Youth Advisory Board

April 21 - 23 , 2024

California Coalition for Youth (CCY) “Youth Empowerment Summit” (YES)  

Across two days of interactive workshops, special speakers and community building, YAB members had the opportunity to expand their expertise on civic leadership, housing policies and resources, mental health supports, youth engagement strategies, storytelling, advocacy and other key areas of learning in the effort to end youth homelessness. Additionally, YAB Lead, Sahra and her research team, Youth and Allies Against Homelessness, hosted a workshop on “...”. Hannah and Marisol from Alameda County Housing and Homelessness’ Youth Services also hosted a workshop on “...”.

On the third day, we met with our state legislators to directly advocate for their support on bills proposing solutions to enhancing California’s youth homeless response system, such as SB 1079: Youth Housing Bond Act 2024 (Menjivar), AB 2477: Foster Youth Savings (Zbur), and AB2520: Youth Specific Coordinated Entry Response System (Ramos). We continued advocating for an increase of the HHAP youth set-aside allocation from a 10% to 25% minimum to address funding gaps in youth services. 

We’re grateful to have returned to this collaborative and empowering space where we can connect with young leaders from all over California, empower each other to advocate for youth housing rights, strengthen our resource network, and form new friendships with our long-distance peers.

March 12, 2024

Youth Committee - Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP) Training

The YAB and YHDP team came together and  provided YHDP and Continuous Quality Improvement training to the CoC’s Youth Committee. This training provided us with a crucial effort in aligning our Youth Action A Way Home goals into the county’s youth homeless response system and understanding how youth programs will be assessed in future funding evaluations. 

February 29, 2024

Policy Informational Workshop by Jessica Blakemore 

The YAB requested and coordinated a policy session on how policy moves through the county with Jessica Blakemore who is Alameda County’s Senior Policy and Legislative Analyst. Specifically, we explored what is the process of the county taking a stance on specific initiatives and bills to address, prevent and end youth and young adult homelessness. We learned about policy and advocacy overviews that connect YABS role in that process, Health Care Services Agency/Alameda County policy and legislative engagement, the current homelessness policy issues, questions and discussion for closing. 

January - February, 2024

Youth Homelessness Systems Improvement (YHSI) Grant 

Through several planning meetings with open dialog and a collaborative writing process, the YAB and adult allies from H&H applied for the federal “Youth Homelessness Systems Improvement (YHSI) Grant” in categories (1) Planning and Partnerships and (4) Racial and Gender Equity. The YAB wrote a letter of support demonstrating our commitment to supporting this process and disseminating the results to the community.

January, 2024

California Coalition for Youth: Executive Advocacy Days

Tammy, Peer Mentor and Sahra, Youth Lead attended the California Coalition for Youth (CCY) executive advocacy day. The first day was learning about the state budget and how it can impact future grant programs. On day two we learned about CCY’s advocacy day talking points around budget, homelessness services, and additional CCY sponsored bills/budgets asks. 

November 14-16th, 2023

National Runaway and Homeless Youth Awareness and Prevention Month

Proclamation 

Per tradition, the Office of Homeless Care and Coordination (OHCC), in collaboration with the YAB, participates in a nationwide effort every year to recognize the month of November as National Runaway and Homeless Youth Awareness and Prevention Month. To formally declare this, we drafted a proclamation highlighting the current state of youth runaways and homelessness in the county, in which one line reads, “In Alameda County, over 70% of at-risk or involved commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC) are under 18, more than 60% are African American, 83% have runaway history, almost all have been involved or are currently involved in the probation and foster care systems”. The purpose of this is to raise awareness at all levels of power-influence to continue this momentum of work, and on Nov. 14th, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors formally approved this proclamation. Four of our youth members spoke about their experience in the transitional housing process, what it looked and felt like as a young person navigating through crisis alone, what was easy and what was difficult and what we hope to see change in consideration of the facts listed in the proclamation writing. We recommended continuing to invest efforts into youth civic engagement such as the YAB, and continuing to uplift BIPOC youth who are most impacted by housing insecurity.

