On Friday, December 8, Opportunity Junction was honored to be featured at Tipping Point’s Annual Awards Breakfast in front of some of San Francisco's most influential leaders in the community.
Our largest funder, Tipping Point is a nonprofit in the San Francisco Bay Area that finds, funds, and strengthens the most promising poverty-fighting solutions.
We were honored to be selected for this prestigious event and to have both our CEO, Brianna Robinson, and Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) graduate, Lihn Luangrath, speak to a full room and share the work of Opportunity Junction.
“The folks who come to us know how to work hard,” Brianna shared. “But they’re often stuck working long hours, with pay that doesn’t match their drive.” And because it’s risky to change careers, and without the experience or network to get that first interview, a better job can feel out of reach.
This is where Opportunity Junction comes in.
Brianna shared how since 2000, OJ has been helping students develop the skills and confidence to launch into better careers. Each person who comes to OJ needs something different and our staff meets them where they are. Currently, 86% of the students who graduate from the Administrative Career Training (ACT) program enter employment.
But landing a job wasn’t the end of the journey for Opportunity Junction or the students.
“We wanted to help our students advocate for raises or apply for promotions, so they could go even further in their careers,” Brianna said. “So, in 2018, we kicked off work with Tipping Point and launched a career coaching model.”
Our coaches help graduates move up. From a good job, to a great career.
Around this same time, many students came to OJ with dreams of working in healthcare. Using what was learned from the partnership with Tipping Point, OJ developed the Healthcare Career Pathway (HCP) and partnered with Mount Diablo Adult Education to train CNAs.
With these small groups, each student received dedicated time with career coaches, along with hands-on experience.
Lihn was one of those students.
“I 
was a bartender for eight years,” Lihn shared during the breakfast event. The long evening hours required her to be away from her family, and she felt like she was missing too much of her children’s lives. She wanted to be home to talk with her kids and tuck them in at night.
“I thought about the foundation I wanted to build for my family,” she said, “I just got to a point where I was like, ‘Do I want to be doing this for the rest of my life?’”
Becoming a nurse had been her dream ever since she was young. But she wondered, “Is it too late for me to go back? To start a whole new career?”— that is, until she met Carmela, one of the instructors with OJ’s CNA program who encouraged her to apply.
Lihn spoke about the exhilaration of getting straight A’s in her classes and how it ignited a passion in her. She explained how she realized, “This is what I’m meant to do.”
After finishing the CNA program, Lihn began working as a home health aide, though she still had a spark for learning. She decided to apply and later graduated from nursing school. “My experience with the CNA program made me believe I could do it,” she said.
Lihn continues to work as a nurse in home health and can spend quality time with her kids—the very thing she always wanted. But most importantly, she’s showing her kids that it’s never too late to make a change—to try something new and follow their passions.
“Opportunity Junction helped me build a foundation to do what I love, and for my children to have a brighter future.”
Due to the program’s huge success and high demand, the HCP was recognized by Governor Gavin Newsom in California’s Master Plan on Aging. At this time, 90% of our students land jobs as CNAs after finishing the course, and the majority of the others are continuing their education to further their careers in healthcare.
We are grateful for Tipping Point’s partnership, and for the opportunity to highlight OJ’s work at this distinguished annual event.
