Quick Take
Community Bridges CEO Ray Cancino reaffirms the agency’s commitment to supporting both its employees and the communities it serves and laments that workers who published a Lookout op-ed earlier this week feel unheard. The nonprofit, one of the largest in Santa Cruz County and unionized under SEIU, has a long-standing focus on wage equity, employee well-being and transparent decision-making, he writes. Cancino emphasizes that when difficult reductions become necessary — a challenge facing nonprofits across the region — the organization always begins where the impact on the community is smallest. He rejects all claims of employee retaliation or unfair treatment, and says Community Bridges remains dedicated to open dialogue, fair labor practices and maintaining trust built over nearly 50 years of community service.
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At Community Bridges, we believe that valued, respected and supported employees create stronger programs, more impactful services and better outcomes for local families, children and seniors. Our mission begins with the people who make it possible.
We treat our employees with respect, advocate for their rights, and invest in their well-being — because when our coworkers thrive, our community thrives.
That’s why it pains us to hear that some employees feel their concerns have not been fully heard. We never take those sentiments lightly. We are committed to continuous improvement, open dialogue and ensuring that every member of our team feels valued and empowered to succeed.
For nearly 50 years, Community Bridges has served Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties with one unwavering purpose: to support families, older adults and vulnerable community members with dignity, compassion and care. From delivering meals to homebound seniors during the pandemic to helping families rebuild after wildfires, we have stood beside this community in its most difficult moments, helping more than 22,000 people each year access essential services that build stability, opportunity and hope.
This legacy of service rests on the dedication of more than 200 employees and volunteers. Our community has always thrived on neighbors helping neighbors, and we are proud to be part of that tradition.
As one of the largest nonprofit employers in Santa Cruz County — one of the few that is unionized through Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — Community Bridges has long championed equity and fairness in employment. We are proud to have adopted a wage equity ratio that ensures no employee earns more than five times what the lowest-paid team member earns, with a current $20 per hour minimum wage. This policy reflects our conviction that every role contributes to our shared mission and deserves dignity and respect.
In that same spirit of equity and respect, we have proposed to raise the minimum wage for all of our employees to $22 per hour this year, with continued increases in both salary and benefits planned in the coming years — including an 8% baseline wage increase over two years, annual step increases of 3%, and additional raises for longer-serving employees. This effort moves us well ahead of California’s mandated minimum wage schedule and reflects our belief that those who serve our community deserve a fair, dignified wage that matches their dedication and the high cost of living in our region.
Leading with compassion and responsibility
Like many nonprofits, we face the ongoing challenge of balancing limited resources with the growing needs of the communities we serve. When difficult operational or budgetary decisions must be made, we approach them thoughtfully, transparently and with compassion.
All staffing changes are legally compliant, based on documented programmatic needs and fiscal realities, and always carried out in full compliance with our collective bargaining agreement. Most importantly, we prioritize community impact and client needs above all else. That means preserving classroom sizes and child care slots instead of management support. It means safeguarding front-line service positions. It means protecting access to meals, care navigation, early childhood support and crisis assistance when funding demands us to.
When difficult reductions must be made — and every nonprofit in this region is facing unprecedented financial strain — we begin where the impact on services is smallest.
This is not anti-worker. This is pro-community.
Over the past several years, we have taken intentional steps to strengthen our team, our culture and ensure long-term stability. We’ve streamlined administrative roles to preserve front-line positions, delayed pay increases for our leadership and, along with making investments in our employees’ pay, we have also increased our contribution to employee health care by 50% to maintain comprehensive, affordable coverage even as costs rise.
Our team members are at the heart of Community Bridges — they are educators, caregivers, drivers and advocates who show up every day to meet families where they are and help them build a better tomorrow. They are dedicated — nearly half have been with us for more than five years and more than a third for more than 10 years — and willing and able to take on challenging work to ensure our community can thrive.
We also understand that organizational changes are difficult, our work is hard and that uncertainty can sometimes lead to frustration. We take those feelings seriously. Every voice matters, and we are committed to creating spaces for honest dialogue and collaboration where employees can raise concerns and seek resolution through appropriate channels, both internally and externally, and be heard without fear.
We may not always agree on every decision that must be made, but we share the same goal: to serve our community with compassion, accountability, collaboration and excellence.
Our values, culture and commitment
At the center of every decision we make is a simple truth: Our mission is to protect access, dignity and opportunity for the people who rely on us.
We take that responsibility — to our employees, our clients, and our community — seriously. It is disheartening when misunderstandings overshadow the dedication of those who work tirelessly to strengthen our culture, deliver essential services, gain and maintain our community’s trust and expand our impact.
To date, Community Bridges has no record of substantiated retaliation claims, no active grievances, no unlawful termination claims by both civil litigators or state oversight committees because we have fully investigated and found no cause, harm or substantiation. Allegations of systemic retaliation are both unfounded and inconsistent with these facts and misaligned with our values, policies and proven history of transparency.
Community Bridges is, and always has been, a champion for working families.
Many of our leaders and staff have deep roots in social service, labor, and community advocacy. We value the right of employees to organize, to bargain collectively and to voice their perspectives. These rights are protected and respected within our organization.
At the same time, we remain committed to open dialogue rooted in respect and truth. Genuine concerns should never be misrepresented or used to divide the workplace or distract from the essential services our community depends on during these times of crisis. Our mission is too important — and the needs of our clients too urgent — to be derailed by narratives not grounded in fact or misaligned context.
We will always welcome collaboration and dialogue conducted in good faith and with respect. And we will continue to defend the integrity of our mission, our decisions and our people against any effort to erode the trust we have built with staff, families, partners and donors for nearly half a century.
We will continue to negotiate in good faith, improve our culture, uphold our collective bargaining agreement and make operational decisions that protect client services first — even when those decisions are difficult or unpopular.
We are not interested in escalating rhetoric. We are focused on outcomes: in feeding, educating and caring for our neighbors, protecting workers and families, strengthening the safety net our community depends on and uplifting, supporting and empowering our staff.
Every day, Community Bridges continues to bring dignity, stability and compassion to thousands of people across our region. This work is possible because of the commitment and heart our team brings to the community each day, and we deeply value the dedication they show.
That is where our focus will remain — and that is where our values will continue to guide us.
Raymon Cancino has served as CEO of Community Bridges since 2014, guiding one of Santa Cruz County’s largest nonprofits and expanding its services to more than 22,000 residents annually. His leadership is grounded in over a decade of front-line work in case management, supportive housing, and crisis intervention. A former SEIU 1021 chapter president, Cancino negotiated labor contracts and championed wage and worker protections, shaping his commitment to transparent, collaborative labor relations.