Uncommon Good was founded in 2000 by Executive Director Nancy Mintie. Previously, Mintie founded and directed the Inner City Law Center, a legal and social services center for the homeless and for poor families living in slum housing in Los Angeles.
Her work has garnered national recognition and has been the subject of numerous articles and media stories. Mintie has received many awards including being honored with former President Jimmy Carter on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. She was also recognized by the National Caring Institute and Oprah Winfrey’s Angel Network “Use Your Life Award.”
Uncommon Good’s first programs were loan repayment assistance programs for community clinic doctors and legal aid lawyers, who were graduating with so much school debt that they could not afford to take the lowest paid jobs in their professions, those serving the poor. The legal program continued for a decade. The medical program became today’s Medicine for the Economically Disadvantaged (MED) program which continues to help idealistic young doctors repay their school loans so that they can practice in low-income communities.
The Connect to College program was started in 2004. Its goal was to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty through helping students succeed in school and go to college. From its first days through today, every student who has completed the program has gone on to college. The program has grown to include an incredible array of educational enrichment programming and leadership training for both students and their parents.
When the economy crashed in 2008, poverty became even more dire in this region. Uncommon Good and the families it serves responded by creating an urban farming program to grow organic produce for families who otherwise could not afford enough fruits and vegetables. Called CAUSA, which means “the cause” in Spanish, it stands for Community Alliance for Urban Sustainable Agriculture. Today the program produces about 20 tons of produce each year.
By the end of its first decade, Uncommon Good had outgrown its old office, which consisted of three bedrooms in an abandoned convent on the grounds of Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Claremont. Uncommon Good preceded to build a first-of-its-kind-in-the-world green building by hand, with the help of its students, parents, grandparents and community volunteers, on the grounds of the Claremont United Methodist Church. It partnered with the Tongva Tribe, the ancestral caretakers of the land, to tell the tribes story through the art in the building, which was created and donated by artist Sheila Pinkel.
When COVID struck, Uncommon Good kept its doors open and added new programs, such as a regional food pantry and an emergency fund. It also sponsored an innovative, first-of-its-kind-in-the-US mental health pilot program to bring affordable, effective mental health services to the low-income Spanish speaking population of the region. Called Low Intensity Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, it involves an international team of experts who trained Uncommon Good mothers to provide high quality Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to members of their community.
