OAKLAND RISING
THANK YOU HOSTS & SPONSORS Amaka Agbo Aimee Alison Brooke Anderson Nikki Bas Cat Burton Kim Carter B. Cole Dinah Consuegra Nicole Derse Yen Do Jose Dorado Pamela Drake Abel Guillen Mimi Ho Lailan Huen Phil Hutchings Andy Katz Andy Kelley Danette Lambert Andrea Lee Tonya Love Timmy Lu Lanese Martin Michelle Matos Dani McClain Hallie Montoya-Tansey Jenny Montoya-Tansey
Peggy Moore Jahmese Myres Thuy Trang Nguyen Kate O’Hara Elliott Okiwelu Steven Pitts Maria Poblet Richard Raya Rachel Richman Michael Riewenschneider Sharon Rose Jessamyn Sabbag Rebecca Saltzman Jonel Seon Brandon Sturdivant Esperanza Tervalon-Daumont Mary Thomas Tony Thurmond Alex Tom Igor Tregub Amado Uno Neva Walker Sheryl Walton Calvin Williams
CELEBRATING AND HONORING THE FIERCEST ACTIVISTS AND LEADERS OF OAKLAND’S SOCIAL JUSTICE AND POLITICAL COMMUNITY.
JUNE 19, 2013 | KAISER LAKEVIEW TERRACE | OAKLAND, CA
LETTER FROM OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Dear Friends and Community, MISSSEY | Townie Award for Youth Leadership Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting, and Serving Sexually Exploited Youth (MISSSEY) is a community-based organization in Alameda County, CA, founded in 2007 to respond to the heartbreaking epidemic of commercially sexual exploitation children. MISSSEY advocates and facilitates the empowerment and inner transformation of sexually exploited youth by holistically addressing their specific needs. MISSSEY collaborates to bring about systemic and community change to prevent the sexual exploitation of children and youth through raising awareness, education and policy development.
Vanessa Moses | Townie of the Year Award Vanessa has been organizing tenants & homeowners in the flatlands of Oakland for the past 7 years. Now, as Co-Director of Program, she leads and supports the basebuilding work of Causa Justa :: Just Cause, a fighting organization building grassroots power and leadership to create strong, equitable communities and solidarity between working class communities of color. Since moving to the Bay Area, she has been active with several community and political organizations, including as staff for Bay Area Police Watch, a project of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, as a collective member with the Center for Political Education, and as a member of the Leadership Team for generationFIVE. She remains grateful for her initial training as an organizer at the National School for Strategic Organizing with the Labor/Community Strategy Center and Bus Riders Union in Los Angeles. Abel’s dedication to improving education goes beyond his work at the Peralta Board of Trustees. A Senior Vice President of an East Bay school finance firm, Abel has raised over $2 billion to build and modernize California’s public schools and community colleges. Abel graduated from UC Berkeley with a Masters Degree in Public Policy.
This year, Oakland Rising celebrates 5 years of electoral organizing for racial and economic justice to ensure that low-income, immigrant and communities of color are informed and engaged in what’s happening at the ballot box and at City Hall. Huge thanks for your support over the past five years, and let’s continue winning together for the next five years and beyond! Since 2008, Oakland Rising has developed a flourishing and dynamic model for civic engagement organizing that is rooted in advancing social justice values in our local government. Working with our collaborative partners and residents from all over The Town, we believe that together we are strengthening Oakland by ensuring that people from every community are partnering with our government to advance policies that share economic prosperity, prioritize responsible development and cultivate healthier neigborhoods. Over the last 5 years Oakland Rising has: • Grown the scope and scale of our programs by 1,400% since launching our first campaign in 2008. We ran our largest campaign ever last fall, reaching more than 26,000 low-income, immigrant and voters of color living in East and West Oakland in just five weeks, and helping to be the margin of victory for Prop 30. • Provided over 300 living-wage voter outreach jobs for Oaklanders to talk with their neighbors about the importance of statewide tax and fiscal policy reforms and local policies like Revive Oakland’s good jobs campaign. 85% of all daily team members were previously incarcerated. • Together, we have identified 47,426 voters in Oakland who support our agenda to build stronger community, share public dollars fairly, strengthen economic opportunity, and ensure health and safety in Oakland and beyond. With 5 years behind us, we are already looking forward to what the next 5 years will bring. We hope that Oakland Rising will continue to grow into a household name that is synonymous with a progressive vision for Oakland that uplifts the spirit of unity, justice, and power. And most importantly, we hope that our work will help to build the political power of Oakland’s long-time families residing in the east and the west, and move our city closer to its full potential where all families can thrive. It’s an honor to share this incredible work and vision with all of you as we celebrate our Annual Young Progressives Party. We are excited to invite the social justice community, young people, seniors and political leaders to stand with us as we prepare to make change possible. We thank you for your continued commitment to stand with low-income, immigrant and communities of color, our collaborative partners, and our dedicated staff to support a progressive vision for Oakland. Always Towards Victory,
Esperanza Tervalon-Daumont
People’s Grocery | Townie Award for Eco-Warrior of the Year People’s Grocery operates at the intersection of public health, economic development,
OAKLAND RISING VOTERS BY DISTRICT: 2009 - 2013
and food systems. Our mission is to improve the health and local economy of West Oakland through investing in the local food system. Using West Oakland as a model of leadership development, micro-enterprise creation and health project development, we aim to support and develop a thriving network of like-minded change-agents in cities across the nation. Since 2003 we have pursued positive community change and addressed social determinants of health through food to ensure that community self-determination plays a primary role in revitalizing historically underinvested neighborhoods.
Sylvia Lopez | Townie Volunteer of the Year Award Sylvia has been a Domestic Worker for over 10 years in the US and has been organizing for Domestic Worker Rights in California for 7 years. She has been an active leader in the Immigrant Rights movement and has supported organizing efforts in Washington, New York, California, and Michigan, facilitating trainings and workshops for emerging groups and organizations. Sylvia is currently working with MUA in a two year organizing internship to build the leadership of immigrant women in the movement towards social justice.
Fred Blackwell | Townie Award for Elected or Governmental Official of the Year Fred Blackwell oversees external service departments and customer service initiatives for the City of Oakland. A native, he holds more than 15 years of nationally recognized high-level leadership in the nonprofit/public sector, and has a range of experience with
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community development. Prior to Oakland, Fred served as Executive Director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. During his tenure, he led large scale developments including military base reuse, infrastructure investments, commercial developments, affordable housing, and open space projects. In particular, some of his achievements include: adoption of the Candlestick Point-Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Redevelopment
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* 5% higher turnout in 2010
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* 13% higher turnout in 2012
Plan; design and implementation of a public housing revitalization effort that won a $30.5M Choice Neighborhood Grant from HUD. Prior to SFRA, Fred served as Director of the Mayor’s Office of Community Development, overseeing the City’s Community Development Block Program, focusing on economic and service-focused strategies to assist low-income families.