ST EOBHCSunset 072321 - Flipbook - Page 49
With the benefit of hindsight, if we could go back in time,
what could have been done differently?
EOBHC has much to be proud of and has learned painful lessons, which are all for naught if they are
not applied to future people power building efforts moving forward in East Oakland and beyond.
The Learning & Evaluation team, with input from some core EOBHC leaders, have put together
these answers to the question of “what could have been done differently?”
In 2015-2016, EOBHC was being led by the LC,
“Folks gave lip service to antiwhich consisted of experienced CBO leaders who
displacement, but they refused
understood the urgency of putting together an East
to let go of their organizational
Oakland agenda that mobilized organizers, direct
service providers, citizen-journalists, healers, and
priorities.” In hindsight, the
artists. The LC organized a series of EOBHC retreats
Learning & Evaluation team
which included residents, and the priority that
would have advised the LC to
clearly rose to the top for EOBHC was to mount
a campaign to push back on the displacement
focus on an anti-displacement
of Black people in East Oakland. The LC did not
agenda. In marshalling forces
seize this call to action out of deference to a wide
within the EOBHC big tent,
CBO consensus, which never arrived. In 2016, the
LC could have called for the prioritization of
a robust anti-displacement
anti-displacement as the issue (which of course
campaign could have resulted.
is linked with a plethora of other issues such as
affordable housing, housing discrimination against
people with criminal records, living wage job development, small business development, anti-Black
racism, etc.). The LC did not need consensus from all of EOBHC, just a critical mass, which it already
had. Even if the CBOs were not in agreement, there was sufficient resident interest in prioritizing antidisplacement to pressure the CBOs if need be. As one resident leader recently commented, “Folks
gave lip service to anti-displacement, but they refused to let go of their organizational priorities.”
Today, we see that the larger base-building organizations affiliated with EOBHC such as ACCE and
Just Cause:Causa Justa have a renewed focus to fight displacement of East Oakland residents.
In hindsight, the Learning & Evaluation team would have advised the LC to focus on an antidisplacement agenda. In marshalling forces within the EOBHC big tent, a robust anti-displacement
campaign could have resulted. EOBHC would have sealed the deal on privileging community
organizing as a core strategy a lot sooner (which instead didn’t happen until 2019). The LC could
have hired EOBHC staff with experience in mounting coalition anti-displacement campaigns. By
having an anti-displacement focus, EOBHC would have been better positioned to seek funding
beyond its sole funder, TCE.
FOR THE LOVE OF BLACK EAST OAKLAND: EOBHC Sunset Report
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