Oakland ReCAST Final Evaluation Report: 2016-2021
Oakland ReCAST Final Evaluation Report: 2016-2021 This report was developed by Resource Development Associates under contract with the City of Oakland Human Services Department. Resource Development Associates, 2021
Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 2 EVALUATION OVERVIEW ................................................................................... 4 OAKLAND RECAST: WHAT DID WE ACHIEVE? .................................................. 6 OUTCOME EVALUATION RESULTS ...................................................................... 7 OAKLAND RECAST: WHAT DID WE LEARN? .................................................... 17 PROCESS EVALUATION RESULTS ...................................................................... 18 FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS ............................................................................... 21 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 22 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................... 23 APPENDIX ......................................................................................................... 24
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Executive Summary What is Oakland ReCAST? ReCAST stands for Resiliency in Communities After Stress and Trauma. ReCAST is a program of the federal government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The City of Oakland Human Services Department (HSD) was awarded a five-year ReCAST grant for $1,000,000 per year from 2016-2021. What were the goals of ReCAST from 2016-2021? The City’s vision for ReCAST is that Oakland will be a more equitable, healthy, and thriving community for all residents through the acknowledgment of historical trauma and promotion of healing and resilience. Oakland ReCAST promoted healing and resilience through four main goals: 1. Improve access to healing services 2. Build healthy public systems 3. Uplift community voice and leadership 4. Leverage and align with relevant efforts What did Oakland ReCAST accomplish? > Oakland ReCAST supported teachers and Mental Health Consultants in the Head Start program, which serves some of Oakland’s most vulnerable children and families. > Oakland ReCAST trained staff members in City government to work with each other and the community in a more trauma-informed way. > Oakland ReCAST lifted up youth leadership through the Youth-to-Youth Mini-Grant program and by supporting the Oakland Youth Advisory Commission to make recommendations for how the city can improve public safety. > Oakland ReCAST amplified the role of artists as healers and first responders to community crises by supporting dozens of community events based in art and expressive practices.
What is next for Oakland ReCAST? Oakland HSD received a second round of ReCAST funding for $5,000,000. The City will continue building the work accomplished through the City’s 2016-2021 ReCAST grant to promote resiliency, healing, belonging, joy, and equity among Oakland residents most affected by trauma and unrest. The grant will run from 2021-2026.
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS 1,200+ Services provided by Mental Health Consultants to children and caregivers at Head Start sites 40+ Trainings in trauma-informed practices for Human Services Department, other City agencies, and community-based service providers 1,500+ City and service provider staff members reached through trainings $180,000+ Funded for 40 youth-led projects as part of the Youth-to-Youth Mini-Grant Program 3,000+ Black women and gender expansive community members reached through community-based art practices to foster joy, healing, and resilience
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Introduction The city of Oakland, California, population 433,031, is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the nation: 28% of residents are White, 27% Latinx/Hispanic, 24% Black/African American, 16% Asian or Asian American, 1% Native American, 1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and 7% reporting two or more races. About 42% of Oakland residents speak a language other than English at home. The City of Oakland Human Services Department (HSD) focuses program efforts in neighborhoods most impacted by structural inequities resulting in poverty, crime, violence, and blight. In 2016, HSD was awarded a five-year, $5,000,000 grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for Resiliency in Communities After Stress and Trauma (ReCAST). The mission of Oakland ReCAST is to promote healing and resilience by creating trauma informed systems, improving access to culturally responsive behavioral health services, and increasing opportunities for community healing. The City’s vision is that Oakland will be a more equitable, healthy, and thriving community for all residents through the acknowledgment of historical trauma and promotion of healing and resilience. Oakland ReCAST created a multi-level strategy to improve the way the City supports communities experiencing high levels of trauma due to structural discrimination, socioeconomic inequality, or tensions with police. This strategy recognizes that community healing and resilience must be promoted at multiple levels in order to be effective and sustainable. This strategy is depicted in Oakland ReCAST’s theory of change (Figure 1).
Community Healing and Resilience in Oakland
Improve access to healing services and supports
Build healthy public systems
Leverage and align with relevant efforts
Uplift community voice and leadership
Figure 1. Oakland ReCAST Theory of Change
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Oakland ReCAST Goal Areas As illustrated in the theory of change, Oakland ReCAST defined four goals to support its strategy: 1. Improve access to healing services and supports. Oakland has high numbers of families and children who have experienced trauma at both the community and individual levels. In order to address the need for behavioral health services in communities facing high levels of stress and trauma, ReCAST sought to fund programs to help community members receive behavioral health services and supports, with a particular focus on early childhood and youth. 2. Build healthy public systems. By supporting City agencies to operate as trauma-informed systems, Oakland ReCAST sought to foster healthier practices within City agencies that would, in turn, support those agencies in serving their beneficiaries in a more trauma-informed and culturally responsive way. Oakland ReCAST prioritized training, coaching, and leadership development, beginning in HSD with the goal of expanding to other City departments and HSD-funded service providers. 3. Uplift community voice and leadership. While Oakland ReCAST aimed to promote community involvement overall, a major focus of Oakland ReCAST was to provide opportunities to engage youth in projects that strengthened their own sense of power and agency to effect community change. Youth engagement efforts were intended to have a particular focus on improving community-police relations. 4. Leverage and align with relevant efforts. Because Oakland has a robust network of community-based organizations, service providers, and educational programs working to address community trauma, it was important for ReCAST to align with and learn from other community-based healing and resilience efforts in the city. In addition, incorporating ReCAST activities into preexisting programs and structures was intended to support the sustainability of ReCAST’s objectives in the long-term.
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Evaluation Overview The purpose of the evaluation was to document the implementation of Oakland ReCAST and assess preliminary outcomes of ReCAST-funded activities to support continuous improvement and share lessons learned with other jurisdictions that are seeking to promote healing and resiliency. The ReCAST evaluation included both process evaluation and outcome evaluation components and incorporated a mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) approach. • The process evaluation sought to understand the implementation of ReCAST, including what activities took place, who was reached, the extent to which the program was implemented as intended, and successes and challenges in program implementation. • The outcome evaluation sought to determine what changes for individuals and communities occurred as a result of ReCAST. Evaluation Questions Given that ReCAST was a new and far-reaching initiative that aimed to change systems and institutions in the city of Oakland, the evaluation applied an exploratory framework that sought to understand what factors were necessary for Oakland ReCAST to be successful. The evaluation was guided by the following question:
The evaluation explored progress at three levels: 1) the ReCAST initiative as a whole, 2) the four ReCAST goals, and 3) each funded partner/organization.
Initiative Level •How closely did implementation of the Oakland ReCAST program match the ReCAST strategic plan? What changes were made and why?•What facilitators and barriers to success has the City of Oakland experienced in implementing ReCAST? •What elements of ReCAST have been instrumental in achieving the goals and objectives? Goal Level •System access: To what extent and how has ReCAST increased access to healing services?•System practices: To what extent are HSD and city partners operating as trauma-informed systems and using trauma-informed practices? •Community experience: To what extent and how have ReCAST-funded activities enhanced community healing and resiliency? Partner Level •To what extent are the City and partners implementing the ReCAST plan in alignment with their stated activities and goals?•What facilitators and barriers have partners experienced in implementing their activities?•To what extent have funded partners achieved their intended goals? What program and contextual factors were associated with project outcomes? Guiding Question: What does it take to achieve a citywide initiative to promote trauma-informed practice, healing, and resiliency? Culturally Responsive Evaluation The Oakland ReCAST evaluation committed to a culturally responsive approach that considers the potential harmful effects of conducting research in communities that are heavily impacted by trauma and may have had traumatic experiences with research in the past.
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Evaluation Methods The evaluation gathered information at multiple points in time to understand the implementation and outcomes of ReCAST. Below is a description of the quantitative and qualitative data sources. Quantitative Data • ReCAST program data gathered through quarterly reports that summarized the number of activities conducted, the number of people reached, and the demographic background of participants that attended ReCAST trainings or events. • Training evaluation surveys administered following ReCAST-funded trainings to gather information about what attendees learned, how they expect to apply the information, and their demographic background. Qualitative Data • Interviews with ReCAST partners elucidated the implementation of ReCAST trainings and events, the perceived impact of ReCAST-sponsored activities, and successes and challenges in ReCAST implementation. o Interviews were conducted annually for each funded partner and included: AE Creative Consulting Partners, LLC (AE Creative), Head Start, HSD Cultural Strategist, Ecotherapy, Planting Justice, Prevention Institute, Trauma Transformed, and Youth Leadership Institute. o Interviews were conducted with Oakland Police Department Collective Healing Initiative, with whom ReCAST collaborated but did not fund. • Interviews and focus groups with HSD leadership and staff were conducted annually to gather in-depth information about staff’s experiences with the trainings and events organized by ReCAST, their understanding of the principles of a trauma-informed system, and their perceptions of the successes and challenges of ReCAST in creating a trauma-informed and culturally sensitive workplace. o Interviews included: HSD Director, ReCAST Program Manager, several members of the HSD Leadership Team, and several HSD staff members across divisions. o Focus groups included: HSD Resilience Champions (“Chambassadors”) and the HSD Management and Leadership teams. • Event observations, conducted largely in 2018-2019, had the objective of understanding how these activities supported the ReCAST goals and objectives. The evaluation team developed an observation worksheet that detailed the objectives and activities of the activity, the audience that participated, the use of culturally responsive practices, and alignment with the six principles of a trauma-informed system. • Youth Photovoice project carried out virtually in 2021 engaged 10 youth mini-grant recipients and their adult allies. Participants in the 2021 youth mini-grant program took pictures of the community work that they were engaging in and captured the various ways in which they collaborated, organized, and raised awareness about different social issues in their community during the COVID-19 pandemic. • Community needs assessment interviews following the COVID-19 shelter-in-place and the murder of George Floyd were carried out in the summer of 2020 to understand how community needs had changed as a result of the ensuing collective trauma. Interviews included ReCAST partners and members of the Resilience Working Group. Limitations and Impact of COVID-19 on the Evaluation ReCAST program data was self-reported by partner agencies and relied on their methods for tracking events and attendance. Some evaluation activities were difficult or not possible to conduct in part because of COVID-19 limitations. Too few training evaluation surveys were received to use for the evaluation.
