Oakland, CA

Disaster Recovery Centers For Resilient Communities In Oakland
Like many cities across America, the City of Oakland, CA is experiencing climate change in the form of historic droughts, record-breaking heat, and devastating wildfires that have taken lives, displaced community members, and stressed infrastructure. Oakland’s frontline communities have done the least to create the climate crisis, yet they are... Read more
Urgent Responses To Climate Impacts
The City of Oakland is working to mitigate climate change and build residents’ resilience through a variety of pathways, with an emphasis on the BIPOC and frontline communities who are most likely to experience the most frequent and severe disruptions under the status quo. In order to prevent the worst... Read more
Reimagining the Right of Way to Support an Equitable Community Recovery
The COVID-19 pandemic threw daily life into a state of upheaval, with lockdowns, social distancing guidelines, travel bans, and digital work becoming a new norm. While these measures largely worked to preserve the health of many Americans, bold actions needed to be taken to curb the economic and social impacts... Read more
Expanding Pathways into High-Quality Jobs by Aligning Workforce Investments
In the Bay Area, COVID-19 has dealt a harsher economic blow to the region than initially estimated. Nearly 5,000 jobs were lost in January 2021 alone. In the City of Oakland, the unemployment rate has spiked to 9.6%, after having been at its lowest rate in decades before the pandemic... Read more
Implementing the “Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighbors” Initiative
Oakland is working to reduce racial disparities and promote economic security and opportunity for residents, especially those living in underserved neighborhoods in East Oakland. After partnering and engaging with communities in East Oakland, city officials created the Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighbors plan, which was awarded a $28.2 million multi-year Transformative... Read more
Holding Local Leaders Accountable for Addressing Racial Equity
Oakland leadership seeks to ensure that all departments have the tools and resources needed to track and report on equity-centered targets aligned to key health, climate, and economic indicators. To meet these goals, the city council and mayor want to develop a performance management system, which can also help local... Read more
Building an Information System to Protect Renters from Displacement
Gentrification in Oakland has significantly impacted renters, who comprise 59 percent of households and pay some of the highest rents in the nation. Compounding the issue, a lack of robust data makes it difficult for policymakers to respond to unjust evictions and illegal rent increases. To address this problem, the... Read more
Strengthening Code Enforcement for Safer Housing
Oakland seeks to prioritize housing that is both safe and affordable. Yet the city continues to see a proliferation of living situations that are not compliant with municipal building codes and safety standards. In response, the City has enacted several policies to increase staffing and improve technology for building inspections... Read more
Leveraging Technology for Efficient Government Service Delivery
Oakland’s Information Technology Department (ITD) offers advice and support to all city departments so they can better serve residents. FUSE executive fellow Jana Good developed a strategic technology plan for ITD that advances the priorities of the city, while leveraging common technology platforms to ensure holistic, integrated, and extensible solutions.... Read more
Ensuring College Affordability for Oakland Students
Out of every 100 students who start ninth grade in Oakland, only 15 will complete a post-secondary education degree within five years of graduation. The Mayor’s Office believes that to ensure more Oaklanders have a path to postsecondary education, barriers such as cost and cumbersome application processes must be addressed.... Read more
Building Inclusive Economic Development
As part of a plan to reduce racial disparities and promote economic opportunity for all communities, Oakland is working to revive the 7-mile International Boulevard corridor, which crosses through the city’s lowest-income neighborhoods and improves the economic conditions in far East Oakland. In light of the impact of COVID-19, Oakland... Read more
Inspiring a Movement for Children
Christine’s fellowship focused on scaling The Children’s Movement of Californian a sustainable manner. Christine began the practice of capturing social media metrics monthly and providing a report of the results. She assumed the day-to-day management of the Children Now social media accounts, as well as trained other staff members on... Read more
Building a Movement for Children
FUSE Executive Fellow Noelle Galperin helped Children Now in Oakland build a diverse coalition of organizations to focus California executives and legislators on the needs of children. She contributed to the development of the movement’s strategy plan and established alliances and engaged elected officials to scale the movement’s work. In... Read more