The Movement Technology Fellows completed the first year of the program with a Graduation and Presentation ceremony on Tuesday, December 11, 2018. Fellows started the program in April and working in collaboration with each other, their mentors, and counterparts at their home organizations, learned a series of new technical skills and developed organization specific tech solutions.

Dear Mayor Schaaf: We reach out to you as organizations working closely with the people of Oakland – particularly with low income communities of color, immigrants, people with disabilities, low wage workers, LGTBQ neighbors, unsheltered people, and people who were formerly incarcerated. Our communities are the ones impacted first and worst by climate chaos – including the hazardous air quality we are currently facing.

Thank you to everyone who got out to vote! We led with values and vision, driving a progressive agenda. We believe that Oakland can and should be a city that champions equity, that puts the issues and agendas of our neighbors who have been most impacted by systemic racism, poverty, neglect, environmental hazards and incarceration at the center of our city’s agenda.

We’ve known for too long that our unhoused neighbors need the city to take real, immediate actions to address this crisis. Measure W would provide part of the solution.

Measure Y will expand eviction protections to all buildings (built before 1996) regardless of size. Measure Y will not solve the housing crisis alone, but it along with Prop 10 will provide much needed protections to help keep existing tenants in their homes and prevent further homelessness.

Oakland’s hotel workers, who are primarily women of color, face sexual assault on the job at alarming rates. Stand with Oakland hotel workers by voting YES! on Measure Z this fall.

Join us December 11 as we celebrate the graduation of our first cohort of the Movement Technology Fellowship (MTF)! The fellowship prepares participants as technology leaders for their organizations, who can provide trainings, support, and develop new tools.

Last month Oakland Rising co-hosted a nonpartisan Mayoral & District 2 Candidate Forum for the Oakland Chinatown Community. Held at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, over 250 local residents attended along with staff and members from the 13 participating organizations including the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, League of Women Voters Oakland, Asian Health Services, and others.

A No on Prop 5 vote, is a Yes for Investment in Our Livelihoods – our schools, health clinics, senior centers, parks, libraries and other crucial community services. As if our communities are not already starved for funding, corporate special interests are attempting to take an additional $1 Billion per year away.

This election, Prop 10 (The Affordable Housing Act) offers a major opportunity to strengthen rent control – one of the biggest safe guards to keep working-class, people of color housed in Oakland. Rent control is a critical tool used by cities to push back against displacement, and to stabilize housing markets.