*Rules & Legislation Committee on 2025-12-18 10:30 AM - Dec 18, 2025

Transcript

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Hello everyone and welcome to this edition of Oak Talks, our very own opportunity to

create a platform for Oakland small business community to talk about their hopes, their

dreams, their challenges and aspirations for running businesses here in the city of Oakland.

I'm your host today, I'm Kristi Johnson-Limon, I'm the Deputy Director of Economic and Workforce

development here and welcome to Cape Top Studios. So today we're going to be hearing from three

locally owned independent businesses in Oakland. Why does that matter? Well, because businesses

are the heart and soul of our city. Here in Oakland, we are a small business town in the town.

Almost 100 percent, I would say about 93 percent of businesses here in Oakland are run by families,

by independent business owners and so they are a core part of why we call Oakland Oakland and so

I'm glad you're here with us today. I also want to thank our partners the Oakland Fund for Public

Innovation. What they've done is they have embedded we're calling cultural strategists

into city government and so today's oak talks series was brought to you by our cultural strategist

who is the owner of the Bay Area Organization of Black-Owned Businesses, Bayobob. And with that,

I want to welcome Yvette Holtz over here to give you a little bit more information about

our cultural strategist than what you're going to hear today. Please welcome Yvette Holtz.

Thank you, Christy. It is amazing to see all these beautiful faces in the audience today. I'm

so happy y'all are here and I also just really honor the opportunity to work with EWD and your

team, Chrissy, it's been amazing and if it hadn't been we wouldn't be able to

have birth this amazing program. Oak Talks is really the response to the

question how do we get qualitative information about the life and

experience of small business in Oakland? And in my opinion the best way to do

that was to ask them directly and to give them the opportunity to really

speak and be heard and not just listened to but heard and and that's what

oak talks is and today as Christie said we have three speakers our first is a

business owner who's rooted and deep East Oakland a homeowner a business

owner and a community engaged person who is doing work with youth and also with

retail that is bringing a message to Oakland.

Chauncey Jackson is the founder, owner of Oakland Don't Play.

And if you would please join me in welcoming her to the stage.

Good morning. Thanks.

Thank you guys for coming today.

As you said, I am Chauncey Jackson.

Oakland Don't Play is actually in my backyard.

We are a short walk from the Coliseum.

So I started Oakland Don't Play in 2020.

Oakland Don't Play was a rise to a lot of gentrification

and discrimination that we had started to see in Oakland.

2020, we had the Barbecue Becky incident

and a lot of other things like that

with the proud boys walking around Oakland.

And we said, Oakland don't play that.

Stuff like that doesn't happen here.

Nationally, we're used to seeing things like that,

but not here.

So Oakland Don't Play was my way of putting out a message

on clothing to let people know, this is not how we rock.

We put out some pretty controversial in your face designs,

denouncing white supremacy

and also highlighting our blackness.

But the city said they wanted more.

They wanted more things from us, more designs

and that's what we did.

In 2022, we opened our storefront in our backyard.

And our storefront also doubles as a event space.

So we host parties

and do a lot of different things for our community.

Some of the events that we do are backpack giveaways,

where we're able to provide over 100 backpacks

and free haircuts for children.

We also do Halloween parties, Easter egg hunts,

and things like that.

As you can see, we have the firefighters

and we have other community groups come in

so that the people in our community

can build bridges with the people that are serving us, right?

We believe that Oakland don't play if we invest in the youth

and our community that eventually those kids

are going to grow up

and those kids are going to be a part of the change.

And then if our community knows each other,

then if something's happening outside,

I can call my neighbor.

I know the guy across the street.

I know our store man, right?

So our events help cultivate that community.

Despite all the great things that we do at Oakland on Play,

there will be people who never get to experience it.

There will be people who never see Oakland

the way that I see Oakland.

Because we're in deep East Oakland,

and this is what it looks like around the corner.

All these pictures I took on my walk.

I walk my dogs every morning.

We walk up 85th, pass the 81st Library,

make a right on San Leandro Boulevard,

make a right at the Coliseum, and we head home.

This is disgusting.

It's unsanitary.

It's scary for somebody who's not from Oakland,

but I'm from here.

and I know what Oakland is, and I know what Oakland can be.

But when people are coming for these different events

at the Coliseum, they don't know our background.

They've only heard the things on social media or the news,

the negative things about Oakland.

And when they see this trash, it's a confirmation.

Obviously, would you want to walk with your kids

down this street after a ballgame, right?

So the people who are all this foot traffic

that's coming to the Coliseum,

coming through the bar station,

we'll never see it.

Yeah, obviously this is a deterrent

for sales and things like that,

but it's also unfair to the people

who live in these communities.

I shouldn't have to pack my dogs up

and go to Alameda or go to San Leandro,

Marina for a clean, peaceful walk.

Most people go for a jog in their neighborhoods.

I do, but most won't.

In addition to the trash, we have the abandoned cars.

Those abandoned cars attract crime.

People with mental health and substance abuse issues

are coming scavenging for parts.

Do you think they're stopping at that vehicle

once they're in our neighborhoods?

So for the people who are in the community,

we are affected by this.

But if I was a tourist,

I wouldn't park my rental car on this street either.

So as I spoke about, these are some of the things

that are impacting us, right?

And when you see things like that,

it gives us additional,

a loss of confidence in our city.

We're paying taxes, we're paying waste management,

but yet this is happening.

I know you guys get it, dumping is an issue.

It's preventing tourism.

is preventing our economy from growing.

And we have a great opportunity with the Coliseum corridor.

But what could we do about it?

I do wanna say that I'm sure there are people in this room

who are a part of initiatives and have tried things.

And I wanna say thank you.

I've been in Oakland all my life.

So I know that this deep East Oakland trash situation

is not new.

I've seen things tried.

And today I just wanna propose a couple ideas.

There are amazing things that the city already offers,

like free dumping.

Once a month, you go to the dump, it's free.

I want you guys to think outside the box to consider,

even an initiative like that, that's great.

But that's assuming that people have vehicles

to get to the dump.

What about the people who can't get there?

And I'm not talking about the unhoused population.

There are people without vehicles.

In addition to that, there could be a situation

where a family of five is in a one bedroom apartment

and there's a very small can.

If they have any celebration or engagement,

their trash can is over flown.

When your trash is over flown,

waste management will not pick up the trash.

They just skip on past it.

So I just want you guys to think outside the box

when we're thinking about the people who are dumping

and the initiatives that can be put in place.

And I would like to say,

on these walks with my dogs,

there is a lot of this trash that is construction related.

Unhoused people aren't painting houses.

They're not coming with these couches.

So I don't know if, you know,

I know when we plan parties and we request permits,

we have to provide a plan to say,

hey, this is what we're gonna do with our recycles.

This is what we're gonna do with our trash.

Is there something like that in place for developers?

I'm not sure.

