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Jobs Campaign: economic security is community security

On November 20, 2003 over 50 people from various Oakland communities attended a community forum sponsored by PUEBLO to discuss solutions to community issues of rising unemployment and crime statistics.

This event kicked off PUEBLO’s “Economic Security is Community Security” campaign, which is centered around city accountability to community members, real job opportunities for youth in Oakland, and a community oversight board to monitor the City of Oakland’s spending of monies related to job creation.

This forum reflected Oakland’s diversity of concerned residents and community servants interested in and committed to finding concrete and realistic solutions to the city’s crime and unemployment rates aside from introducing more police into Oakland’s communities. As such, this occasion reinforced community leadership in Oakland by calling on its’ residents to find collective solutions and support in each other.

The East Bay Community Law Center, a collaborative partner of PUEBLO, presented research that validated Oakland’s unemployment crisis, gave models for change that other cities have used across the country to tackle these problems, and offered a range of options and ways that community members could be involved in the fight for change.

Representatives of the City’s leadership attended the event as well, and included but were not limited to Supervisor Nate Miley, Lieutenant Ben Fairow from the Oakland Police Department, and representatives from Councilmember Nancy Nadel and Jean Quan’s office. Community organization representation included Critical Resistance, Youth Together, the POWER movement, Indian People Organized for Change, the Alameda County Central Labor Council, Urban Strategies, and the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy.

PUEBLO will begin convening new member meetings in January to integrate suggestions from the community forum into our campaign planning.

If you are interested in finding out more about our campaign and would like to get involved, please call 510.452.2010 ext. 22 or email Alicia at PUEBLO.