Blog Posts

Baby BOP: Leadership at Any Age

It’s that time of year again! Baby BOP is back and this year’s theme, “Leadership at Any Age,” is our renewed commitment to provide Oakland’s Black youth, ages 6-11, with community organizing and leadership skills. It is our hope that through the creation of educational, supportive, and creative spaces that our Black youth will realize

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Developing Black Organizers and Moving the Ground

Since our founding in 2009, BOP has had a strong commitment to develop Black organizers.  Before initiating the project, we had conversations with organizations across the country and heard a consistent challenge in recruiting, hiring and retaining Black organizers.  We found that some of the  contributing factors to the lack, and overall absence of Black

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There is no true winning, if you are not winning with the people

For the last seven years, BOP has made it our mission to get to the heart of the issues impacting our communities. Specifically, through our Bettering Our School System campaign (B.O.S.S), we’ve been able to challenge policing and discipline practices within the Oakland Unified School District that not only target, but criminalize Black youth.  As

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Check Out Our Youth Space Summer Internship!

Black Organizing Project is hosting our 2016 Youth Space Summer Leadership Development Internship for youth ages 12 – 18. The internship will be held from  June 21, 2016 – July 30, 2016 in which all of our youth interns will be paid a stipend. At BOP, we believe in investing in our youth. Through this internship we are

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Back to School: We Cannot Rest

When we began the Bettering Our School System (BOSS) campaign, even on the heels of several murders by Oakland policing organizations, there was strong opposition to moving police out of schools. While some people were comfortable addressing Black male achievement and even acknowledging disparities in suspensions, not many people were willing to have critical conversations about criminalization of Black youth and the role of policing in schools…

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Our Story of Eliminating Willful Defiance in Oakland

Wednesday night the Oakland Unified School Board voted unanimously on a policy to end suspensions and involuntary transfers for “willful defiance and disruption” as of July 1, 2016. This is a huge victory, but the fight for better Oakland schools is not over.

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