My apologies for not doing my research if it is.

But these are the things we have to consider.

311 is another amazing initiative that the city has.

You see a abandoned car, you see trash, you call 311.

They send a dispatcher.

The next day is gone, I mean, it's kudos to anybody

who's a part of that initiative, it works great.

But can we be proactive?

We have the data from the high dumping areas.

Can we add dumpsters to those areas?

Can we maybe take one of the drivers from the route

and just have them just dump those cans?

Maybe oversimplifying it,

but I don't really think we have much to lose.

Some may say it's gonna welcome more trash.

I'm not sure they can get any worse than that.

So today I want to encourage you all

to think outside the box.

If there is a way for us to be proactive

in some of these situations, let's try it.

There are people who live in these communities.

It's not just industrial.

There are people who walk their dogs.

I've met a lot of my neighbors on morning walks.

I see a lot of people walking their children,

walking past trash or walking in the street.

And we know walking in a crosswalk in Oakland is not safe.

Thank you guys.

I appreciate it.

If there are any questions,

I'll be happy to take questions.

The real reason why I even decided to stand up,

because I just wanted to say shout out to you.

you went through whatever you'd have been through in the town,

like everything.

And you still dreaming, you still thinking transformation.

What makes you tick?

What makes you continue to believe?

Man, that's a good question.

I love Oakland.

I love Oakland a lot.

Oh goodness, don't start.

But I really love my city and I know what,

I'm 34 years old and I knew what it was.

And I have an older sister who's in the audience

and she talks about like the lake,

when the lake used to have the big concerts.

And I remember going to Anne 1,

when Anne 1 used to come to the Coliseum

and the silver bowl being at the Coliseum and it was safe.

Like it was always Oakland,

but it was safe enough for us to be able to ride our bikes

or walk to parties.

We used to walk from seminary to like 85th.

I think about that now.

And it's like, I have a son that's six years old.

And I want him to be able to experience

the Oakland that I experienced.

I have family that's migrating out of the state

because, you know, they want to get bang for their buck

and they don't want to have to fight with the crime.

And I'm invested.

I don't want to move out.

And later on, years later,

they're talking about Metropolitan Oakland.

You know, and we, you know, and I'm on the outside now.

it's worth it, and I'm willing to thug it out

and take an opportunities like this to speak,

you know, and come up with ideas.

I mean, literally we talk about this stuff all the time.

So.

I hear everything you say and I hear about your business,

homework, got a lot of great stuff going on.

Congrats to you.

Have you ever thought about politics in Oakland?

Yes. I mean, I've thought about the idea. I met some amazing people in politics. Truba

Reed was a council person, but my council person who showed up and showed up to our

backpack giveaways and showed me the politicians are real people. I feel like Oakland is a

a real place and it needs real people to be making decisions for us so at some

point maybe but I feel like is in the meantime I will be a resource and be

utilized by officials I'm like ear to the street I could be the first line of

defense. Thank You Shanti that's amazing thank you so much I know it takes a lot

to stand up and present like that.

And I also want folks to know how much work

the speakers really have put in to being present today.

I mean, we put out a call who would like to speak

to an audience of city staffers, department directors,

and electeds on issues related to your business.

And we got a great response, but at the same time,

it is something that takes time and effort.

We have at least four meetings with our speakers

prior to the Oak Talks talk.

And we really hope to identify the message

and the point that's attempting to be made.

And in this case, not just attempting,

but actually being made.

So, Ashe is for real.

Thank you so much.

Okay folks, I'm just waiting for K-top to share my screen.

On this screen, so you have that available as well.

We have fancy transcription also available.

There's that.

Let me try to go into presentation mode.

So this is a little bit bigger.

Okay. That is not that very, not too large. Okay. So we are at quorum. So I just want

to get us started. Welcome to our new commissioners. This is our first meeting as our 2.0 commission.

And the last meeting we had was June of 2025. So it's been quite a while. I'm happy to

to have you all here today.

What I would note is that we do have one of our commissioners

who is using AB 2449, just cause, to participate.

And so that's Marcy Whitebook.

Marcy, if you can wave to us really quickly.

Awesome, thank you so much.

Oh, now they're just going fast.

Okay, I'm gonna do an overview of the agenda really quickly

to get us going.

Our presenters will be going first.

Normally I would have had the Children's Initiative

oversight and then our presenters

but in the interest of time and the number of staff

that we have here today.

I just wanna be mindful and courteous of that.

So we do have our welcome which we are just going through

a roll call so I'm gonna do that so everyone online.

We have a few, about 10 attendees at this moment in time,

so let them know who's in the room.

We'll have a review of the values.

We'll do more in the children's initiative overview,

but they'll normally be done in the beginning.

Open forum, presentations from our implementation partners,

First Five and Oakland Promise.

And then we'll do an overview of the children's initiative

as a whole to get you sort of grounded,

get any natural questions that you have about the work,

and then get us into the new year,

because there'll be lots of information

that we'll be sharing at this particular point in time.

Does anybody have any questions at this point?

Okay, what I'm going to do is just

call the roll at this particular point.

Let me not do that, let me stop sharing

for just a second.

And so, I'm gonna call the roll.

First up is Commissioner Edgar Rodriguez-Ramirez.

Present, and my apologies.

I will have to step away for a little bit,

but I will be back.

Thank you, Edgar.

Commissioner Emma Batten-Bohn.

Present.

Thank you.

Commissioner Kim Johnson.

Present.

Thank you, Commissioner Lisa Truong.

Present.

Thank you, Commissioner Marcy Whitebook.

If you can unmute, Marcy, that would be great.

Okay, we see we see her online so we won't take that as a present. Yeah. Thank you. Commissioner, Maria, Suho. Thank you. Commissioner, Michelle New Parkinson.

Thank you. Commissioner Natalia Rios.

Thank you commissioner Peter Haveland-Edouard thank you Commissioner Priya

Jagannathan present thank you Commissioner Ricky Jackson not here

Commissioner Sam Davis thank you and Commissioner Sussan Perrelliett

thank you so much okay awesome get back to sharing this even though you saw that

already. Okay. So as I mentioned, we're going to do a presentation of each one of our implementation

partners. So as you might have read through the charter, we are required to have outside

entities who actually manage the funds, one for early education and the other one for

college access supports. They've been doing a tremendous job in this initial development

of the initiative and so let them present a little bit about who they are as an organization

and a little bit of the highlights of the work that has been happening with the initiative.

I ask that you write down your questions at this particular point in time because I'm

going to try to manage our time as best as possible and we'll wait to the finish and

allow about 15 minutes for each one of our implementation partners to field some questions

for you as a whole.

Okay, any questions?

All right, without further ado,

our Early Education Fund implementation partner

is First 5 Alameda County,

and I will have you bring up your team

and get us going, thank you.

Hi everyone, nice to see you.

