About

One mission, done well.

Restored Futures moves justice-involved adults in Santa Clara County into credentialed trades — with stipends, housing, and a navigator — and stays with them through their first year on the job.

Why we exist

We own the space between release and a career.

Santa Clara County has strong training providers, a functioning reentry department, and employers who need skilled workers badly enough to look past a record.

What it lacks is the connective work: someone who meets a person where they are on the week of release, helps them pick a realistic pathway, assists with getting the ID, the transportation, and the funding sorted, and then stays on the phone through the first months of employment.

Restored Futures makes that connective work someone's full-time job — with a stipend and, as space allows, a bed while you train — so people move through training and into a career instead of cycling through intake and back into custody.

Mission. To restore economic opportunity for justice-involved adults through skilled trades training, credentialing, and sustained reentry navigation.

Vision. A Santa Clara County where coming home from incarceration means starting a career, not starting over.

How we work

Four commitments.

01 Credentials, not workshops. Every pathway ends in a license or certification an employer recognizes without explanation.
02 Partnership first. When a partner already does something well, we connect people to it and build the navigation and support around it.

03 A full year of follow-through. Retention is the outcome we report — we stay in contact with every participant through their first year on the job.
04 Straight answers early. We tell every participant exactly what their record affects at the very start, so every week they invest counts.

Board & Leadership

The people accountable for the work.

Restored Futures is governed by a Board of Directors and led day to day by its two co-founders. Together they bring the justice system, public health, human resources, and lived reentry experience to the same table.

Chairman of the Board

Victor Garcia

Victor Garcia is the Chairman of the Board of Restored Futures. He brings 28 years of service as a Deputy, along with a career's worth of leadership across case management, security consulting, and emergency preparedness, where he served as Manager of Security and Emergency Preparedness. A former Student Pastor, he holds a B.A. in Administration of Justice and an A.A. with a concentration in Psychology — a combination that reflects how he approaches this work: with an understanding of both the justice system and the people moving through it.

Ask Victor about his greatest achievement, though, and it isn't a title. It's being a husband, a dad, and "Papa." He is happily married to a wonderful woman, and together they have four children, two grandchildren, and a German Shepherd named Mia. When he's not at the grill perfecting his BBQ, you'll find him on the sidelines coaching high school basketball.

Victor looks forward to putting his knowledge and experience in public service and leadership to work for the people Restored Futures serves.

Secretary, Board of Directors

Deborah Stevens

Deborah Stevens is the Secretary of the Board of Directors for Restored Futures. An accomplished Human Resources and Operations executive, she brings more than 25 years of experience supporting organizations ranging from innovative startups to large global companies. Her career spans the biotechnology, technology, manufacturing, and construction industries, with leadership roles at organizations including 10x Genomics, Genentech, Broadcom, and R2 Building.

Currently working as a Human Resources and Corporate Administration consultant, Deborah brings deep expertise in organizational development, employee relations, talent management, and strategic business operations. She is known for building strong teams, developing practical, people-focused solutions, and helping organizations successfully navigate growth and change. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Management from the University of Phoenix, Human Resources certifications from California State University, East Bay, and the Professional in Human Resources (PHR) certification.

Deborah is passionate about helping individuals and families create brighter futures, and she is honored to contribute her professional experience, leadership skills, and commitment to service in support of the organization's mission and impact within the community.

Reba Meigs, Treasurer of the Board of Directors for Restored Futures

Treasurer, Board of Directors

Reba Meigs, MPA

Reba Meigs is the Treasurer of the Board of Directors for Restored Futures. She brings more than 25 years of public health experience spanning state and county government, academia, and the nonprofit sector, with deep expertise in federal and state funding models, evaluation frameworks, and strategic planning. She has designed, implemented, and evaluated large-scale community-based programs and provided evidence-based guidance on health policy, legislation, and systems-change initiatives across California.

Her career includes roles with the California Department of Public Health, the Public Health Institute, the Santa Clara and Marin County public health departments, and the UC San Diego Center for Community Health, where her work ranged from training local health departments to leading youth empowerment and community wellness initiatives. She has presented at national and state conferences including the American Public Health Association, and her evidence-based programs have been published in journals including the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior and the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health.

Reba earned her B.A. in Psychology and Master of Public Administration from San Diego State University. Away from work, she enjoys hiking, reading, cooking, gardening, yoga, and time with her family.

Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder

Emeka Ibeabuchi

Emeka Ibeabuchi is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Restored Futures. Born and raised in San Jose, CA, Emeka is a Santa Clara County native, reentry advocate, program leader, and social entrepreneur, who brings more than four years of experience supporting justice-involved adults in Santa Clara County, including service as Program Director for Mission Possible Reentry Center, one of the county's highly recognized faith-based reentry centers. His work is grounded in a straightforward belief: employment, stable housing, and genuine support are what every person needs to rebuild a life — and none of it should be out of reach because of a record.

Emeka co-founded Restored Futures in January 2026 to fill a gap he had witnessed firsthand: returning residents with the drive to succeed, but without access to the structured, career-focused training that leads to real wages and long-term stability. Through a trusted network of community partners established across Santa Clara County offering vocational pathways including but not limited to commercial driving, HVAC, and information technology, backed by up to twelve months of stipend support, transitional housing, case management and wrap-around services for participants who need it, Restored Futures is building a model that meets people where they are and walks with them toward self-sufficiency. In building that model, Emeka works directly with county agencies, workforce boards, and managed care providers to open doors for the people Restored Futures serves. He holds a B.A. in Social Justice and Human Rights from Arizona State University and an A.A. in Social and Behavioral Science from De Anza College.

Before his career in reentry services, Emeka spent five years coaching competitive youth soccer in San Jose and more than a decade as a certified referee — years that instilled the values he brings to every program he builds: high expectations, consistent presence, and an unshakeable belief in what people can achieve with the right guidance, resources, and encouragement.

Chief Operating Officer / Executive Director & Co-Founder

Richard Edelman

Richard Edelman is the Chief Operating Officer/Executive Director and Co-Founder of Restored Futures. He knows the reentry journey from the inside out, and his own lived experience navigating the barriers that follow incarceration didn't just shape his perspective; it became the foundation of his life's work and his drive to co-found Restored Futures in 2026.

A Bay Area native who grew up in the East Bay and now calls Santa Clara County home, Richard co-founded Restored Futures to build the kind of coordinated, dignified support he once needed himself. Under his leadership, Restored Futures connects returning residents with reentry case management, workforce development, and transitional housing through a trusted network of community partners across Santa Clara County — and he brings a hands-on approach to systems-level change, working directly with county agencies, workforce boards, and managed care providers to open doors that have historically been closed to people with records.

For Richard, this work is personal, purposeful, and urgent. He believes second chances aren't given — they're built, one resource and one relationship at a time.

Organizational details

Where we stand.

We publish our status plainly. Ask us for anything not listed here.

Established: January 2026
Programs: CDL · HVAC · IT & more
Tax status: 501(c)(3) tax-exempt
Service area: Santa Clara County

Questions we haven't answered here?

Ask directly. We'd rather have the conversation than write another page.