View here,  the Proclamation for Runaway & Homeless Youth Prevention Month November 2023

Celebration

To honor our young people who have endured many challenges to be here today, the YAB hosted a celebration event for all community members to celebrate the approval of Alameda County’s Proclamation in dedicating the month of November to recognize National Runaway and Youth Homeless Prevention and Awareness month.  The event was catered with food and shone light on youth and young adults who have transitioned out of their unhoused situation. Service providers also spoke to  their own experiences working with  youth and the challenges they face in navigating resources for their transitioning clients. For this reason, this proclamation is important for the YAB to continue to raise every year to raise awareness on the challenges both youth and advocates face in trying to end homelessness. . 

July 31 - August 3, 2023

Summer Leadership and Policy Conference(SLPC): Orange, CA 

YAB member, Sabrina Abong, attended a Statewide conference called the Summer Leadership and Policy Conference (SLPC). At this conference, current and former foster youth and foster care alumni come together to transform the foster care system through legislative policy and practice change by bringing up current issues within the foster care system. This year, the topic speaks to tuition waivers. To add, if there are no tuition waivers for foster youth some may end up in debt, have mental health issues, and even settle for a job instead of a career!

June 8th, 15th, 2023 

California Interagency Council on Homelessness (CAL-ICH) Feedback Sessions 

YAB members and Emerging Leaders Alumni collaborated with CAL-ICH to share feedback on the 2023-2024 state plan and action steps to end homelessness. At the first meeting, we familiarized ourselves with the statewide plan that highlighted programs, systems, and funding enhancement as the core, necessary action steps towards addressing homelessness. At the second meeting, Emerging Leaders Alumni and YAB members shared in-depth questions, comments, and feedback on the plan about what’s working with some action items and what isn’t. From this session, we observed a heavy emphasis on the lack of affordable housing available for existing program participants and a lack of coordination between our leaders in homelessness advocacy and housing development.

Read the CAL-ICH 2023-24 Statewide action plan here: https://www.bcsh.ca.gov/calich/action_plan.html

April 30th - May 2nd, 2023

California Coalition for Youth (CCY): Youth Empowerment Summit

YAB members and Covenant House residents came together to attend a 3-day long Youth Empowerment Summit hosted by the California Coalition for Youth (CCY), where young people from across California attended personal and professional development workshops,  learned about homelessness work between state and federal partners, and networking. We learned about six specific bills and legislations sponsored by CCY while meeting with members and senators representing Alameda County to advocate the approval of bills designed to prevent and end youth homelessness, advocating for an increase in youth-allocated funding for our community, expand consent for optical care to minors, and increasing the age limit for Independent Living Programs for foster youth.

November 15, 2022

US Interagency Council on Homelessness visits Covenant House Oakland

Jeff Olivet, the director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) , and Senior Regional Advisor, Helene Schneider, visited Oakland to tour Covenant House of California (CHC). The USICH met staff at CHC, members of Alameda County's homeless response team, the Office of Homeless Care and Coordination including YAB.. During this visit, we had the opportunity to share our work towards ending youth homelessness at the local level as we began to implement the YHDP grant, engage in Direct Cash Transfer Projects, and expand professional and career development through YAB recruitment. We learned that our national leaders aim to tackle this crisis through a racially equitable lens to provide goods and services to those most marginalized. This comes with the understanding that without addressing the root causes of systematic oppression against Black, Indigenous, and youths of color, youth homelessness will remain prevalent. 

March 8, 2023  

California Surgeon General visits Alameda County

In early March, the YAB and partners honored the welcoming of newly appointed California Surgeon General Dr. Diana Ramos to learn about the strategies and approaches to improve health outcomes for individuals and families in Alameda County. We got to share with Dr. Ramos who the YAB is and how our collective youth leadership impacted transition-aged youth health and wellness practices. In addition to our collaboration with county partners and learning about the programs our partners are implementing in services for perinatal care, pregnant and parenting women, families with children, families who experienced infant loss, and individuals experiencing homelessness, we learned that our county works with a racially equitable lens to uplift the needs of vulnerable and underrepresented populations; such as conducting in-home visits for women who experienced the death of an infant, implementing a Direct Cash Transfer program for low-income pregnant women, and a program to uplift and empower Black women who are parents through staff representation. 

