In 2000, Judy Koch learned something surprising about many of the workers in her sheet metal factory in Fremont, California: They didn’t read books with their kids. As a former junior high English teacher now on a second career as a manufacturing CEO, Koch wanted to instill a love of reading in her employees. Her idea? Give away high-quality storybooks for free. This simple act created a tidal wave of expanded family literacy among the mostly Latino men who worked on the factory floor. Sterling Speirn, who was looking for innovative ideas as executive director of the Peninsula Community Foundation [...more...]

Every week, JFCS East Bay resettles three to four refugee families, the majority of whom have been arriving from Afghanistan […more…]