$75,000 / 2020 – 2021

http://blackorganizingproject.org/

Oakland, CA

The Black Organizing Project’s (BOP) bold abolitionist Bettering Our School System (BOSS) campaign prioritizes organizing intergenerationally against school policing and school push out to address structural racism and the pipeline to mass incarceration Oakland. They use grassroots organizing and digital tools to influence narrative shift around notions of community “safety” from failing policies of increased policing, surveillance, and militarization of schools to the building of beloved community’–interdependence, an affirmation of cultural roots, skill-­‐building, and collective liberation.

This year, BOP convinced the school board not to allocate funding to rehire the existing 3 vacant school resource officer positions. A renewal grant for BOP will support ongoing efforts to convince the Oakland Unified School District board to eliminate their current $2.3 million investment in school policing.