Center for Positive Change to host summer completion ceremony – relationships and evidence-based programming drive success

August 29, 2019

SOLANO COUNTY – The Probation Department's Center for Positive Change really is changing lives and supporting system impacted families by focusing on evidence-based programs and positive relationships.

Everyone is invited to join the Department next Wednesday, September 4 starting at 4 p.m. for the fifth annual completion ceremony, located at the County Events Center, 601 Texas Street in Fairfield.  The ceremony will recognize 72 high-risk justice involved individuals who have successfully completed the rigorous program, giving them the tools and support necessary to regain control over their lives and reconnect with their loved ones.

This year’s keynote speaker is Kim Carter, a 2015 CNN Hero.  Ms. Carter is the Founder and Ambassador of Time for Change Foundation. Certified in Accounting with an emphasis on not-for-profits, Kim was inspired to leave the corporate world in 2002 to start Time for Change Foundation. Motivated by her own experiences as a formerly incarcerated woman, Kim made it her mission to help women and children make the transition from homelessness and recidivism to self-sufficiency. Today she is a powerful voice for women and families who bear the scars of poverty, homelessness, and incarceration.

Success is attributable to many things, including the support from so many who work in Solano County to ensure the right resources and supports are available when justice involved individuals are ready to make changes.  Michael Pendergast, a 2019 Vallejo CPC graduate, tells it like this, "The CPC offers more services than ever before, and you guys care, from the judges, the staff, the probation officers across the street.  The CPC gives services to get the power back in your life.  Never have people ever pulled so much for us, they go to bat for us."

Mr. Pendergast has returned to school to become a counselor and has found a new mission in his life.  When reflecting on the skills he’s learned at the CPC, Michael says, “I now let other people’s stuff be their stuff.  I don’t let people control me and my emotions. I used to allow people to bother me to the point I would self-destruct.”

“We are so proud of the program graduates who have worked so hard to change their lives for the better,” says Christopher Hansen, Chief Probation Officer for Solano County.  “Michael embodies the change we talk about, the change in the thinking that impacts the behavior.  We focus on cognitive behavioral training at the CPCs because it is the most effective in changing the thinking patterns that lead to anti-social behavior.”

The CPC opened in April 2013 as a result of the implementation of Assembly Bill 109 (AB109), which made fundamental changes to California’s correctional system.  AB109 changed the sentencing and supervision of people convicted of felony offenses and amended a number of statutes concerning definitions of felonies, where sentences are served, and how defendants are supervised.

Designed as a one-stop-shop, the CPC provides comprehensive rehabilitation services designed to reduce recidivism.  The goal of the CPC is to assist and provide services to justice involved individuals returning from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and our County jail facilities, and moderate to high risk offenders who are under the jurisdiction of the Probation Department.

The CPC graduated 37 individuals in 2015, 45 in 2016, and 77 in 2017, and 71 in 2018.

This event is free to the public, but space is limited.  For more information and to RSVP please contact Rose Brieno at (707) 553-5253 or [email protected].