Jimmy Figueroa’s Story

Jimmy Figueroa was never part of a gang, but “a large portion of my friends were,” he told North County Informador. “I was 16, 17, watching some of my friends go to prison, or someone get shot. That was enough for me to say, I need to make some changes,” he said.

Today, Jimmy is the executive director of Operation HOPE-North County, a homeless shelter for single women and families with children. But the road there was far from smooth.

“I didn’t invest a lot of time toward my K–12 education,” Jimmy said. From 7th to 12th grade, he had all Fs, missed a lot of school, and got into a lot of trouble. “I didn’t see the value in education at that time.”

But then, “After making some changes in my life and having some traumatic events, … I went to the MiraCosta Community Learning Center to get my GED.” He also got his high school diploma, and when he was 20, he enrolled at the main MiraCosta campus.

Despite having to catch up in school, Jimmy said he was driven. “I had a lot of friends in prison. At that time, there wasn’t anyone in my family that had gone to college. … I saw it as one of my very few options in life.”

At MiraCosta, he learned about different concepts such as cultural empowerment that showed him a pathway to “not only help myself, but my family, and my community… especially those that were in prison.”

Jimmy realized, “I knew that I was going to commit my life to helping our underserved communities.”

He began coaching at Lincoln Middle School, became a teacher’s assistant at New Venture Christian Fellowship, and volunteered at Encuentros Leadership, eventually becoming a board member. Then, he went to UC Berkeley, where he ended up studying political science.

“I was extremely homesick,” he said. “I felt extremely out of place.” But, he says, “I grew more from that experience than I would have if a had just stayed in Southern California.”

After Jimmy returned to Oceanside, he became the program supervisor for Project Reach Libby Lake with the Vista Community Clinic.

He ran the afterschool program, where he continued to work when he enrolled in law school. Then, he was appointed to the North County Gang Commission by the Board of Supervisors.

Later, he worked as a consultant with the County of Probation and eventually with VCC, in a pilot program that would turn former gang members who had been incarcerated into mentors.

When Jimmy couldn’t find anyone to run the program, he decided to run it “because it had to work.”

That was how the program Resilience, now in its fifth year, was born. It mentored youth and young adults from Oceanside on juvenile probation with serious or violent offenses.

“We were contracted to reduce recidivism by 5% amongst our group, and the program has reduced recidivism among the kids that have been enrolled in Resilience by 80%.”

He says the mentors are his lifelong friends, “former gang members from Oceanside. Most of them are two strikers. So, they’ve spent a lot of time in prison.”

During Covid, the program expanded to cover all North County.

Last year, Jimmy took on his current position with Operation HOPE.

His formula works. “I have the lived experiences, and I’ve remained very proximate to those in need. I just listen to what the gaps are, and I try to fill those gaps … I listen to the community,” he said.

At Operation HOPE, Jimmy has created a culture of staff empowerment and development following a plunge in morale during the pandemic, when they lost all their volunteers. Most of the staff are first in their family to graduate from college, “is a staff of color or have the lived experience of being formerly homeless.”

He is also working to move the program, which has a 20-year history, into the future. The shelter was just completely remodeled thanks to a donation by North Coast Church. After-care was created, focusing on keeping people away from homelessness in the long term. It includes a food pantry and a boutique.

“One thing that I share with the younger generation is, everyone has their individual process. And not to look at someone else’s journey and compare yours to theirs.”

He believes everyone has a different process because everyone has a purpose. “Keep dreaming, but also make sure that you’re investing in your dreams with effort and time. … It’s never too late,” he said.