- Welcome to "Inland Edition," where this season we're having conversations with people representing nonprofit organizations working to make the Inland Empire a better place.

My name is Joe Richardson.

[light background music] I'm an Inland Empire resident, an attorney and your host.

And today, we're going to chat with Patricia Nickols-Butler, the CEO of Community Action Partnership of San Bernardino County.

Community Action Partnership of San Bernardino County has been the premier social services agency working to eliminate the effects of poverty for almost 60 years.

By supporting, advocating for, and empowering residents to achieve self-reliance and economic stability, the organization aims to meet the community's needs through effective and responsive community-based programs and services that help strengthen families and build self-reliance.

Patricia Nickols-Butler has dedicated her life to serving the low-income residents of San Bernardino County.

Her career at the Community Action Partnership spans over 30 years, and she currently provides her expertise, experience, and insight as president and CEO.

She has been honored with countless community awards for outstanding community work assisting low-income families.

Let's meet her now and learn more about how the CAPSBC is affecting our community.

[soft piano music] ♪ [gentle upbeat music] ♪ ♪ ♪ - [Joe] So, Patricia Nickols-Butler, the executive director and the CEO of CAP San Bernardino County, welcome to "Inland Edition."

- Thank you for having me.

- Thank you so much for being here.

I feel like I know you already because, you know-?

You know, we know who you are!

It's just kind of like that.

But, here's what I like to do.

Let's build the house a little bit.

- [Patricia] Okay.

- So give us some information just kind of about your background and then how it ultimately converges into this career and with CAP of San Bernardino County.

- Well, you probably feel like you know me 'cause I've been around for over three decades (chuckles) in the position of executive director, or Chief Operating Officer for Community Action Partnership.

I have been involved in this agency now for five decades, believe it or not.

- [Joe] Wow.

- So, it is-- has been my life of service.

I am a native of San Bernardino.

- [Joe] Wow.

- Born and raised in the Inland Empire.

I'm the seventh child of eight children.

- Wow.

- That is raised by a mom of eight children and became a single parent when she separated from my father at the age of three.

I was the age of three.

And so, my mom though, being a devout Christian woman, she taught us and instilled in her children the importance of education, the importance of giving back, and the importance of being the very best that we can be.

And so, as a result, she raised eight very hardworking children.

- Right.

- My mom had all sorts of sayings, and there's one that always stuck with me.

And, that is, "Once a task is begun, never leave it till it's done."

- [Joe] Right.

- "Be the labor great or small, do it well or not at all."

- I'll make sure I got this right.

Your mission is about alleviating poverty?

- That is our focus.

That is correct.

- [Joe] Right.

Right.

- And, it's a very daunting mission, but a portion of that mission is that we definitely want to work with our community to empower, to empower and to partner with organizations to create economic stability for the clients that we serve.

- Now, I read that.

The Community Action Agency is like a special designation, right?

- It is.

So, we're designated for the County of San Bernardino as the Community Action Agency.

- "The."

- "The" Community Action Agency for San Bernardino County.

- [Joe] Gotcha.

- What gives us that designation is the federal funding; Community Services Block Grant.

And, while that's not a large percentage of our funding, it is what we call the "administrative glue" that allows us to go out and generate other funding sources.

So, that helps us build the budget to deliver and serve over 800,000 individuals annually.

- 800,000 individuals annually!

- And, of course that's a duplicate number.

- [Joe] Right.

- But, that is the individuals that touch all the services that we provide through Community Action Partnership.

- Right.

- And, we do that through three core programs.

We operate the Food Bank.

We are the largest provider of emergency food and we're designated as the USDA commodity provider.

And so, San Bernardino County being as vast as it is, over 20-some thousand square miles, it's quite a challenge to serve every area of the county.

But, we do it with a partner, with a cadre of partner agencies; over 250 organizations of like mind come together and work with us to get food out to the community.

So, in our food bank, we operate as the-- in the organization that procures the food, we warehouse the food, and then we distribute out to these organizations.

Last year, we distributed over 13 million pounds of food throughout San Bernardino County.

- [Joe] Wow.

- But, we could not do the work, though, without our partner organizations.

That's really what allows us to serve the numbers that we do.

