Bright Research Group

Our team had a great time facilitating a collaborative session at The Colorado Health Foundation’s Community Food Systems Grantee Convening! For the past year BRG has partnered with The Colorado Health Foundation on a summative evaluation of its Community Food Systems initiative. The recent grantee convening session included reflection on our key findings from the evaluation and creative collages celebrating coalition successes! Pictured is the BRG team with Carrie Oliver, MPH, CHES, CNP, PMP, Jesus Verduzco, and Alice Hu-Nguyen, and Colorado team members Felisa Gonzales and Amy S. Duggan.

Congratulations to Ella Baker Center for Human Rights on celebrating the Restore Oakland Building’s 5th anniversary! We were thrilled to collaborate with EBC and Partners on the Restore Oakland case study earlier this year, telling the story of the capital campaign from conception to creation. Read the full case study that we authored in partnership with Kristina Bedrossian and Aminah Elster on the EBC website!

We are thrilled to announce that last week we launched a new initiative at BRG called The Guild! The Guild is a collaboration and training space for our network of BRG fellow alum, consultants, and clients to form new connections, learn from and with one another, and work in partnership on social impact projects. Through programming at The Guild, we will continue to strengthen a leadership development pipeline for people with lived experience to contribute at the highest levels of systems change. Last week’s event included a training on fundamental consulting skills designed to support our current cohort of Perez Research Fellows as well as fellowship alumni who have launched their own independent consulting firms and nonprofit organizations.   It was great to reconnect with so many people in our BRG network, including fellow alumni from 7 different BRG fellowships! We’re thankful for the energizing day and looking forward to all that is to come. Keep an eye out for more information on The Guild and opportunities to get involved in the coming months!

BRG is expanding our network of independent consultants! We're looking for experienced researchers, trainers, and facilitators to partner with us on a range of systems change, training, and capacity building projects within our criminal justice and community safety portfolio. This is an opportunity to join BRG’s independent contractor pool.

Folks who serve Alameda County residents - please share this housing equity survey so that folks can have their voices heard!

Here's another opportunity to provide input for OFCY's FY2025-2028 Strategic Investment Plan! Take this brief 3-minute survey to provide important insight and for a chance to win a $25 gift card! Please share widely! ------------------ BRG is facilitating community input to inform the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth's (OFCY) FY2025-2028 Strategic Investment Plan. Share your insights about what has changed for Oakland’s children & youth over the past three years, and what supports are critical to help them thrive.

It's not too late to sign up for the OFCY online community input session happening Tuesday June 4th at 5pm! Sign up below for the Zoom link! BRG is facilitating community input to inform the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth's (OFCY) FY2025-2028 Strategic Investment Plan. Share your insights about what has changed for Oakland’s children & youth over the past three years, and what supports are critical to help them thrive. https://lnkd.in/gr5vX4aM

Check out our new video on BRG Fellowships! Read more below, and follow the link to watch the full video on our website. And for a chance to win tickets to see the Oakland Roots play on June 8th, share this post by clicking repost below! BRG Fellowships are dual capacity building efforts that strengthen career pathways for peer professionals and help government agencies deepen their partnerships with people with lived experience. Through immersive trainings, project facilitation, and intentional relationship building, BRG Fellowships spark culture change in public agencies and create opportunities for peer professionals to move into higher levels of leadership in their social change work. We are grateful to BRG Fellowship Alumni Aminah Elster, Daniela Medina, MSW & Earl Mu'min Simms, and BRG clients April Luckett Fahimi (Alameda County Sheriff’s Office) and Josie Halpern-Finnerty (San Francisco Safety + Justice Challenge / Fwd.US) for sharing their stories on camera with us. A big thank you to Hidden GEM Creative Studios for filming, editing & producing this labor of love! 

Calling all Oakland residents, community-based program directors, and service providers:   BRG is facilitating community input to inform the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth's (OFCY) FY2025-2028 Strategic Investment Plan. There are FIVE opportunities to share your insights about what has changed for Oakland’s children & youth over the past three years, and what supports are critical to help them thrive.   Spread the word! Come to one of our in person sessions, or sign up for an online session! Info in the flyer.

In April the BRG team facilitated a collaborative input process at the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth Grantee Convening, kicking off their needs assessment. 74 grantees were in attendance representing 64 agencies serving Oakland’s children and youth. Included in our facilitation team are BRG Fellowship alumni Aminah Elster, Earl Mu'min Simms and Edward L. Moore, long time BRG partners Kristina Bedrossian and Jesus Verduzco, and our 2024 Perez Research Fellows, Juan Flores, Larissa Benjamin, MPH, Paris Davis, MPA,CNP!    BRG is excited to conduct community & stakeholder research that will inform the development of the OFCY 2025-2028 strategic plan and we are looking forward to facilitating the community input sessions in May and June!