday, October 6th: Registration forms due for accepted applicants

Tuesday, October 11th: First workshop

January, 2017: Participants start work at their internship placement

October, 2017: Program graduation

Contact Information:

Please feel free to contact us with questions about our program. We can be reached by phone at: 415.282.9675. Our brochure and application are available for download:

Link to Brochure:
http://www.ramsinc.org/pdf/TAY%20Program%20Brochure.pdf

Link to Application: 
http://www.ramsinc.org/pdf/TAY%20Program%20Application.pdf

Hire-Ability: A Light Of The Village

The Mental Health Services Act - San Francisco held its 5th Annual Award Ceremony at the Scottish Rite Masonic Auditorium on October 15, 2015. It was a thoughtfully coordinated event that included stories and poetry from those mental health consumers with lived experience, as well as delightful musical entertainment from pianist, Mr. Walter Earl, and beatbox vocalist, Mr. Carlos Aguirre. With the tagline “It Takes a Village to Recover,” the event celebrated the recovery of over 100 consumers, each of whom received an Achievement in Recovery Award.

It was a big year for RAMS Hire-Ability Vocational Services, which saw its i-Ability Vocational IT Training program receive two distinctions. A graduate of i-Ability, was honored with the MHSA Consumer of the Year Award. His inspiring speech echoed the award ceremony’s sentiment, as he thanked those who were key to his recovery, including RAMS, AA, and his community behavioral health providers.

The i-Ability Vocational IT Training program also received the MHSA Team of the Year Award. The program’s entire staff was welcomed onstage to accept this award, including IT trainers, counselors, peer staff members, and management. RAMS i-Ability provides on-the-job vocational IT training to consumers through its partnership with SF Dept. of Public Health - Behavioral Health Services (BHS), where i-Ability serves as a critical component of the IT operations at BHS.

The i-Ability program will begin recruiting in January 2016 
for IT training cohorts that will begin in April 2016.  

For more information, please contact Nancy Gobaleza, Intake Coordinator
at 415-282-9675 Ext. 207 or nancygobaleza@hire-ability.org

CARF Re-Accreditation for Hire-Ability Vocational Services

The Commission for Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) surveyors visited RAMS Hire-Ability Vocational Services on December 11 & 12, 2013 for our re-accreditation. The accreditation is a process that demonstrates a provider has met standards for the quality of its services. In the recent survey outcome report, CARF noted that RAMS/Hire-Ability achieved the maximum 3-year accreditation (through January 2017) following services:

• Community Employment Services: Employment Support
• Community Employment Services: Job Development
• Employee Development Services
• Employment Planning Services
• Employment Skills Training Services

Also, CARF surveyors made no recommendations with the report stating "this is an extraordinary accomplishment, as only 3 percent of CARF surveys result in no recommendations." Other survey report highlights include:

• Organization has a strong recovery focus, resulting in high satisfaction and outcome scores
• Clear culture of creativity, intellectual curiosity, innovation, and ongoing positive improvements
• RAMS is recognized national leader in providing culturally sensitive services

We are so very proud for having achieved consecutive three-year reaccreditations and, with the most recent survey, having no recommendations.

The CARF family of organizations currently accredits close to 50,000 programs and services at more than 22,000 locations. More than 8 million persons of all ages are served annually by more than 6,500 CARF-accredited service providers. CARF accreditation extends to countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. This prestigious accreditation signals a service provider's commitment to continually improving services, encouraging feedback, and serving the community. Click HERE to read more about the accreditation process.

CARF surveys for the holidays

The Commission for Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) surveyors shall be visiting RAMS Hire-Ability Vocational Services on December 11 & 12 for our re-accreditation.  CARF accreditation is a process that demonstrates a provider has met standards for the quality of its services.  We are proud to have received in 2010 the maximum 3-year accreditation that is awarded to agencies, and we are looking forward to demonstrating our strengths and dedication to our work and community at the upcoming visit.

Founded in 1966, CARF International is an independent, nonprofit accreditor of health and human services in the following areas:

• Aging Services
• Behavioral Health
• Opioid Treatment Programs
• Business and Services Management Networks
• Child and Youth Services
• Employment and Community Services
• Vision Rehabilitation
• Medical Rehabilitation
• DMEPOS (Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies) 

The CARF family of organizations currently accredits close to 50,000 programs and services at more than 22,000 locations. More than 8 million persons of all ages are served annually by more than 6,500 CARF-accredited service providers. CARF accreditation extends to countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.   This prestigious accreditation signals a service provider's commitment to continually improving services, encouraging feedback, and serving the community. Click HERE to read more about the accreditation process.

May 2013 HelpDesk Training program now accepting applications!

We are pleased to announce an exciting opportunity to learn skills that many employers are looking for.

The RAMS Hire-Ability program is currently accepting applications for the May 2013 HelpDesk training program.  The program provides intensive, supportive, high-quality, and time-limited training in the fields of information technology, technical support, and customer service. Funded by the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), the primary goal of the HelpDesk program is to offer consumers of community behavioral health services or their family members with on-the-job training and paid, part-time work experience while providing front end user support primarily over the phone, under the direct supervision of the instructor.

Hire-Ability is seeking applicants with basic to intermediate computer skills, who are able and willing to commit to a nine-month long training program of 10-15 hours a week with a regular schedule. The application and program information are available on the Hire-Ability website (www.hire-ability.org).  This will be the fourth cohort of this program, with several graduates have succesfully secured positions in the field!

Applications and program information are available online on the Hire-Ability website at www.hire-ability.org (click HERE to go directly to the RAMS i-Ability Information Technology Help Desk Training Program page). Applications are due on Friday, March 29, 2013 at 5:00pm. Please feel free to contact i-Ability Program Manager, Terry Golden at tgolden@hire-ability.org for more information.

