Organizing for Change

EBAYC works with parents, youth, local merchants and neighbors to create positive and lasting change in our community.

Affordable Housing at Brooklyn Basin

The Brooklyn Basin development project has been in the works for over a decade, with the aim of transforming a parcel of neglected waterfront property into a housing a retail development. In 2006, the Brooklyn Basin Community Housing Coalition, comprised of EBAYC, Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), Oakland Community Organizations | PICO, and Urban Strategies Council, first began organizing with community members to push the City of Oakland to ensure that affordable housing would be included and local hiring practices would be instilled.

After many setbacks, the city reached a contract with the developer MidPen Housing, committing the project to creating 465 affordable housing units (comprising 15% of all housing units at the development) and to creating local, union construction jobs.

Kids First in Oakland and Sacramento

EBAYC, in partnership with PUEBLO, West Oakland Violence Prevention Project, Centro de Juventud and Youth Alive, organized the “Kids First Coalition,” and won a ballot measure in 1996 that required the City of Oakland to set aside 2.5% of its unrestricted revenue to support services and programs for children and youth. Known today as the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, this measure provides over $14 million each year for kids.  Oakland Kids First has inspired similar successful measures in San Francisco and Richmond, and EBAYC is proud to be a part of the Sacramento Kids First Coalition to bring a similar measure to Sacramento voters in 2020.

Measure N: College and Career Readiness for All

Every child deserves a high quality education that supports his success and to graduate from high school.  Oakland students historically have had much lower graduation rates than those from surrounding areas. In 2012, EBAYC addressed this disparity by co-authoring Measure N, The College and Career Readiness for All Act, which provides $10 million per year for ten years for Oakland high schools to reduce the dropout rate and increase graduations through a parcel tax. Together with our partners Oakland Community Organizations and Great Oakland Public Schools, EBAYC’s team of interns, staff, and community members spent over 650 combined hours on the phones, reaching out to over 65,000 voters. An overwhelming 76% of Oakland voters passed Measure N and its impact has already been felt.