East Oakland

Background

East Oakland Building Healthy Communities brings together residents, community-based organizations, businesses, health care providers, and government agencies to work towards improved community and individual health. The ultimate goal: a thriving East Oakland.

In East Oakland, demographic shifts have been dramatic. Neighborhoods that were once predominantly African-American are now 53 percent Latino, 26percent African American and 18 percent Asian/Pacific Islander.

East Oakland Building Healthy Communities is leveraging the community’s deep history, active residents, and strong partner relationships to address a range of issues, including high unemployment, youth and adult leadership development, and the impacts of development projects on air quality, transit, and affordable housing. With a range of other projects and campaigns under consideration for 2015 and beyond, East Oakland Building Healthy Communities is working hard to promote the health and well-being of all East Oakland residents.

East Oakland Community

Quick Facts

• $45,000 in mini-grants have been awarded to support youth-led projects impacting East Oakland neighborhoods.
• East Oakland BHC partners supported the landmark Oakland Army Base Redevelopment Good Jobs Policy, which ensures the project will create 1,800 more living wage jobs for local residents, including those with barriers to employment.
• Nearly a quarter of Oakland’s workforce is set to receive a wage increase following the approval of a recent ballot measure supported by East Oakland BHC partners that increases the City’s minimum wage to $12.25 per hour with sick days.

Focus Areas

Residents and partners in East Oakland Building Healthy Communities are driving change across many systems and issues. The map below gives a snapshot of the breadth of their actions (click the boxes under each category to learn more), followed by more information on the top four priorities for the coming year.

• Health Services  Access: The East Oakland BHC Health Access Work Group supports insurance enrollment and promotes efforts to ensure access to prevention and medical services. Its subcommittees are focused on data collection and analysis to inform future policy change efforts to assist the uninsured.
• Healthier Neighborhoods: The Land Use Work Group is advancing multiple efforts to create healthier neighborhoods. With broad community partnership, they are creating Healthy Development Guidelines—a proposed set of planning guidelines that would require any new development projects to consider health-related impacts on residents and the environment.  There are also ongoing efforts to assess food access issues for East Oaklanders.
• Work For All: The Economic Opportunity Work Group is focused on projects that create real jobs with livable wages and benefits.  The Health Careers Pipeline is a project to facilitate job training and placement in allied health careers. Work For All was a regional summit that brought East Bay residents and organizations together for a deep discussion on creating an inclusive economy for groups such as youth, the formerly incarcerated, and immigrants.
• Community Leadership: The Resident Engagement and Leadership (REaL) Team is advancing multiple efforts to support adult and youth leadership and community connections. Neighbor Nights are community building events planned for and by East Oaklanders to celebrate the arts, culture and history of East Oakland. East Oakland Cares are activities that engage REaL Team members in supporting families experiencing violence and trauma. The Youth Leadership Board awards mini-grants to young people for community projects and helps to plan engagement opportunities for East Oaklanders. The Youth Ambassadors are young men and women nominated to represent East Oakland at statewide activities convened by The California Endowment.

Learn More

• East Oakland BHC leadership structure 
• East Oakland Case Study 
• Details on the Community Planning Leadership Academy and Community Planning Principles 
• Oakland Army Base Good Jobs Policy win 
• Oakland Speaks resident survey report 

Get Connected

Sandra Davis
Program Manager, East Oakland

Sandra Davis, program manager for East Oakland, first joined the foundation in 2005. Before joining The Endowment, Davis was a program officer/consultant for the Broad Reach Foundation, and before that, a Community Program Fellow with the Tides Foundation. Davis has considerable experience as a community organizer, serving as director and lead community organizer for People United for a Better Oakland, as founding director and lead organizer for Sisters in Portland Impacting Real Issues Together, and lead trainer and senior community organizer for the Center for Third World Organizing. Davis, a resident of Oakland, has been published in journals and was awarded the Bannerman Fellowship for Outstanding Young Organizers. She earned her B.A. in Political Economy and History from Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington.