May 19, 2013 | KTVU
May 06, 2013 | Oakland Tribune
May 03, 2013 | Oakland Local
So much is at stake for Oakland schools, that students at Castlemont and Skyline High Schools asked three legislators representing Oakland, the county education superintendnet and the Oakland acting superintendent-elect to commit to supporting the Local Control Funding Formula and work for its passage.
May 01, 2013 | Rockridge Patch
Since January, Betsy King, who lives in Piedmont, and several other members of the Montclair Presbyterian Church have joined the growing number of people from faith-based organizations and other groups who gather at 6:30 p.m. on Friday nights to walk for an hour or two in communities plagued by street violence, including areas around International Boulevard.
April 02, 2013 | KTVU
KTVU's Bay Area People speaks with the Oakland Community Organizations, a group that dares to walk through the most dangerous parts of the city in an effort to end the violence.
March 27, 2013 | National Catholic Reporter
The forum, attended by Hispanic, Asian, African and European immigrants, was one of several held throughout California as part of the Campaign for Citizenship, a project of PICO, the nation's largest faith-based organizing network.
March 25, 2013 | KTVU
OCO leader Dr. George Cummings was featured in this KTVU interview about Ceasefire's impact on the violence in Oakland. According to the story, shootings have dropped by nearly 30% and homicides by 42%.
March 08, 2013 | CBS 5
Two of our leaders, Dr. George Cummings and Rev. Damita Davis-Howard, represented OCO and the faith community at the Oakland Police Department press conference on the Ceasefire raids.
March 06, 2013 | KALW
OCO leader Rev. George Cummings, pastor of Imani Community Church, was a guest on KALW's "Your Call" to talk about our Lifelines/Ceasefire campaign in Oakland.
February 25, 2013 | Oakland Tribune
A young OCO leader was interviewed about a recent poll that showed that 90 percent of California voters now favor letting illegal immigrants who have lived here for a number of years staying and becoming citizens.
February 05, 2013 | Oakland North
Rev. Billy Dixon, the pastor of At Thy Word Ministries COGIC and an Oakland Community Organizations board member, wrote an op-ed for Oakland North about how OCO, Pastors of Oakland and others have joined forces for Lifelines/Ceasefire to fight against the ongoing violence throughout the city.
November 06, 2012 | Oakland Tribune
One of the elders at the Cambodian Buddhist Temple in Oakland, a congregation that OCO has been working with for this election, was interviewed for a story about first-time voters.
November 06, 2012 | Oakland North
The bulk of OCO’s get-out-the-vote effort Tuesday was aimed at a list of voters who had already expressed their support for Prop 30–a list OCO compiled after months of voter cold-calling. On Tuesday, it was the job of dozens of volunteers to knock on doors and make calls in order to make sure every voter on the list of Prop 30 supporters had voted.
November 03, 2012 | Oakland Post
A San Antonio action meeting led by organizer Rev. Ken Chambers, Sr. of Oakland Community Organizations (OCO) sought to unite churches, city officials and community members together for the cause of providing solutions for the city’s youth on Tuesday, Oct. 30 at Foothill Baptist Church.
November 01, 2012 | Oakland Tribune
This week, a group of boisterous teenagers marched down to a ballot box a few blocks from their school. The first-time voter contingent and their sign-holding supporters whooped and chanted all the way to the Alameda County Courthouse, eliciting friendly toots from passing cars. Oakland Community Organizations coordinated Tuesday's "Let My People Vote" march at Dewey, an alternative high school, and helped to register more than 100 students at Oakland high schools.
October 26, 2012 | Chabot Spectator
Oakland Community Organizations members went to Chabot College on Oct. 16 to share vital details about Propositions 30 and 32. This November, the group is specially focusing on encouraging college students to vote, which is necessary in order to create change in the community. Their goal is to stop the cuts to education, health care and public safety in Bay Area communities.
October 13, 2012 | Oakland Post
May 29, 2012 | Oakland Tribune
Fremont High School parents push for answers to safety and school redesign
May 29, 2012 | Oakland North
OUSD moves school site autonomy policy
May 29, 2012 | San Francisco Chronicle
The Oakland City Council unanimously expanded an aggressive blight program late Tuesday to include homes in the earliest stages of the foreclosure process.
May 29, 2012 | Oakland Local
OCO Supports 100 Block Initiative to drive down gun violence
Organizers are calling for an end to the prostitution and exploitation of minors along International Boulevard between 2nd and 23rd avenues, one of the most dangerous parts of the city. They say they want a strategy to fight prostitution -- one that involves community-police partnerships, more targeting of "johns" and pimps and more services for girls and women who are victims of sexual exploitation.
August 22, 2011 | Oakland Local
Two-dozen clergy and congregation members closed their Wells Fargo accounts earlier this month to protest the bank’s “bad-faith negotiations” that have led to blighted, foreclosed homes in Oakland’s flatlands.
August 14, 2011 | The Karel Show
Pastor Billy Dixon from Thy Word Ministries, and Father Roberto Flores from St. Bernard Catholic Church joins Karel in a riveting and insightful discussion on how to stop the violence and what needs to be done to turn the city around.
