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Four Community Pillars Support Rise East Project in Oakland

“Seeing the disparities in our area, our approach — to be on the ground — best served this population,” said Dr. Noha Aboeleta, the founder of Roots says. “ROOTS is a community-based response organization. Over the years we grew from two people to 200 full-time staff.”

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Noha Aboelata, MD, is founder and CEO both of Roots Community Health Center (Roots), and the Roots Community Health Alliance (Roots Alliance). Photos by Talking Eyes Media
Noha Aboelata, MD, is founder and CEO both of Roots Community Health Center (Roots), and the Roots Community Health Alliance (Roots Alliance). Photos by Talking Eyes Media

Part 4

By Tanya Dennis

Roots are deep in Deep East Oakland.

The Roots Community Health Center was founded in 1998 in Deep East Oakland at 99th and International Blvd. with a mission is to uplift those impacted by systemic inequities and poverty.

Roots accomplishes this through medical and behavioral health care, health navigation, workforce enterprises, housing, outreach, and advocacy.

“Seeing the disparities in our area, our approach — to be on the ground — best served this population,” said Dr. Noha Aboeleta, the founder of Roots says. “ROOTS is a community-based response organization. Over the years we grew from two people to 200 full-time staff.”

Unable to do all the interventions that were needed on their own, and recognizing the value of collaboration, Roots leadership brought together what would become the ‘40 by 40’ Council “to preserve what we have and as a resource to continue to build,” Aboeleta said.

Under Aboeleta’s leadership, the 40 by 40 Council consists of the Black Cultural Zone (BCZ), the Brotherhood of Elders, and the East Oakland Youth Development Center (EOYDC). The four stakeholders and community builders agreed it was time to take their direct services and advocacy to the neighborhood level. Together, they identified a 40-block by 40-block area in Deep East Oakland for development, preservation, and restoration.

Explaining what she terms her intentional selection of organizations for the Council, Aboeleta says, “We partnered with Black Cultural Zone as they work with a coalition of residents, government agencies, churches and grassroots organizing and community groups to help keep Black folks in East Oakland through building power, securing land and directing more dollars to community driven projects.

BCZ provides space at Liberation Park where people can gather and convene, Aboeleta said. In addition, BCZ has a development corporation, and we recognized the need to develop commercial and residential space for us to address those that have been displaced. To assure that they would have the first ‘right of return,’ a development corporation would be vital.”

Next, Aboeleta reached out to the Brotherhood of Elders because they have such an important place in the community: “bringing history wisdom and relationship with a focus on Black men and boys,” Aboeleta said.

Aboeleta regards the fourth stakeholder, EOYDC, as the anchor of the Council.

EOYDC, developed with aid from the Clorox Corporation, has operated since 1978 in Deep East Oakland and has focused on youth development, providing social services to youth for three decades

EOYDC develops the social leadership capacities of youth and young adults ages 5-24 so youth achieve excellence in education, career and service to their community.

According to Aboeleta, “BCZ and the Brotherhood bring together other organizations; are assisting in developing a community land trust; and developing other components important to this work.

“Rise East is really an amazing opportunity none of us imagined,”Aboeleta said.

In April 2023, Blue Meridian Partners Philanthropy wanted to see the 40 by 40 area, so the council took them to Liberation Park at 73rd Avenue and Foothill Boulevard and the surrounding area. They saw the vision and were impressed.

“It’s still a work in progress,” Aboeleta said. Before Blue Meridian, the Council was raising small amounts of funding from community-based grants, using those grants to align what each organization was doing.

“Blue Meridian was not something we expected but now we can accelerate this work because of the urgency of displacement, violence and health disparities occurring in our community,” Aboeleta said.

Rise East funding is for five years but the plan is for 10 years.

Besides Blue Meridian, Rise East is working with Oakland Thrives, a key partner engaging key leaders from the Alameda County, the City of Oakland and the Oakland Unified School District Board of Trustees.

“They are at the table, which provides an opportunity for us to align private funding with public funding,” Aboeleta said. “We must be asset-based and because of these amazing partnerships in the public sector, we can partner around policy and how things can be implemented at the city, county and state level. That’s our next step. Public funding for Rise East.”

For a comprehensive overview of Rise East go to:

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/64d69797b4716c79f3605acc/t/64ff88bd1df20f1859e59344/1694468291491/RiseEast-InvestmentReport-V3-spread.pdf

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of June 4 – 10, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 4-10, 2025

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Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

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Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)
Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.

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Oakland Post: Week of May 28 – June 30, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 28 – June 3, 2025

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