This has been a busy year for Urban Strategies Council!

donna9975
4 days ago
2 min read

Updated: 15 minutes ago

From serving as the backbone organization for multiple regional initiatives, to hosting the first conference in the area to support African American families dealing with Alzheimer’s Disease, Urban Strategies is, and has always been, deeply committed to identifying, developing and executing those strategies that enrich urban life for all the communities that we serve.

Some of the urban strategies that we have employed this year include:

In partnership with the Urban Institute, we conducted the evaluation of the City of Oakland’s Measure Z Initiative, which funds the Department of Violence Prevention.
Engaged more than 700 high school students in “Real Talk Conversations to Erase the Stigma of Opioid Use Disorder in Black and Brown communities.”
With support from Kaiser Permanente, and in conjunction with the Alzheimer’s Association and the Black Alzheimer’s Association Advisory Council, we hosted the first African American Caregivers Forum in Fairfield, in August, and then a second conference in Antioch, in November.
Our Elevate Youth California Fellows have distributed thousands of Narcan, fentanyl test strips, hygiene kits, food and clothing to unhoused residents in Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano Counties.
The BASIC Program has hosted one convening at Solano Community College in October with an emphasis on juvenile justice policies and practices for the most serious youthful offenders up to the age of 25. There were more than 200 participants in attendance ranging from students, law enforcement, college staff to CBOs.

The BASIC Program meets monthly with all post-secondary institutions and regional social service agencies to support college success for justice-involved students. This Consortium has grown from representing only Alameda County to the wider Bay Area, with interest from the rest of the state.
Led by our Trusted Messengers and Youth Fellows, Urban Strategies was called upon to mobilize efforts throughout the Bay Area to push back against misinformation during the Proposition 50 campaign. We contacted more than 21,500 residents within a few days. Proposition 50 was overwhelmingly supported by more than 64% of California residents.
The BASIC Program develops and distributes the most comprehensive resource directory used by justice-involve college students throughout the Bay Area, and the rest of the state.
The Community Re-Entry Cooperative (CREC) has worked to provide better services to inmates housed at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.
The Trusted Messenger Team, supported by California’s Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications, provided outreach to more than 10,500 residents, to ensure that disenfranchised neighborhoods had access to public information and knowledge about state initiatives.
Our popular Mental Health Monday series has exploded in growth from a gathering of a few community members struggling with mental health issues during COVID, to a bi-monthly presentation and discussion session for an international audience.