January 30th, 2023 & January 31st, 2023

California Coalition for Youth “Executive Advocacy Days” 

California Coalition for Youth (CCY) sponsored the YAB’s first face-to-face advocacy trip in Sacramento to advance specific budget asks, service improvements, and bills to support youth experiencing homelessness in the state of California. Part of this trip was attending CCY hosted workshops where youth were equipped with soft skills such as public speaking, literacy, talking points and networking that are necessary to empower young people in this work. Our advocacy to local representatives at the capitol building reflected the team's investments on improving the lives of all California youth with a specific focus on youth experiencing homelessness. With that, it’s necessary to understand how that intersectionality exists in other social predicaments that led to homelessness. This event was new and exciting for everyone; a memorable experience for us all. 

November 1, 2022

Proclamation: November National Runaway and Homeless Youth Awareness Month

For the third year in a row, the YAB, the Office of Homeless Care and Coordination and UC Berkeley’s Youth & Allies Against Homelessness research team participated in writing a proclamation to the Board of Supervisors to declare the month of November as National Runaway and Homeless Youth Prevention Month. Peer Mentor Tammy and YAB member Christian spoke to the passing of this proclamation while some YAB folks virtually supported and participated in this event. 

Read the proclamation here.

August 25, 2022

Alameda Continuum of Care (CoC) approves Youth Committee

The YAB and adult allies proposed the creation of a Youth Committee within our local COC and got approval from the Leadership Board via majority vote. A resolution was later created to formalize the efforts of the Homeless Youth Task Force which served as the driving foundation of this Youth Committee. Integrating the Task Force into a standing committee ensured that a power-sharing space was dedicated to moving forward the goals of the Task Force in alignment with the community. The Youth Committee was officially seated and active in late 2023.

Read the Homeless Youth Task Force Resolution here. 

View the 2024 Continuum of Care Committee Charter.

November, 2021

Proclamation: November National Runaway and Homeless Youth Awareness Month

In November 2021, the YAB, adult allies from ALL IN Alameda, and the Alameda County Board of Supervisors wrote a proclamation declaring November 2021 as National Runaway and Homeless Youth Awareness Month.

Read the 2021 Proclamation here.

March 7, 2024

“Making Some Changes” Music Video Screening

The Alameda County Youth Advisory Board wrapped up the production of a powerful music video titled "Making Some Changes", in collaboration with Beats, Rhymes, and Life. Everyone involved, including the talented youth contributors, received compensation for their hard work. The video not only showcased amazing musical talents but also allowed the creators to share and visualize the personal stories behind their lyrics. The local community, along with family and friends, gathered for the big reveal of this fantastic video. The premiere event featured an insightful panel discussion that addresses the video's crucial message of transforming our lives for the better.

May 29 , 2024

Ending Youth Homelessness Collaborative

The YAB and H&H allies hosted the first Ending Youth Homelessness Collaborative of 2024 at the Eden Church of Christ’s Newcomer Navigation Center located in Hayward. This collab highlighted three main topics: (1) The needs of undocumented migrant youth experiencing homelessness led by the Newcomer Navigation Center, (2) Findings from a research on CAL-ICH led by UC Berkeley’s Youth Allies Against Homelessness research team, and (3) What is Housing Problem Solving led by our YHDP Peer Navigators. The YAB shared recent updates on the progression of goals in our “Youth Action A Way Home” plan and held space for partners to share their progress as well. As the purpose of the Ending Youth Homelessness Collaborative is to embed cross-collaboration within our homeless response system and promote alignment of shared goals, efforts and resources in the community, we’re honored to see an increasing attendance that reached over 40 participants at this convening.

