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Stories of Community Support More Stories of Community Support Quality Medical Relief International Quality Medical Relief International (QMRI)is Bread for the Journey of Oakland’s first international grant. The all-volunteer organization of medical and lay people is driven to make a difference in developing countries, where people die regularly from very treatable diseases because basic medical care and supplies are unavailable. QMRI collects medical supplies that are donated from clinics, hospitals, and aid organizations in the United States. From the modest garage of Tina Flores’ home in Oakland, the supplies are shipped to free medical clinics in countries around the world, from Peru to the Philippines, from Africa to Central America. Tina’s passion and dedication for her work is contagious. An amazing grassroots effort to watch, Tina raises funds for each container shipment through garage sales and selling creative items like coffee beans in decorative bags and donated jewelry at neighborhood craft sales! Tina is extremely diligent in ensuring that the donated supplies are of good quality – a pharmacist and other medical volunteers donate time to help sort and prepare the supplies – and that they are sent to a doctor within the destination country, using good organizational contacts and verifying certifications. A project that makes a big impact each and every shipment, Bread for the Journey of Oakland was proud to grant $1,000 to Quality Medical Relief International for its next shipment to El Salvador. For more information, visit http://qualitymedicalrelief.com/.
Los EcoAmigos: Connecting Spanish Speakers with the Green Movement Los EcoAmigos, formerly EVergreen Conecta, the brainchild of Elena Velez, is a grassroots project looking to connect the Hispanic/Latino community with environmental awareness and the green movement, in Spanish. Los EcoAmigos advocates for green organizations that want to reach Spanish speakers by being the voice and face to deliver their message. Los EcoAmigoswill also offer workshops and outreach to promote healthy choices for sustainable living in the Hispanic/Latino community, highlighting the benefits to family and community. To get this worthy project started, Elena plans to create a brochure with an introduction, mission and programs/services offered by Los EcoAmigos; a resource guide of eco services, in Spanish; and a web site, in Spanish, with daily environmental tips and news. Elena's ideas for the future include hosting bilingual green educational tours, as well as community educational workshops in Spanish to churches, schools, community centers, and neighborhood groups, as well as music and family events for low income residents. Bread for the Journey of Oakland was honored to provide $375 as a seed grant for a first run of brochures to get Los EcoAmigos off the ground! hippysauce
Vibrant arts make for vibrant, engaged communities. hippysauce, located in West Oakland, is an integral part of a rich and diverse collective of artists, activists and revolutionaries. hippysauce is committed to working with the community to bring artists and activists together to express their art and “to proclaim our strength and power as a community that dreams, imagines and creates.” Hippysauce has created an arts space for local artists to enrich the community with the performing arts, a gallery for visual arts, movement and yoga classes, workshops and seminars. Recent activities included providing a café space for specialty organic menus and offering a series of dynamic movement classes. The most recent upcoming activities are monthly gatherings of live music, theatrical performance, and dance. Bread for the Journey of Oakland was pleased to grant hippysauce $750 to further their efforts in fostering arts awareness to the community and in offering a space to bring local artists together. We wish hippysauce much future success! Jazz: The Next Generation Music Project
Jazz: The Next Generation Music Project is the brainchild of 14-year old Ayinde Webb, a tremendously enthusiastic young man inspired by the music classes he is taking at the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music (OPC). At the encouragement of mentors at the Conservatory and local jazz artists in the community, Ayinde plans to build a music program for youth. Jazz musician mentors will provide music lessons to a group of 10 youth from under-resourced environments. In addition, the youth will support one another as peer role models. The goals of Ayinde’s new program include music appreciation and lessons in jazz, blues, and gospel; Friday night jam sessions for youth and mentors; and a venue to showcase developing talent. Bread for the Journey of Oakland was honored to provide $1000 to Jazz: The Next Generation Music Project as seed money to get this program off the ground. When asked to share his story, Ayinde said: “I feel that being a part of OPC's events help keep me and other young people out of