I'm Kristen Spanos, I'm the CEO for First 5 Alameda County.

I wanna start by appreciating

your participation and leadership on the OCI commission.

It's a fantastic investment for our kids and young people

and families in Oakland and I look forward to partnering

with each of you and I know the staff does

in making sure that we make the best and most use

of the funding.

So we're gonna provide an overview.

So on the next slide, I don't know if I'm controlling it.

Just to give you a brief highlight.

So we're gonna cover a bit about who we are,

a little bit more about what we do.

high level as it relates to their two ballot initiatives, both what's Measure AA or the

Oakland Children's Initiative and Measure C, and then close with an overview related

to specifically the OCI or Early Education Fund.

I'm going to be accompanied by Chief Program Officer Iano Agawa and then our Oakland Children's

Initiative Officer Kavya Gai.

slide. So on the next one, just to highlight, we've been beginning our presentations, noting

kind of since the origin of Prop 10 and it feels particularly poignant at this moment

given the tragic news that happened over the weekend with the loss of Rob Reiner and his

wife Michelle. And really I lift this up both in terms of recognizing what the intent of

the first fives were from the beginning,

but within the context of it was his vision and his legacy.

As it relates to the intention around an early childhood,

we have a really fragmented, woefully underfunded system

in this country, and that's true for California,

and that's true for Alameda County.

And there was this vision of creating

a more coordinated network and system

as it relates to this really important time,

both in a child's development and a family's development.

and also the great work that's done across systems.

And so this is actually the original language

in the legislation as it relates to first fives.

Next slide.

So within Alameda County, we've had the good fortune,

one, of having a really high performing first five.

I've been with the organization for 10 years

and I inherited really the great work

that's been done since 1998.

I often talk about our work within the context

of a place, people, policy framework.

And that when you think about an early childhood system,

the elements of investments are both

within the context of place,

because we know that community wellbeing

is directly tied to child wellbeing,

within the context of parent partnership.

So we do things like fatherhood initiative

and lactation support.

The idea of health and wellbeing.

So there's been expansion as it relates

to care coordination.

and then early learning,

we're gonna spend a lot of the conversation today

talking about the expansion of early care and education.

And all of this is done within the context

of both racial and economic equity,

with the centerfold being the investments that we're doing

are supporting readiness for kindergarten.

Next slide.

So within the context, oftentimes,

as we're talking about building out

and evolving the early childhood system,

There's been lots of conversation around the ECE landscape,

including kind of what are the conditions currently

for children and families within Alameda County.

And one of the hallmark kind of stats

is that since 2008, we've been ready,

we've been measuring school readiness,

of which it hovered around 40% or 60% of the kids,

if you go in the, you know,

kind of the adverse side of things,

are not ready for kindergarten.

us, much like the rest of the country, we saw a dip with COVID where it dropped to about 33 percent.

And the reason why this is important is when you think about, think through the longitudinal

impacts as we think about readying for school is within the context of when you look at the children

in third grade and sixth grade, those who are not entering ready, four out of the five are not at

grade level for third grade and for sixth grade for reading and numeracy and

that's held true with our local data. We looked because this has been happening

the assessments have been going on since 2008 when we looked at the local data

for Oakland children and for Heywood children we saw the same pattern four

out of the five were not ready and so what we know when we look at the data

related to third grade and to sixth grade they're predictors of lifelong

educational achievement and earnings and well-being. So we all know, this is to

kind of wrap it up, that these investments are incredibly crucial. That

we, yes, investments throughout the context of, you know, the life course is

important, but early investments are critical. And the idea of catch-up just

simply doesn't happen without really intentional well-resourced systems and

and strategies of which we struggle to support that throughout the whole course of our public

system.

So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Ayano who's going to talk a little bit specifically

about our programming and then we'll focus on OCI.

Thanks, Kristin.

Hi, commissioners.

Ayano, gala, cheap programs, it's great to see you all.

So if we could go to the next slide, or I can also transition.

As Kristen shared, our programming and systems building really spans across a few areas.

It's health and well-being, family, neighborhoods, and early learning and care.

And so the next few slides, I'm going to go through each of these pillars.

So starting with health and well-being, since pediatric clinics are families' earliest and

most consistent touch point, they are a powerful entry into reaching and supporting families

with young children.

So we have this pediatric care coordination strategy

that connects families to pediatric preventive care,

medically necessary services, community supports.

And we do this through two nationally recognized models,

Help Me Grow and Project Dulce.

And they really allow families in the county

to receive developmental screenings,

navigation, and concrete supports.

All this work is embedded in the county's

healthcare safety net through strong partnerships

with the local managed care plan.

Alameda Alliance for Health.

In fact, this year we did transition

to become a Medi-Cal contractor for our Help Me Grow work.

And so that really allows us to ensure financial stability

and sustainability of our services.

Some of the areas of connection with the OCI partners

around this pillars include First Five actually sits

on the Head Start's quarterly advisory committees

for health and well-being.

In terms of with connections around OUSD,

we support the ASQ, the ages and stages questionnaire

online account that OUSD families use.

We also engage with their navigators to encourage referrals.

And then we do have a longstanding relationship

and partnership with Oakland Promise.

We were actually in the strategic plan process

and the inception of Brilliant Baby,

which I'm sure you'll hear more about.

And so that was, you know, several years ago

and that partnership has evolved.

So I'm going to go ahead and

share some of the things that

we've worked closely on

Brilliant Baby and Dulce, as

well as ensuring that Brilliant

Baby referrals go to Help Me

Grow, too.

So there are some connections

around there.

If we go to the next slide,

family, we know children thrive

when parents are supported.

They're stable.

They have opportunities to lead.

And so we have this parent

partnership strategy.

And as Kristin mentioned, this

initiative we've partnered directly actually with Head Start and OUSD over

the years to conduct trainings for staff to support family engagement or

fatherhood engagement activities and also Kevin Bremond who is the co-founder

of fatherhood at First Five he does serve on the Head Start Advisory Board. I

also wanted to mention we also meet families concrete needs for example we

have invested in county partners on diapers including Hamo and supply bank

And as part of this effort, again, First5 has connected a brilliant baby, an Oakland

promise to become a distributor just recently for 25 cases per month of four diapers and

wipes.

And so we're very excited for that partnership as well.

Moving on to neighborhoods.

We know children's outcomes are really shaped by where they grow up, where they live, where

they get access to services and trusted relationships, community leadership.

So over the past seven years, we have invested in a place-based initiative called Neighborhoods

Ready for School, and across four sites you see on the slide there, three of which are

in Oakland.

And this work really enhances families' connections through navigation, play groups, parent leadership,

parent child supports, and did want to note that some of these sites also encourage and

have supported families in TK and kindergarten enrollment at OUSD schools.

And then finally, early learning and care.

We know that this is a cornerstone of the early childhood system.