March 14 , 2024

Collaborating with West Coast Children’s Clinic

The West Coast Children’s Clinic located in Oakland is a youth mental health center that also runs a Youth Advocate Program. Also known as YAP, this three-year fellowship program recruits former foster and probation young adults to be advocates for foster youth in family and children's services. In March, the YAP welcomed the YAB into their beautiful space to introduce themselves and their work and initiate a collaboration. We learned that the YAP plays a significant role in providing critical trainings to family and children service providers in Alameda County, as well as building and implementing youth-centered projects tasked by the county. It was an honor to be invited into the YAP’s space and have the opportunity to learn from and connect with young leaders who are leading ground-breaking work in improving the lives of foster youth. 

March 7, 2024

Beats, Rhymes, & Life Music Video “Making Changes” Filming

A collaboration with youth, young adults, and Beats, Rhymes, & Life (BRL) turned out to be a success as people from different walks of life came together in creating a lyrical piece or bar expressing their walk of life. “Making Changes” was thought of and agreed amongst each other and produced by BRL as each person was able to speak toward how they felt towards making a change. The creation included staff from Covenant House with parts throughout the song and leaders from the YAB created their own piece. We contributed to making the video, recording in different areas of our hometown Oakland. The video production was a paid event created for YYA and adults allies for their time and creativity that helped bring everyone together in collaboration and outreach. Thank you to Beats, Rhymes, and Life for collaborating with the YAB and YYA! Below are some photos from the production and creation. Click for video here!

November 8th, 2023 

Ending Youth Homelessness Collaborative at the Union City Family Center

For the last collaborative of the year, the Office of Homeless Care and Coordination facilitated a fireside chat of panelists who represent adults and YYA with lived experience, service providers, advocates and community organizations to discuss rapid re-housing programs for youth and young adults. This event was hosted by the Union City Family Center who gave a welcoming environment for all with food and drinks. Staff members from the family center talked about what they do for the community and Union City Unified School District and how they provide care to anyone that walks into their facility. We were given a tour of their innovative all-ages clothing center located on their facility and learned about the different resources provided such as food giveaways, housing referrals, welfare benefits, childcare and more. Youth also spoke about their own experiences in transitional housing and how they felt about the support that was available to them leading into their new housing. 

November 2, 2023

CTE TAY Hub Strategic Planning Phase 2: First CTE HUB Architectural Design Workshop

The YAB members attended the first CTE HUB design workshop for the future build out of the TAY Hub at 1025 2nd Ave. It is being designed by young people, for young people, and consists of the community and their vision for what a one-stop-shop resource HUB should look like. 

We learned about the history of OUSD’s buildings and the CTE HUB’s efforts to obtain a site to move forward with this vision that originated from the young people of Camp Sweeney. The importance of the location's placement speaks to the high need for one-stop wrap-around services and why this history should continue to live on through our design efforts.

Through housing, resources, and supportive activities within the design, being a part of the HUB’s designing process has given many youth an opportunity to be a part of a vision that will change lives for the better. Everyone who attended was provided with snacks, fun activities, and compensated for their time through electronic gift cards. 

October, 2023

Laney’s Poor People Campaign Teach-In

YAB Members Ray Corona and Sabrina Abong shared testimonies of their homelessness experiences and what drives them to be involved with housing policy work. The purpose of this forum was to bring awareness to students at risk of experiencing homelessness in their community by sharing their stories, resources, and love. LPPC’s Teach-in sessions are crucial to informing the Laney College community of why there is a high demand for increasing student housing and support, considering the overwhelming number of students reporting their experiences of housing insecurity while enrolled in college. 

August 8th, 2023

First Ever In-Person “Ending Youth Homelessness Collaborative” 

This bi-monthly initiative took place at the Youth Employment Partnership (YEP) in Oakland to gather community leaders, service providers, and stakeholders to work together towards preventing and ending youth homelessness in Alameda County. This month, the YAB hosted a workshop around our Coordinated Community Plan: Youth Action A Way Home to share updates on our progress and hear from participants about their strategies and suggestions. How we gathered that data was putting post it boards with each goal objective to get folks to write strategies and ideas that alligin with our plan to increase cross system collaboration and partnership. Towards the end of this event YEP gave an optional tour of the youth dorms built by youth for youth to showcase the power of youth and their skill sets that contributes to the whole of society and future generations.

