Our Mission

People United for a Better Life in Oakland (PUEBLO) is a multi-ethnic, multi-issue community membership organization. We use organizing, direct action, policy research and analysis, leadership development, popular education, and coalition building to confront the issues that affect the lives of our membership.

PUEBLO's Legacy

History and Major Accomplishments

People United for a Better Life in Oakland (PUEBLO) is a multi-ethnic, multi-issue community organization with more than three hundred low to moderate income member families from across Oakland. Our members, leaders, and staff are people of different races, cultures, ages, genders, abilities, sexual orientations and income levels. Our mission is to build the leadership of low-income people, people of color and youth through education and skill development so we can strive to change the institutions that affect our lives at a local, county and regional level. PUEBLO’s diverse approach to social change organizing includes community education, leadership development, direct action, coalition building, policy research & analysis and, most importantly, developing strong youth leaders.

PUEBLO began in 1989 when a group of parents, concerned about the health of their children, demanded that Alameda County health officials take action to stem a measles epidemic threatening to sweep through the city of Oakland. The groups bold direct action tactics and savvy use of the media forced the County to provide measles vaccinations for 30,000 youth and adults. In 1990, with the help of the Center for Third World Organizing, this multi-racial group founded People United for a Better Life in Oakland (PUEBLO). The group had 100 members, a small office in North Oakland, and a vision of organizing immigrants, non-immigrants, parents, grandparents, and youth into a powerful multi-cultural force in our community.

That year, PUEBLO broadened its attention to include childhood lead poisoning, recieving national attention for the “Get the Lead Out” campaign while also initiating Youth of Oakland United (YOU) to begin actively training and recruiting young people into the organization. In the seventeen years since, PUEBLO members have organized for concrete improvements around health care accessibility, education policy, housing, welfare rights, community safety & police accountability, resources for youth, and environmental health. Major accomplishments of the organization include: