100 Black Men Charter School
African American boys in Oakland are more likely to miss school, be suspended, not graduate on time or be incarcerated than any other students. Since 2002, more African American men and boys across the city have been killed than have graduated from high school ready to attend a state college.
Against this backdrop of failure and death, school officials became the first in the nation to create a department with the sole focus of helping African American males while sponsoring a charter school specifically for black boys.
Brijjanna
Brijjanna Price was 16-years-old when her 17-year-old brother Lamont Deshawn Price was killed on the streets in Oakland. Since then she has been in and out of foster care, lived with her father, given birth to a baby girl and moved in with the father of her child.
Click here to see full coverage of 'Too Young: Life and Death on the Oakland Streets', HERE.
Too Young To Die
In 2012 in Oakland, Ca., 131 people were victims of homicide, 14 did not reach their 19th birthday. Each time a child is killed, their names and ages are reported and added to the tally. Yet few outside the immediate circle ever see what the violent death of a child does to a community or family; the grief, regret and fear are felt hours, days, weeks and even years later. In Oakland, youth live in a different world, one that assigns them to gangs by their address; where expensive shoes both buy prestige and mark kids as targets; where any kid could get hit by bullets just because.
Richmond Public Housing
The Richmond Housing Authority is running a nearly $7 million deficit and owes the feds $2.2 million for past contracting mistakes. The federal government is threatening to take control of the Housing Authority this year if key financial benchmarks are not met.
Officials at the Richmond Housing Authority know the Hacienda high-rise, one of its five public housing projects, is infested with mice and roaches. Residents have filed more than 80 complaints about it in the past year, according to agency records. But maintenance workers have done little to fix the problem.