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Oakland ReCAST: What Did We Achieve? The broad reach of Oakland ReCAST is apparent in the reported number of individuals trained, number of people receiving evidence-based mental health services, and number of organizations collaborating as a result of the grant. Highlights: SAMHSA Grant Measures Data reported to SAMHSA by Oakland ReCAST WD2 The number of people in the mental health and related workforce trained in behavioral/ mental health trauma-informed approaches PC2 The number of organizations collaborating, coordinating, or sharing resources with other organizations as a result of the grant T3 The number of people receiving evidence-based mental health-related services as a result of the grant TR1 The number of individuals who have received training in trauma-informed approaches, violence prevention, mental health literacy, and other related trainings Year 1* 2016-2017 141 0 0 0 Year 2 2017-2018 185 78 339 964 Year 3 2018-2019 986 50 190 1,237 Year 4 2019-2020 1,772 128 862 2,982 Year 5 2020-2021 701 105 185 1,162 Years 1 - 5 Total: 3,785 361 1,576 6,345 *Year 1 was focused on strategic planning; programming was not expected Highlights: Oakland ReCAST Goals Impact Highlights Goal 1 Support Oakland residents’ increased access to trauma-informed behavioral health services from City agencies and partner community organizations • Increased training and available hours for Mental Health Consultants at Head Start sites; Mental Health Consultants had over 1,200 contacts with children and caregivers at Head Start Centers • Funded training and professional development to Head Start staff focused on cultural humility, trauma-informed practices, and self-care Goal 2 Expand the usage of trauma-informed practices across HSD, other City departments, and HSD-funded service providers • Conducted over 40 trainings in Trauma Informed Systems reaching more than 1,500 staff from HSD, other City departments, and service providers • Trained 10+ leaders of color in HSD through the Emerging Leaders of Color leadership series • Provided individualized coaching and conflict resolution for HSD staff • Trained HSD leadership in creative arts practices Goal 3 Create opportunities for resilience and healing among community members and between community members and the Oakland Police Department • Granted $180,000+ to 40 youth mini-grant projects • Supported Artist as First Responder forums and art exhibits reaching over 3,000 Black women and transgender community members • Supported community based eco-healing work for youth and adults • Supported expansion of mini-grants to Department of Violence Prevention Goal 4 Align and coordinate plans to promote trauma-informed systems in Oakland City government and local service provider networks • Coordinated efforts around trauma-informed training and victim advocacy with OPD • Mobilized the Resilience Working Group to provide input about priorities for Oakland ReCAST
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Outcome Evaluation Results This section highlights outcomes of Oakland ReCAST according to the three areas in the evaluation plan: improved system access, improved system practices, and improved community experience. Improved System Access Oakland ReCAST increased the number of children and families that have access to trauma-informed services. Oakland ReCAST invested in Oakland’s most vulnerable young children and families by supporting the city’s Head Start program to expand capacity to provide trauma-informed services. First, Oakland ReCAST provided funding to augment the number of consultation hours that Head Start’s Mental Health Consultants (MHCs) could provide to children and families. Head Start calculated that as a result of the ReCAST grant, MHCs made over 1,500 contacts with children and families. These site visits allowed MHCs to assist Head Start staff in many different trauma-informed supports, including working with children or family members experiencing trauma; implementing healing practices for students at each site; building culturally accessible programs for Head Start students and families; and helping Head Start staff with the stresses of working with community members facing trauma. In addition, ReCAST supported several training and capacity building efforts with Head Start staff and teachers. These included Trauma Informed Professional Learning Communities at Head Start/Early Head Start Centers; Reflective Practice Groups for Head Start Center Directors and Family Advocates. Table 1. Head Start Efforts Supported by ReCAST Activity Activities Support for Mental Health Consultants (MHCs) • Expanded the availability of Mental Health Consultants (MHCs) in Oakland’s Head Start centers and supported the MHCs to attend specialized trainings in trauma-informed approaches to early childhood education and cultural humility. Head Start Staff Training and Professional Development • Funded training and professional development focused on cultural humility, trauma-informed practices with families and children, and self-care practices to cope with secondary trauma. • Supported Head Start staff to participate in a training institute on cultural humility and awareness in early childhood education. Consultation to Head Start sites • Provided individualized consultation, coaching, and healing circles to Head Start sites that have experienced significant trauma and community violence.
Photo: Artist as First Responder
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For Head Start managers, ReCAST efforts elevated trauma-informed principles to the forefront of their management style and reignited their motivation to build a trauma-informed system. At the staff level, new practices started to take hold. For example, teachers appreciated opportunities to focus on self-care and found simple techniques such as deep breathing to be supportive in their work. Head Start managers reflected that amidst escalating violence against Black people at the hands of police and the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, having spaces to reflect, process, and talk about self-care was invaluable. Through learning trauma-informed practices and having spaces “to move through the pain they were holding,” Head Start staff and teachers increased their capacity and skills to respond to the immense trauma that many Head Start families were experiencing. Trainings and consultations helped Head Start staff understand the signs of trauma—both in children and families as well as in themselves. At the same time, the magnitude of community stress and trauma posed challenges to building a trauma-informed system. Given the number of Head Start sites and teachers, each operating in distinct communities, it will take continued time and effort to provide needed support to Head Start teachers. In addition to continued assistance for teachers, families of young children need greater access to support tailored to their communities. Oakland ReCAST promoted access to healing resources by providing trainings, increasing community awareness, and creating safe spaces to lower the stigma around accessing mental health services. Oakland ReCAST sponsored several trainings in evidence-based healing practices such as Seeking Safety and Mental Health First Aid. Seeking Safety is a therapeutic program for people suffering from trauma, substance abuse, and/or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). ReCAST sponsored a training for over 100 providers in Seeking Safety to support their capacity to hold difficult, healing, and reparative conversations. Other ReCAST-funded activities indirectly supported access to mental health services by increasing community awareness and reducing stigma around accessing mental health services. ReCAST partner AE Creative helped to reduce stigma around accessing mental health services by creating spaces for community members to openly discuss their sadness, grief, and rage. ReCAST’s Youth-to-Youth (Y2Y) Mini-Grant program funded several projects that emphasized mental health and healing, including presentations to community members about the importance of mental health and how to access mental health services. AE Creative and Y2Y Mini-Grant activities are discussed in detail in the section below on Improved Community Experience. Improved System Practices Oakland ReCAST advanced organizational culture change in HSD and other City departments by integrating knowledge and practices of trauma-informed systems. Central to the objectives of Oakland ReCAST was raising awareness and capacity among HSD staff to respond to community trauma, with the intention that this work would begin in HSD and then expand to other City departments and HSD-funded service providers throughout the grant period. To achieve this objective, ReCAST focused on building the internal capacity of HSD to operate as a trauma-informed system (TIS), using a practice model developed by Trauma Transformed and the San Francisco __________________________ “We are starting to normalize the idea of having space to have conversations around cultural humility and racism and prejudice and trauma, and the importance of self-care and nurturing.” -Head Start Manager ___________________________
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Department of Public Health.1 Within this model, ReCAST sought to align with six principles of a trauma-informed system: Trauma Understanding; Safety and Stability; Cultural Humility and Responsiveness; Compassion and Dependability; Collaboration and Empowerment; Resilience and Recovery.2 Recognizing the role that leadership plays in fostering a trauma-informed organizational culture, ReCAST offered several types of training and coaching designed to build leadership awareness and skills. These included trainings and facilitated spaces for leadership and an Emerging Leaders of Color training series. ReCAST also organized dozens of staff trainings and activities focused on the principles of a trauma-informed workplace and how race and racial identity show up in the workplace. While most trainings centered on HSD, many were open to staff from other City departments and service providers. Table 2. ReCAST Trainings and Events for HSD, City Departments, and Service Providers 1 For information and resources on TIS, see: http://traumatransformed.org/communities-of-practice/trauma-informed-systems-tis/ 2Trauma Transformed. (2019). TIS Core Principles and Suggested Competencies. Retrieved from http://traumatransformed.org/wp-content/uploads/TIS-Principles-Competencies.pdf Facilitator Activities Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM) • Organized full-day training to support leadership in understanding emotionally intelligent leadership Ecotherapy • Organized training with HSD staff that combined didactic and experimental presentations integrating the concept of nature and how it can be applied in the HSD department, for example through mindfulness meditation Dr. Ken Hardy, trauma-based clinician, author, and trainer • Led the core trauma-informed trainings for HSD and other City departments reaching hundreds of staff • Led several healing days for HSD, City, and service providers focused on healing wounds of oppression HSD • Used department management meetings as a venue to provide coaching and training for leadership that emphasized knowledge and awareness of trauma • Conducted Trauma Informed Systems 101 training for all HSD staff • Led healing and team-building sessions for HSD staff • Developed and led a team of HSD wellness champions/ambassadors (“Chambassadors”) • Developed Diversity, Equity, Belonging, and Inclusion (DEBI) team Dr. Patricia Nunley, trauma-informed consultant • Conducted a “Spilling the Tea” social activity, mindfulness and reflection activity to remind the group about trauma and the importance of self-care and self-reflection • Organized full-day training focused on trauma and culture that emphasized a race-conscious approach to resilience and healing Trauma Transformed • Facilitated Emerging Leaders of Color program • Trained new TIS 101 trainers using a train-the-trainer model • Collaborated with HSD to administer a department-wide survey to determine employees’ assessment of HSD work culture Prevention Institute • Piloted and refined a training-of-trainers (TOT) curriculum, Adverse Community Experiences and Resilience (ACE|R TOT), which proposes a novel community-level framework to understand trauma and offers pathways for traumatized community members to heal, and delivered it to the group of HSD wellness champions
