Amber Mopress, a community worker at San Jose’s, is funny, sassy and bossy — in the best ways. As a co-worker put it, “Amber is a natural, born leader. If she wants to get up and dance? Everybody wants to get up and dance! That’s just the way it is.”
“I will always be an advocate for those who are formerly incarcerated and for those who suffer from addiction,” says Amber about the special job at AACSA she has loved for 15 months. “Those issues are in my heart and this place is filled with dedicated people helping others, but also giving out plenty of respect and love.”
The second magic moment: One day in August of 2019 — Amber was “sitting in my cell with meth in my bra’’ hearing voices and going crazy. Suddenly, a scrawl of graffiti caught her eye: ‘If you don’t know, you better pick up a bible.’ “In that moment,” says Amber, “my whole life changed.” Amber Mopress, left, works with acting director Lavere Foster to unload food from Second Harvest Silicon Valley at AACSA in San Jose. Once released in 2020, Amber endured halfway house programs, passed numerous drug tests, took community college classes, found lowly jobs and simply survived on her own — legally — for the first time as an adult. Along the way she discovered AACSA, attended Narcotics Anonymous meetings there and got plenty of vital survival help — especially with housing.
“I told her you have everything,” said Taylor, remembering Amber’s polished moxie, even as an inmate. “I recognized her leadership style years ago, so I talked to my executive director and I said, let’s give her a chance. She comes in early every day. She is motivated. She loves on people. She is insistent. So happily, we ended up hiring her August 9, 2021.”Myisha Taylor, left, was a jail-based instructor at Elmwood Jail in Milpitas when she first met Amber Mopress.
A second mural — is an enormous, majestic, black and white presentation of the young, afro-crowned, civil rights queen — Angela Davis. The image carries no words, but is still symphonic.