June 16, 2023

YAB Members attend Beats, Rhymes, & Life event with Covenant House California Oakland

The Alameda County Office of Homeless Care and Coordination hosted an event with Beats, Rhymes, & Life, an Oakland-based organization that cultivates culturally-congruent services using the therapeutic power of hip-hop. Hip-hop, an expressive language with no boundaries, is used to empower both individuals and train service providers on the creative avenues of trauma-healing.They guided us through an interactive workshop at the Covenant House in Oakland to help us produce a collaborative song. The YAB joined in with staff and youth residents by encouraging each other to form groups and create three to six lines. Once completed, our groups went into the van to record our lines that birthed our “Making Some Changes” by youth and adults.The event brought partnership and community in one space to create music that is meaningful to everyone who could participate. This is crucial in impacting youth positively through beats and language to send a message about making change in our community through beats, rhymes, and life experiences.

March 16, 2023

Collaborating with Youth Spirit Artworks and Covenant House of California Youth Residents 

Youth Spirit Artworks (YSA) held a workshop with the YAB and CHC youth residents to teach youth how creative avenues are applied to produce news articles on social issues in the community. YSA is based in Berkeley California and is a non-profit organization whose mission is to empower homeless and low-income youth through job training and employment through art and media. 

YSA already has a partnership with unhoused residents to operate a local newspaper called Street Spirit that focuses extensively on human rights issues such as affordable housing, food insecurity, and gaps in our justice system. The YAB knew that this was a great way to collaborate with our partners and uplift the experiences of poverty and youth homelessness through visual representation. We learned about the programs and processes for publishing an article with YSA and discussed the power of media in how it influences our daily lives. The beautiful art created in this space was showcased in a later publication with Street Sheet. 

May 2, 2022

The YAB visits Life Learning Academy on Treasure Island 

The Life Learning Academy (LLA) is a public charter high school in the Bay Area that houses the most vulnerable students in a supportive learning environment with the tools they need to reach self-sufficiency. LLA is not your average high school; on-campus housing dorms and supportive services are available for youth residents to stay connected with their education. This experience led the YAB to understand this sub-population of youth under 18 facing housing insecurity and/or homelessness while navigating the education system. LLA students hosted a tour on what day-to-day life looks like living on a school-campus. Afterwards, we sat down to enjoy lunch with the students, talked about the YAB’s mission, vision, and finalized the conversation with a Q&A.

April 25, 2022

Oakland City Council Youth Homelessness Hearing

YAB members, youth commissioners from the Oakland Youth Action Commission, and leaders from the Career Technical Education (CTE) Hub made history by hosting the first ever youth homelessness hearing to our leaders! At this special City Council hearing, the call to action to create a youth homelessness task force was heard by 94 attendees and supported by over 20 callers. Most importantly, the strong voices and heartbreaking stories of our youth leaders with lived experience touched the hearts of every listener and revealed the crisis of the lack of urgent systematic response to youth homelessness in Alameda County. With the support of Council Member Sheng, we were successful in convincing city leaders to begin creating a homeless youth task force targeting policy recommendations created by young people.

Read more about the first-ever Youth Homelessness Hearing at the Oakland Voices news article or view a recording of the hearing. 

Learn more about the Youth Advocate Program here.

June 22, 2024 

17th Annual Juneteenth Street Celebration 

Beautiful Brockhurst Street: non-profit organizations, government agencies, and small businesses all came together to share resources, clothing, care kits, and food to build a strong community. Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Jubilee Day, is a holiday that commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States. Celebrated on June 19th every year, it has become a significant cultural event in many communities nationwide. This year, YAB joined the community on the streets of Oakland to celebrate this day of freedom and also partnered with DownTown TAY to increase the visibility of our programming among the community. We created infographics and pamphlets on a youth/young adult resource guide, mission/vision statement, and social media information for folks to stay connected.