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HSD staff and ReCAST partners reflected that ReCAST made measurable progress toward shifting the organizational culture of HSD. HSD staff observed the following key impacts as a result of ReCAST. • Managers created and held trauma informed and healing spaces during staff meetings to check in and process traumatic current events, especially during the pandemic. It became regular practice in staff meetings to hear language around trauma, kindness, and mindfulness. Staff especially appreciated these spaces as they navigated the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial justice uprisings after the murder of George Floyd. Now, as the department plans for people to come back to work, they are able to do so in a way that understands the challenges for staff and consider ways to make the transition more supportive. • Staff learned new skills and practices to support their self-care and their work with others. Growing knowledge of trauma and skills in self-reflection and active listening fostered interpersonal interactions focused on repairing trauma and racialized wounds among staff and community members. Staff who did not see themselves as leaders began to embrace leadership qualities. Because of the groundwork in trauma-informed systems, “When the pandemic happened, people were more prepared to take care of themselves.” • HSD divisions made progress in breaking down silos in their communication and collaboration. Staff across divisions had opportunities to participate in trainings together, which fostered a sense of camaraderie and facilitated collaboration that was new for HSD. For example, during COVID-19, HSD divisions worked together to support the community’s needs around food distribution and housing. In addition to the knowledge and skills staff gained from trainings, ReCAST also offered one-on-one coaching for staff experiencing conflicts at work, which staff reflected was immensely helpful in feeling less isolated and more resourced to respond to difficult situations at work. Some staff reflected that the impact of HSD’s TIS work could have been more impactful had there been a greater focus on involving frontline staff in the TIS work and greater clarity from leadership around the purview and authority of the staff groups created—the Chambassadors and the Diversity, Equity, Belonging, and Inclusion (DEBI) team. Oakland ReCAST made progress toward expanding trauma-informed practices to other City departments and community-based service providers. ReCAST introduced TIS 101 trainings to Oakland Parks and Recreation and the Housing and Community Development departments. In the final year, Oakland ReCAST achieved its goal of holding a citywide trauma-informed systems training. As a result, the City of Oakland Human Resources Department expressed that they might incorporate trauma-informed systems into their training for all new employees. Overall, the process of coordinating between ReCAST and other City efforts underscored the gradual and time-consuming nature of collaborative work. __________________________ “[ReCAST has] allowed time for folks to come together and reflect on all the challenges that are happening and have that acknowledged. Before ReCAST, that was something you did outside of work. [Now] that has become more part of our culture.” -HSD Staff Member ___________________________ __________________________ “ReCAST…what it does, it makes you more aware and intentional. You can see the stress and identify more clearly when you’re made aware, so you know—probably a lot of the reason [a conflict] is happening is because they’re stressed out, and I’m stressed.” -HSD Staff Member ___________________________ __________________________ “It brought a sense of family back to HSD. In my opinion, we had become a little siloed and segmented and [ReCAST] brought us together.” -HSD Staff Member ___________________________
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Oakland ReCAST promoted systems change by integrating the work of artists and cultural strategists in government systems. Oakland ReCAST recognized the powerful role that art and storytelling have in fostering healing and resilience. ReCAST found ways to integrate art, creativity, and narrative in its culture change work with HSD and ReCAST partners. First, ReCAST brought in AE Creative to provide trainings to ReCAST partners in creative arts practices that centered healing and joy. A key intention was in expanding language around healing and resilience to include not only trauma-informed practices, but joy-informed practices as well. Through these trainings and discussions, ReCAST infused an understanding of the role of creativity and joy in healing work. In addition, ReCAST hosted a Cultural Strategist from the City of Oakland Office of Cultural Affairs Cultural Strategists in Government program. Through this program, a cultural strategist partnered with engaged HSD leadership in creative activities to connect to their personal stories and narratives. Although the work did not fully come to fruition, the work allowed ReCAST to introduce the concept of cultural strategy in city government. Oakland ReCAST supported efforts to promote trauma-informed practices within the Oakland Police Department. The Oakland ReCAST Project Manager coordinated with the Oakland Police Department (OPD) Collective Healing Initiative to provide thought-partnership and resources to OPD. ReCAST provided consultation for OPD’s efforts to establish a victim’s services advocate within the department and OPD’s efforts to build a professional development and wellness office. Specifically, ReCAST was supportive in bridging connections between OPD and community healing resources that OPD would not have otherwise known about—such as mental health professionals and resources from SAMHSA. OPD shared that the partnership with ReCAST helped “set the tone” for their work and aided in advancing their strategies. In addition, ReCAST funded workshops and facilitation to support the Oakland Youth Advisory Commission (OYAC) in engaging with the City’s Reimagining Public Safety Task Force. Fresh Lifelines for Youth (FLY) provided training and facilitation on building agency and self-advocacy skills with the purpose of mobilizing, supporting, and creating space for young people across Oakland who have been negatively impacted by the justice system to share their experiences to recommend and compel the change they would like to see in their communities. FLY facilitated OYAC board meetings, led workshops, and held a youth advisory community listening session, reaching over 100 youth overall. FLY reported that multiple adult leaders serving on the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force and various advisory boards lauded OYAC for being a role model for other advisory boards and for being the most effective part of the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force process. Oakland ReCAST integrated trauma-informed practices in all elements of ReCAST implementation, which served as a model for partners and City staff alike. The ReCAST Project Manager infused trauma-informed principles in the ReCAST partners’ planning meetings. Creating a trauma-informed space that cared for people’s individual experiences and needs set cultural norms around trust and respect that ReCAST partners could carry with them as they implemented the work of the grant. __________________________ “[The trainings] allowed [the ReCAST] team to start to understand the importance of cultural workers and artists that heal Oakland. There is no movement and healing work, no trauma informed work, that is not fueled by creativity.” -ReCAST Partner ___________________________ __________________________ “Like everyone else who lives in Oakland, [ReCAST partners] had their own struggles, challenges, and losses that they were dealing with while they were trying to administer the grant to the larger community. I watched [the ReCAST Project Manager’s] expertise with facilitating a culture of care and kindness with us as a team.” -ReCAST Partner ___________________________
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Improved Community Experience Oakland ReCAST advanced youth leadership in healing and resilience activities. Through OYAC’s involvement in the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force (described above) and the Youth-to-Youth (Y2Y) Mini-Grant program, ReCAST fostered youth leadership development and supported system leaders in seeing young people as important assets in their community. The Y2Y Mini-Grant program was a hallmark of the ReCAST initiative that developed the skills of youth leaders to participate in their community as a decision-makers. ReCAST and the Youth Leadership Institute (YLI) trained youth leaders as grant makers who fund peer youth teams to complete projects that promote novel approaches to community resilience and/or avenues to restore police-community relations in Oakland. Each grant recipient consisted of a small team of youth and an adult ally, who served in an advisory role. YLI staff provided youth participants with training in several topics, such as media advocacy, storytelling, and how to facilitate decision-making processes. The Y2Y Mini-Grant Program successfully completed five cycles of 6-9 months each. All in all, the Y2Y Mini-Grant Program funded 40 mini-grant teams with up to $5,000 each, drawing young people from some of the most historically traumatized neighborhoods in Oakland. Projects from the first cohort focused explicitly on promoting forms of engagement or dialogue with OPD. Due to challenges and barriers in engaging the OPD Outreach Unit, the Y2Y Mini-Grant program pivoted to projects related to community healing and resilience more broadly. Below are several project examples. See the Appendix for a full list of Y2Y mini-grant projects. • A presentation to OPD officers on the importance of mindfulness • Facilitation of yoga and meditation exercises for OPD officers • Talking Circles (restorative justice discussions designed for conflict resolution) with OPD officers • A grassroots theater production • A research presentation on youth incarceration • A project to cover a graffiti-covered wall with a mural expressing multiracial unity. • A Latina violence prevention and leadership internship • A youth-led wellness summit for black men and boys. • Care packages for individuals experiencing homelessness during COVID-19 • Healing circles led by and for Black young women • Community presentations on mental health and legal resources for immigrant communities The Y2Y mini-grants “had a ripple effect locally” by uplifting the work of youth, who then contributed to their communities through the events and activities they led. The Y2Y Mini-Grant program earned praise from some Oakland City officials, including Mayor Libby Schaaf. It also inspired a larger community healing mini-grant program sponsored by the Department of Violence Prevention (DVP), which distributed over $800,000 in funding for community efforts in fiscal years 2019-20 and 2020-21. Members of the youth grantmaking committee reflected on their experiences after the end of the first and second grant cycles. They highlighted the transformative experience of supporting projects that promoted community healing and youth empowerment, and noted how they had grown as civic leaders as well. __________________________ “The [mini-grant] program brings grantees together not only to support them over time, but also empowering young people to make decisions is very powerful—to see their projects come to fruition and to actualize their goals is very empowering.” -ReCAST Partner ___________________________
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“Participating in the Y2Y mini-grants from the beginning to the end was unlike anything I had ever done before. Throughout the entire process, one thing remained true, which was the fact that I was always inspired by the projects and ideas [that] my community had brought to the table. It was uplifting and empowering to hear personal stories be transformed into tangible goals for healing our community. The trainings were helpful…because we had the chance to learn valuable skills that I still use to this day. The grants are a way to bridge many young people together and provide them with the funds to turn their frustration into positive change.” “Being a part of the Y2Y mini-grant process was truly amazing. Not only was I able to improve my public speaking skills through the trainings, but I was able to gain a new insight into the grant process, and meet so many awesome youth members and adult allies. Although the selection process [to determine the grantees] was quite difficult, to see these projects come to life in Oakland and promote community healing and resiliency was truly inspiring. Overall, being part of the Y2Y mini-grant process was such an informative [and] rewarding experience that didn’t just leave a positive impact on my life, but on many other Oakland youth.” -Y2Y Mini-Grant youth grant making team members Youth Photovoice Project In 2021, the RDA evaluation team led a Youth Photovoice project, a form of participatory action research that involves a multi-step process of defining research questions, taking photographs in response to those questions, and interpreting and creating a narrative from the group’s photographs. Participants in the 2021 Y2Y Mini-Grant program took photos of the community work that they were engaging in and captured the various ways in which they collaborated, organized, and raised awareness about different social issues in their community during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were 10 mini-grant projects comprised of youth and their adult allies that were actively engaged in the Photovoice project. In the final stage of the Photovoice process, youth defined the following outcomes of their mini-grant projects. • Promoting community healing o COVID was an opportunity for young people to be thoughtful about community outreach and education strategies to promote healing. • Raising awareness around social issues o Youth groups, like Community Health Leaders and others, organized efforts to rapidly respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. o Artistic media like a podcast, play, and anthology were used as a way for youth to use their voice, tell their stories, and raise awareness about the issues impacting their lives. • Celebrating art and culture o The identities and cultures of the youth were strongly depicted through the mission of their work and the artwork associated to their project. • Creating social connection o In the midst of a pandemic, youth were still able to foster connection and cultivate relationships and collaboration through virtual and in person outreach, meetings, and events. • Elevating youth/student voice o As shown in the photos, youth were at the forefront of the brainstorming and planning of their project activities. o Youth took a leading role in their own education and harnessed their agency to drive change in their own lives and communities. The final Photovoice product was a slide deck that can be shared by youth and adult leaders in the community (see Appendix). The next page showcases some of the photographs that youth mini-grant teams shared.