Our work has included quality counts, which provides quality improvement supports for

early care and education providers.

This really leverages both state and local funding.

We also have an ECE apprenticeship pilot program.

This has been through braided funding with philanthropy, social services, Prop 10, and

then of course the administration and oversight of Oakland Children's Initiative, which we're

here for for the education early education account and then for a

measure C which you'll hear a little bit more from Kristin. So really as an

implementer for OCI, first five we have been using multiple fiscal levers to

maximize our impact whether it's leveraging state or local or public or

private funds so really excited to be in this position to deliver impact for the

community. So I will pass it back to Kristin. So on the next slide and I

I will just note in terms of as Ayana was giving the overview and I felt, well, I indicated

that we have a place, people, policy framework.

Oftentimes I find it, it's challenging and I welcome the feedback to describe the work

that we do really succinctly because and sometimes we can be a funder.

Sometimes we're doing direct program administration.

Other times we're a convener and many times we're a policy advocate.

So there's many different roles and hats that First Five can play.

And then in this case, we're the contractor of the county, then working with the two public

institutions to get the funding out the door.

So just to name it, in terms of in Alameda County, and Oakland is positioned very uniquely

right now in the nation, that there are two ballot initiatives.

The Oakland Children's Initiative was passed in 2018, and as you know, immediately faced

litigation but came out successful. We also have Measure C which was an

initiative that was voted on in 2020 and also faced litigation and came out

successful. But I often talk in the prior slide just to set the expectations

because it sounds like a lot of money. So there's a hundred and fifty million

annually as it relates to Measure C and roughly about 30 million for Oakland

specifically, but when you dimension the needs in early childhood because it's been woefully

underfunded and has a level of fragmentation and scarcity, if you go to the prior slide,

Jen, we took time ahead of time because we wanted to really set the expectations for

the community and for leadership and dimensioned what we thought were the costs if you looked

out kind of the annual needs in a county within the context of this new money coming in.

So if you think about access in terms of subsidies for care, if you think about wages and pulling

wages up in the early care and education system, if you think about the workforce needs, the

average age for the early educator is 55.

So we have both a recruitment and a retention issue.

And then if they look at the facilities needs, it's roughly about a billion dollar annually

is what it would take to fully fund early care and education in Alameda County.

And we have roughly 150 million county-wide and an additional 30 million specifically

to Oakland.

So it's substantial and it can have incredible impacts, but it is not going to meet all the

needs, but it's a step forward as we think about kind of how we fully fund it.

So on the next slide, it's just a highlight. Oftentimes people are

wondering like what's the difference between AA and C. AA is a local city

measure, C is a county measure, AA is a parcel tax, and that's one for the city

of Oakland. It's 30 years, Measure C is 20 years, and it's a half percent sales

tax. First five is the named administrator in Measure C. In AA we are a contractor

with the city. So on the next slide. So just to highlight in terms of some of the

you know the role the first five plays as it relates to OCI you know as I

indicated in terms of serving largely as a fiscal intermediary so supporting the

reporting and budgeting. I'm certainly working to align with the ordinance and

in the line with Oakland Promise and then also to support standards within the initiative

in the program development itself, and then really looking around system building.

So things like data sharing agreements, the contracting, really kind of thinking beyond

programmatic about how do we institutionalize and create long-standing infrastructure for

these funds, both in the current year but also in the many years to come.

So with that I'm going to turn it over to Kavya who's going to speak specifically as

it relates to investments that have been made and also with a look ahead as we think about

the vision and next steps.

Thank you Kristin and good evening commissioners.

Next slide please.

Thank you.

As part of our role in systems convening we have engaged national consultants and school

readiness consulting and through this process have brought together OCI leadership from

in the City of Oakland, OUSD, as well as First Five,

over a series of four facilitated meetings

to strengthen alignment, as well as implementation.

At Mayor Lee's request, First Five developed a vision

and strategic roadmap with input from all partners.

And as part of this process, we have buy-in and commitment

from the mayor and city leadership on the vision

to address our challenges,

as well as streamline city processes

to be more supportive of OCI.

The mayor has also requested to review recommendations

on major capital investments in coordination

with the OSD superintendent.

First five will be using the results of this process

to guide our work moving forward,

such as convening quarterly meetings of the system's leaders,

as well as supporting uptakes for the recommendations

that SRC shared.

Next slide, please.

So as the room is well aware, while there

has been significant investment in early childhood education,

there is a deep, unmet need that still exists.

We estimate that there are over 2,700

eligible three and four-year-olds that still do not

have access to the high-quality affordable care that they need.

Families are navigating a landscape

where the cost of child care is now exceeding the cost of housing.

Educators are aging and struggling to earn a living wage.

And we know that underinvestment in the early education system

has led to a siloed and fragmented system.

Next slide, please.

OCI systems leaders have articulated a vision

grounded in the legislation to meet this very moment.

The vision is one where all three and four-year-olds

in Oakland have access to affordable high-quality preschool,

which starts with prioritizing those in families

with low incomes.

Next slide, please.

To achieve this vision, we are advancing four interconnected goals.

The first is around expanding access to meet the enrollment gap.

The second is improving the quality of early learning environments.

The third is elevating the early childhood workforce.

And the fourth is strengthening the system overall.

Next slide, please.

In our role, first five is looking closely at fiscal as well as programmatic data

to conduct our analysis and make recommendations for OCI.

we're looking at things like budget to actuals,

enrollment data, cost per child,

that we look forward to sharing with you at future meetings.

Here we can see that in the first three years

of implementation, not only have budgets

for the early education fund increased,

but also budget utilization,

which signals growing system capacity,

as well as the ability to spend.

We're also seeing in tandem an uptick in enrollments

with the potential to reach universal preschool access

for three and four year olds if investments

and enrollments continue at this pace.

Next slide please.

In terms of some of the investment highlights

across these goals, just wanted to share a few

and preview that these will be coming up

in future presentations as well.

For access, we have invested in ECE facilities

expansion citywide through new and proposed ECE centers

that when total together add capacity

for over 400 children in the city.

In terms of quality, we are seeing things like

OUSD upgrading their ECE facilities for all sites

with things like new roofs, play yards, air filters,

cool fences, et cetera.

We're also seeing investments in inclusion

and family support that strengthen comprehensive services

as well as special education needs in classrooms.

Next slide, please.

So in terms of where children are enrolled,

We are looking at how our enrollments are spread

by geography, how this correlates to need

as measured by poverty levels,

and are also refining methods so that we can see

where the investments are being mapped by geography.

Next slide, please.

In addition to not only looking at the number of enrollments

and how these are split up by system,

we also have a good understanding of who these children are.

So on the next slide, you can see we have cuts for the data

across age, race, priority population, gender,

that we look forward to sharing with you

in our February presentation.

Next slide.

So moving on to our next two goals.

