We are YOUTH ABOUT ACTION
The Youth About Action seeks to eliminate and prevent youth homelessness in Alameda County. The YAB is a vital function of the plight against homelessness. The youth voice is currently misrepresented, and we will lend that voice. We will serve as a bridge between youth and county decision makers to bring insight to the needs of youth in Alameda County and connect an increasing amount of resources for our community.
Check out the YAB’s Winter 2024 newsletter here [Resource]
MISSION: The Youth Advisory Board (YAB) seeks to encourage and uplift youth representation to identify barriers to increase housing stability. We strive to support self-sufficiency by building an equitable community using transparent means.
VISION: We envision an inclusive world where young people of all backgrounds and identities thrive through equity and generosity. Where all youth are affirmed as their authentic selves in the community.
Who is the Youth Advisory Board and our role in the community
The Youth About Action was initiated within ALL IN Alameda County and now operates under the Office of Homeless Care and Coordination (OHCC) in Alameda County’s Health Care Services Agency. Our goal is to prevent and end youth experiencing homelessness while uplifting youth representation. We are 100% BIPOC and between the ages of 18-26 with lived experience, or have demonstrated a commitment to ending homelessness.
We work closely with city and county decision makers, service providers, professors and community stakeholders, and are guiding leaders by advising on the best policies and practices that meet the diverse needs of youth and young adults experiencing homelessness.
This includes building a County/City Interagency Task Force to target legislative change and implementing the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project grant in the county, as well as engaging in other collaborative projects and initiatives. Aside from guiding policy change, the YAB is essential to the community because we encourage and support personal and professional development as well as growth opportunities to stimulate youths’ career or academic pathways.
Land Acknowledgement
The YAB is based out of north Ohlone land, referred to as Oakland, California and home to the Muwekma Ohlone. We’d like to honor the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe who are the original inhabitants and lifetime stewards of the land we continue our work on. We acknowledge that, in face of past and current colonialism, they are still here today. In working towards ending youth homelessness, it’s important that we recognize and publicly acknowledge the home that was taken away from our Indigenous neighbors and be intentional about how we cultivate conversations surrounding this. We encourage our community to seek an understanding of their land’s history and find ways to elevate the voices of our Indigenous communities through direct action and the sharing of knowledge:
- Learn more about our neighbors, the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe
- How to contribute to the Shuumi Land Tax
- Indigenous populations in the East Bay Area
- 6 Actions toward allyship with Indigenous communities
Our Values
- We believe in exercising true equality to represent and uplift all youth voices of different backgrounds and situations.
- We believe that all youth are stakeholders; we prioritize youth employment with fair compensation and benefits
- We believe community-based support and services exist in order to be the core of ending youth homelessness and poverty. Levegering power is crucial to this case.
- We believe in stretching the quality of generosity by providing one-on-one peer mentor support.
- We value engineering creativity, teamwork, and developing a sustainable environment for youth to have the tools they need to succeed.
Our Membership
The YAB is made up of participants, members and peer mentors between the ages of 18-26. Participants are youths who engage with YAB meetings, activities, and events on their own time basis; they assist with YAB’s goals by providing unique insights on youth homelessness in Alameda County.
Members are the core decision-making body of the YAB, consisting of a minimum of eight (8) and a maximum of ten (10) seats. Each member seat will represent the following experiences:
- Foster care/ Child welfare
- System Impacted
- Juvenile Justice
- Undocumented/migrant
- LGBTQ+
- CSEC/Labor exploited (victims of DV)
- Pregnant/Parenting
- BIPOC
- Emancipated youth
- YYA w/Disabilities & Mental Health
Peer mentors are youths and young adults ages 18-26 who operate internal YAB functions and provide one-on-one peer support to YAB members. The YAB is fully supported by our adult allies from Covenant House California, who provide authentic guidance and connections to youth, fair youth compensation and supportive resources.
Our Partners
Ashland Reach Center
Alameda Office of Homeless Care and Coordination
Alameda County Former District 3 Supervisor Dave Brown
ALL IN Alameda County
Brandon Harami (Policy Director, Oakland Mayor’s Office)
California Coalition for Youth
The Career and Technical Education (CTE) Hub at 1025 2nd Ave
City of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao
Covenant House of California
Continuum of Care (CoC), Homebase
Downtown TAY (Oakland)
Genice Jacobs (Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking Activist)
Oakland Youth Advisory Commission
On The Move
True Colors United
UC Berkeley School of Public Health
Vincent Steele (Policy Analyst, District 2 Public Ethics Commissioner)
In 2020, the YAB began as an initiative within ALL IN Alameda County through financial support from Blue Shield of California and in partnership with youth-serving organization Covenant House of California.
