Policy & Press

For the past ten years, the building at 1025 2nd Avenue in downtown Oakland, Calif has been condemned. The decrepit structure, owned by Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), currently is a blight on the landscape, not to mention a waste of valuable space primely located between Laney College and continuation high school Dewey Academy. While historically there have been proposals for luxury market rate condominiums, a leadership center for adults, and other ideas proposed f

California has the highest number of homeless youth, and more than 60% of these young people are unsheltered. Yet only 3.4% of the beds in the state’s shelter and transitional housing systems are dedicated to youth. Our safety net designed to protect kids and youth is failing, leading them to a life of homelessness. I know what it feels like to be a young person searching for safety and a place to sleep. I had to navigate the streets of Los Angeles County with no stable plac

Since elementary school, Malik had experienced homelessness while attending Santa Monica public schools. He and his family moved often between shelters. Sometimes that meant toggling between Skid Row, the beach and their family car when shelter space was unavailable. Recently, however, Malik, now a high school graduate, Santa Monica College student and young father, was finally able to do something unimaginable — put up his feet in his new permanent home. That became possible

Across the nation’s school districts, disparities in educational outcomes persist in regard to race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, foreign-born status and other factors. Educators have come to realize that in order to eliminate these disparities and set all students up for success, interventions beyond the classroom are required. Thus, in communities nationwide, cradle-to-career systems and partnerships are working to improve educational outcomes for all youth by p

The former Oakland Unified School District headquarters—two buildings totaling 96,900 square feet that have stood on a 1.6-acre parcel at...

https://www.enterprisecommunity.org/blog/oakland-innovative-hub-links-transition-age-youth-housing-and-services

On any given night in Oakland, hundreds of young people search the city for a safe place to sleep, most ending up in cars and tents, and...

"Young Americans represent the future of our country, a wellspring for talent that drives innovation and economic prosperity. But today’s...

OAKLAND — A program director at an East Bay youth detention facility recently likened the reentry of teen offenders into society to an alcoholic straight out of rehab, going to work at a bar. But an East Bay legislator’s bill that juvenile offenders helped craft this past summer would address challenges faced by teens thrust back into the same toxic environments that got them into trouble in the first place. For teens at the Freedom School at Camp Wilmont Sweeney, a juvenile