June 20, 2024 

3rd Annual Summer Solstice

Cheers to the amazing nominees and dedicated Healthcare for the Homeless Agency staff for hosting the 3rd annual Summer Solstice event celebrating the strength and resilience of people experiencing homelessness! 🌞✨ It is the YAB’s second year at this event and applying to be a YAB member to receive the Resilience and Determination Award. This year we nominated Carmel Erwing to honor her accomplishments of reaching housing stability and her ability to shape many of our movements and hearts. Thank you to Health Care for the Homeless and the attendees for bringing magic and joy to our lives through love, laughter, raffle prizes, and words to fulfill the soul. The hard work and talent in the room have made this event truly unforgettable. Let’s celebrate this amazing journey together and continue to shine bright! 🎉🙌 #SummersSolstice #Gratitude #Celebration #magicintheair✨ @vineyardresources

April 17th, 2024 

YAB Members to Skyline High Presentation 

The YAB’s Recruitment, Retention, and Outreach (RRO) Subcommittee members Carmel, Kj, and Pual took a trip to Skyline High to present to the Coordination of Services Team (COST). RRO members gave a presentation on housing services for youth such as; How you can refer young people to an access point, the coordinated entry process, the Peer Navigation Program and other relevant resources.

January 25th, 2024

The Point-in-Time (PIT) Count Volunteer Event: YAB Member Ray Corona's Experience 

A PIT count was conducted by volunteers across Alameda County who collected and surveyed as many unsheltered families and individuals which is inclusive to youth, and young adults. The unsheltered PIT count happens every 2 years in Alameda County CoC and communities nationwide.

As we know this is the minimum count of people experiencing homelessness especially our youth and young adults because they are often couchsurfing, doubled up, and or staying with family or friends. This year, our CoC gave Visa gift cards and a care bag with different hygiene products and clothing to participants who engaged in the PIT County survey to share their lived experience. The survey asked questions about how, why, when and where they are experiencing homelessness and information about their health and well-being.

The program also provided breakfast to the volunteers at 5am. Training was provided to lead my group the coming day on tips for using the app called Counting US (the app worked perfectly when surveying and counting each person). After breakfast, I led Team K throughout different parts of the city that were pre-considered to have possible signs of homelessness and/or encampment. We would run into many individuals experiencing homelessness. Some were the first time while others had experienced it before. Although this one day of effort can't possibly accurately determine the number of individuals that are experiencing homelessness throughout the year, with over 1,000 volunteers which is the highest in Alameda County history, I feel we made a much bigger impact this year on accurately determining the spike of homelessness.

After conducting and seeing the many lives that were experiencing homelessness I found that there was one major common pattern amongst all. Almost everyone said that they experienced homelessness AFTER being evicted, or kicked out. Many of the hotspots were locations that once housed them; these buildings were no longer in use or had been completely demolished and reconstructed. The people you see living outside on the streets once were residents in the neighborhood you search to live.

December 7-8th, 2023 

First YAB Onboarding Retreat 

To celebrate the welcoming of onboarding the new members, the YAB embarked on a two-day retreat to Monterey to formally onboard our new youth leaders and practice our values of self-care and well-being in nature. The retreat consisted of members participating in activities that updated members on Alameda County’s policy platform, their role as a YAB member, their goals they see accomplishing and the skills needed for vital communications between board members and leaders. Leaders led the retreat in their role as the forefront in subcommittee discussions and new membership onboarding. Aside from the in-depth orientation, our team had the opportunity to practice some self-reflection, fear confrontation, team-bonding and self-care by going to the beach and dedicating time for members to get to know each other and strengthen our relationships.

Homebase CoC Community Meeting 

The Oakland/Berkeley/Alameda COC held an in-person community meeting open to all Alameda County residents to introduce Homebase, the newly contracted CoC Vendor, and their plans for the upcoming year regarding processes for homeless care services, programs and funding. In this meeting, we learned about the Centering Racial Equity in Homeless System Designs framework that serves as the core of all CoC initiatives and reviewed the new governance structure .

