Susana Tinoco Barjas

Susana is a proud mother, high school English teacher, and recent University of California-Davis graduate. The Oakland resident is the first in her family to earn a college degree. As a single mother experiencing financial hardship, she used her direct cash investments from an Oakland Resilient Families Guaranteed Income Pilot to stabilize her home life with her young son and pursue her college degree. Viewing school as “my solace and joy”, Susana now encourages the 9th and 10th graders she teaches to see their own potential and remove limits to their aspirations. Susana’s lived experience receiving Guaranteed Income reinforces that people enduring financial hardship want to work, achieve, and build better futures for themselves—and sometimes all they need is a small boost to help them move from surviving to thriving.