Coming days after yet another mass shooting in the US—this time at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas, where ten people were killed—an exhibition featuring art formed from dismantled firearms opened in Oakland, California on Tuesday (22 May). The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, together with the Robby Poblete Foundation, organised the show and commissioned local artists to transform hundreds…
No words can heal the heart of a parent who has lost a child to gun violence. But for Pati Navalta Poblete, whose 23-year-old son Robby was fatally shot in Vallejo in 2014, writing helped. “I started out writing letters to Robby every day,” she says, “from two weeks after he was killed to one year…
Mother’s Day is celebratory for many women, but not for Pati Navalta. Her 23-year-old son was killed during a robbery attempt four years ago with a gun that had been illegally obtained and resold on the street. “Every milestone — my birthday, his birthday, the anniversary of his death, the holidays — anything that marks…
VALLEJO — The Robby Poblete Foundation has been named Nonprofit of the Year for 14th Assembly District for its work to prevent gun violence. Assemblyman Timothy Grayson, D-Concord, announced his selection Wednesday. “The Robby Poblete Foundation is taking an extraordinary stand against gun violence in the East Bay area by taking unwanted guns off the streets, transforming…
VALLEJO — An untimely death, particularly one derived through senseless and avoidable circumstances like gun violence, can leave behind a sense of loss that can be difficult to manage. There is the weight of the violent act, the void left behind by the victim’s absence and the elimination of the potential that person’s life carries.…
It was a $150,000 phone call Pati Navalta never expected. On the week of the Robby Poblete Foundation’s one-year anniversary, the California Wellness Foundation released the news that the foundation’s request for a grant was approved. “They called me Tuesday, congratulated me and let me know it was approved,” Navalta said. “I can’t believe it.…