We believe in partnerships.

It's always been our philosophy that with the needs being as great as they are in San Bernardino, you cannot do it as one organization.

- So, tell us more about the Food Bank program, because your food function is so, you know, incredibly vital.

Right?

And, I feel like I'm understating it.

Like, there's something else to know about it.

So, tell us more about that.

- We are also partnering with our community college districts.

- [Joe] Oh.

- In fact, right on the campus of San Bernardino Valley College, we have a Campus Cupboard program that offers food, hygiene items, diapers.

We determine that through a needs assessment and also a poverty symposium that many of the students that come to school every day did not have adequate food.

So, with that, we have partnered with nearly 17 campuses, including the elementary schools- - Wow.

- To have on site a Campus Cupboard program.

In addition to that, we have a Senior Choice program.

And, that is a farmer's market approach to where we take fresh fruits and vegetables, go to various senior living sites and distribute out food so they can come and shop, and pick whatever food that they desire that meets with their nutritional requirements.

And, that is all provided to them free of charge.

- Now, do you similarly have collaborations with organizations as it pertains to other services, other things that you do in addition to food?

- [Patricia] Absolutely.

- So, talk about that some.

- So, we operate three core programs, the Food Bank being one of 'em.

Our Family Development Program is another program where we provide transitional housing.

We do emergency services.

We have a VITA program.

In the VITA program, we definitely partner with organizations to do tax preparation.

Our focus is to get the EITC Credit.

We know that in California, too many people leave money on the table that has been uncollected.

So, during the tax season, we provide a free tax service.

That is a partnership with IRS and other partner organizations, volunteers who wanna come in and do tax preparation for our clients.

We also do rental assistance.

We partnered with organizations where we are attempting to keep individuals housed.

And so, last year we paid out, I think nearly $1 million in rental assistance to keep individuals in their house.

And, in order to do that, what we determined was that you just couldn't pay one month of back rent.

We actually would pay up to three, four, five months because studies have shown that once a low-income individual loses their housing or anyone for that matter, it is very difficult to reacquire that housing.

So, we kept over 515 families housed last year through the Housing Assistance Program.

And, when we do the emergency housing, we partner with organizations that also have the ability to transition them from emergency housing on into permanent housing.

- Wow.

Now, tell me about how one would qualify, for instance, for housing benefits in your program.

- So, all of our programs are based on income and the guidelines we use the federal poverty guidelines.

- [Joe] Okay.

- So, for a family of four on an annual income, that would be about $31,200 or $2,600 a month.

So, you can see how difficult.

That's at 100% of the poverty level.

So, that would tell you how difficult it is for a family to sustain and meet all their basic needs on that level of income.

- So, when we're talkin' about- and I'm jumpin' around- we go back to food distribution.

You know, is there necessarily a qualification other than someone showing up at a place where it would be distributed?

- So, unlike most of our programs with the food, USDA commodities, an individual can actually self-certify.

- [Joe] Gotcha.

- And, that's the beauty of that program.

- [Joe] Right.

- We all know that food is the most basic human need.

So, there isn't a lot of paperwork.

You simply sign that you meet the eligibility criteria and that we are able to provide the food to you.

- I think you said you have three core programs?

- [Patricia] Yes.

- What's the third one?

- Energy, Education and Environmental Services.

- [Joe] Okay.

There we go.

- And, most organizations that's kind of unique because we are licensed by the State of California.

We hire all of our workers to go in and they're trained to perform energy efficient measures in a home.

- [Joe] Really.

- So, the Weatherization Program is focused on helping low-income individuals reduce their energy consumption because we know they spend a disproportionate amount of their income on energy costs.

So, through that program we're doing weatherization services.

We go out, we do a energy audit with our trained staff and determine what measures can be installed in the home, and go in and-- It's really health and safety for the families, as well.

- So, you get a significant amount of funding from the government?

- [Patricia] Yes, we do.

- Well now, what about other sources?

- So, about 75% of our budget is federal funding.

Another 13% is through local, whether that's where we apply for grants with the county or with the various cities.

And then, the remainder of that, the 13%, is what we're able to generate in terms of donations.

- How big is your staff?

- We're at 137 staff.

- [Joe] And, what-?

And, how do they split up in terms of the functions that they do?

- The largest percentage of our staff are entry level or just above entry level.

With the weatherization, or the Energy, Education, Environmental Services being our largest program, of course, that is the largest number of employees that we have.

About 60% are housed in the EEES Program.

- [Joe] Right.

- And then, the rest were sprinkled through our Food Bank, and our Family Development program.

- Okay.

Wow.

Okay.

Great.

Yeah, that's-?

You know, that's a key question that I don't always ask.

- Uh huh?

- I see if someone wants to advance it- - [Patricia] Yes.

- And, volunteer it.

Right?

But, you know, for somebody that's comin' and givin', they're gonna want to know, "Okay.

Effectively, how efficient are you?"

Right?

- [Patricia] Yes.

- You know what I mean?

And so, thank you for volunteering that number!

Now people can know.

Nothing to hide and, you know?

So...no, that's fantastic.

And, you know, you guys have got a big ship over there.

So you really have to be, you know, efficient.

I think everyone does, but it's all the more important because there's so much at stake there.

- Absolutely.

And, I-- What we're always trying to do is to see how we can innovate our services.

- [Joe] Right.

- So, look for new ways to serve the community.

- [Joe] Right.

- You know, we're still dealing with the impact of COVID.

So, last year we added mobile services to our programs.

- Sure.

- So, we have a mobile shower, laundry services on there and you can have the washer and the dryer.

And then, we have a laundry mobile unit.

- [Joe] Right.

- Eight washers and eight dryers.

Our thought was that we can go out to various homeless encampments and be able to provide individuals with the opportunity to take a shower, get cleaned up, connect them to services, and ultimately, be able to get them housed.

- So, we have the benefit of your experience because you've been involved for so long.

Tell me about over the years, what seems to be tried-and-true?

What hasn't changed so much?

In terms of, you know, people's fundamental and core needs or how people respond or what they respond to, and what seems to have changed quite a bit?

"This used to be this way, but this is really different now."

Anything come to mind?

- Well, what I find is that when we do-- We have to do a biannual needs assessment.

- [Joe] Okay.

- And, that kind of dictates what are the needs in the community?

What are our programs?

Were there gaps in services?

And, what I found over all those years, the needs haven't really changed.

- Mm hm.

- The problems have increased in terms of our homeless problem.

That has been an eye-opener, to really see the level of homelessness that we are experiencing in our county, in our cities.

So, for me, that's one of the areas that I'm hopeful that we can have a greater impact on, is truly addressing the needs of the homeless and getting the unhoused housed.

- What's the best way people in the community can get a window on what, on what CAP is doing?

- Oh, our website.

- [Joe] Right.

- Our website.

We have all of our services and even if you want to apply for services, there are links to the application for all of our services, whether it's in our Food Bank or whether it's in our EEES Program, or Family Development Program.

- What are the things that you would say from a wish list standpoint, things that you would like to see you'd be able to do more of?

"Here's what's happening tomorrow.

"You know, as we look around the corner "and here's a need that we really have to meet that we'd like to meet on another level."

I'm sure you must have some thoughts on that.

- Yes.

As an organization that is focused on eliminating poverty, a lot of our programs are not geared towards employment.

I would like to see a greater emphasis on employment.

- [Joe] Sure.

- Removing barriers to employment.

Most of our programs operate with an educational component.

So, I like that.

It's just not a handout program.

We're actually teaching individuals, for example, with the Energy, Education, Environmental Services, how do you make sure you're not gonna get another $1,000 utility bill?

So, we bring them in; we educate them.

- [Joe] Sure.

- So, more emphasis on training.

One of the areas as a part of our strategic plan that we are focused on is financial empowerment.

We want to be able to have financial literacy throughout our Family Development Program.

Anytime we touch a client, we wanna be able to-- be able to educate them on how to spend their resources.

- Do you ever feel like the Inland Empire gets left out a little bit because we're not LA and we're not San Francisco?

- Oh, absolutely.

- Do you find that in terms of, you know, I'm trying to get, you know, X or Y or Z happening.

And it's like, no, we're not LA.

Larger land area than LA and some of that type of-- Talk about that a little bit because I'm sure you must sometimes feel like you're swimming upstream just a little bit.

