History of Crossroads

Crossroads Diversified Services, Inc., is a private, non-profit corporation founded in 1977.  It is governed by a Board of Directors and administered by a Chief Executive Officer.

In December of 1977, Crossroads was incorporated under the name Community Interaction Program (CIP) to provide services to persons with severe and persistent mental illness.  CIP was one of the largest mental health providers in Sacramento County, providing residential, vocational, education, information and referral, and social rehabilitation services to more than 500 persons annually.  The first Executive Director was Gail Lesh.

In 1980, the County Mental Health Director felt CIP's budget was too big ($1 million) for a single provider and asked CIP to "spin off" its residential services into a separate nonprofit organization.  CIP did that and a new organization, called Transitional Living and Community Support (TLCS), was formed.

CIP bid and won its first contract with the federal General Services Administration to provide custodial and grounds maintenance service at the 801 I Street Post Office.  This contract provided competitive employment at prevailing wages and benefits to clients of the agency.  We retain that contract today.

In 1983, Steve Ekstrom was appointed as Executive Director.

In 1984, after surveying the community, the Board of Directors realized the name CIP simply was not descriptive of the services provided, and the community at large did not know what services CIP provided.  The Board then changed our name to Crossroads, A Mental Health Rehabilitation Agency, Inc. (Crossroads).

In 1985, in response to the growing advocacy movement of consumers of public mental health services, Crossroads developed the first Consumer Self-Help Center.  Crossroads hired and trained its staff, developed a Board of Directors, Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws so that a new organization, directed, managed and staffed exclusively by recipients of mental health services and their families, could be formed.  Several years later, the Consumer Self-Help Center became a separate, private non-profit organization.  In 1993, the Center opened its second facility in Sacramento

In 1986, Crossroads bid and won its second federal custodial/grounds maintenance contract with General Services Administration for the John Moss Federal Building at 650 Capitol Mall.  We still have that contract today.

In 1987, after one year of intense study of outcomes in our employment services, the agency decided to close all its mobile crew businesses (painting, delivery, janitorial, recycling) and implement a vocational rehabilitation model called "Supported Employment."  It proved to be a very successful change.  Within its first year of operation, 105 persons were placed into competitive employment in the community (v. 15 per year with the work crew model). Because of this success, Crossroads has gained a national and international reputation and has been called on numerous times to provide training and consultation to organizations interested in implementing this model.

By this time, post Proposition 13 budget cuts had left Crossroads with its employment program and only one social rehabilitation center (the "Skill Development Center").

In 1990, Crossroads applied for and earned accreditation from the Rehabilitation Accreditation Commission (CARF), an international standards setting and accrediting organization.  We remain accredited to this day.

In 1990, Crossroads bid and won its third federal contract for grounds keeping services at the Department of Interior's 2800 Cottage Way facility.  In 1991, Crossroads bid and won its fourth federal contract for custodial services at the Cottage Way facility and retains that contract today.

In 1991 David DeLeonardis was appointed as Chief Executive Officer.

In 1992, Crossroads lost a major portion of its County Mental Health funding ($765,000 of an $885,000 contract).  Sacramento County suffered severe budget problems and cut $10 million from Mental Health funding.  Crossroads was successful in securing replacement funding for its employment services from the State Department of Rehabilitation.  However, the "Skill Development Center" funding could not be replaced, and the organization closed this program after fourteen years of operation.

In 1992, the Board approved amendments to our Articles of Incorporation and a second name change to Crossroads Rehabilitation Systems, Inc., to allow us to serve a wider range of persons with disabilities, displaced workers and the socially/economically disadvantaged.

In 1996, the Board of Directors approved a new Strategic Plan with three long-range goals:  (1) create a quality organization, (2) expand and diversify our core service units and, (3) initiate new business development to create more jobs for persons we serve.  Since then, the organization has successfully embarked on initiatives to expand and upgrade the skills of the Board of Directors, improve management capabilities, improve our use of technology (e.g., upgrading computers, networking and Internet access), create a total quality management organization, create new businesses in which we could employ the persons we serve and conduct marketing and public relations activities to increase out visibility in the metropolitan area.

In 1997, Crossroads hired its first Director of Marketing who began marketing "Crossroads Building Services" (a division of Crossroads) to the private sector.

In 1998, Crossroads won its first private sector contracts with the California State Grange, the newly opened Ronald McDonald’s House and the Capital Christian Center. Capital Christian Center was the first contract for Crossroads that required servicing on a 24-hour, seven day a week basis, and it represented our largest private sector contract.  Crossroads created eighteen (18) new jobs for our clients with these new contracts.

Crossroads bid and won a contract with the Sacramento County Department of Human Services to provide employment services to welfare recipients.  The contract began in September 1998, and it represented the first time Crossroads actively served a non-disabled population.

Crossroads bid and won a fourth contract with federal General Services Administration to maintain the new federal courthouse at 501 I Street.  The new building became the largest single site maintained by Crossroads.

In 1999 and continuing today, Crossroads acquired additional janitorial and grounds keeping contracts in the private sector, and also acquired two such contracts with the State of California.  Our new contracts with the State were significant in that it represented our first successful entry into "set-aside" contracting with the State.

It was in 1999 that the number of employees in Crossroads exceeded one hundred (135 as of December).

In 2000, Crossroads again changed its name to Crossroads Diversified Services, Inc., to capture the beginning diversity of services provided by the Corporation (vocational rehabilitation, job placement, janitorial, grounds keeping, training and consulting), and to create an identify more acceptable to the private sector so that we could create additional businesses and thus produce jobs for the clients we serve.  As a part of this new identify, our logo and business systems were changed and we began actively marketing and advertising to the private sector, both through the media and participation in the Sacramento Chamber of Commerce and the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) and numerous other trade associations

In 2000, Crossroads "spun out" a portion of its building services division and created a new, unrelated non-profit corporation named Crossroads Building Services, Inc.  The new corporation specialized in providing facility support services to the federal government.  Our General Services Administration contract was brought under this new corporation, as will future federal government contracts.  A management agreement was signed with Crossroads Diversified Services, Inc., to manage the operations of this new corporation.  A six member Board of Directors was formed which included four members of Crossroads Diversified's Board, its Chief Executive Officer and its Chief Financial Officer.  An agreement was also signed with Crossroads Diversified Services, Inc., to provide job placement services to employees of Crossroads Building Services, Inc.

In 2000, Crossroads purchased the assets and goodwill of FullCourt Wood Floor Refinishing, a business specializing in refinishing athletic courts.  Within its first two months of operation, FullCourt secured fourteen contracts and provided five new jobs for the clients we serve.

In 2000, Crossroads co-located at the new "Career One-Stop Employment Center" in Citrus Heights to serve persons under the new federal Workforce Investment Act.  Crossroads successfully bid and won two new contracts with the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency (SETA), the local Workforce Investment Board, to provide services to adults and at-risk youth.

In 2001, Crossroads purchased the landscaping assets of PRIDE Industries.  In this sale came the contract portfolio of PRIDE, a portfolio comprised of 12 contracts with a number of “big name” customers, e.g., Sacrament Bee, City of Roseville, Del Webb Sun City Lincoln,  Mission Oaks Parks District and others.  This acquisition catapulted Crossroads into the ranks of the top 25 landscape contractors in the metropolitan area.

In 2003, Crossroads was recognized in the Sacramento Business Journal’s  “Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies” and “Top 25 Landscape Contractors” lists.  Again, Crossroads was awarded a three-year accreditation by the Rehabilitation Accreditation Commission (CARF), the Commission’s highest award.

In 2004, Crossroads was again recognized in the Sacramento Business Journal’s  “Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies” and “Top 25 Landscape Contractors.”

In November 2004, Crossroads competitively bid and was awarded the custodial contract for the Social Security Administration’s Regional Headquarters in Richmond, California.  This contract provides employment to thirty-six (36) individuals, thirty (30) of whom are persons with disabilities.

In 2005, Crossroads was once again among the Business Journal’s Top 25 Landscape Contractors.

In 2006,Crossroads was awarded a three-year accreditation by the Rehabilitation Accreditation Commission (CARF), the highest award given by CARF and the sixth consecutive three-year award awarded us.

Crossroads was again named to the Top 25 Landscape Contractor’s List by the Sacramento Business Journal.

In 2007, Crossroads signed its first ever ten-year contract with the Social Security Administration (SSA) to provide janitorial and related services to SSA’s regional headquarters in Richmond, California.

Crossroads was awarded a three-year contract by the Social Security Administration (SSA) to provide benefits counseling to Supplemental Security Income/Social Security Disability Insurance (SSI/SSDI) recipients in sixteen (16) Northern California counties.  At the same time, the California Employment Development Department (EDD) was also awarded a similar contract by SSA for two (2) Northern California counties, which EDD then subcontracted with Crossroads to fulfill the contract.  Crossroads was now providing services in eighteen (18) counties.

Crossroads opened a new office in El Dorado County and was awarded a Department of Rehabilitation/Department of Mental Health Cooperative contract to provide employment services to the disabled clients of the county’s mental health agency.

In 2008, Crossroads became the sole operator of the Career Center in Citrus Heights California, marking a successful transition from a “supported employment” provider to a true “workforce development” organization.

The Board of Directors approved the formation of Crossroads Facility Services, Inc.,  (CFS) as a for-profit subsidiary of Crossroads Diversified Services, Inc.  The mission of CFS is to provide financial support for the services provided by our Employment Services division.

Crossroads entered into its first ever partnership with a commercial recycling company, Recycling Industries, Inc., to provide recycling services to the California Office of State Publishing.

Crossroads was again named to the Top 25 Landscape Contractors and the 100 Fastest Growing Companies lists by the Sacramento Business Journal.

Crossroads moved both its Administrative and Employment Services offices to a new site at 9300 Tech Center Drive, Sacramento, California.

In 2009, the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) awarded Crossroads its seventh consecutive 3-year accreditation award.  In its report, CARF commended the organization for its “visionary leadership,” strong financial performance, effective services, and national and statewide advocacy on behalf persons with disabilities.

Crossroads began landscape services for the City of Lincoln, California (earning recognition by the city as a “vendor of choice”) and for the Westfield Group’s Galleria shopping mall in Roseville, California, and renewed option-year facility services contracts with federal General Services Administration, the Social Security Administration and Del Web Sun City in Lincoln, California.

Crossroads provided summer jobs and began year-round employment services for youth aged 14-24 years old under new contracts with the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency and the Golden Sierra Job Training Agency, using funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA “stimulus” funds).

Despite the serious national and local economic downturn, the Sacramento Business Journal again named Crossroads to its Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies and Top 25 Landscape Contractor’s lists.