Join Care 4 Community Action’s last virtual assembly of 2023! We’re looking back on all the organizing we’ve done together this year, and looking ahead to our plans for 2024. We’ll also hear from District 3 Councilmember Fife about what legislation has been passed in Oakland this year, and what’s next in the fight for housing, racial, and economic justice in Oakland.

We all want a safe city for ourselves and our families. Right now, Oakland is suffering after decades of community disinvestment compounded by an unprecedented pandemic. Lack of access to housing, healthcare, and economic opportunity has created these conditions of rising crime. While the Right is exploiting these conditions to grow a hateful movement that would double down on failed policies like militarized policing and mass incarceration, we know that what keeps us safe is deep investment in prevention services and programs as the center of a robust, holistic set of public safety solutions.

A recent poll by the McConnell group showed that Oaklanders overwhelmingly support the idea of putting “more resources into youth mentoring programs and creating skills centers and jobs so youth have alternatives to criminal behavior,” with 92% of those polled expressing support for this proposal. This poll, done by a conservative group that works primarily with the real estate industry and business executives, shows that investing more resources into youth jobs programs as a tangible, immediate public safety solution is something all Oaklanders can unite behind.

As we work with Oakland residents to put real solutions into action, we are bringing Urban Peace Movement, a community organization that builds youth leadership in Oakland to transform the culture and social conditions that lead to community violence & mass incarceration in communities of color, as the guest speaker for our October Assembly. Join us for a conversation with UPM organizers and District 3 Councilmember Carroll Fife about how community and City government can work together to make Oakland safer for everyone by investing in young people.

The public safety system has enormous consequences on the quality of life for Oakland residents, but have you ever wondered why the public safety system works as it does, and who really is in charge? At this month’s Virtual Assembly, we’ll be learning about how the Oakland public safety system works, making sense of the different players, from the Oakland Police Department, the District Attorney, City Council, and more. We’ll break down who they are, their responsibilities, duties, and powers, to understand what they legally can, and cannot, do. Join us!

Have you ever encountered a neighbor in psychological distress or medical crisis, and not known what to do or who to call? At this month’s Virtual Assembly, we’ll be learning about the Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland (MACRO), a community response program for non-violent, non-emergency 9-11 calls. The purpose of MACRO is to meet the needs of the community with a compassionate care first response model grounded in empathy, service, and community. MACRO's goal is to reduce responses by emergency services (Fire & Police), resulting in increased access to community-based services and resources for impacted individuals and families, and most especially for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Join District 3 Councilmember Carroll Fife for a conversation with MACRO Program Director Elliott Jones to learn about how MACRO came to be and how MACRO services can be accessed. Join us!

At this month’s Virtual Assembly, we’ll be learning about the proposed new City of Oakland Department of Children, Youth, and Families. Join District 3 Councilmember Carroll Fife for a conversation with Brooklyn Williams, who will lead this new department dedicated to nurturing Oakland’s young people. We’ll discuss the role and responsibility of the City Government in relationship to young people, and how investing in early childhood education and youth programming can be a key public safety strategy.

More than 35 people died from traffic violence on Oakland’s roads last year - the highest number in 10 years. Traffic safety is a social and racial justice issue - across the country, Black and Latinx pedestrians are killed at a significantly higher rate than white pedestrians.

Join a conversation with Councilmember Carroll Fife and Alex Contreras of the D3 Transportation Safety Advisory Committee and learn about how environmental design can make our streets safer for everyone!

One of the basic functions of City Government is maintaining the City’s infrastructure - keeping public streets and sidewalks clean, fixing potholes, making sure that our street lights work, and addressing urgent issues like flooding, sewer overflows, and fallen trees. In 2018, the City introduced the 311 system to make it easier for residents to file infrastructure maintenance requests - but how well is this system working, and how can we make it work better?

Join our Virtual Assembly to get the 411 on 311 from special guests from Oakland's Department of Public Works, and hear from Councilmember Carroll Fife on her work to address infrastructure issues in District 3!

This month, in honor of Women’s History Month, we hosted a conversation with Councilmember Carroll Fife and Melissa Hellums, Executive Director of Serenity House Oakland on the topic of creating real safety for women in Oakland.

This month we discussed tenants’ rights in Oakland with special guests from Moms 4 Housing! We learned about how Just Cause eviction protections work, how tenants rights are enforced by the City government, what resources are available for tenants facing eviction, and the current fight to expand Just Cause protections to the 60,000 tenants in unincorporated areas of Alameda County.

Care 4 Community Action hosted a fundraiser and victory party at Kinfolx Coffee to celebrate the recent passage of Measure Q, which will authorize the construction of 13,000 low-rent units in the City of Oakland!