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Oakland, California, The Cost of Gun Violence: The Direct Cost to Tax Payers

September 28, 2023

The National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (NICJR) has conducted this detailed analysis that documents the government expenses accompanying every fatal and non-fatal shooting in Oakland. In tracking the direct costs per shooting incident, NICJR has deliberately used the low end of the range for each expense. This study does not include the loss-of-production costs when the victim or suspect were working at the time of the incident. Nationally, those costs have been estimated at an additional $1–2 million for each shooting incident. This means that the calculated cost of $3,191,722 for a fatal shooting in Oakland is a conservative estimate; the real cost is likely even higher.

What We Need to Thrive: A Youth-Led Vision for a Just Alameda County

August 1, 2023

In July of 2021—after decades of organizing by young people and their families—California made a bold decision to close the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). As a result, California counties are now responsible for treating, caring for, and even locking-up young people who would have otherwise been reprimanded to DJJ.To facilitate this realignment, California is distributing over $500 million in grants to local counties, including Alameda. It has been nearly 3 years since these funds began flowing in, but according to young people themselves, they still do not have access to improved services. So we asked ourselves, where is the money going? And perhaps more importantly, we asked the youth: where should these funds be going? What is the county doing since realignment funds first began flowing to Alameda in 2020? Are they receiving the support they need? What services do they prioritize for youth justice in their county? What aspirations do they hold?To find out, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (EBC) and Ceres Policy Research conducted a youth-led, community-driven research project in Alameda County. This project aimed to assess the impacts of the current youth justice system, gathering input from impacted families, youth, and community leaders to build a shared strategic vision for youth justice in Alameda County, and beyond. The results are outlined in this report.

2023 Silicon Valley Pain Index: If Silicon Valley Was a Nation, It Would be Deemed Politically Unstable

June 13, 2023

The purposes of the Silicon Valley Pain Index [SVPI] report are to:  (1) Provide an efficient, easily digestible, statistical overview of structured inequalities to inform policy and practice in "Silicon Valley."(2) Serve to measure Santa Clara County's performance as a "human rights county," which it declared in 2018 in accordance with the International Bill of Human Rights and in accordance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women [CEDAW] in 2023.  (3) Spark collaborations between scholars, students, stakeholders, communities, and policy makers to address inequality and achieve greater human rights practice.Originally inspired by Professor Bill Quigley's Katrina Pain Index following the devastating 2005 hurricane and later by national protests in the wake of the police murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor (2020), the 2020, 2021, and 2022 SVPIs illustrated the persistent racial discrimination in employment, education, and housing as well as the general income/wealth inequality that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to define our region.  In contrast, the 4th Annual (2023) SVPI features new data that highlights the region's persistent inequalities, and the astronomical concentration of wealth into the hands of an incredibly small number of households and companies. As Russel Hancock, President and CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, asserted, "If Silicon Valley were a country, that kind of wealth disparity would be considered politically unstable."

Neighborhood Opportunity and Accountability Board: Youth Development and Diversion Program, Progress Report 2023

January 1, 2023

The Neighborhood Opportunity and Accountability Board (NOAB) is an innovative, community-driven youth diversion and development model that allows young people charged with offenses for which they would otherwise be detained in juvenile detention and adjudicated through the juvenile court to remain in the community. Youth and their families referred to a NOAB program appear before a board of community leaders to develop a detailed support plan and are immediately connected to services and supports. The NOAB model offers a new approach to youth justice that focuses on restorative, rather than punitive practices; increases community involvement in decision-making; and invests resources in youth, families, and neighborhoods.

Big Gifts for Little Learners: Making the Case for Philanthropic Investment From Pregnancy Through Preschool

March 21, 2022

The San Francisco Bay Area is home to some of the wealthiest counties and most generous donors in the country. But how do those individuals choose where to spend their philanthropic dollars?In our 2021 survey of Bay Area donors, which included both affluent individuals and foundations, 40% of respondents said that when considering causes or groups to give to, demonstrated impact would lead them to choose one cause or group over others.In some ways it is surprising, then, that only 15% of donors said they give to early care and learning -- an area with robust research demonstrating positive impact on the children supported (including permanent increases in children's IQ and better health outcomes) as well as on their families and the broader community (e.g., gains in maternal workforce participation).

Pandemic Relief & Recovery: Emergency Funding & The Bay Area Arts Community

October 1, 2021

An analysis of the COVID-19 relief support grantmakers provided to Bay Area artists and cultural organizations, how it helped mitigate the crisis, and what the regional arts community needs now to recover.

Speaking Up: Findings from 2019 Focus Groups and Interviews with Californians with Low Incomes

June 22, 2021

In 2019 CHCF commissioned NORC at the University of Chicago to embark on an extensive research project to better understand the health care needs, wants, and values of California adults (18–64) with low incomes. In April and May of 2019 NORC began by holding multiple focus groups and in-depth interviews with Californians with low incomes who represented various racial/ethnic and language groups as well as regions. All participants were screened for having at least one health care encounter in the previous six months.

