ST EOBHCSunset 072321 - Flipbook - Page 18
residents into ACA, Medi-Cal, and CalFresh (among other programs) at a community event at Laney
College. The pre-screening outreach by EOBHC members Alliance of Californians for Community
Empowerment (ACCE), Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), Oakland Community
Organizations (OCO), Just Cause:Causa Justa, and Street Level Health Project contributed to the
enrollment event’s phenomenal success.
EOBHC also recognized the importance of healing intergenerational trauma resulting from systemic
inequities. The healing framework as related to policy advocacy was also present in the Boys & Men
of Color space (also a TCE supported initiative) in Oakland, organizing Healing-the-Healers Circles
as well as Mothers’ Circles for mothers of African American children in East Oakland.
In 2014, the Lift Up Oakland Coalition helped pass Measure FF that raised Oakland’s minimum
wage from $9.00 an hour to $12.25. EOBHC partners were among the groups that helped gather
signatures, knocked on doors, and hosted community information sessions to build support. That
fall, in advance of the citywide mayoral election, EOBHC partners organized a Mayoral Candidates
Forum that was standing-room-only, where all nine of the candidates showed up to listen to
resident concerns and answer questions.
Searching for a
generative EOBHC
structure to support
its purpose
Oakland is home to a robust, longstanding, complex network of nonprofit
organizations, which occupy the
spectrum from organizing to providing
services to policy and issue advocacy.
Selecting one of the CBOs from among
the groups to serve as EOBHC “Hub”
proved to be challenging. As one
of the largest and highly resourced
youth development groups with its
own building in East Oakland, TCE
chose Youth Uprising (YU) as the
first convener for the initiative. This
anointment was met with a tacit understanding of YU as “first among equals,” even in spite of the
fact that TCE’s Theory of Change was more rooted in policy and systems change, vs. services and
youth development. TCE’s decision to have the final say, on the outset, about who would lead the
collaborative table, or known as “the Hub,” ran counter to a theory of practice that valued community
planning and decision making. It set in motion an early dynamic and ongoing question rooted in who
was really “leading” and “owning” this initiative.
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FOR THE LOVE OF BLACK EAST OAKLAND: EOBHC Sunset Report