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Photovoice Photographs from Youth Mini-Grant Projects, 2021 Bay Peace Youth dropping off care packages
Youth Uproar Theatre Company planning session
Community Health Leaders preparing mental health resources Breakthrough Ft. Lil K.A.G.E. Know Your Rights campaign Immigrants and Refugee Know Your Rights, Student Wellness Ambassadors delivering community presentation
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Oakland ReCAST generated opportunities to promote community healing in creative and community-engaged ways. Oakland ReCAST supported several healing days and listening sessions for Oakland City staff and community members, which provided attendees with a space to discuss the traumatic effects of structural racism and discrimination or process moments of community crisis with each other. For example, in Year 2, the ReCAST team partnered with Trauma Transformed to offer ad hoc community forums and listening sessions over the weekend following the 2018 murder of Nia Wilson, a young Black woman, at the hands of a white man at an Oakland transit station. During COVID-19, Trauma Transformed created recordings on holding virtual grief spaces so that community members, organizers, city staff, and law enforcement would have opportunities to engage in grief and healing during and after times of stress, loss, and transition. Oakland ReCAST also partnered with Planting Justice, a grassroots organization with a mission to empower people impacted by mass incarceration and other social inequalities with the skills and resources to cultivate food sovereignty, economic justice, and community healing. ReCAST supported the expansion of educational and social programming for adults and youth at Planting Justice’s two-acre organic nursery, community garden, and educational center located in an Oakland neighborhood with high social isolation, violence, and economic oppression. Through working with the earth and plants, growing and harvesting food, and preparing and sharing healthy meals, Planting Justice fostered a sense of safety and provided space for conversations about anxieties and struggles relating to home, street, family, school, addiction, violence, and trauma. Through its support of creative arts practices, Oakland ReCAST elevated the notion of artists as first responders to community crises and collective trauma. ReCAST partner AE Creative curated opportunities for resilience and healing by designing and executing a myriad of ongoing creative arts practices conversations that allow community members to speak freely and without fear about their experiences and hopes for increased safety in Oakland. This work also centered joy-informed pedagogies to couple with the language of trauma. AE Creative produced dozens of events reaching hundreds of people, with a focus on Black women and transgender/nonbinary people. Highlights of AE Creative events included: • Produced "Blatant" public forums on art/joy/rage centering the voices of Black women with the Museum of the African Diaspora. • Installed three major public art works as part of the Monumental Tour in collaboration with Kindred Arts and a myriad of partners in Oakland. • Curated "Black Joy StoryWindows" exhibition in Downtown Oakland highlighting over 30 businesses and 20 Black artists. The official opening commemorated Juneteenth as a national holiday and welcomed over 250 people to a COVID-safe event. Over 21 Black women were able to receive healing and well-being services such as massage, reiki, sound healing, yoga, palates, tai chi, hot and healthy meals, and rapid COVID-19 tests and COVID shots. • Worked as a partner with the Black Cultural Zone & Anti-Police-Terror Project to create and share a series of grieving circles for Black women in Deep East Oakland. Black Cultural Zone invited East Oakland writers to attend the Black Feminist Reading room pop-up and write about safety and fear in their neighborhoods. This art activity enabled __________________________ The Black Joy StoryWindows curated “joy-informed public art that inspired people. People got to see themselves and their family members; they felt honored and respected. [People represented in the photographs said,] “‘Oh wow, that felt so good to be seen in this place that I was born—I’ve never had that kind of recognition.’” -ReCAST Partner ___________________________
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people to open up about not feeling safe at home and to see that they were not alone in their experiences. • Site-specific public grieving ceremonies in collaboration with the Black Women Wail Artist Collective and SpearitWurx called “Black Women Respond” to call attention the high homicide rate in Oakland and highlight the number of cis and trans women murdered via gun violence. • Built and launched Artist as First Responder website: http://www.artistasfirstresponder.com/ • Developed and launched the Reflection Fund for Artists to disburse mini-grants to support stable livelihoods for artists living and working in Oakland.
Photo: Artist as First Responder
Photo: Artist as First Responder
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Oakland ReCAST: What Did We Learn? Key Implementation Learnings Change happens through relationships. Oakland ReCAST centered relationship-building in all of its work, applying principles from adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy as a guidepost for implementation. These principles emphasize that to effect change, it is important to choose the right people to be in the room, demonstrate trust in them, invest in relationships, and move at the speed of trust.3 ReCAST integrated these principles in its work with ReCAST partners and in its internal systems change work with HSD. ReCAST emphasized that seeing colleagues as human beings who may have experienced trauma and stress is the first step in transforming workplace interactions. ReCAST demonstrated that simply creating spaces for staff to have conversations and ask each other how they are doing can make a huge impact in changing organizational culture. Investing in new approaches seeds change. One of Oakland ReCAST’s greatest strengths was its desire and willingness to invest in partners beyond the “regular players” who traditionally receive City contracts. Oakland ReCAST developed creative programs and approaches that can be leveraged in Oakland City government and community networks more broadly. Centering creative arts practices, alternative approaches to healing, and youth-centered grant making were some of Oakland ReCAST’s greatest achievements. It takes time to build culture. Culture change is not a box that can be checked off. It requires repeatedly emphasizing and integrating new ways of communicating and interacting. It requires involvement and investment from organizational leadership. For ReCAST, it took repeated and sustained effort over the four years of implementation to see measurable changes in HSD’s organizational culture. Lifting up youth improves strategies. The Y2Y Mini-Grant program and OYAC’s involvement in the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force demonstrated that youth are eager to see and participate in change in their communities. Their fresh look at what could be creates a strong vision of what is possible. Taking the lead of the most vulnerable young people in our communities and providing training, mentorship, and resources supports actions that benefit everyone in the community. Bigger is not always better. Oakland ReCAST struggled to balance the desire to carry out an ambitious strategic plan with the need to consider staff capacity and the sustainability of the project. Likewise, ReCAST partners sometimes faced pressure to reach large numbers of people to meet the grant’s goals. ReCAST applied the Emergent Strategy principle "Small is good, small is all" to advance the notion that small-scale work can produce some of the most meaningful insights and opportunities for growth. Realism about staff capacity matters. Staff in most jobs face competing priorities and struggle to manage work demands. From the leadership level to frontline staff, activities as part of a new initiative should be framed within staff time constraints, wherever possible new efforts should leverage existing work in order to provide continuity and sustainability; at the same time, less critical efforts may need to be delayed or set aside to make room for the new initiative. ReCAST experienced challenges in ensuring that staff had time to participate in trainings and activities. In the realm of project management, the workload exceeded the allocated staffing, and project coordination suffered in areas of planning and outreach for events. 3 Brown, A. (2017). Emergent strategy. AK Press.
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Process Evaluation Results This section discusses HSD’s implementation of the ReCAST initiative, including progress toward implementation, system partnerships, and community engagement. Implementation Progress Oakland HSD established an ambitious, multi-level strategic plan with objectives focused on achieving internal change within the City as well as expanding healing opportunities in the community. Oakland ReCAST made progress toward most of its intended activities over the four-year implementation period. Key implementation highlights are presented below. See the Appendix for a detailed review of the implementation status of each activity in the strategic plan. ReCAST implemented most of its planned activities to build HSD’s internal capacity in trauma-informed systems and practices. Toward the end of the grant, ReCAST was successful in extending trainings to other City departments. ReCAST invited and engaged some community-based service providers in trainings but was not as successful in strategically engaging community partners and community members in training and capacity building efforts. ReCAST successfully implemented the Y2Y Mini-Grant program and exceeded its goals in expanding access to arts-based healing through the Artist as First Responder project. For multiple reasons, ReCAST did not carry out most of its planned activities related to engaging community and law enforcement. First, there were multiple changes in OPD leadership during the grant period. Second, the OPD unit that was slated to assist with the Y2Y mini-grants had very few officers on hand and had little capacity for regular engagement with the youth mini-grant teams. Third, the level of community trauma was so high following police killings of Black and Brown people that healing sessions involving law enforcement would likely have been retraumatizing. Ultimately, ReCAST partners determined that community healing work was a more critical need and focused on those activities. ReCAST determined that it did not have capacity to pursue two of its planned activities due to limited availability among the partner agencies that would have been crucial to implementation. These activities were: expanding the number of community-based organizations certified to bill Medi-Cal and increasing mental health peer navigation services.