October 25, 2023

Continuum of Care Trainings:

CoC Anti-Racism Training

The Continuum of Care (CoC) hosted an Anti-Racism Training in Oakland for CoC Committee members on applying racial equity principles in their work to end homelessness. Many YAB members are seated in various CoC committees; this strategy to expand the power of influence to young leaders is essential in reshaping structures of leadership and making homelessness for all residents in Alameda County brief, one-time, and nonrecurring.

October, 2023

YAB Member Ray’s Experience at the Oakland Resource Fair

Oakland hosted a Resource Fair that doesn’t happen often enough. 

The resource fair is one of the few events provided by the City that focuses on homelessness in Oakland. The fair helped the community push for more events focusing on housing, HIV testing, drug overdose prevention kits, free food for the community event, and even free haircuts.  I grab myself a free lunch with the steak or veggie option burrito. The food was delicious. Thank you to Simone for helping me get a ticket in line. Different providers all came out to give information to the public about their services. It was good to see all the different programs that help the unhoused community and push forward for a better living experience.

October 12, 2023

Kehinde Wiley “An Archaeology of Silence” Exhibit

Continuing to highlight racial equity in our work, OHCC sponsored the YAB to visit the once-in-a-lifetime Kehinde Wiley “An Archaeology of Silence” Exhibit at the SF DeYoung Museum. Kehinde Wiley is a renowned contemporary artist known for his vibrant and empowering portraits of Black individuals, often merging traditional portraiture with modern cultural elements to create a dynamic visual language that challenges historical representations of power and identity. This exhibit recontextualized the narratives around race and beauty that raised dialogue surrounding social issues, cultural heritage and the influence of our own preconceived notions. This is a crucial piece to the ongoing learning of embedded racial equity practices in our Homeless System Response System. 

July 28th, 2023

Youth Spirit Artworks Healing Clinic

The YAB participated in one of Youth Spirit Artworks’ Healing Clinics at the Tiny Home Empowerment Village in Oakland. This unique event is designed to empower residents and youth by providing them with an opportunity to explore various holistic approaches to self-care. From candle making to energy reading to a stress ball-making station hosted by the YAB, a team of healers, mentors, and practitioners were dedicated to connecting individuals with their inner selves and promoting best practices for mind and body wellness, many with Indigenous roots that honor the ancient wisdom of our land and ancestors.

YAB member Ray Corona’s experience:

“This event informed me and many other youths about the importance of mental health through vendors with information. The vendors are grouped into two: hands-on or informational. I learned breathing techniques I did not know about, creating candles with special meaning, and creating teas that can heal the soul. The massages were my favorite. Creating stress balloons with sand and rice showed a creative side of something so common that can make a difference in everyday life and add meaningfulness.”

June 21st, 2023

Annual Summer Solstice Event Co-Sponsered by Alameda Health Care for the Homeless

Every year on the longest day of summer, healthcare services and agencies across the county come together to celebrate the strength and resilience of people experiencing homelessness with food, music, raffle games, and distributing awards to acknowledge heroes in our community. This year, the YAB had the honor of nominating one of our brilliant members, Sabrina Abong, to receive a Resilience and Determination (RAD) Award to commemorate her work as an advocate, activist, and role model for both her community and her son, and for her resilience in tackling the barriers of being a former foster youth all while working full-time as a single mother. We’re so proud to see Sabrina being honored for her strong and passionate soul and for all the work she has done with and for the YAB.

March 31, 2023

Office of Homeless Care and Coordination (OHCC) Film Night: A Thousand and One

OHCC hosted a movie night with the YAB, Covenant House residents with staff, and youth from our partner organizations to see a film that shines a light on homelessness, foster care, and the effects of gentrification within the community. The movie was educational in examining real-life struggles of single parents trying to do the best they can for their children. If you’re considering seeing the film, trigger a warning for anyone with foster care experience, homeless experience, and systematic oppression. To debrief about the movie, we were all given a folder with some questions to consider when in this work of social and housing justice.