In terms of workforce, we have made significant investments

towards new staffing, targeted professional development,

enhanced curriculum, and materials.

to elevate some of our systems highlights

that my colleagues have spoken about.

We are building and continue to build robust infrastructure,

which includes things like multi-year contracts,

data sharing agreements, enhanced reporting processes

that allow us to do the analysis

we need to inform OCR recommendations.

We are also leveraging existing ECE funding

through investments that First Five is making

across quality, fatherhood, neighborhoods,

as well as what our partners are doing

so that every additional dollar that OCI brings

has maximized impact.

And as my colleagues mentioned, we

have an ongoing collaboration with OP

and looking at closely how we are integrating

our programs further.

Lastly, thank you.

So as we mentioned before, the recommendations

from the school readiness consulting facilitated process

are informing several of our next steps in OCI.

I won't go through each of these,

but a few highlights over here are,

one, that the system's leaders are committed

to now meeting quarterly to strengthen alignment,

implementation, and problem solved together.

The second is the vision and the implementation roadmap

that I just shared will be used for guiding our next steps,

including things like funding decisions

by developing a rubric, implementation priorities,

as well as systems level coordination.

As a collective, we are committed to ensuring

that OCI remains responsive and grounded

in the shared vision and goals that we have articulated.

With that, our presentation on behalf of first five

comes to a close, but we will open it up for questions.

It's a lot of information, which is why we ask

that you review prior to coming here

because the time will go fast.

Deep appreciation again to First Five and the team

for putting this together and sharing this information.

I want to open it up for a few minutes

to ask some questions.

We can only have three mics on at a time.

I will remind you to make sure that you press the button

in front of you that it is green.

And then to turn it off once you are done.

That would be great.

Commissioner Kim, I feel like you are,

Feel like it's like family feuds, ready to...

Do you have a question?

I do.

Commissioner Johnson, I have a question about the systems leader table, and so is that made

up of City of Oakland, OUSD, and First Five only, or are there other participants on that

table?

I also participate in those meetings, and in the facilitated discussion with SRC, we

We also had representation from the city administrator's office and the mayor's office for that session.

And that is where the planning is happening in terms of what services will be?

No, we had a, and I'll welcome first five to also provide some insights.

But the discussion was, I mean, these are huge system partners that we're talking about.

And so there has been just like lots to consider and build in that framework.

So that was an opportunity to do some alignment

and get some agreements across the board

to better more efficiently

and effectively move this work forward.

We still need to debrief the recommendations from SRC.

So there's still more work at that particular team.

Kim, Jen said it well, Commissioner Johnson.

So the ordinance prioritizes the two public systems

And the early implementation partner

is to negotiate capacity with those two system partners.

And one of the things in terms of,

as you're going through kind of formal presentation,

I can't emphasize enough how fluid,

which I think you all know,

the local policy landscape has been

within the context of the rollout of both with OUSD

and with the city of Oakland.

We've had newsworthy changes that have been underway.

And so you have massive, not just a couple hundred thousand,

not just a couple million,

but tens of millions of dollars of new funding

coming forward and an incredibly woefully

underfunded landscape.

And so I think that there's been remarkable investments

that have been made, including the increased enrollment

as it relates to three and four year olds.

that was, that Kavya noted,

as well as investments in training and teachers

and even capital infrastructure.

But as, and I think of both OCI and Measure C

as a multi-year decade kind of system build,

there's a need for those big complex systems

to be in conversation with each other.

So, and we've gotten to the point

where there needed to be a facilitated conversation

with a new mayor, around how the city is envisioning

kind of the use of these new resources,

and then with a new superintendent,

and new kind of city administration body,

as well as changes that are happening within Head Sur,

because of what's happening on the federal level.

So it was intended to have real structured,

facilitated conversations around

the public system building of this.

But all of this is intended to be informed

by community, this commission and other bodies.

Hence the four listening sessions that happened

at the end of last year as well as continuing

to think of how to leverage the input

that both Oakland Headstar and OUSD have in their own systems

and how they're engaging parents and providers

to inform the investments going forward.

Go for it.

I have three questions.

I want to first thank the first five staff.

This is a really complex body of work

that you summarize really succinctly,

and it gives indication of the depth and breadth of what you

do, so thank you for that.

My first question is when you were talking about the $1

billion dollar need and then the measure C and OCI amounts, is there a sense of how

much of the 150 million for measure C is coming to Oakland or is that something that will

come later?

So that was why maybe I'll go through all of my questions and then you can determine

how to answer them.

That's my first question.

My second one is looking at the numbers of children served.

that there is a big jump in the Oakland Head Start number, so good to see that, but wanted

to know kind of the explanation for that. It's a big jump from 16 to 185, and so just

wanted to uplift that that I know was concerning in the past, and it seems to be an improvement,

so wanted to uplift that and see if you had anything to share about those numbers. And

Then, I think this is similar to the question that Kim asked,

but the co-creation of a strategic vision and roadmap,

is there opportunity for ongoing community input

into that process?

So I'll start in reverse, and then I'll have colleagues join.

So as I indicated, the intention is

that there's continued build out and evolution

as it relates to input.

I think that that's the expectation both for first five.

I hope that measure C is an example of how that can be done

and that we've demonstrated as an entity

our interest and capacity in doing so.

And I think that that's a priority

of the accountability officer as well.

With regard to the numbers,

you were asking specifically related to Head Start.

Did I hear that correctly?

I will answer a little bit

and then I'm actually gonna ask Laura Shrader,

who's the head of data and evaluation to speak.

So the first two years,

those were numbers reported tied to the three locations

that were funded 100% with OCI funding.

So if you recall, when we came into rolling out OCI,

there had been three sites

that have been slated for closure.

Council voted to keep three sites open.

That was Arroyo, Franklin, and Tassafaranga.

So the numbers that you're seeing in the first two years

were the numbers that Head Start reported

specifically just for those sites

because those sites were funded 100% with OCI funding.

Since then, as part of the system building,

that there's been work around gathering all of the kids

that were impacted as it relates to OCI investment.

And so that increased number extends beyond,

as I understand it, not just the sites, those three sites,

but kids and other entities.

Great.

Hello, commissioners.

Great to see you.

I'm Laura Schrader.

I'm the director of data and evaluation at First Five Alameda.

And one of the questions was around the impact

to Oakland of some of the recent funding.

And so with that, we are estimating about 27 million

impact for FY2526 for Oakland as it

relates to the emergency grants that were recently

put out to the community.

The change from the Head Start numbers.

The increase.

Oh yes, thank you.

So I was looking for those numbers.

Oh, thank you.

Yes, so what you are seeing here,

just as Kristen was saying, part of the increased number

is because of the work that we've been doing

in partnership with City of Oakland Head Start

to improve data sharing.

So in the first year, we were looking at three sites

that were funded completely by OCI funds,

but really the money that we're investing

is a systems-wide support for City of Oakland Head Start,

and so in more recent years,

you're seeing the system-wide across the system enrollment.