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Of course, COVID-19 impacted ReCAST implementation dramatically, not only because all work had to be moved online, but also because the public health crisis and uncertainty led to personal and professional destabilization for ReCAST partners, City government, and community members. The police murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis also greatly impacted the Oakland community. There were planned protests and many people who had been harmed and/or remembered the harm others experienced the hands of the police were triggered. Memories of Oscar Grant and many others who have been killed by police heightened tensions between the police and the community. These two major events taxed already vulnerable Oakland residents. More specifically, those served by the ReCAST grant were disproportionately affected by these traumatic events. The new reality for people worldwide, and for the Oakland ReCAST project specifically, meant that the work planned and the conditions in which ReCAST partners carried out work was altered. The impacts were not solely negative, however. ReCAST partners reflected that the traumas of COVID-19 and racial injustices propelled many people to engage in the type of work that ReCAST was trying to put out. Several members of HSD staff reflected that the groundwork Oakland ReCAST had laid in trauma-informed practices helped the department adapt and move through the challenges brought by COVID-19. While trainings and healing events could not happen in person, ReCAST’s training partner also recorded several online trainings so they could be used with other staff. “Because this last year of ReCAST has been coupled with a global pandemic and uprisings for social justice around the blatant and public murders of black people, there’s been an opportunity for a global energy to be part of Oakland’s experience to talk about these issues of trauma and violence and rage and justice…. There became more people willing to talk about it. People pulled themselves out of quarantine to go into the streets and protest. A lot of the work of [ReCAST partners] was fueled by those uprisings as well.” -ReCAST Partner Additional Factors Influencing Implementation • The ReCAST Project Manager excelled in forming relationships, bringing together a diverse set of partners to carry out the ReCAST work. As one partner shared, “We know change happens because of relationships, not because of programs. That was crucial to the success of anything we did.” • The ReCAST Project Manager had a deep understanding of the essential components of trauma-informed systems change and helped HSD stay the course in implementing these components. • While there was organizational buy-in for implementing TIS within HSD, there was insufficient leadership involvement to support the organizational policy changes needed to formally integrate trauma-informed practices. • The bureaucracy of local government meant that change was slow, which conflicted with the time-limited nature of the ReCAST grant. • Staff workloads and other obligations were such that it was difficult to ensure that all necessary staff attended TIS trainings. • The ReCAST Project Manager and one half-time administrative assistant were the sole ReCAST staff members. The ReCAST Project Manager oversaw project management and delivered a portion of the project services. The workload was too high for the allocated staffing, and some elements of project coordination suffered, such as advance planning, scheduling, and invitations to trainings.
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• ReCAST partner agencies faced staff turnover and limited staff capacity, leading to some delays in carrying out their own contracts. • The City of Oakland contracting process led to substantial delays in executing contracts with ReCAST-funded partners. To mitigate this challenge, Oakland ReCAST implemented two-year contracts beginning in Year 3, and funded an existing community partner to pass through funds to other partners. System Partnerships and Community Engagement To support partnerships and community participation, SAMHSA required the formation of a coalition of community stakeholders that represent the city and its agencies, faith and community-based organizations, families and youth, and individuals affected by trauma and civil unrest. Oakland ReCAST mobilized its ReCAST coalition, the Resilience Working Group (RWG), to provide input about priorities for healing and trauma-informed systems in Oakland and coordinate efforts underway within different organizations. The RWG comprised managers from City departments and community-based organizations that provide trauma-informed community services, as well as community leaders involved in local community efforts around healing and resilience (see the Appendix for a list of RWG members). Partners who participated in the RWG offered positive appraisal, highlighting the benefits of having public sector and community-based service providers in the same room to work through the difficult process of systems change. At the same time, the RWG struggled to meet consistently and maintain high attendance. During the ReCAST planning year, the RWG met every two months to guide project decision making. During the implementation years, Oakland ReCAST convened the RWG one to two times per year to update the group about the progress of ReCAST activities and seek input on future planning for ReCAST, but it was difficult to determine the appropriate role and decision-making authority of the RWG in the implementation phase. Community participation and input mainly came via the RWG, which was comprised of leadership and staff of community-based organizations and local service providers. There was limited direct involvement of community members and stakeholders in informing the Oakland ReCAST plan following the initial community listening sessions in Year 1. Oakland ReCAST sought to form a Community Advisory Council, but ultimately was not able to move forward, partly due to staff capacity and partly because of challenges determining the optimal methods to locate, recruit, and/or select board members (i.e., whether to leverage existing community networks, organizations, and committees, or to create a new group altogether).
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Future Considerations Oakland ReCAST applied and was awarded a second five-year, $5,000,000 award from SAMHSA. The following are considerations for Oakland ReCAST as HSD embarks upon its second round of ReCAST funding. 1. Sequence implementation to allow for depth and breadth of impact. With an ambitious and multi-faceted strategic plan, ReCAST should consider how to fully implement its planned activities with the intended reach. • Start small and then scale: define a limited number of focal areas, learn what works, and then refine and expand program elements. • Be clear about the intended audience for each activity, implement comprehensive outreach and engagement plans, and create a systemized way to collect and track participation data. 2. Enhance collaboration with other City departments. ReCAST can have a broader impact by linking its work to that of other City departments. • Collaborate with other City departments to plan for expanding TIS work to City agencies beyond HSD. • Tie ReCAST work to innovative work happening in the city, such as the universal basic income pilot, the Office of Cultural Affairs, the Department of Race & Equity, in addition to the planned collaboration with Oakland Thrives. 3. Plan around known staff capacity constraints. With only 1.5 FTE staff to oversee a major initiative, ReCAST struggled to manage all of its planned activities. In addition, leadership and staff within HSD and partner agencies consistently have heavy workloads, which impacts the time they can dedicate to ReCAST activities. ReCAST should proactively plan its activities with a realistic understanding of staff capacity. • Ensure regular communication with and involvement of executive leadership to support integration of system changes within HSD. • Assign distinct staff to provide ReCAST project management and to deliver ReCAST services in order to increase the capacity of staff within each role. • Anticipate and plan around the limitations of City staff to attend trainings. Record all trainings for staff who are unable to attend. • Continue multi-year contracts. Continue the practice of funding one ReCAST partner to subcontract with other ReCAST partners. 4. Increase community engagement. At the federal level, ReCAST was envisioned as a participatory initiative with a high level of community involvement. Oakland ReCAST should proactively identify how to engage community members in program design, implementation, and evaluation. • Define a process for meaningful community engagement, including which groups will be engaged, how and at what points, and how to engage community in an equitable and meaningful way. Consider conducting outreach about ReCAST activities and gathering community input at relevant Oakland community events. • Revisit the idea of creating a Community Advisory Council to determine feasibility and appropriateness.
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• Consider including a community representative on a smaller ReCAST project team that meets regularly to discuss ReCAST implementation and meets with the project’s evaluation consultant. 5. Improve visibility and plan for sustainability. To support community awareness of how ReCAST has integrated trauma-informed practices in the city, ReCAST should improve documentation and publicity of its impacts. To support continued impact after the end of the grant period, Oakland HSD and its partners should start planning early for sustainability. • Develop and carry out a communications plan to showcase ReCAST’s impacts to the larger Oakland community (e.g., partner with the City of Oakland communications team; provide content for the Mayor’s monthly newsletter). • Begin discussions with City decision-makers to garner support for hiring staff on permanent basis to sustain TIS work within City departments. Consider joining efforts with another City department to blend funding and leverage staff time. • Pursue public-private partnerships to support aspects of the work that align with areas generally supported by philanthropy, such as youth engagement, mini-grants, and ReCAST’s work with artists.
Conclusion Oakland ReCAST supported a spectrum of activities that had impacts on the individual, interpersonal, community, and system levels. ReCAST augmented access to behavioral health services through Head Start Mental Health Consultants; supported City agencies to operate as trauma-informed systems and thereby improve how they serve the community; and engaged youth and adult community members in healing circles, community events, and creative arts practices to promote healing, joy, and resilience. The first five years of ReCAST offered several insights into the guiding evaluation question: What does it take to achieve a citywide initiative to promote trauma-informed practice, healing, and resiliency? It takes a vision and willingness to try solutions that have not been tried before; it takes direction and decisiveness to narrow down the impossibly large task of healing and resiliency in a large and diverse city; it takes attention and time from high-level leadership in a structure where crisis management is often the norm; it takes coordination to leverage resources and create synergy across the city; and it takes the energy, patience, and humility of dedicated staff to plan, coordinate, and move the work forward, step by step. As Oakland ReCAST completes its first round of grant funding and enters its second five-year grant, lessons from implementation will continue to inform future efforts to promote healing and resilience in Oakland. ReCAST partners reflected how over the span of five years, ReCAST as an initiative modeled the very qualities it sought to impart to City departments and service providers—the ReCAST team infused principles of trauma-informed systems in the way they formed connections with partner agencies and the community. In this way, Oakland ReCAST has been more than simply a grant; it has set a foundation for relationship-based collaborations for years to come. In the relationships fostered and strengthened—this is where healing is found.
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Acknowledgments We would like to thank all of the ReCAST partners from the past four years for their dedication to the work of community healing, for their time and input in co-creating the ReCAST strategy, and for their contributions to the evaluation process. We would like to thank the participants in the Youth-to-Youth Mini-Grant program who dedicated time and effort to learning about grant making, and who developed and implemented immensely creative projects to amplify community healing and resilience. We would like to thank members of the Oakland Youth Advisory Commission for their time and dedication to the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force. We would like to thank the members of the Resilience Working Group who came together to provide their perspectives on community healing in Oakland. Finally, a huge thank you goes to Stephanie Montgomery, Oakland ReCAST Project Manager, for her tireless work to implement and refine the ReCAST project over the past four years.
Cover photo by Freddie Collins on Unsplash Page 2 photo by Corleone Brown on Unsplash Page 3 photo by Levi Meir on Unsplash Page 7 and 16 photos from AE Creative | Artist as First Responder | Black Joy StoryWindows Page 14 photos from Youth-to-Youth Mini-Grant Photovoice project Page 18 photo by Priyanka Sethy on Unsplash
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Appendix Strategic Plan Implementation Status GOAL 1 Support Oakland residents’ increased access to trauma-informed behavioral health services from City agencies and partner community organizations.
