2024 is a significant year for RDA Consulting. As we plan for the future, we also are reflecting back to our founding forty years ago in 1984 by Robert (Bob) Bennett. Then, as now, Bennett launched Resource Development Associates (as RDA was then known) with the intention of impacting systems and the communities that they serve.

Bob initially accomplished this work by providing grant writing services to government agencies such as Alameda County’s Health Care Services Department (Alameda County Public Health). While RDA’s initial focus was on supporting services for the remediation of alcohol and drug addiction issues, the scope of activities soon widened to include work related to other areas of mental health for both adults and children.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s RDA began focusing on the use of data to help clients to determine how to best structure and deliver their services to the communities that they served. RDA’s client list expanded as well to include Oakland, San Francisco, and other counties and cities throughout California, as well as nonprofits, CBOs and foundations.

Patricia (Pat) Bennett joined RDA in 1998 bringing her passion for juvenile and adult justice reforms to the organization as well as a new focus on applying organizational development methodology to the work of improving the functioning of government agencies. Over the following years RDA continued growing and adding staff, reaching its current level of thirty-plus employees.

I first met Bob and Pat in 1991 when I was a legislative aide to Supervisor Keith Carson. Supervisor Carson was organizing a grassroots response to budget cuts that pitted education against behavioral health, and Bob and Pat were at the table, bringing data and strategies to preserve the public safety net. Our paths crossed again when Bob was CEO of Family Service Agency (now known as the Felton Institute). I was FSA’s board chair, and Patricia was leading RDA. When I stepped down from the FSA board, I had no idea what it would mean for me to join the team at RDA, and that I would spend 14 years partnering with Pat and the RDA team to address one systems change after another, from MHSA through AB 109 and Prop. 47, Whole Person Care and CalAIM.

In 2017, tragedy struck when Bob Bennett was killed in a hit-and-run incident. Pat continued to run RDA, leading the organization’s ongoing growth, the overnight shift to remote work during the COVID crisis, and our subsequent move to the Jack London Square area of Oakland. Ever the strategist, Patricia submitted our successful SBA-backed Paycheck Protection Program – loan application in the middle of the night to insure inclusion in the first round of funding – a hallmark moment in RDA’s approach to planning.

When it came time for Patricia to retire, she worked with us to solidify RDA’s legacy by transforming the corporate structure, shifting from individual ownership to an Employee Owned Trust (EOT), majority women-managed social purpose corporation. It was at this point that Resource Development Associates updated its name to RDA Consulting.

Our fortieth anniversary is both a time to look back on four decades of accomplishments, and a time to look forward to the expansion of our services, as all of us at RDA continue to work to create equity-centered, evidence-driven solutions in collaboration with our clients and partners to implement systems and services for underserved communities. Our current work includes Care First, Jails Last, an Alameda County initiative to end the County’s reliance on incarcerating people with mental illness and substance use needs and create a community-led process to build out community-based mental health care, and a series of Community Health Assessments and Community Health Improvement Plans for counties throughout California, including a new project to assist the Butte County Department of Public Health with the development of their Community Health Improvement Plan.

Please reach out to us to learn more about RDA’s consulting services at letstalk@RDAconsulting.com.

Warm regards,

Amalia

Amalia Egri Freedman
Chief Executive Officer