In 2022, the YAB transitioned out of ALL IN Alameda County and into Housing and Homelessness Services who began the 2nd YAB contract and brought the YAB into Alameda County’s Homeless Response System. In contract and partnership with Covenant House of California, OHCC has agreed to fully administer the YAB to support its work by providing supportive services such as a working location, working materials and youth compensation.
What the YAB has been doing in our community
January 30th, 2023 & January 31st, 2023
California Coalition for Youth “Executive Advocacy Days”
The YAB took a trip to Sacramento to do face-to-face advocacy in front of senators to advance specific budget asks, service acts, and bills to support youth experiencing homelessness in California. We were sponsored by the California Coalition for Youth and were given talking points to focus on the major investments that empower to improve the lives of all California’s youth ages 14-24 with a specific focus on youth experiencing homelessness. This was something new to the YAB because we specialize at the local, community, and county level in regard to policy advocacy. This was a memorable experience for us all, and we would like to thank our partners for making this happen.
March 8, 2023
California Surgeon General Visits Alameda County
In early March, the YAB and partners had the honor of welcoming our newly appointed California Surgeon General Dr. Diana Ramos to come learn about the strategies and approaches to improve health outcomes for individuals and families in Alameda County. We got to share with Dr. Ramos who the YAB is and how our youth leadership impacted the transition aged youth health and wellness. In addition to our collaboration with county partners, as well as learning about the programs our partners are implementing in services for perinatal care, pregnant and parenting women, families with children, families who experienced infant loss and individuals experiencing homelessness. We learned that our county works with a racially equitable lens to uplift the needs of vulnerable and underrepresented populations such as conducting in-home visits for women who experienced the death of an infant, implementing a Direct Cash Transfer program for low-income pregnant women, and a program to uplift and empower Black women who are expected parents through staff representation.
March 16, 2023
Collaborating with Youth Spirit Artworks and Covenant House Youth Residents
Youth Spirit Artworks (YSA) held a workshop with the YAB to teach youth how creative avenues are applied to produce news articles on social issues in the community. Based in Berkeley, YSA is a non-profit organization with the mission to empower homeless and low-income youth through job training in art and media. YSA, in partnership with unhoused residents, operates a local newspaper called Street Spirit that focuses extensively on human rights issues such as affordable housing, food insecurity and gaps in our justice system. In this meeting we learned about the programs and process for publishing an article with YSA. We sat there discussing the power of media and how it influences our daily lives – with that we all reconvene soon with a piece of art, poem, testimony etc, that we would all like to see in the future publication.
March 31, 2023
Office of Homeless Care and Coordination Film Night: A Thousand and One
On Friday, March 31st, 2023 YAB invited covenant house members, and other youth from our partnering organization to see a film that shines light on homelessness, foster care and the effects of gentrification. This is a very educational movie showing real life struggles of single parents trying to do the best they can for their children. If you’re considering seeing the film trigger warning for anyone with foster care experience, homeless experience or racism with the police department.
April 30th – May 2nd, 2023
California Coalition for Youth: Youth Empowerment Summit – Sacramento, CA
YAB members and Covenant House residents attended a 3-day long Youth Empowerment Summit hosted by the California Coalition for Youth (CCY) where young folks from across the nation attended personal and professional development workshops, learned about the work on homelessness between state and federal partners, and had the chance to network. We learned about six specific bills and legislations sponsored by CCY and met with assembly members and senators representing Alameda County to advocate for the approval of these bills aimed to prevent and end youth homelessness. This includes advocating for an increase in youth-allocated funding for our community, expanding consent for optical care to minors and increasing the age limit for Independent Living Programs for foster youth.
June 16, 2023
YAB Members attend Beats, Rhymes, & Life event with Covenant House California Oakland
The Alameda County’s Office of Homeless Care and Coordination hosted an event with Beats, Rhymes, & Life to produce an interactive workshop for youth and young adults. The YAB collaborated with Covenant House and other youth by expressing each other’s creative side through music. This event impacted youth positively by bringing the community together in creating something everyone can be a part of.
June 8th, 15th
California Interagency Council on Homelessness( CAL-ICH)
YAB members and Emerging Leaders alumni met with CAL-ICH where they presented the new 2023-2024 state plan and their action steps to end people experiencing homelessness. The first session was very informative about what they do and sharing their statewide plan to end homelessness through program, systems and funding enhancement. During the second session, Emerging Leaders alumni and YAB members had more opportunity to share questions, comments and feedback on the state plan about what’s working with some action items and what isn’t. From this session, we gathered from everyone’s comment an emphasis on lack of affordable housing available for existing program participants, and a lack of coordination between our leaders on homelessness and leaders in housing development.