Objectives Activities Agencies Responsible Implementation Status Objective 1.1 Increase the number of youth and family members receiving trauma-informed behavioral health services. • Fund Head Start Mental Health Consultants (MHCs) to provide trauma-informed behavioral health services to families and/or refer families to resources.
City of Oakland Human Services Department (HSD)
Complete. HSD successfully expanded the availability and training of MHCs. • Gather community partners to determine current landscape of community navigation programs and resources. • Create a needs assessment to identify current gaps and guide future planning efforts in community navigation. • Research & secure funding to expand community navigation practices.
ReCAST Project Manager (PM) Resiliency Working Group (RWG) partners HSD staff Activity Removed. After attempting to build community partnerships to lead this work without success, Oakland ReCAST determined not to pursue this piece of the work to conserve resources and staff capacity for ReCAST efforts already underway.
Objective 1.2 Support capacity of City agencies and partner community-based organizations to provide culturally responsive, trauma-informed behavioral health services. • Develop a readiness tool to help CBOs identify their current capacity to bill Medi-Cal. • Based on results of readiness tool, partner with County to support community-based organizations (CBOs) in using Medi-Cal billing as a way to connect underserved populations to culturally competent services.
ReCAST PM Alameda County health care services partners
Activity Removed. After attempting to build community partnerships to lead this work without success, Oakland ReCAST determined not to pursue this piece of the work to conserve resources and staff capacity for ReCAST efforts already underway. • Train staff from HSD and contracted service providers in trauma-informed behavioral/mental health approaches. • Provide consultation and coaching to Head Start and Oakland Unified School District Child Development Center (CDC) educators and other frontline staff.
City of Oakland Human Services Department (HSD)
Complete. ReCAST sponsored over 40 trainings reaching over 1,500 HSD staff and dozens of staff from other City and service provider organizations. The ReCAST Project Manager provided consultation, coaching, and healing circles with Head Start staff.
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GOAL 2 Expand the usage of trauma-informed practices across HSD and HSD-funded provider organizations.
Objectives Activities Agencies Responsible Implementation Status Objective 2.1 Train HSD and partner organizations on implementing trauma-informed practices and systems. • Train all HSD staff in Trauma Informed Systems 101 & 102 modules. • Provide follow-up training, team-building, and internal coaching to HSD staff.
ReCAST PM HSD-funded partner community based organizations (CBOs) Complete. All HSD staff received TIS 101 and follow-up training. The ReCAST Project Manager provided ongoing team-building and coaching in teams and individually. • Train HSD staff, HSD funded providers, and community members as trainers in community trauma and healing practices, using a train-the-trainer approach.
ReCAST PM HSD-funded partner CBOs Partially Complete. Several HSD staff were trained as TIS trainers and received the ACER|TOT training; several HSD providers attended • Identify and train individuals in service provider organizations interested in becoming peer trainers for building provider resilience.
ReCAST PM HSD-funded partner CBOs Partially Complete. A limited number of community partners were trained; additional community members were not trained. Objective 2.2 Develop organizational infrastructure of HSD and HSD-funded partners to be trauma-informed systems. • Administer Tool for a Trauma Informed Worklife (TTIW) survey to HSD staff and develop training and policies & practices to address priority areas from survey results. • Identify and coach “resilience champions” among HSD staff to facilitate implementation of trauma-informed practices in HSD.
ReCAST PM HSD Staff Complete. TTIW initial survey was completed. HSD would benefit from administering the survey again to determine changes over time. Resilience champions (“Chambassadors”) were trained, but did not reach their potential as HSD did not delineate a clear purview or authority. • Provide support to HSD executive / departmental leadership in TIS problem solving and team-building. ReCAST PM HSD-funded partner CBOs Complete. ReCAST provided and sponsored several leadership trainings and venues to discuss trauma-informed leadership practices. • Work with partner service providers to replicate HSD’s trauma-informed systems and practices within their own organizations.
ReCAST PM HSD-funded partner CBOs Not started. The TIS work focused on Oakland City government and did not expand to service provider organizations during the grant period.
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GOAL 3 Create opportunities for resilience and healing among community members and between community members and the Oakland Police Department (OPD).
Objectives Activities Persons Responsible Objective 3.1 Provide leadership opportunities for youth involvement in projects that support community resilience and healing. • Implement youth-led mini-grant-making program, with a focus on improving community relations with law enforcement. • Fund and create employment opportunities for youth to have leadership positions in programs that promote community resilience.
ReCAST PM HSD-funded partner CBOs Complete. Youth-led mini-grant program was successfully completed with $180,000+ granted to 40 projects. Projects in Phase 1 focused on community-law enforcement relations, but due to barriers to coordinating with OPD’s Outreach Unit, subsequent phases focused on community healing more broadly—which, ultimately, ReCAST partners felt was a more pressing need for youth and community members. Participants in the youth-mini grant project received stipends. • Create policies to facilitate the involvement of youth voices, input, and engagement in developing ReCAST implementation efforts ReCAST PM HSD leadership Partially Complete. ReCAST funded capacity-building support for the Oakland Youth Advisory Commission to provide formal input to the City’s Reimagining Public Safety Task Force. The City could benefit from creating additional policies to promote youth involvement. Objective 3.2 Mitigate the presence of community trauma due to structural violence, and create opportunities to promote community healing. • Explore and establish opportunities for authentic, solutions-oriented dialogues between community members and law enforcement.
ReCAST PM HSD-funded partner CBOs Oakland Police Department (OPD) Partially attempted. Some youth mini-grant projects involved dialogue between youth and law enforcement, which some youth noted helped them see members of law enforcement in a different light. Given the amount of tension between traumatized Oakland residents and OPD officers, which was exacerbated following the murder of George Floyd and racial justice uprisings, ReCAST determined that community gatherings to bring together community and law enforcement were not appropriate during the grant period. • Fund and implement community/neighborhood events to engage Oakland residents on matters of violence prevention and community healing.
ReCAST PM HSD HSD-funded partner CBOs
Complete. ReCAST funded many community healing events. In its first year, ReCAST provided one-time funding to the Friday Summer Nights Program. ReCAST also funded Trauma Transformed to hold several community healing sessions. ReCAST funded AE Creative to curate and host many healing sessions with the community with a focus on Black women and transgender community members. • Identify potential cultural and artistic opportunities to promote healing and resilience.
ReCAST PM HSD-funded partner CBOs Complete. ReCAST funded artistic and cultural strategy work, influencing HSD and ReCAST partners to understand the role of art in healing, and reaching thousands of community members through the Artist as First Responder project.
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GOAL 4 Align and coordinate plans to promote trauma-informed systems in Oakland city government and local service provider networks.
Objectives Activities Persons Responsible Objective 4.1 Coordinate Oakland’s trauma-informed systems and practices. • Establish Oakland’s Resilience Working Group to provide input on the design and implementation of Oakland ReCAST efforts. • Form a Community Advisory Council to meet periodically with RWG members.
ReCAST PM RWG partners Partially Complete. The Resilience Working Group was formed and met throughout the project. The Community Advisory Council did not get off the ground as it was challenging to determine the structure, membership, and responsibilities of the group. • Align City’s existing plans for law enforcement training with ReCAST’s trauma-informed approach.
ReCAST PM HSD-funded partner CBOs OPD / Ceasefire Oakland Complete. The ReCAST Project Manager coordinated with the OPD Collective Healing Initiative and provided consultation and resources to support OPD’s efforts regarding trauma-informed practices. Objective 4.2 Develop and implement a coordinated departmental and community responses to crisis events, such as civil unrest following police shootings. • Draft and disseminate RFP to develop a community-driven crisis readiness, response, and recovery plan.
ReCAST PM RWG partners Activity Removed. Oakland ReCAST included this activity as it was originally listed as a requirement for the ReCAST grant. Once it became clear that it was not required, Oakland ReCAST removed this activity in order to focus on its existing scope of work. • Coordinate County / City agencies and partner stakeholders to support implementation of community crisis response.
Contracted agency lead ReCAST PM RWG partners
Activity Removed. See above.
Objective 4.3 Improve visibility and awareness of Oakland ReCAST among community members. • Develop communications and messaging plan to publicly promote Oakland ReCAST, including a website and social media presence. • Coordinate promotion of Oakland ReCAST-branded informational and promotional materials among HSD staff, RWG partners, and HSD-funded CBOs.
ReCAST PM HSD staff RWG partners HSD-funded partner CBOs Started. Oakland ReCAST created a logo and pursued efforts to carry out a communications plan. However, ultimately there was little publicity about the impacts of Oakland ReCAST disseminated beyond the ReCAST partners. Oakland ReCAST should make sure to coordinate communications so that the wider Oakland community is aware of the impacts.
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Resilience Working Group Members Required Partner Agency, Community Group, and/or Role Lead Agency City of Oakland Human Services Department • Head Start • Oakland Fund for Children and Youth • Oakland Unite Local Education Agency Oakland Unified School District Local Public Entities Alameda County Health Care Services Agency, Behavioral Health Care Services (BHCS) Alameda Alliance Law Enforcement Oakland Police Department Non-Profit Community, University, and Faith-Based Organizations Prevention Institute and UC San Francisco Resource Development Associates Ashara Ekundayo, AE Creative East Bay Agency for Children
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Youth-to-Youth Mini-Grant Projects Cycle 1 Project Name Fiscal Sponsor Name Project Summary Our Street Gives Back Bay Area Community Resources, Oakland Emiliano Zapata Street Academy Restorative justice healing circles/ Homelessness service project Stronger Together Harbor House Block Party/ Community Mural/ Youth exchanges with OPD Training for Police and Schools by Children of Incarcerated Parents Community Works West, Project What! Trainings for OPD and OUSD focused on youth around the arrest and incarceration of a parent. OPD Youth Leadership Council Dewey Academy Development of an OPD Youth Leadership Council to encourage youth and police collaboration Restorative Justice Youth and Police Dialogue Project Oakland Leaf Foundation via OUSD Community Schools and Student Services Behavioral Health/ Restorative Justice Series of restorative justice healing circles with youth and OPD Walk A Beat In My Shoes Heart and Soul Center of Light Restorative justice healing circles and sports activities with youth and OPD Community Communicators East Oakland Youth Development Center Three youth-led events including a march against violence, series of art projects focused on healing and a town hall meeting with youth, OPD and community leaders Healing and Building Across 7 Generations Eastside Arts Alliance Restorative justice healing circle between current Xicana youth leaders, older community leaders and OPD to understand the history of community organizing; exhibit of artifacts from organizing 30 years ago Cycle 2 Project Name Sponsor Agency Project Summary Report Release Celebration for Youth-led Research Report on Juvenile Justice CURYJ Formerly incarcerated youth doing research to understand the juvenile justice system and propose possible alternatives to youth incarceration. This will be written into a report that will be released in May 2018. Change Is The Norm: A Youth Forum Addressing Rape Culture Girls Inc of Alameda County Panel discussions, workshops, and a healing circle to empower young women and men to understand that rape culture normalizes violence toward women and girls and emphasizes the importance of healthy
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sexuality and healthy relationships that can change this culture.