So, if there's something we can ask.

Yeah.

One more important data nugget.

I'm Ejili Meneses.

Good afternoon, commissioners.

I'm the EC director here for First Five.

As we picture this data story about the increase

of numbers of Cedar Oakland Head Start,

it's also important to note that the increase

of number of children served across the system

has to do with also expansion of services,

like number of family child care providers

you're serving through a head-star in partnership

with Bananas Child Care Resource and ReferR agency

has to do with the number of FFNs

that they are serving now through home visitation.

And also, so that implicates an increase

of number of children served, okay?

Okay, I wanna do two things.

One, acknowledge we are getting limited on time

because we have to get to our next presentation.

So maybe another two, maybe three questions.

Okay, so Commissioner Batten-Bomann, Commissioner Davis,

and Commissioner Newringinson will take those questions

and then we'll get to the next presentation.

If we have time, we might sort of come back

if that's okay.

And also, if you have any questions

that are not answered during this time,

please send them to me.

We'll get a supplemental document

to get your questions answered.

Thank you.

If I may, just to close out in terms of, so again, this was tied to different types of

reporting and now it's expanded, so you're going to see bigger numbers.

The second has, the very last question that was asked was around the impact in Oakland.

So Measure C has multiple investments.

So it started with emergency grants to family childcare providers and centers.

That's what you heard Laura speak of in terms of as it relates to just that one line item

investment. So for Measure C in the first year, because the tax was imposed four

years ago, we have money in trust, there's a budget of 190 million that were in the

process of getting out the door. So in addition to emergency grants for

providers, there's stipends for family, friend, and neighbor providers that are

actually hitting, I shouldn't say hitting, that are actually going to be out into

community starting this past week of $4,000 stipends. That's coupled

with health and safety cards, gift cards to help people purchase things like cribs and

baby gates, but there's also investments in family serving shelters, there's investments

in family resource centers, we're about to award that funding, there's also a ten million

emergency revolving fund for providers who are at the risk of closure, so there's a number

of different other investments, there isn't an allocation by city that isn't how it was

developed, but the good news is in terms of where in Oakland where you have this measure

that prioritizes OUSD and Oakland Head Start as the two public entities, we have Measure

C that is there that is actually investing in the full mixed delivery system.

So family child care providers, family friend and neighbor, family resource centers are

benefiting from the county-wide measure

to the tune of tens of millions of dollars

within the City of Oakland alone.

Thank you.

Quick question.

I'm unclear what the, I'm very familiar with OUSD,

but what is the COOECFS?

What would be an example of one of those?

That is the City of Oakland Head Start.

They just changed their name to

early education, family and family services.

So there's just been a name change.

So you'll see like a little bit of the transition

since it's what we use previously versus now.

And I also wanna acknowledge Sophia Novaro

who's supporting both our new ECFS

and also the work of the initiative at this time.

Thank you.

And then my second question on the map

with the need of enrollment on slide 22.

You zipped by it quickly,

so I'm not sure I totally understood,

but it looks to me like the darker parts

are in East Oakland,

but the new facilities are in North Oakland

and West Oakland.

Maybe I'm reading that map wrong,

but I was wondering why.

Yes, yeah.

So there's a couple of points over here.

So one is that these children are living in the zip codes

that are in higher need as it relates to poverty.

With the OUSD preschool system,

they take enrollments based on needs.

So children from these zip codes

could be attending other schools

that are out of these zip codes,

and that's not necessarily reflected here.

So for example, like some of the facility investments,

for example, the Sankofa one that we are discussing,

which is in North Oakland, serves children in district one,

but there's also a wide swath of children

that are coming from other districts to that facility.

And as per OUSD's facilities plan,

they're looking at things like which areas have

the highest wait list, which are the schools

that families are most interested in attending.

So that's also sort of factored into here.

So just in terms of by way of visuals, so this is showing.

So where the concentration of families and children

living under the federal poverty on the left-hand side,

and then on the right-hand side shows the concentration

families and children benefiting from OCI investments. So it's trying to show

the correlation of that the money is being invested and the families

benefiting from this investment are tied and consistent with the intention of

the legislation which centered socioeconomics. That makes sense.

Okay Commissioner are you whole with your questions? Okay awesome. Commissioner

Davis. Thanks and thanks for a great presentation. My knowledge is more on the

high school axis so I'm really excited to be learning all about the early

childhood piece and same question about the acronym so that was one of my

questions. Another, well I wanted to also just celebrate actually because I've

been a big advocate for both the Garfield campus and the Sankofa

campus of seeing those investments so my first question was is that all of those

two investments from Oakland children's initiative or some of the measures each

I just say all my questions bless you laundry lift those questions okay yeah

yeah so the first question is is that all measured OCI money or is some of

that measure see the second question just why I think the other two questions

are more towards Jen for like future presentations I might think would be

really great to get that map of where do the underserved children live like

distributed across the city just to get a sense to Commissioner Battenbaum's

question like how is that population distributed oh another question was the

LUSD numbers is that basically just the CDC students plus the TK students or

there are other students in there and then the last question was also

directed it Jen just in terms of Head Start because I also have some of those

questions that were raised just when I see I think it said 43 staff and only

serving 200 students that makes me just wonder you know it's is is there an

expansion plan that's kind of being rolled out where that number is going to

keep on going up and up over the next few years or is that like we're trying

to maintain centers open and in across the city or just to understand kind of

of the strategy and vision for the future of that?

Sure, so I'll start.

So with the Oakland Head Start question,

I think, so we're serving as an intermediary.

The decision to keep, so Head Start has more sites

than just the three sites that are funded solely by OCI.

And that decision was made by council

and by city administration.

And I know through conversation

And even part of the facilitated conversation

was really thinking through what's a vision and the strategy

as you have this new money to then enhance and grow

some of what Agili was mentioning

as you think about the partnership with Early Head Start

and work with a family friend and neighbor.

And the good news is that we have additional resources

to then do the investment building infrastructure

to be able to grow it.

So, to name, we're a partner, but that vision is being said

really kind of outside of,

because I'm an overhead start,

so I just wanna acknowledge that.

The question around Sankofa and Garfield,

so those investments have been under review

and part of the conversation with OUSD,

and it was quite frankly part of the facilitated conversation

with School Readiness Consulting,

those are sizable investments.

And so an understanding of what does it mean to infuse tens

of millions of dollars into a school site that potentially

creates a pipeline that has a broader impact than just

expanding early care and education.

One could argue it's neighborhood revitalization.

It's tied to economic development.

It's tied to workforce pathway.

And that we should take those decisions very seriously

and continue to kind of understand

the elements related to them,

as well as the financing structure.

So there's a question of, do you pay it all at once

or do you amortize it, I think is under consideration.