- Absolutely.

As a nonprofit, it's been proven.

Studies have shown that we do not receive the same level of funding, particularly in the Inland Empire.

- [Joe] Right.

- The amount of private sector funding coming into San Bernardino County is even lower than what's coming to Riverside, per capita.

So, it is very difficult because it seems like the only worthy news is what's happening in Los Angeles and not what's happening in the Inland Empire.

So, there has been, through the Community Foundation, a focus on really calling attention to what the nonprofits are doing and working with our funders to be able to direct more funding into the Inland Empire.

- I imagine you must feel the "squeeze" of, for lack of a better term, of the idea that just everything is more expensive for all of us, whether we can afford it or not.

- [Patricia] Yes.

- And so, now you've got a group of people that have to eat, you know, have to be housed, et cetera.

But, there's this larger level.

It's a larger mountain to climb.

And, that must be quite a pull on resources in terms of you understanding, like, you know, if we were able to house X number of people last year, it cost this amount.

But, as a practical matter for us to do the same thing, it will probably cost more.

- [Patricia] Absolutely.

- And, what we do-?

I mean, talk about that because that must be amazing because everything is more expensive.

- Everything is.

Costs more.

You know, we have to be competitive as a nonprofit.

So, if we wanna retain, you know, the best staff, we wanna be able to pay them a livable wage.

I mean, just starting with that and the work that they do each and every day.

So, being able to keep up with our competitors, it's really important that the funding that comes in addresses not only the services aspect, but also, as I mentioned, the infrastructure for an organization.

Typically most of the contracts will cover a direct service.

With us being federally funded, there's a formula that takes into consideration the unemployment rate, the poverty population.

And so, it's kind of unique as a Community Action Agency.

Sometimes when the needs are greater because the unemployment rate has increased, we'll actually get additional funding.

But, most times that funding does not allow us to do things outside of direct services.

- It must be amazing that you are part of an organization- the head of an organization, no less- those missions seems to sell itself.

- Well, that is the beauty of it.

And, people say-- You know, in this day and time to be on a job for five decades, it's like- - Right.

- Why?

- That's amazing.

- Why?

Well?

It didn't take me long to figure out, you know, you can check off different parts of your life.

- [Joe] Right.

- And, the ability for me to say that I can help people, change lives and be in a career that I love to do, it was a no-brainer for me!

In fact, you know, when you get-- I guess when you get community action in your blood, it's hard to get it out of it.

- Right.

- Because on any given day, you know, even as the CEO of the organization, I sometimes don't necessarily get to see every client that walks through the door.

But, when I go out to our community events, when we're doing community engagement, I see the faces on the clients that we're serving, the appreciation for the work that we're doing and just the impact of what we're having in the community.

- [Joe] Yeah.

- And, I know that we can always do more.

- [Joe] Yeah.

- And so, I just love the fact that we're an organization that is all about helping people and changing lives.

So, I feel very blessed.

- [Joe] Yeah.

Yeah.

- To be a part of an organization where I can have a career.

- [Joe] Yeah.

- And then, be able to do something wonderful for the community.

- [Joe] Right.

- So-.

- Let's look in the crystal ball.

And, my dad used to always tell me when, and I've said this on the show before.

So for the people that watch the show a lot, you probably know what I'm gettin' ready to say!

When I would ask him if I could do something and he would say no, and I would want to hem-and-haw about it.

At some point he brought me to a point and he would say, "Joe Junior, you're lookin' to the corner and I'm lookin' around it."

So, when you look around the corner in terms of needs and how they won't get any smaller- - Mm hm?

- and the challenges that you have, as well as the hopes and the wishes that you have for your organization, tell us kind of what you see (pauses) CAP San Bernardino County doing in the future as it seeks to meet these challenges that are very real and that aren't gonna get any easier.

- Well, being an organization that's been around for nearly 60 years, while the overarching goal was to eliminate poverty, I believe that poverty will always be with us.

The key is to how to become more efficient, more effective in addressing the needs.

And, I believe that's a result of us building partnerships and collaborations.

And not duplicating services, but being able to build on what other organizations are doing.

[light upbeat music] ♪ - My name is Mathew Talley.