Field Day of Resiliency: Youth Addressing Health Inequity & Food Injustice in East Oakland Girls Inc. of Alameda County A "field day" in East Oakland to combat health inequalities and food injustice. The day will include gardening, vendors to help community enroll in CalFresh, and physical activities for children and the community. Nuestras Historias: Young, paperless, but Not Powerless 67 Sueños, a project of American Friends Service Committee Twelve of Oakland’s most impacted youth will lead a two-tier project aimed at raising awareness for community safety and utilizing art as means to heal and empower Oakland’s most marginalized communities in Deep East Oakland. The project will culminate in the production of a large-scale mural project in East Oakland that speaks to the community resilience and cultural pride. WAGE ART Self-love Portrait Project Social Good Fund This project will promote self-love and respect within the community through healing circles that integrate dialogue, the arts, and self-care rituals. Drop the MIC Spring Production Social Good Fund BAY-Peace: Better Alternatives for Youth are organizing a youth-led theatrical play production that will focus on the issue of militarism and its impacts on communities in the Bay Area. Using a creative lens to showcase real life examples of the impacts of structural violence, and hope to engage with anyone and everyone in the community. KANJU Affect Real Change This project aims to impact the mindset of African American girls in middle and high school so they know how beautifully powerful and resilient they are. This project will lift up role models to learn from while providing the space for important conversations and practices that will give young women the tools and network to support each other through hard times. Bottoms Up Kids and Teen Center Grown & Sexy Divas Inc. The Bottoms Up Youth Center will serve youth in the Lower Bottom area of West Oakland where no programs currently exist. The target population will be youth ages 5-17 who lives in the neighborhood. Goals include: to help improve academic achievement, technology, career, leadership and decision-making skills youth in West Oakland. Queer In Print Chapter 510 Queer in Print is a creative writing project for Oakland queer teens ages 14-18. Young writers will participate in a five-week writing workshop led by Oakland writer and queer activist Janae Johnson. A new collection of writing will be published by Nomadic Press and released on April 6 at Oakland First Friday's Youth Open Mic at Chapter 510.
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Cycle 3 Name of Project Sponsor Agency Project Summary Latina Violence Prevention and Leadership Internship East Bay Consortium Supporting Students in engaging in creating positive social change, supporting youth voices in Oakland and providing space for healing the Fruitvale Latina Violence Prevention and Leadership Internship will be created Las Fundadores “Be Well Brotha” Youth Led Wellness Summit for Black Men and Boys OPD OK program Youth Led Wellness Summit for Black Men & Boys will engage 100+ African American boys and young men from East and West Oakland in a day-long youth led summit in May 2019. This summit will provide the opportunity for young brothers to gain real time tangible tools for healing and resiliency, as well as explore healthy eating and living strategies. We will offer workshops, food and opportunities to network, play and heal. The facilitation, coordination, outreach, documentation and evaluation will be led and coordinated by young people from Oakland. SomethingtodointheTown Beyond Emancipation Our goal is to create positive changes in the attitudes, beliefs and information given/received by Oakland youth. We want to expand our youth participation in our activities, such as our Taco Tuesday night event for the community. We want to host town hall meetings with local officials and Oakland PD. Our goal is to continue hosting parties for the youth of the community to socialize and be creative. If you Knew Me Oakland Ed. Fund Goal is to rewrite the narrative about Black girls in Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). Intend to build relationships between Black girls and law enforcement, affirmation for other Black girls highlighting that they are whole, complete, beautiful and scholars, desire to give agency to middle school black girls in OUSD. Sole 2 Sole Youth Oakland Impact Hub To provide athletic shoes to low income youths and communities. It is through these shoes we wish to promote sustainability and healthy lifestyle in the Bay Area as well as around the world. Our Vision is to see a world where everyone is mindful of our environment. Furthermore, we hope to teach others to nurture our environment and become considerate of their own physical well-being. Our Streets Give Back Bay Area Community Resources Culture Keeper students are trained on restorative justice practices, dynamic mindfulness and are required to plan and lead restorative justice circles in their cohorts. The goal for this project is to have Culture Keepers feel comfortable leading talking circles and mindfulness practices so they can take those skills and continue to practice and develop them throughout their life. Poetry Heals Chapter 510 Inc. Poetry Heals will provide leadership opportunities for young poets to develop the skills to lead a non-profit or school where healing is at the heart of a writing community.
Oakland ReCAST Final Evaluation Report | 32
Cycle 4 Name of Project Sponsor Agency Project Summary A Teen’s Eye View Ezekiel Jeffrey Produce songs recorded, mixed and mastered as well as project artwork with teen's that have experienced hardships through violence, drugs, injustice in our community and provide a chance for them to voice their opinions, and create a positive creative outlet for them. Latina Leadership Community Forum East Bay Consortium Coordinate a forum where Latinas can congregate to partner with young Latinas to support and cultivate their skills and confidence, address trauma and heal. Create a space where healing and mentorship with not only Latinas in leadership with Latinas with similar experiences can congregate in a safe and culturally relevant space that emphasizes personal growth, encourages cultural pride and where positive decisions making can take place. Drop the MIC: Military Industrial Complex Social Good Fund Hold a weekend-long retreat for about 30 students and youth participants who have been impacted by justice systems and systemic violence. The retreat will include community building, workshops that focus on holistic health to support healing journeys, education about legal rights and de-escalation tactics as it relates to encounters with Police, Immigration Customs Enforcement, criminalization in schools and Islamophobic, Racist or Prejudice occurrences. Exposure to the benefits of spending time immersed in nature. Ujima OPCM Music is Extraordinary/OPCM Bring people of color together with healing circles where trauma will be discussed and explore how to heal from it. Workshops to inform people about handling encounters with law enforcement safely and other things associated with their rights. They will have open mic/jam session featuring members of the policy force to show off their artistic skills. Madison Park Academy Mentoring (MPA) Oakland Ed Fund Empower MPA HS Mentors to design programming and experiences for their mentees (Middle School) that positively impact their academic and personal experiences. Mentors will engage in project design and management. Students have so far requested that info session be hosted that address the impacts of bullying, walking field trips to East Oakland Boxing Association to learn alternative ways to relive stress, and cooking classes to learn about the healthy eating options. The Beat of the Street Chapter 510 Support intern at Chapter 510 hosting a Children's Storyteller Series and Teen Open Mic and other programming.
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Cycle 5 Name of Project Sponsor Agency Project Summary BAY Peace Youth Essential Care Packages Social Good Fund Collect 100+ youth surveys or polls on solutions to violence in our Schools, Homes & Streets • Host Youth ARTS Círculo’s for 30 Oakland youth impacted by violence. • Create a Community Mural devised by youth impacted by violence • Give away 200 Essential Care Packages to families and youth • Use art and research to support and amplify current campaigns for demilitarization and transforming systemic violence. Black Girls Brilliance - Addressing Trauma: Black Girls Healing through Arts and Media World Trust Provide healing sessions targeted towards middle school and high school Black Girls in OUSD. These sessions will focus on Art and Media in the form of guest presenters, peer-to-peer healing sessions (activity-based), and other media such as (videos and movies, etc) to support our overall goal. Breakthrough Featuring Lil-K.A.G.E. Education and Awareness Breakthrough Featuring Lil-K.A.G.E. Educate youth and caregivers/parents on how to safely navigate encounters with violence through workshops by tapping into a rich but often fragmented knowledge base about risk factors, preventive interventions, and public education because the public health perspective calls for examining and reconciling what are frequently contradictory conclusions about youth violence. HCSA Community Health Leaders Alameda County Health Pathway Partnership Write a report based on local community health issues impacting Oakland residents using our findings from our community surveys to drive solutions- based community action campaigns and elevate community building and healing in Oakland. This project will provide an engaging way to learn about the effects of youth tobacco use and provide resources on coping with mental issues. The project will create a website that will provide comprehensive resources about mental health. Homegirl Visionz - Talk of the Town: Mi Palabra, Podcast Life Academy Bring together community and build relationships by bringing awareness of the lived experiences of young Latinas. Promote healing, bring resources and solutions to the most pressing topics that affect us in Oakland; have a space where we inspire ideas for change and transformation of our community; and create a culturally relevant space that emphasizes and values our personal growth, encourages cultural pride and where positive decision making can and has taken place. Oakland International High School Student Wellness Ambassadors - No I or Me, Us and We: Community – Based Rights Education for Immigrant Communities in Oakland Oakland International High School Educate our community about what kind of rights we have as immigrants—both in school and in our communities—and what we can do to protect each other. Create a series of narrative-based multilingual booklets, podcasts and videos that will serve as Know Your Rights resources for the immigrant communities of Oakland, and across the country. The resources will focus both on the rights of immigrants in this country, as well as the rights of students in the U.S. education system, and the impacts of the school to prison pipeline. API Student Ambassadors - OUSD Multi Racial Healing Circles OUSD Host a series of Restorative Justice talking circles in partnership with the Oakland Unified School District’s (OUSD) Office of Equity and the Racial Justice Equity and Healing Task Force to deepen staff relationships with
Oakland ReCAST Final Evaluation Report | 34
students, provide our students with a safe space to share their stories and get to know each other, and build inter-racial solidarity within our student population. HyphyXEducated Safe Time Bridge creativity, combined with advocacy for social change through a series of workshops where community leaders will tell the story, lead discussion and teach art skills within their expertise in the field. These abilities range from fashion, beauty, dance, entrepreneurship, music entertainment poetry/spoken word or becoming a barber. Youth Uproar Theatre Company - Summer Repertory Project Social Good Fund This project is a campaign, through the art of theater itself but also through community conversation. This happens from the start of making these creative pieces, during production and post-production. We will use the power of discussing individual identities to be amplified in the project with an emphasis on the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ community. Youth Advisory Council - Oakland Youth Issues Anthology Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach (APILO) Host a series of Restorative Justice talking circles in partnership with the Oakland Unified School District’s (OUSD) Office of Equity and the Racial Justice Equity and Healing Task Force to deepen staff relationships with students, provide our students with a safe space to share their stories and get to know each other, and build inter-racial solidarity within our student population.
