By Magaly Muñoz

For 20 years now, at a small center in North Richmond, Men and Women of Valor (MVOV) has been helping to rehabilitate ex-felons, giving them a second chance at life.

Pam Saucer, the founder and CEO of MWOV, has long been a leader in the community, advocating for — and educating — at-risk youth and formerly incarcerated men and women.

The center offers these newly released ex-felons opportunities to get their GED, participate in community service projects, and obtain transitional housing while they get back on their feet.

“We’re giving back to the community and have had a positive impact. We go as far as cleaning up the area because you have to have a clean heart and a clean mind to want to do something productive,” Saucer said.

Take the case of Kiaira Fluker, 35, who had a probation violation in 2019 that caused her to spend 105 days in jail. After that experience, Fluker swore she’d do everything she could to never go back.

Fluker shared that she was referred to MWOV and, soon after, she learned about the rehabilitation program Saucer ran.

Fluker said the program provided her with job opportunities and life skills that have allowed her to stabilize herself and her three kids, who often visit the center as well. Being around the team at the center created a positive atmosphere for Fluker and made her realize that the people she was surrounding herself with in her past was not what she needed in her life anymore.

“I was blessed. If I hadn’t found Ms. Pamela, I would’ve lost everything from my housing and probably custody of my children,” Fluker said.

Although the center has been operating since 2005, Saucer’s work with disadvantaged youth and the formerly incarcerated has gone beyond the Richmond center. Many of the volunteers working there had known her for years before she took on the challenge of running her own organization.

Antayon Alexander, one of MWOV’s volunteers, shared that he has worked with Saucer since the ’90s and that she helped him develop the skills to run a transitional housing unit in Sonoma for two years.

Alexander had served three years in prison on a narcotics charge and has been on parole for over 30 years. He wasn’t proud of where he wound up at such a young age and did the work “day-in-and-day out” to not end up back in prison.

Alexander stressed to the men in the housing that this was their opportunity for a second chance at life and to better themselves, similar to his own experience after meeting Saucer. Alexander could relate to them on a level of understanding that transitioning out of incarceration was never easy work, but it was up to them to maintain clean and healthy paths in order to not recommit their crimes.

“We were all cut from the same cloth,” he said.

Alexander had spent a few years with Richmond Unified School District working with kids in group homes and running a special education school. He wants to work towards starting his own nonprofit, similar to MWOV, to continue giving back to the community in the way he knows best.

To ease the growing costs of gas and in some cases, not being able to obtain a drivers’ license because of prior convictions, MWOV is partnering with the city of Richmond to potentially build an e-bike rack outside of the center to make it more accessible for those in the area to get to doctors, appointments, job interviews, work or school. The program is called “Ride Today” and will feature five access points around Central Richmond with over 70 bikes.

Saucer says the e-bikes will be available at a low-cost or with a free membership for those involved with MWOV.

The center shows no signs of slowing down soon as they take on new projects regularly, including inviting aspiring musicians to use their onsite music studio, partnering with community members to provide vocational truck driving lessons, and hosting a celebrity fundraising competition with well-known Bay Area rapper, E-40, in March.

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