Oakland Kids First (OKF) amplifies youth voice, leadership, and power to create engaging and equitable public schools where all students learn and achieve. Over the past 20+ years, OKF has trained 1...
Oakland Kids First (OKF) amplifies youth voice, leadership, and power to create engaging and equitable public schools where all students learn and achieve. Over the past 20+ years, OKF has trained 1,500+ high school youth in Oakland to organize for and implement school improvement projects, resulting in: - A Meaningful Student Engagement policy (2006) - A policy aligning OUSD graduation requirements with the University of California A-G college requirements (2007) - A ballot initiative increasing city funding for youth services from 2.5% to 3.0% (2008) - The creation of a 'Civic Engagement & Social Movements' class, the only OUSD leadership course qualified as an A-G college requirement (2014) - Institutionalized school-codes, currencies and stores developed and ran by students to uphold positive school culture (2016-17) - Successfully organized a coalition of students, families, and organizations under the banner of Justice for Oakland Students (J4OS) to pressure OUSD to hire a local superintendent in alignment with community demands (2017).