Asian Immigrant Experiences with Racism, Immigration-Related Fears, and the COVID-19 Pandemic

June 18, 2021

Asian immigrants have faced multiple challenges in the past year. There has been a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, driven, in part, by inflammatory rhetoric related to the coronavirus pandemic, which has spurred the federal government to make a recent statement condemning and denouncing acts of racism, xenophobia, and intolerance against Asian American communities and to enact the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act. At the same time, immigrants living in the U.S. have experienced a range of increased health and financial risks associated with COVID-19. These risks and barriers may have been compounded by immigration policy changes made by the Trump administration that increased fears among immigrant families and made some more reluctant to access programs and services, including health coverage and health care. Although the Biden administration has since reversed many of these policies, they may continue to have lingering effects among families.Limited data are available to understand how immigrants have been affected by the pandemic, and there are particularly little data available to understand the experiences of Asian immigrants even though they are one of the fastest growing immigrant groups in the U.S. and are projected to become the nation's largest immigrant group over the next 35 years. To help fill these gaps in information, this analysis provides insight into recent experiences with racism and discrimination, immigration-related fears, and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic among Asian immigrant patients at four community health centers.The findings are based on a KFF survey with a convenience sample of 1,086 Asian American patients at four community health centers. Respondents were largely low-income and 80% were born outside the United States. The survey was conducted between February 15 and April 12, 2021. 

Centering Racial Equity in Homeless System Design

April 27, 2021

Between 2017 and 2019, homelessness sharply increased by 43% in Alameda County, California. Housing market failures, homeless system challenges, and long-standing discrimination have produced a crisis in affordable housing and homelessness, which has significantly impacted low-income people and communities of color. The surge in homelessness and its disproportionate racial impacts, especially on African Americans and Native Americans, became the impetus for a revamp of the homeless system modeling process to ensure that it is restructured to employ a racial equity lens. With the goal of producing a homeless system that works better for all to end homelessness in Alameda County, this system modeling process seeks to: 1) Identify and address factors leading to the over-representation of people of color in the population of people experiencing homelessness. 2) Understand how facets of the homeless system benefit or burden people of color and pinpoint opportunities to advance racial equity within the system. 3) Formulate key elements of a model homeless system, including optimal types and quantities of housing units and service programs; and 4) Develop recommendations to more effectively and equitably allocate resources, prioritize investments, and advance proactive, targeted strategies to end and prevent homelessness.

Healthy Corner Store Project Evaluation

April 15, 2021

Beginning in 2013, HOPE Collaborative (HOPE) designed, launched, and implemented the Healthy Corner Store Project (HCSP). The HCSP focuses on the flatland neighborhoods of East Oakland with the broad goals of connecting small stores with financing opportunities, technical assistance, and communitysupport to increase the amount of fresh or prepared healthy foods offered. With the help of community recommendations and referrals in 2014, HOPE initially identified six stores in which to implement the project. Due to multiple factors including external economic pressures faced by stores, as of 2021, two of the original stores, One Stop and Three Amigos, remain active with the HCSP. This document briefly summarizes HCSP's initial and current program models and findings from previous evaluation activities,sales data and customer surveys, conducted at the two participating stores

Oakland is Reimagining Public Safety Version 2.0

March 1, 2021

On Friday, February 12th, 2021, Oakland's Reimagining Public Safety Task Forceissued their first round of draft recommendations that will forge a new path towardholistic and community driven public safety practices and policies in Oakland. Following a discussion and revision process, the Task Force's Advisory Boardsreleased their second — and final — round of recommendations on March 1, 2021. This report breaks down all the recommendations we support, the ones we don't, and why. We also look atpotential revenue streams to pay for these shifts in practice and new community safety programs, analyze OPD calls for service data in a brand new APTP report, and highlight work already happening at the grassroots level that needs more investment. 

What Education Leaders Can Learn About NGSS Implementation: Highlights From the Early Implementers Initiative

November 1, 2020

From 2014 through 2020, eight diverse school districts and two charter management organizations ran a substantial experiment with ways of implementing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in elementary and middle grades, called the California K - 8 NGSS Early Implementers Initiative. The Initiative certainly illustrated that a big financial investment can produce powerful change. However, even districts facing resource challenges may benefit from the lessons that were learned and the strategies that were developed by the Initiative.An external evaluation team has previously released a series of reports on what can be learned from the efforts of the Initiative districts. All reports are intended to be helpful to administrators at the school and district levels, education policymakers, and people charged with designing and/or delivering science professional learning. After briefly describing how the NGSS call for big shifts in science teaching and learning, this highlights report shares high-level, major learnings from the evaluation, distilled into only a couple dozen pages of main narrative. The report describes NGSS instruction as a powerful lever for equitable learning, explains how the Initiative made this kind of instruction happen, and describes the importance of the Initiative's ambitious professional learning for administrators.