I am a clubhouse specialist and peer advocate at Pacific Clinics Clubhouse Wellness Program.

What we do is we collaborate between staff and clients, our peers, our clubhouse members to provide mental health services and a peer-to-peer support program.

So, peers helping peers and staff members supporting those peers through self-advocacy and helping to reintegrate back into the community.

It's really important for us to connect with Community Action Partnership because what it does is helps our clients, our members, get back and give back to the community.

When we share, when we give to others, it helps take the focus off ourself or maybe our mental health challenges.

The most rewarding part of my job is seeing the day-to-day impact of resilience and wellness within our clients and the impact that we give between Pacific Clinics, our clientele, and the community that we help.

When we see the faces, when we give the food bags, when we get the thanks, not that we need that reward, but it's just when we're giving and that impact, that human-to-human interaction is the most rewarding for me and our staff.

- My name is Mauricio Cruz.

I work as a team supervisor for Pacific Clinics.

We provide mental health services in California.

We've been doing food distributions probably more than 10 years.

We are working in collaboration with them.

It's a very special day for our clubhouses.

We provide mental health services that we have our clients helping to get, put all together, all the food and the bags that we give to the community.

So, we-- right now, we have distributions in Needles.

We have distributions in Yucca Valley and we have distributions in the Lucerne Valley.

Which, it mean that, you know, we prepare all the boxes, we put all the food together.

And then, we have a special day for the community so they can come to pick up the food from us.

And, also, I can tell you, I myself, I work in person right there in the-- I can see the community.

I can see the needs of the community.

I can see people waiting maybe for three or four hours under the sun just to get a box of food because that's how much we're needed.

[light upbeat music] ♪ - So, tell me about-?

You serve a lot of people.

- We do.

- So, give us the framework on how the organization is.

Does it have umbrellas and branches, and things like that?

Give us a sense of the tree that forms CAP of San Bernardino County.

- Okay.

So, we have a Governing Board of Directors.

And, the unique concept of our board of directors, it is a tripartite board, which means that it's divisible by three.

And so, we bring together sectors from the public, from the private, and from the low-income.

They don't have to be low-income themself, but they must have the pulse on what's happening in the low-income community.

- [Joe] Sure.

- At the public level, we bring together individuals that are holding an office; they're elected officials.

They either serve on the board or have representatives, themself, representatives serve them on our board of directors.

So, we believe that that's a powerful governing body because you're bringing together those that know the needs of the low-income community, those that the private sector can get the job done and our elected officials who are the policymakers.

So, you'll only see that in the Community Action Agency where you would have those three sectors coming together to form the direction, the policy of the organization.

- So, tell us-- Give us some homework!

And, the homework is, how do we get more information?

How do we find out, look through the window, what's happening at CAP San Bernardino County?

And, how do we connect with you, maybe even personally through the office and that kind of thing?

- So, you can contact us by our website, which is CAP, C-A-P-S-B-C.org We have all of our social media handles or you can come to our offices.

We're open Monday through Friday, 8:00 to 5:00 PM - Wow.

Fantastic.

- We take walk-in clients.

- Really?

- Yes.

- So, people can just walk in without having scheduled anything ahead of time?

- That is correct.

We do ask that they- Depending on the services you're applying for, obviously if you're in need of emergency assistance, walk in, we'll do an assessment and figure out what services can we provide.

But, you're in for utility assistance, but there are documents that you need to bring.

- [Joe] Okay.

- So, we'd like for you to only make one trip.

So, we try and post out that information on our website.

- [Joe] Right.

- But, you can walk in and we'll-- we will help you as best we can to get all the required documentation.

- Fantastic.

So, Patricia Nickols-Butler from CAPSBC?

San Bernardino County, I think, will never be the same after this.

Thank you for what you do and please continue.

- Thank you for having me.

It's been my honor.

- And, we want to thank you for watching us on "Inland Edition."

Know that you can check out seasons one and two on YouTube.

In the meantime, continue joining us while we highlight the life-changing work being done here by local nonprofits in the Inland Empire.

Until then, we will keep doing this one conversation at a time and we hope you join us.

Thanks.

[uplifting music and vocals] ♪ ♪ ♪ [music fades]