Thank you to everyone who joined us for San Francisco’s most inspirational lunch hour. The Strictly Business Awards Luncheon gathered more than 1,000 business and community leaders to celebrate inspiring individuals who have transformed their lives through JVS and raised more than $1 million to support JVS’s life-transforming services.

2017 Award Winners

We honor the hard work of our job seekers with a coveted Employee of the Year award. These are individuals who have overcome incredible odds to build skills, find work and transform their lives. Watch their videos.

Rosalind

For Rosalind school had always been a challenge and she felt like an outsider. As a child of immigrants, English was not her first language and she struggled with reading and writing, which led to low confidence. She dreamed of being able to contribute to her family and having a career but could not imagine who would give her a job.

At John O’Connel High School, she connected to JVS’s School Partner Program and enrolled in our Culinary and Entrepreneurship Program which combined job readiness training, classroom education and work-based learning. JVS placed Rosalind in internships at multiple Bay Area companies, including Zynga’s culinary department, Catheads BBQ Restaurant, SF Raw and the San Francisco SPCA. With the support and guidance of JVS, Rosalind identified her passion for animals and food and figured out a way to combine the two into a career. Today she works at SF Raw making organic food for cats and dogs and is enrolled in the Culinary Arts program at City College.

John

John had a successful career in financial services and technology, until a horrific accident nearly killed him.  After seven years of recovery, he was medically cleared to go back to work, but his entire industry had changed. John quickly realized that he needed to update his skills and combat the stigma of long-term unemployment and joined JVS’s Salesforce Administrator training. In five months, John re-built himself. He successfully completed the program, became a Salesforce Certified Administrator and gained hands-on experience with a paid fellowship at KQED. Today he works for MDLIVE, a leading telehealth provider (his first full-time job in almost 10 years!)

Luisanna

Luisanna had a difficult childhood – she never knew her father and spent most of her youth dealing with her mentally ill mother. Despite these obstacles, she graduated high school and found a job as an administrative assistant, where she worked for six years. Suddenly she was laid off and lost her hard-earned stability. She searched for work for two years, was left discouraged, hopeless and lost. Luisanna needed relevant skills and a connection to an employer that would give her a chance. JVS’s Medical Administrative Assistant training program in partnership with John Muir Health was her answer. After months of intensive skills training and a paid internship, her dream came true — she was offered a full-time position as a Medical Receptionist at John Muir Health Urgent Care clinic in San Ramon. Luisanna now has a satisfying career where she makes a difference in lives of every clinic patient she helps.

Business Leadership Award Winner

Strictly Business sponsors receive benefits and prominent recognition for their generosity. To learn more about sponsorship opportunities for the 2018 luncheon, get in touch with us.