Oakland ReCAST
Youth Mini-Grant
Photovoice
Project
Screenshare: Youth Step
Towards Change During COVID
June 2021
Background of ReCAST
ReCAST = Resiliency in Communities after Stress and Trauma - Federal grant funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
ReCAST is intended to assist youth and families and promote resilience and equity in communities that have recently faced civil unrest through implementation of evidence-based
violence prevention and community youth engagement
programs, as well as linkages to trauma-informed behavioral health services.
The goal of ReCAST is for local communities to work together in ways that lead to improved behavioral health, empowered community residents, reductions in trauma, and sustained community change.
Youth Mini-Grant Program
and Photovoice Project
The youth mini-grant program, funded by Oakland ReCAST
and supported by the Youth Leadership Institute,
promotes well-being, resiliency, and community healing
through community-based participatory approaches.
For the Photovoice project, participants in the 2021 youth mini-grant program took photos of the community work
that they were engaging in and captured the various ways in which they collaborated, organized, and raised
awareness about different social issues in their community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
There were 10 mini-grant projects comprised of youth and their adult allies that were actively engaged in the
Photovoice project.
Photovoice Project Milestones and Timeline
Office Hours: June
1- 4, 2021
● Youth worked on the final
projects (slides) product
over a few days
● RDA hosts two sessions
for drop-in office hours to
support youth projects
that need assistance with
the final product.
Session 2: May 8,
2021
● Engaged in an activity
that synthesized themes
from the photos
submitted
● Created a mood board
and generated ideas for
the project name
Project Launch: End of
March 2021
● Introduced Photovoice
project and generated
outcomes
● Provided an overview on
evaluations and impact
documentation
● Explored the Photovoice
process as an evaluation
method
Session 1: April 21,
2021
● Discussed greater details
about the Photovoice
process
● Validated the identified
outcomes
● Identified key themes from
pictures and stories
submitted
Screenshare: Youth Step Towards Change During COVID
In the following slides you will have the opportunity to view a collection of photos and captions that youth created to depict the work of their Oakland ReCAST mini-grant projects.
Insert
Photo 1
Here
The goal of the Community Health
Leaders is to lift up community
health issues that are ravaging our
community through health
education.
Pictured here is a group member
distributing health supplies at a
homeless encampment.
Community Health Leaders
Youth leaders for mental health/COVID
team, looking to understand how
COVID impacted the mental health of
students and community members, get
peer mentor class at school and
website with local resources about
covid and mental health.
Insert
Photo 2
Here
Community Health Leaders
The following are form responses from our Oakland
Youth Issues Anthology program:
“I liked listening to the guest speaker talk about their experiences with their family and the significance of
their last name. I learned that I would also like to write a poem too.”
“I liked that we were introduced to our affinity circles, it was nice to get to know people better.”
“Yes I made a lot of progress brainstorming which is
good. I just need to decide on which parts of mental
health I want to focus on.”
“I liked the guest speaker and their pieces they
performed. I also liked the one on one breakout rooms
to discuss with other people. I flushed out more ideas
for my project with the writing activities from Izzie.” Insert
Photo 2
Here
API Legal Outreach
Oakland Youth Issues Anthology
Insert
Photo 1
Here
The goal of this project was to give Oakland youth a creative outlet to discuss various social issues like mental health, gentrification, and activism and produce an anthology.
The early stages of the project consiste, finalizing program logistics as soon as possible so we could start outreaching.
This is a screenshot of the very first work meeting, where youth created a tentative timeline and brainstormed many aspects of the project.
API Legal Outreach
Oakland Youth Issues Anthology
Breakthrough Ft. Lil K.A.G.E
Insert
Photo 1
Here
The goal of this group was to address inner city violence and educate youth to safely navigate encounters with violence.
Pictured here is a Know Your Rights campaign pamphlet and video ad for: what to do when detained or arrested by a law enforcement officer. The pamphlets were created for parents and the video was featured on Facebook, Tik Tok, Messenger, Instagram and other platforms. “B.L.K. also had an event at Lake Merritt on June 5, 2021 and a panel discussion with the youth where we handed out 150 napsaks with the pamphlets and wallet cards.”
Breakthrough Ft. Lil K.A.G.E
These are additional
wallet cards with the 5th
Amendment Rights and
instructions for youth to
keep in their wallet or
backpack when being
detained or arrested by
law enforcement officer.
Insert
Photo 2
Here
Insert
Photo 1
Here
Mini Project Name: Immigrants and Refugee
Know Your Rights
Student wellness
ambassadors at
Oakland International
High School are
working to deliver
strong resources to
their immigrant and
refugee community.
The goal of these resources is to take political
knowledge into immigrant and refugee
communities in Oakland. This includes a Know
Your Rights focused project for youth and
families who are immigrants and refugees.
Materials are being translated into various
languages and in culturally relevant context to
work on the website, books and videos.
Insert
Photo 2
Here
Immigrants and Refugee Know Your Rights
Insert
Photo 1
Here
The goal of this project is to hold space
for one another to create multi-racial
solidarity, mobilize on a larger scale, and
build a base of young leaders that are
facilitators and will continue this work
This is a picture of the youth leaders,
Yota Omosowho and Griffen Castillo,
meeting over zoom to discuss plans
about how we can make this program a
reality and have the largest impact that
we can!
OUSD Multi Racial Healing Circles
This is a photo of interns presenting
about solidarity at APISA’s A/PI/Arab
virtual district wide solidarity event!
After holding circles, interns created and
presented our findings on innovative
ways that we, as a community, can be
accountable to each other.
Insert
Photo 2
Here
OUSD Multi Racial Healing Circles
Insert
Photo 1
Here
The goal of this project is to decrease
violence, heal from trauma and to create
systems that are culturally grounded and
are not eurocentric.
Hyphy X Educated Youth leaders pictured
here are guided to achieve the following:
● Healing as a political act
● Creativity as an outlet
● Creating workshops
(entrepreneurship, voter
registration and modeling, to shed
light on a variety of populations)
Hyphy X Educated
This is a photo of the planning session for the project goals that center healing as a revolutionary act for
Oakland youth to heal their mind, body and spirit
through creative outlets, art, spoken word and more.
Ideas from the meeting include:
● Body - go into yoga, information from Dr. Sebi
about eating healthy
● Mind - read, write and dissect revolutionary
books like Angela Davis
● Capture how artists are healing and often first
responders for the movement
Insert
Photo 2
Here
Hyphy X Educated
Insert
Photo 1
Here
The project is to produce two
One-Act plays written by teens
centered around queer expression
and gender empowerment.
Pictured here is the first planning
meeting.
Youth Uproar Theatre Company
A photo of one of the
final planning meetings
where young leaders are
creating a space where
teens can express
themselves without the
limitation of adult
voices.
Insert
Photo 2
Here
Youth Uproar Theatre Company
Insert
Photo 1
Here
“We started as a cultural and crafts
group then became an advocacy group
for female latinx students due to lack of
representation for Latinas in the
Fruitvale area. Began having
conversations about safety, establishing
safety and improving the way we feel.
Speak on issues related to safety”
Homegirl Visionz
Homegirl Visionz is connecting
people to people through their
podcast launch of Nuestra Palabra.
They decided this was the best
way to reach their audience, bring
youth voices and perspectives to
discuss issues that they care
about.
Insert
Photo 2
Here
Homegirl Visionz
Insert
Photo 1
Here
Pictured here is the virtual
collaboration of youth leaders planning
the distribution of essential care
packages for community members that
have been impacted by violence.
BAY PEACE
BAY PEACE Youth dropping off
supplies at the unveiling of a
community mural and then give
away care packages focused on
essentials because many have
had that taken away due to
COVID and schools being closed.
This includes food, masks,
hygienic products.
Insert
Photo 2
Here
BAY PEACE
Youth Mini-Grant
Outcomes
● Promoting community healing
○ COVID was an opportunity for young people to be thoughtful about community outreach and education strategies to promote healing.
● Raising awareness around social issues
○ Youth groups, like Community Health Leaders and others, organized efforts to rapidly respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
○ Artistic media like a podcast, play, and anthology were used as a way for youth to use their voice, tell their stories, and raise awareness about the issues impacting their lives.
● Celebrating art and culture
○ The identities and cultures of the youth were strongly depicted through the mission of their work and the artwork associated to their project. ● Creating social connection
○ In the midst of a pandemic, youth were still able to foster connection and cultivate relationships and collaboration through virtual and in person outreach, meetings, and events.
● Elevating youth/student voice
○ As shown in the photos, youth were at the forefront of the brainstorming and planning of their project activities.
○ Youth took a leading role in their own education and harnessed their agency to drive change in their own lives and communities.
As part of the Photovoice project,
youth discussed their photos and
felt that these five themes
captured the outcomes of their
mini-grant projects
Screenshare: Youth Step Towards Change
During COVID