Support The Oakland Strategy
for Violence Prevention and Intervention

Thursday, May 22, 2008, 6:30 PM
Oakland Convention Center

How many more people will be murdered in our city? How many lives are you willing to lose?
Is enforcement the only strategy to save lives?
Are your Measure Y tax dollars focused on bringing down the homicide rate?

Violence in Oakland is not as random as people might think. Data analysis of Oakland's homicides in 2006 show that the majority of both victims and offenders had histories of prior arrests, probation, incarceration, and gang or group affiliation. Intervention based on these indicators must happen, before someone shoots a gun!

Oakland Community Organizations studied national best practices and tactics that work to actively prevent homicide and gun violence:

•  coordinate the resources in the city that can be used for violence prevention,
•  focus those resources on people who are most at risk for gun violence,
•  connect through outreach intervention those most likely to be involved in gun violence with conflict mediation, economic opportunity and meaningful alternatives.

This is The Oakland Strategy for Violence Prevention and Intervention. Together with our partners, Youth UpRising, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, and members of the Oakland Police Department, we have worked for over a year to build the political leadership and resources needed to support and execute the Oakland Strategy.

While the City poured $7.7 million dollars into police recruitment, we won a one-time allocation of $575,000 for street-based outreach. Prevention and intervention strategies work, why aren't we investing in them more deeply? We need more resources for outreach and support, we need coordination on a city and neighborhood level to create accountability, we need to stay focused on those people most at-risk for gun violence, and we need our congregations and community members to be active participants in The Oakland Strategy.

We need to Save Lives Now!   On May 22, 2008 at 6:30pm at the Oakland Convention Center, Oakland Community Organizations will host an ACTION where over 2,000 faith community members will call for Mayor Dellums to publicly support and use his leadership to execute The Oakland Strategy, connecting our young people most at risk for gun violence to lifelines for opportunity.  

The Oakland faith community stands for life! Oakland Community Organizations, Pastors of Oakland, Oakland Coalition of Congregations, Baptist Ministers Union, Bay Cities Baptist Ministers Union, and the Interfaith Ministerial Alliance stand together for the future of our city.

Will you stand with us?

For more information, contact Oakland Community Organization at 510-639-1444.