Meet Ian Redinbaugh: Workforce Development Supervisor
We’re excited to share that our Truckee River Urban Trees Workforce Development Program is well underway! Our 5-person crew is busy removing invasives and cleaning up the Truckee’s riverbank – while providing much-needed career training opportunities for at-risk marginalized local residents. Leading the effort is Ian Redinbaugh, our Workforce Development Supervisor.
Once unhoused and struggling with addiction himself, today Ian dedicates his work to helping people better their lives, connect with social services, and explore career opportunities, all while improving the Truckee River east of Downtown Reno, from Lake Street to Galetti Way. When Redinbaugh talks about the Workforce Development Program, he always emphasizes,“It’s a win for everyone. The workforce crew gets jobs and career training and the community benefits from having sober, employable people, more trees, and a more beautiful river.”
Here’s what’s motivating Ian today, and what he’s accomplished so far:
Getting to Know Ian
Ian’s family moved from Ohio to Northern Nevada when he was in first grade. He’s lived in Nevada most of his life. Growing up, he enjoyed a childhood filled with Little League baseball games, National Park road trips, and the vacations to Disney Land. Redinbaugh studied biology at University of Nevada, Reno, but left college to follow the Grateful Dead. He then moved to Hawaii, where he worked in restaurant management and music promotion. Along his journey, he ran into trouble with alcohol and today considers himself a “retired drinker.” Not an alcoholic, he explains, because “alcoholics just drink and drink and drink. They can’t stop. I retired. I stopped, and that was three years ago.”
Three years ago, Redinbaugh went to the hospital because he “just wasn’t feeling 100%,” not even realizing that he had failed to urinate for a month and half, or that his liver was shutting down. Ian was told he needed to quit drinking, or be dead in a year. Realizing that it was easier to get sober with help than on his own, he entered treatment at Crossroads.
Crossroads is a nonprofit offering affordable, substance abuse treatment and temporary housing, with the program lasting as long as each client needs it. Before leaving treatment, everyone is expected to have an “exit strategy,” including employment, money saved, and a place to live. At fourteen months sober, the Executive Director of Crossroads asked Ian about his exit strategy, then offered him a job! From here, Ian was excited to move out and begin working for Crossroads as a Peer Recovery Support Specialist. (PRSS)
According to Ian, “I decided, what better way to repay my gratitude and my debt to the program that saved my life, what better way than actually going to work for them?” With his lived experience of being unsheltered and addicted, Ian can readily relate to the population Crossroads and RISE (the Reno Initiative for Shelter and Equality) are serving in our community.
Outreach at RISE
From Crossroads, Redinbaugh transitioned to working at RISE, where he’s an Outreach Specialist. Through this work, he goes out to areas where he can engage with unsheltered residents and connect them with essential services. He helps people get their driver’s licenses and state issued IDs (a key step towards finding work), gives rides to doctor’s appointments, and brings them to get their pets vaccinated. For those who are ready, Ian assists with getting them into substance abuse treatment programs and into the Cares Campus, or Safe Camp, where there’s heated and air-conditioned living pods and other resources. He'll even help with their apartment rental applications.
Workforce Development at One Truckee River:
Ian learned about the Workforce Development Supervisor opening through his work at RISE, and today he’s supporting both RISE and One Truckee River through two separate roles. As Workforce Development Supervisor, Ian is leading a team of Crossroad’s clients in removing invasive species along the Truckee River, protecting native trees and wrapping them to prevent beaver damage. In addition to improving the riverbank, the Workforce Development crew is receiving training in community urban forestry, helping them earn certifications and work towards future careers.
The workforce will include two consecutive teams of 5 Crossroads clients, led by Ian in coordination with Tara Tan, the Program’s Technician from Truckee Meadows Park Foundation. Each crew member participates in a paid-work-and-training program lasting for 18 months.
What’s Been Achieved So Far?
As a part of the Truckee River Urban Trees Workforce Development Program, twice a week our crew is out and about, taking inventory of the greenery along the Truckee. They’re noting the trees’ progress and health in the future), and putting chicken wire around them to protect from beavers. And, they’re removing invasive species. “More than anything, the Tree of Heaven is my new arch nemesis,” Ian shares. “Those things will sprout 50 trees off one root. They’re evil and must be stopped!”
The Workforce Development Program has been hard at work since March 2024, beginning with planning and preparation. This fall, we’re excited to have begun hands-on work with our crew! At RISE, Ian tells us, they often talk about working towards small, manageable goals to give more wins, improve self-confidence, and encourage their team. Starting with tree inventory, the team quickly sees (and appreciates) the progress they’ve made. To build the crew’s experience, the Program coordinated with the City of Reno to teach members through watching the work of Noah’s Park Tree Service along the Truckee River. We’ve also recently started the first removal through treatment training with the City of Reno – which is needed to eradicate the troublesome Tree of Heaven.
After removing Tree of Heaven, the workforce crew will replace it with native species that better belong in our Northern Nevada ecosystem.
Ian’s Sober Life
It hardly needs to be said that Ian Redinbaugh enjoys helping others, sharing his personal story in hope of helping others achieve sobriety and permanent housing. What’s more, he tells us “Another reason I love my jobs with One Truckee River and RISE is I get to be outside in nature. God’s Church, as I like to call it. I like being outside, helping people, helping the environment. I saw the Grateful Dead 74 times with Jerry Garcia and some people might still call me a hippie. I do unto others, and unto nature, treating it with the care and respect I’d like for myself.”
Today, Ian lives with his brother and sister-in-law in Old South Reno. He plays softball for RISE, disc golf with his friends, recently ran a 5K race, and is starting to play volleyball again – which he hasn’t played regularly since college. Three years retired from drinking, he’s prioritizing building a healthier lifestyle. Until recently, he enjoyed flying airplanes with his dad, but regrets that his dad recently sold the plane. Ian still loves music, everything from Dwight Yoakam to Buck Owens, from Elvis to the Beastie Boys to NWA. Redinbaugh finishes, “I’m grateful for god smiling down on me, and finding a way for me to stay involved and make a difference every day.”