$30,000 / 2010
1924 Franklin, Suite 310
Oakland, California 94612
Kim Miyoshi, Executive Director
Website: www.kidsfirstoakland.org
Oakland Kids First was founded in 1995 as a coalition effort of youth service agencies who drafted and passed Measure K – which set aside 72 million dollars in new funding for children and youth services in Oakland over twelve years. Since that historic victory, Oakland Kids First has evolved into an independent organization with a year-round, youth leadership development program called REAL HARD (Representing Educated Active Leaders – Having A Righteous Dream) which has trained over 1,000 high-school age leaders in organizing, participatory research, issue analysis, advocacy, and alliance building and won several multi-year, proactive, student-initiated campaigns that have improved the lives and educational outcomes of Oakland youth. Hazen’s $30,000 grant in 2010 will support Oakland Kids First’s Peer Counselor and REAL HARD youth organizing campaigns to build a mass of students organizing to increase graduation rates and college-readiness in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD).