Measure Y Violence Prevention Partnerships and Collaborations
Staff continues to coordinate Measure Y efforts to complement other local fundraising and violence prevention efforts. For example, Measure Y is working with Arnold Perkins, former Director of Alameda County Public Health Department and emissary of the Mayor, to coordinate the various reentry efforts that are taking root in Oakland and the County. The goal is to create a single table in which diverse efforts including Measure Y, Senator Perata’s violence prevention strategies, Alameda County’s Violence Prevention Blueprint, and the Alameda County Reentry Network can work together.
Measure Y staff have worked with Alameda County Behavioral Health Care staff in order to coordinate Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Act, investments in criminal-justice involved populations with Measure Y investments.
Measure Y staff were consulted in the development of Oakland and Alameda County’s plan (EveryOne Home) to end homelessness. As a result, reentry housing has been identified as a critical need.
Capacity Building Activities
Measure Y staff provide capacity building and technical assistance for Measure Y grantees and special projects.
Measure Y hired a graduate student researcher to develop a plan for improving police and community relations. The researcher conducted several focus groups with community members, criminal justice-involved youth and young adults, and with beat and community police officers, to acquire information and ideas for improvement. This research culminated in a report and plan that was the basis for a grant from the Haas Jr. Foundation.
California Cities Gang Prevention Network
The National League of Cities’ Institute for Youth, Education, and Families, in partnership with the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) launched a three-year, nationally-unprecedented California Cities Gang Prevention Initiative. The participating thirteen of California’s largest cities have pledged to interweave prevention, intervention, enforcement and the community’s “moral voice” before fear alone dominates the government’s response and drives policymakers toward prison-only solutions. The first meeting was held in Oakland in January 2007 with a team of Oakland stakeholders, including Measure Y grantees, in attendance.