trouble. Everyone who visits OPC falls in love with it as soon as they walk in the door. It feels just like home, and I am glad that there are places like this out there where the youth of the community can hone their musical talents.” Teen Talk and “Stay in School” Dee Johnson has a heart to enhance the quality of life of inner city youth, especially those who reside in homeless shelters. So in 1998, she formed the Lend A Hand Foundation. One of the foundation’s programs, A Teen Talk Program, provides a safe place for teens at the shelter to talk about issues that affect them and to engage in life skill workshops. Workshops include career and financial planning, making the right romantic decisions, arts and crafts, leadership training, and healthy lifestyles. Lend A Hand wants to make sure the youth knew that even though they are in a homeless situation, they are not hopeless. This spring, the Teen Talk Program is launching a new project, called the “Stay in School” incentives project. The project empowers youth to stay in school by providing tutoring support as well as help with books and supplies if they stay in school and work hard at furthering their education. Bread for the Journey of Oakland was honored to grant $900 for the Teen Talk “Stay in School” project. We wish Dee and the teens success! Urban Sprouts School Gardens Urban Sprouts School Gardens is a nonprofit organization that serves low-income youth from San Francisco’s underserved neighborhoods. Urban Sprouts builds new gardens and revitalizes old, overgrown ones at elementary, middle and high schools in San Francisco. The organization teaches students to grow, harvest, prepare and eat vegetables from the school garden in order to help them become more engaged in school, eat better, exercise more, and connect with the environment and each other. Each year, Urban Sprouts works with over 750 youth at five San Francisco public schools. Bread for the Journey of Oakland is honored to grant Urban Sprouts $500 for their efforts to construct wheelchair-accessible raised garden beds at Martin Luther King Middle School. Future plans include an “urban farm,” which may include a greenhouse, chickens and, quite possibly, beehives in the next few years. Urban Sprouts has also started working this year with a group of parents interested in improving school food, so they are now involved in urban policy efforts to try to make school food fresher and healthier. “I’m With the Band” Created by Tamra Engle, “I’m With the Band” is a new program that benefits kids ages 6-17 in the San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa unified school districts, where music education and after-school programs have been dramatically cut or altogether eliminated. The program will help kids create, play and record their own music in a band setting, where they learn teamwork and goal setting, and build a lifelong appreciation for the arts. Kids who do not have “performance aspirations” can work with behind-the-scenes tools to record the songs of the performers. “I’m With the Band” plans to host a Studio HQ, and provide in-school programs, band camps, and local performance showcasing opportunities for the kids in the program. Bread for the Journey of Oakland was happy to grant $1000 for the purchase of musical instruments for the children. Young Shakespeare Workshop Young Shakespeare Workshop (YSW) brings together Seattle-area students from all backgrounds and creates a community bound by love of the English language and the work of William Shakespeare. Among other things, YSW supports the work of high school language arts teachers whose classes are studying Shakespeare. Bread for the Journey of Seattle was pleased to fund a YSW residency at Seattle’s Cleveland High School with a grant of $500. Social Justice Educational Workshops After successfully establishing On the Bricks as a mentorship program for at-risk and incarcerated youth, former participants wanted to become more involved in their community. During the mentorship program, they engaged in one-on-one and peer group counseling, as well as other workshops specifically designed for them. On the heels of this experience, they approached On the Bricks’ program leader Tony Coleman with a desire to help others by sharing what they learned. Former program participants will be trained to facilitate workshops in the Bay Area primarily for at-risk and formally incarcerated youth. The workshops will be tailored to youth, young adults, and staff with a focus on political education, conflict resolution, and leadership. Bread for the Journey of Oakland granted $600 to One Fam, the organization representing the workshop project, as seed money to help the program get off the ground. City Slicker Farms City Slicker Farms — A great name and a great idea! This small, non-profit organization helps residents of West Oakland create high-yield urban farms and backyard gardens. Each family’s backyard vegetable garden is built using 3’x 8’ planter boxes, two trellises and a fruit tree. City Slicker Farms also operates six Community Market Farms in nearby neighborhood lots, the produce from which go out to the community through their donation-only Saturday Farm Stand. The project’s mission is to empower West Oakland community members to meet immediate and basic needs for healthy organic food. City Slicker Farms shares information and techniques, then essential tools, resources and support to low-income residents so they can become successful urban gardeners. Bread for the Journey of Oakland is honored to grant City Slicker Farms $400 for their efforts to promote healthy eating, nutritional awareness, and empowerment to the community of West Oakland. Born Brown: All Rights Reserved