August 11, 2011 | Oakland North
Holding banners and large withdrawal request forms, about 30 customers gathered on Wednesday in front of Wells Fargo’s main branch in downtown Oakland to announce that they would close their Wells Fargo bank accounts to protest the bank’s foreclosure practices.
August 10, 2011 | The Oakland Tribune
Dozens of local faith leaders and community members closed their accounts at Wells Fargo Bank on Wednesday afternoon as part of a protest against what they called poor community partnership on the part of all "big four" home loan banks.
August 10, 2011 | KTVU
Some long-time customers of Wells Fargo Bank took drastic action Wednesday to show their anger over the bank's foreclosure policies, pulling hundreds of thousands of dollars out of their accounts.
August 05, 2011 | KQED News
Dozens of members of the International Boulevard community, often called the "Track" because of the prevalence of the sex trade there, marched between 17th and 23rd avenues in a show of unity against prostitution on Thursday night.
August 05, 2011 | KTVU
Many Oakland residents and community activists unveiled a billboard on International Boulevard Thursday that is part of their effort to drive prostitution out of their neighborhood by warning Johns to stay away.
August 05, 2011 | NBC Bay Area
There was a march by residents who want prostitution and crime to end on Oakland's International Boulevard. Neighbors are hopeful ... prostitutes are skeptical.
August 04, 2011 | ABC Local
Residents along Oakland's International Boulevard are fed up with the prostitution problem in their neighborhood. Those residents are starting to take matters into their own hands with a march that's set for Thursday evening. Their target: Johns and prostitutes that stand on the corner and walk down the street during the morning, afternoon and all night.
August 04, 2011 | The Florida Independent
“At a moment when everyday Americans need to feel that government is standing with them, this legislation forces them to make further sacrifices while requiring nothing from large corporations and the super-wealthy,” Cummings writes.
July 26, 2011 | The San Francisco Chronicle
Arias himself is a U.S. citizen, but said it was important for the larger Latino community. He said it's vital that residents be able to identify themselves quickly to police. "Our community members who don't have an ID, they don't really care about a debit card," he said. "That can be done later."
July 08, 2011 | National Public Radio
People who fall behind on their mortgage payments because of a job loss are about to get some additional breathing room. The Obama administration is pressuring mortgage servicers to increase the forbearance period to 12 months for homeowners who have lost jobs. Pastor KOLIN: It's one positive step in breaking that link in the United States right now between losing your job and losing your home.
July 07, 2011 | The New York Times
Help is on the way from the federal government for some homeowners struggling to make their mortgage payments because of prolonged joblessness.
November 20, 2009 | Oakland Tribune
Anxious to rid their schools of expired food, processed "pouches" and high-fructose corn syrup, families from dozens of Oakland neighborhoods, from the Montclair heights to the East Oakland flatlands, have banded together to push for an overhaul of Oakland's school lunch program.
November 20, 2009 | Oakland Local
Recently OCO joined forces with Oakland School Food Alliance, another parent and community organization, to figure out how to bring more fresh, healthy food to kids throughout the district. "One of the main goals of this project is to have real cooking in every school," says Jesus Rodriguez, OCO organizer.
July 26, 2009 | Oakland Tribune
In the most dangerous nights on the eastern stretch of MacArthur Boulevard, often called a killing field within the city, a small crew of men dressed in white walk the street to help keep the peace in a way police cannot.
May 27, 2009 | Oakland Tribune
Workers hit streets to transform lives
May 06, 2009 | Oakland Tribune
It is often said that there are "two Oaklands," and the city's public education system is no exception to this divide. Some schools are largely attended by the middle class and affluent, and others by the poor and working class. The Interstate 580 freeway, which traces the city's rolling foothills, provides a crude boundary.
April 20, 2009 | KTVU 2
For the past few years a handful of outreach workers have hit the streets to try to transform their East Oakland community, empowering it by offering jobs and training and hope.
April 12, 2009 | San Francisco Chronicle
Street outreach workers walk through Oakland neighborhoods, carrying a message of hope and letting residents know about services and jobs that are available.
May 23, 2008 | Oakland Tribune
OCO holds meeting of 3,000, calls on Oakland officials to help put an end to gun violence terrorizing neighborhoods
05/24/2013 6:30 PM
Now that Lifelines to Healing has started back up in Oakland, OCO is joining forces with other faith leaders to stop the gun violence in our community. Why are we on the streets for Oakland Ceasefire? We care! We want young men to stop being so violent toward one another! And we want to find out what are their needs! Join us every Friday for the night walks if you want the gun violence to end in Oakland neighborhoods.
OCO leaders joined the national PICO network and its allies to create the power to push for a comprehensive immigration bill in 2013. We are working on the local, state and national level in a joint effort to push for national legislation for citizenship. Join us and let's make this happen!
OCO leaders have dedicated themselves for over a decade to ensuring excellent and equitable education for every student in Oakland, particularly low-income students of color in the flatland schools. Building off our successes and learnings from the small schools movement, parent and student leaders are prepared to focus on lowering the drop-out rate and improving academic outcomes in our high schools through Linked Learning, which prioritizes academic rigor, work-based learning and robust student services. West Oakland leaders are ready to take STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) to the next level in neighborhood schools.
See how PICO changes lives, strengthens families and revitalizes communities across the country.