And then the last question related to the data.

So largely I would say it's tied to the CDCs.

I wanna, I'm gonna look at Laura

to see if it included some TK.

Thank you.

Yep.

And just quickly on the demographics,

you'll get a load of that in our presentations

in January and February on RBA results-based

accountability measures and our investments

for fiscal year 25-26.

Okay, wrap us up.

And if succinct with the answers would be great.

Thank you.

I'll be succinct with a question too.

Hi everyone, Michelle Neuring-Eisen.

I'm really happy to be here.

Also echo the gratitude for the work

and the presentation all your time.

My question is on slide 12, or I'm sorry,

slide 13 as relates to the budget.

I understand that the funding formula is complex

that results in 30 million, approximately,

coming to the city of Oakland,

but curious to know from your sense

if that amount is proportionate

to the amount of children that need served in Oakland

versus the rest of Alameda County,

or whether there's ever been any discussion

of the funding allocation or the formula.

So the slide that you're referring to,

And John, I think that you're looking at it to put it up.

It's actually showing the 150 is for Measure C

and the 30 million is the Oakland Children's Initiative,

which is a separate ballot.

So the 150 is Measure C, the 30 million is OCI.

Got it, thank you.

Yeah, and so again, depending upon the investment

and happy to share the five year plan for Measure C,

but dependent upon the investment,

the allocation methodology shifts.

And this was done in partnership

with a community advisory council

that was written into the ordinance

of Measure C through a participatory process

and adopted by the first five commission

and the Board of Sups.

But we are tracking everything by city

and by Board of Supervisor District

with an I, again, that as Measure C is an ordinance,

much like OCI that was written from an equity lens

and is trying to center the needs

and where concentrated needs and trying to address,

you know, bring in public funding

to support addressing the conditions.

Got it, thank you.

I am sure there's lots more.

Again, write your questions and submit them to me.

We'll get them responded to.

my good folks who support our college access funding

for the Oakland Children's Initiative,

I will shut up and let you take it away.

Hi everyone, I'm happy to be here with you

and I wanna echo what Kristen said before

that I wanna thank you for your public service.

I'm sure there are many other places

we could be right now, but here, but you are here.

So we want to take this opportunity to tell you

about Oakland Promise.

I'm Sandra Ernst, and in the audience is our leadership team

from Oakland Promise.

And the way that we are seeing this presentation today

is slightly different from what you just saw from First Five.

We want to give you an opportunity

to really understand who we are and what we do

and use the January meeting when you

are going to hear more about our data, our numbers,

how much money we spend and what we deliver

in terms of OCI specifically.

You're gonna hear a lot more in January,

but today I wanted to take some time

to tell you more about Oakland Promise.

Next.

So there are three things that I would like to accomplish.

I wanna briefly ground you on who we are and why we exist.

Second, I wanna share how we are delivering on our role

as the college access implementation partner,

and third, give you a sense of where we are headed

and how we are strengthening our system

so that we can deliver on to work

over the full time of the initiative.

The vision of this, our vision and our mission,

back in 2016, this was the idea

that was actually born inside this building,

how Oakland promised the vision was to create an organization

that would have a thriving community

where the children will not have any barriers to education.

And the reason that started then,

the data that the office of the mayor at the time was using

was that 10% of ninth graders in Oakland

were likely to finish post-secondary.

So that meant 90% were not.

So that was the impetus on why this initiative

started back then.

And this work is not being done alone.

Oakland Promise does not see themselves

as the one who know how to do everything

when it comes to college access,

but we work with the community

to make sure that the children in Oakland,

all of Oakland's children have access

to post-secondary education,

because we believe through education,

there's economic mobility.

Next.

And the brief history, I studied in 2016.

We are approaching our 10 year in January.

And so the goal was to engage the community.

And in 2018, the Children's Initiative was passed.

It went to the courts, as you heard Kristin say

a little bit before.

And in 2019, Oakland Promise merged

with an organization called East Bay College Fund.

The East Bay College Fund, from 2016,

was doing the post-secondary college success programming

for Oakland Promise.

And at the time, Oakland Promise was not an organization,

it was not a non-profit, it was a project of the Ed Fund.

So in 2019, merging with East Bay College Fund,

it became a non-profit.

And in 2022, Oakland Promise was selected

as the college access implementation partner

by City Council.

And since then we have been implementing

on the work of the initiative.

And in 2023, Oakland Promise was the first

to receive federal funds when it came

for a full service community school

and we launched East Oakland,

the full service community school specifically

in an area in East Oakland.

And in 2024, Oakland Promise was the first organization

to receive federal funding for a Promise neighborhood.

So currently, Oakland Promise is delivering

on a Promise neighborhood.

It's early, it's, help me, planning grant, yes.

It's a planning grant and hopefully to receive

the full grant if it becomes available again

in, we hope, in 2026.

Next.

So our North Star is that by 2035,

Oakland Promise aim to improve cradle-to-career outcomes

for children in zero to 25.

In specific, the most under-represented,

specifically, to provide high-quality educational pathways

that promote economic and social mobility.

OCI is not a side project for us.

OCI is how we deliver on outcomes for this North Star.

OCI is how that allows us to scale.

So Oakland Promise does not exist to do OCI on one side

and other career-to-career programming.

We exist to ensure that all of Oakland's students

have access to opportunities

towards post-secondary completion.

And we have engaged national partners to help us

to create a vision of what that looks like

for the organization.

Many of you probably know Oakland Promise

as a scholarship organization, or Brilliant Baby.

We hear that a lot, the college savings account.

However, we went through a,

in the last years more specifically,

we went through a visioning process

to really determine how best can we steward these funds,

such as the Promise Neighborhood,

the full service community school, OCI,

to deliver on outcomes.

And the way what we have discovered for our,

what we are putting the stake on the ground

that we are putting on what we are doing now with this work

is that Oakland Promise is a direct service organization,

which is mainly what you thought of us before.

We are a coordinator and a convener,

as well as a grant maker.

If you may have seen that too long ago,

maybe last week or earlier this week,

we have an RFP on how to give

the Oakland Children's Initiative

to other non-profits in Oakland

because we believe the people closest to the work,

other non-profits who are rooted in Oakland,

understand best the needs of the community,

and we work with them to allow that to happen.

Next.

So I just talked about the core functions,

and OCI is allowing us to scale with quality.

We are expanding our infrastructure,

understanding what it takes.

You heard a lot about data sharing agreements before.

You heard a lot about like different delivery,

modes of delivery that first five is talking about.

Thought partnership that we do not only

with our co-implementation partners,

but also with other organization in Oakland

delivering on cradle to career work.

we are using proven creator-to-career outcomes

that already have specific strategies

that are related or specific outcomes

that are already indicated to measure our work.

So we are not doing the work in a silo.

Our work is, we have a playbook

of how the work is accomplished.

And then we do have to evaluate those to see our outcome

and ultimately we want this work to be sustainable.

And when we talk about systems change,

this is what the ultimate outcome of the OCI is.

And we are using a lot of partners to do that.

Not only educational partners, but systems partners,

city, state, federal, as well as corporate partnerships

to manage the work.

And now I'm gonna pass it on to Veena,

our Chief Program Officer.

She's gonna talk a little bit more

about what Cradle to Career outcomes specifically

that we are working on.

Thank you, Sandra.

Good to see everybody.

Veena, Chief Program Officer here at Oakland Promise.

And I'm excited to share a little bit more meat

around how we're thinking about our Cradle to Career work.

Since Oakland Promise started,

we've believed that college is still the best way

out of poverty and that still guides

a lot of the work that you see

that you're gonna see here today.

And again, you'll hear a lot more in January,

but when we think about how we want our students to grow up

and experience a path towards economic mobility,

you see that rooted in preparing them for academic success,

helping them build wealth,

navigate the journey to college, unlike in financial aid,

as well as the financial education needed

to navigate all the life choices along the way

and ultimately set them up for college success.

Like Sandra said, a lot of this is rooted

in how we think about cradle-to-career work

and proven models that we've drawn from across the country

to understand how do we best deliver on this promise

to have our kids growing up in Oakland

complete from college, sorry, complete college.

And so what you see there are three priority

cradle-to-career, so C2C is just cradle-to-career outcomes

and how we are delivering on this work.

So the first one that you see there

is Strengthen Financial Literacy and Asset Building.

So to give you some examples of what is included in that,

that's really the work around helping families

to sign up for College Savings Account.

The work of promoting all of the scholarships

that we give throughout from zero all the way to college.

Thinking about how we stack all of these resources

available to our families so Cal kids that's available to our families and

other public funds and then thinking about how what is the financial

education that we're going to marry with that so that again families and students

know how to navigate the choices on the way to college so those are a couple

examples within that first priority area second priority area is expand access to

high quality educational and workforce development pathways so what's included

And there are things like providing college access

services.

So we fund a number of positions and partners

to provide those college access services at the high school

level.

Included in that is also academic supports that we fund.

And then also the coordinating work

that we're working to continue to build out.

As the first five team has mentioned,

working with them closely to think

about how do we support in that early education lane

and how do we work together.

And then in the last one, you see deepens student

and family navigational support for post-secondary success.

What's included in that are things like one-on-one coaching

for our college students, all of our post-secondary students,

which is about 4,000 that we have

and support enrolled right now, our mentoring services,

and then family engagement programming.

So those are just a couple examples to help put some meat

around those outcome and priorities

of how we're delivering on the work.

And the next slide, yep.

So it's kind of a little bit hard to see,

but I'll kind of point out a couple of things on here.

We really wanted to ground us in

what are some key accomplishments

that as a result of the Children's Initiative Fund,

we've been able to accomplish and do.

So a couple of highlights you see there,

we've been able to award a lot, $12 million

to a lot of different partners and community organizations

across Oakland, helping us to deliver on the work.

So for example, this year I think we are partnering

with 34 different partners to deliver on the work.

Yes, and then a little over 7 million

distributed in scholarships to our students

who are persisting in college right now.

A little over 1 million in college savings account money

distributed to our families.

And then three and a half million

that we've been able to unlock in federal funding

as a result of this work.

And then on the right, I really wanted to point out,

you know, when we think about what our role is

in direct service, coordinating, convening, and grant making

which we've been thinking a lot about

how we as Oakland Promise are uniquely positioned

to make an impact is thinking about is really showing

that we've been able to serve more people over time

and students and families from Oakland

as a result of the Children's Initiative.

So you see highlights there around increase

in number of scholarship funding

that we've been able to give,

increase in number of CSA enrollments.

And then you also see us speaking to the infrastructure

and the systems building

that we've intentionally built across our organization

to both support our partners,

to support us in the grant making process,

to support us in the data collection process.

This term has worked really, really hard

to think about and implement best-in-class services

for how do we support those partners

and really coordinate well across Oakland.

And deeper investments in how we think

about our collaborative work.

So we've been really investing time

in how do we really bring folks together

and how do we resource each other.

And I think you heard that similar theme in first five too

of how do we continue to build upon that work.

So with that, this is the last slide.

And again, in January, you're gonna hear a lot more

about our data and both fiscal and programmatic data

of what we are seeing so far.

So more to come.

With that, I'll turn it over to you all for Q&A.

Thank you.

Deep appreciation to Oakland Promise

for their presentation

and serving as the implementation partner.

This work is vast on both sides of the spectrum.

There's just lots of deep information,

and so this was the light version, if you will.

So I want to open up the floor for questions

related to Oakland Promise's presentation.

Yes.

Thank you again so much for the work that you're doing.

I just had a question regarding particularly

the piece around creditless career outcomes

and college access.

I am curious because I know our state's been doing a lot

in terms of connecting dual enrollment opportunities,

particularly with Vision 2030 and the Governor's Roadmap.

I'm just curious, are there any opportunities

that you see through lines that connect

to maybe some of the grant deliverables

or how you're providing college access

that connected dual enrollment opportunities

for the students in Oakland?

I'll start with that.

Thank you for the question.

Because this is something that's actually very,

will for us right now and we are working with Peralta and OUSD,

specifically on dual enrollment and how it, we were part of another collaborative,

a college complete post-secondary collaborative,

and it was mostly looking at opportunity youth,

which not necessarily students who are going, opportunity youth

are like 16 to 25 kids who don't normally end up

in post-secondary. However, we are changing that table to be

more about career and workforce through dual enrollment.

Basically, and I learned also,

I was telling Kristen my dream of we want our students

in OUSD to leave OUSD with certificates.

And Kristen is like, that exists already at Skyline.

Okay, so we are doing a lot of learning about it right now,

specifically in ECE for the particular program at Skyline.

However, how can we also bring industry

and not just the post-secondary and high school together,

but bring other folks at the table to talk about that

because other places in the country

are doing a really good job on upscaling students.

So when they finish high school,

they can actually go and earn a livable wage.

So that is a priority for us in FY27.

And FY27 starts in June, 2026.

I'll just quickly add on. Thank you for that question. Just quickly add on that because we know and we've been seeing that like two

Thirds of our students don't matriculate into college and we know that that's the population. We want to continue to serve better. That's

What did I say? Oh, sorry two-thirds matriculate one-third that doesn't matriculate

That's one of the reasons why we were continuing to understand how we're gonna better support the students who don't matriculate

So thank you for the question

*Rules & Legislation Committee on 2025-12-18 10:30 AM - Dec 18, 2025

Agenda

2. Approval Of The Draft Minutes From The Committee Meeting Of December 4, 2025

4. Review Of Draft Agendas, Pending Lists, City Council And Committee Meetings

Transcript