Born Brown: All Rights Reserved (BB: ARR) is a social enterprise agency that promotes understanding and collaboration among people of color with various origins. Their work aspires to liberate activists, educators, youth and elders by countering oppressive messages from the media with ones that evoke self-acceptance and self-love. Boundless Hearts
Last year, 148 people were murdered in the city of Oakland, California. Mothers are mourning the loss of their children, younger and older, to violence. The vivid memory of this loss is more profound on the child's birthday, the anniversary of their death, and on Mother's Day. A community gathering called Mother’s Morning/Mourning held on the day before Mother’s Day, will honor and spiritually support mothers who have lost their children to violence in Oakland. A gathering of love, compassion, spirit and creativity, this is the first event held by Boundless Hearts, an organization of companions and chaplains providing spiritual care to communities and individuals in the San Francisco East Bay. Founded by Pamela Ayo Yetunde, Boundless Hearts plans to train mothers whose children have died to become spiritual guides for others who have also suffered such losses. This gathering has wide community support, including the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Silence the Violence Project, InterPlay, Holy Names University, Sophia Center at Holy Names University, Talisman, Traveling with the Turtle Women's Spirituality and Peacemaking Program, and local Councilmember Jean Quan. Bread for the Journey of Oakland was honored to grant $500 toward the production of Boundless Hearts’ first community event, Mother’s Morning/Mourning. On the Bricks Recently launching its pilot project this summer, On the Bricks is a six-week grassroots mentoring and support re-entry internship program for youth returning to Oakland from the county juvenile hall or the California Juvenile Justice Division. This new endeavor — associated with One Fam, a community support coalition — targets youth and young adults recently released from prison or juvenile hall who demonstrate a desire to be part of a caring community. On the Bricks (a term for returning to the streets from prison) focuses on matching up participants with mentors who bring the individual into a community where they gain assistance and purpose as well as an experience of helping others. The mentorship program includes job preparedness, education in citizens’ rights, community service, as well as visits to places that inner-city youth may never have experienced before (such as hiking in a nearby redwood park). The participants interact with people who are truly making positive impacts in the community. The participants learn that they really matter to others! Bread for the Journey of Oakland supported Tony Coleman with a gift of $1,000 for this worthwhile project. Jamestown Community Center, Treehouse Project, San Francisco Mission District Alex was a 13 year-old boy who had grown up participating in many of the Jamestown Community Center’s programs. Alex was now beginning to stay out late, experiment with drugs, and was in danger of joining a local gang. For the sake of Alex and other Jamestown youth in similar situations, Saul Hidalgo and two staff members searched for services that might help them. When they found none, they initiated Treehouse – a weekly all-volunteer get-together where adolescent boys could receive mentoring and guidance from adult males who they know and trust. The program was an instant hit. The boys not only began sharing their struggles within the safety of a circle of peers; they also sought out support from the group’s leaders. Bread for the Journey of Oakland gave the Jamestown Community Center a grant of $500 to help fund the newly expanded Treehouse program, now serving elementary-school-aged boys and adolescent girls. Since these groups currently operate with very little funding, the Bread for the Journey grant will help pay for meals that the youth prepare and share with each other when they meet every Friday afternoon. Today, the original group of boys remain at the heart of Treehouse. Alex, now 16 years old and a B student, continues to attend his peer support group, as do all of his fellow founding members.
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