See the brochure images below for more details (right-click on the image and select any of the "Open Link" options to view)

Business Community Supporters

We are proud to recognize two local business who are supporting RAMS in our community.

GoGo Senior Dog Veggies

The RAMS Hire-Ability production services is pleased to partner with GoGo Senior Dog Veggies, a local start-up online business. The inspiration of this business started when the owner, Steve Loving, was having difficulty finding good healthy dog snacks for his senior, diabetic dog, GoGo. He adopted the idea of introducing vegetables in GoGo’s diet to see if there would be a change in his health. Sure enough, GoGo has more energy and his diabetes is much more manageable. Now, many other dogs who suffer from chronic health conditions can enjoy these freeze dried vegetables either through snacks or as a regular part of their diet and hopefully see improvement with their health. Hire-Ability is responsible for managing the online orders, packaging and shipping of product. To learn more about this great business or to order product, please visit their website by clicking HERE.

Sports Basement

Sports Basement will be sponsoring a private happy hour event on Thursday, April 19th for RAMS. Not only will they be providing snacks, drinks, beer and wine, but everyone will also receive a 20% discount off their entire purchase during the event. 

WHEN:  April 19th, 6:00-8:00pm

WHERE:  1590 Bryant Street, San Francisco.  (415) 575-3000
Sports Basement engages with the community, hosting and helping hundreds of community groups and partners at their 4 store locations on an annual basis.  Click HERE for more information.

We would like to express our gratitude to these local businesses for supporting RAMS, and for providing us with these exciting partnership opportunities.

Check out a prior blog post HERE for more details on other RAMS Hire-Ability business partners.

RAMS Hire-Ability Vocational Services: A salute to our Production business partners

Our Hire-Ability Vocational Services is well known for the Employment Services, Employee Development, Café Phoenix, Vocational IT and Janitorial training programs. However, less is known about our business venture & the businesses that support the soft skills training and assessment program that provide individuals with mental health conditions paid work while working on their soft skills and other barriers to gain competitive employment.

For about 10 years, Mosaic Mercantile has been a close production business partner and continues to be the main vendor of Hire-Ability. Hire-Ability is the main source of workforce labor for Mosaic Mercantile and continues to meet their needs through packaging, labeling and preparing craft kits. Most of their items are sold through nationwide craft stores such as Michaels Arts & Crafts and Beverly’s Fabrics and Crafts.

Besides Mosaic Mercantile, our Hire-Ability production vendors include Living Intentions, an organic food company whose products are distributed through Whole Foods Market and Draegers Market. University of California San Francisco and University of the Pacific are two other vendors that we continually do business with, by packaging supplies for both dental schools. Other vendors that we are proud to partner with are Flax Art & Designs, Glob, KFOG and Open Door Products. Flax Art & Designs has recently added the Hire-Ability’s logo on their select craft paper items labels which are sold through their online business and retail stores.

These businesses provide revenue necessary to enhance our clients’ training and assessments through paid work activity. If you are interested in being a vendor with Hire-Ability, please contact Ms. Bin Bin Chen at 415.282.9675 xt.233 or bchen@hire-ability.org. If you would like to gain more information on referring clients to our programs or to have a tour of our facility, please contact our Intake Coordinator at 415.282.9675 xt.207.

We're known for our Cookies too!

A recent article in local neighborhood paper The Potrero View talked about the writer's journey "Hunting Dogpatch for the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie". It just so happens that RAMS Hire-Ability's very own Cafe Phoenix is in the Dogpatch neighborhood, and we were listed amongst notable Potrero purveyors such as Serpentine and Mr & Mrs Miscellaneous as one of the chocolate chip cookie finds!

Cafe Cook/Trainer Phil Woods was interviewed for the piece by Potrero View staff writer Bill Slatkin: "Meanwhile, I checked out the cookie offered at the Cafe Phoenix, owned by [RAMS] Hire-Ability, the training and job placement nonprofit located south of Dogpatch on Indiana Street. Cook and baker Phil Woods produces a firm and tasty two-ounce cookie sold for $1.25, which ranks with the best in the neighborhood. And while recognizing there’s an art to doing it correctly, [Woods] emphasized what he called the “exact science” of using fresh ingredients in the precise amounts, baked at the ideal temperature for just the perfect amount of time. Those specs remain a trade secret."

This blog writer has also tried the cookies herself, and they are absolutely delicious, crispy along the edges, with a substantial chewines. Thank you, Phil!

To read the article in its entirety and discover more about where the GOOD chocolate chip cookies can be found in the Potrero, click HERE.

US Census kick-off event at RAMS Hire-Ability

US Department of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, joined by Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting, held a press conference on the US Census 2010 at the RAMS Hire-Ability Vocational Services program site at 1234 Indiana Street. RAMS President & CEO Kavoos G. Bassiri was present, along with RAMS Board Member the Honorable Judge Lillian Sing. This event was covered by KCBS, Sing Tao, World Journal, The Post News, The San Francisco Sentinel, as well as the Mayor's and the US Secretary of Commerce's website.

Photo credit: US Census Bureau, Public Information Office

Click HERE to see more pictures from photographers Yana Rudakov and Sergio Valle of Soleil Portraits.

RAMS CEO Kavoos Bassiri addresses the crowd at Secretary Locke's Census 2010 press conference, held at the RAMS Hire-Ability program site

Left to Right: Director of RAMS Vocational Services Hasian Sinaga, RAMS Deputy Chief / Director of Clinical Services Christina Shea, US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, RAMS President & CEO Kavoos G. Bassiri, RAMS Operations Manager Angela Tang