Get OUSD to Homeboy Industries
The Oakland Unified School District Newcomer Wellness Initiative Serves recently arrived immigrant youth in middle and high school in Oakland, California. Many of our young people come to us having fled violence in their own countries, particularly the gang violence plaguing Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras only to often encounter gang violence again here in Oakland. This year two of our newcomer students were killed due to gang violence as this issue continues to impact them and our communities. This year as part of our work, our team of bilingual social workers and MFTs have begun the work of trying to better understand and address safety issues for our newcomer students both within our schools and across the city of Oakland.
As the program manager of this fabulous Newcomer Wellness Team, it is my goal to get us to the Homeboy Industries Global Homeboy Network Gathering in August in Los Angeles. Homeboy Industries is the largest gang intervention and prevention program in the world. This gathering was created in 2014 with the purpose of: "Widening the circle with compassion, tenderness, and kinship, creating community, sanctuary, family, a place to welcome those on the edges, on the margins— these ideas are what ultimately led to the creation of the Global Homeboy Network in 2014, and what continue to drive its growth and direction." We serve and walk with those "on the margins" and it is our goal to learn from the Homeboy Industries model and to bring this knowledge back to the young people we serve in Oakland through innovative, heartfelt approaches. I am raising money to bring at least five of our team members (but would love for all of us to go), unfortunately our school district is in a financial crisis, so we have to look outside our system for these resources. Registration is $300 per person. We will drive to save money and will get creative about sleeping arrangements.
THANK YOU FOR HELPING US MAKE THIS HAPPEN!
With Gratitude,
Julia and the Newcomer Wellness Initiative Team
