The CEO of the Davis Street Community Center (DSCC) in San Leandro, California, Rose Padilla Johnson is a long-time leader in the community service sector. As the head of San Leandro’s DSCC since 1991, Rose Padilla Johnson oversees a health clinic, childcare services, and even cooking classes at one of the region’s most active community centers.Focused on teaching nutrition as well as cooking skills, Davis Street’s cooking classes show community members how to prepare healthy and culturally relevant meals on a small budget. With a specific focus on preparing nutritious meals with donations received from food pantries, the class welcomes people from all backgrounds and provides translation services for Spanish and Cantonese speakers.In addition to preparing meals, the Davis Street cooking class focuses on bilingual education about obesity risks and ways to avoid obesity for both children and adults. Participants in the cooking classes also receive one-on-one support from a wellness coach who assists with identifying lifestyle changes to improve nutrition and overall health.
Rose Padilla Johnson leads Davis Street, a San Leandro, California-based community outreach organization. During her more than 25 years at the helm, Rose Padilla Johnson grew the San Leandro organization from a $380,000 agency in 1991 to the $10.5 million service entity it is today.To serve the undocumented and marginalized residents of San Leandro, Davis Street takes financial and organizational risks that result in successes for the San Leandro community. For example, Davis Street merged with Stepping Stones Growth Center in 2017, when that organization faced operational challenges. Davis Street saw the value of Stepping Stones’ services to persons with disabilities, and decided to step in and acquire that agency. It programs are still offered today.In another effort to help financially challenged families in the San Leandro area, Davis Street is continuing to being 60 subsidized child-care slots in Marea Alta, where a housing complex is constructed. Even in the absence of a license to operate, Davis Street deemed it necessary to work to offer subsidized child care because of the real need at Marea Alta.
A leader in the community service sector, Rose Padilla Johnson serves as the CEO of the Davis Street Community Center (DSCC) in San Leandro, California. Providing strong leadership to DSCC and the San Leandro community since 1991, Rose Padilla Johnson oversees the Center’s child care program that provides a rich early-learning environment to 1,200 children each month.Even after acquiring kindergarten readiness skills, some students in California still face the challenge of not having enough qualified teachers. Out of 211 California school districts surveyed by the Learning Policy Institute, nearly 75 percent were unable to find enough teachers to fill their classrooms in 2016. Instead, the districts filled the gap by issuing more than 12,000 provisional or limited assignments to teachers during the 2016-2017 school year. To rectify the fully-qualified-teacher shortage, California lawmakers are spending more than $200 million. This includes funds for teaching training and recruitment programs, including $45 million to help temporary teachers become credentialed, $10 million for new undergraduate programs, and $9 million for teacher and administrator recruitment and retention. In addition, the 2018 California state education budget allocated $100 million to fund teacher residencies to increase special-education teaching staff, and $25 million more to fund teacher residencies in science, math, and bilingual education.
