ST EOBHCSunset 072321 - Flipbook - Page 19
After the initial pre-planning phase of BHC, several CBO leaders involved in the initiative pushed
for a more neutrally aligned Hub Host. The Alameda County Public Health Department (ACPHD), a
long-time community partner in health equity, had been at the BHC table since its inception. It was
perceived as neutral, respectful of community, well connected, and could bring additional resources
to the table. In 2010, ACPHD stepped into that role.
As with any choice that EOBHC could have made,
choosing ACPHD came with its own challenges.
As a public agency with a staff of over 600, it is a
bureaucracy with built-in ways of operating. Being
nimble and quick to adapt is not the norm for such a
large public agency. One role of the Hub Manager,
who was based at ACPHD, was to help the BHC
Program Manager execute on the many directives that
came from TCE higher-ups. These inherent assets and
challenges would play out for the next four years as
ACPHD served as EOBHC’s Hub Host.
The Steering Committee
was a valiant attempt to
hold its elaborate network
of collaborative partners
together and to explicitly
state its strategies for
impact through developing
a theory of social change.
The first EOBHC Steering Committee was formed
in 2011 to provide overall vision and guidance to all things BHC. The Steering Committee developed
the first structure for EOBHC by establishing itself as the leadership body, with community-based
work housed inside Working Groups, and provided oversight to Hub staff. More broadly, the Steering
Committee was a valiant attempt to hold its elaborate network of collaborative partners together and
to explicitly state its strategies for impact through developing a theory of social change. However, this
early formative process and the prescribed Hub structure did not take into full consideration having
so many base-building groups operating in Oakland with long, intertwined histories under the surface.
One of the biggest tensions in BHC sites with robust organizing and movement infrastructure such as
East Oakland was the role of the Hub in engaging residents when that work was already happening
with the organizing groups. TCE envisioned the Hub as a convening and collaborating vehicle, not as
an organizing entity with capacity to manage a resident “base.” This was the case in East Oakland as
well as with several other BHC sites.
In an ecosystem where organizing and base building is robust, developing a funder-mandated
structure proved counterproductive. At EOBHC’s midpoint statewide convening in 2015, TCE’s
President and CEO Dr. Robert Ross publicly declared this Hub structure to have been a TCE made-up
“fantasy.” Five years have passed since TCE realized the Hub structure could not serve as a one-sizefits-all mandate.
Throughout the planning process, and midway into the initiative, EOBHC leadership was still grappling
with key developmental issues, including:
• What is its unifying vision of change?
• How does it define “resident-led” and what is the plan for developing and centering resident
leadership for BHC?
FOR THE LOVE OF BLACK EAST OAKLAND: EOBHC Sunset Report
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