Community Group’s Work Helps Close School-to-Prison Pipeline

Bo Tefu | Alameda Impact

Education, health services and family support are the pillars for creating equity in Black and Brown communities across Alameda County, say community advocates at Safe Passages, a community-based organization in Oakland.

The group prides itself on its track record of disrupting cycles of poverty through community development programs for children from low-income families.

“Our cornerstones are cultural competency and inclusion. There’s no one size fits all, we are all unique, and we have to be responsive to the unique needs of all our community members,” said Alicia Perez, the legislative and community development director at Safe Passages.

Alicia Perez, the legislative and community development director at Safe Passages.

The programs Safe Passages operate cater to children from communities impacted by the War on Drugs, including immigrant families with language limitations or integration issues. Safe Passages has partnerships with various agencies, including the Alameda County Food Bank, the city of Oakland’s Department of Human Services as well as social services and immigration agencies in California.

“Children don’t live in a vacuum, they live with families and they live in communities,” said Perez.

“We want to create schools where families are welcome, supported, and feel a part of that. And that requires you to have the right staff, and the right cultural approach,” she said.

Safe Passages cultivates child-centered programs embedded in public schools with the highest needs. The programs in the public school system focus on students who struggle with truancy, academic work, most at risk for disciplinary action. The organization also hosts parent workshops that promote family engagement through positive discipline and focus on early childhood development. Safe Passages has partnered with public schools to create after school programs for high-risk youth in Alameda County.

Programs that focus on positive discipline explore what discipline looks like in Black and Brown cultures. The programs offer 12-week sessions that help parents create wholesome family environments that empower their children to excel in the school and their respective communities.

“We hold the sessions in the schools in their community and talk about what are some of the things that do and don’t work,” said Perez.

“It’s important that the families feel part of that school community from the very beginning,” she said.

Youth at Safe Passages are also involved in recreational programs that hone their creative talents. Students work on community art projects such as murals to promote their diverse cultures. The students are also encouraged to celebrate their heritage through ethnic studies programs that teach history. The goal of the programs is to encourage students to engage with their own history and take ownership of their education.

Safe Passages has current partnerships in K-12 public schools including Coliseum College Prep Academy, which became a high performing school in the Oakland Unified School District. According to evaluation reports by Safe Passages, over 80 % of the students at Coliseum College Prep Academy are accepted into four-year colleges.

Despite the success of Safe Passages, some challenges have hindered the growth of their community projects. The group’s leaders say bureaucracy and other barriers in government make it difficult for community-based organizations to receive support and resources.

“Government systems are so used to doing things a certain way, whether it does or doesn’t work,” said Perez.

“We see a lot of duplication of services funding that is not being well leveraged,” she said.

When Safe Passages first partnered with public schools, school districts had mental health professionals who worked as case managers and provided support for students. Perez recalled that the city of Oakland tried to establish similar mental health support systems, but the programs were not integrated in the schools. However, Safe Passages advocated for mental health professionals to provide services in public schools so that students and their families had access to behavioral health services. Advocates at Safe Passages also help promote a multicultural environment for students.

“Everybody wants to do things their own way and it may not work for the other systems, so integrating takes a lot of compromise,” said Perez.

“That it’s the greatest challenge in finding a place where public systems and providers can discuss implementation strategies where they can come to a compromise about how to make systems work for the children and families,” she said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled advocates at Safe Passages to rethink community engagement to support students and their families. A key takeaway was finding ways to mitigate the lack of support for online learning and encouraging families to get vaccinated.

Safe Passages organized resources for online distance learning for low-income families who needed internet access, technical support for laptops, and learning material for tutoring programs. Additionally, agents from the organization help families schedule vaccine appointments and learn more about the vaccinations.

“One huge lesson learned has been that family engagement is not an add on or an enrichment activity from education or health services. It is an integral part,” said Perez.

Currently, Safe Passage is part of a network of organizations working on the California Reducing Disparities Project, a mental health equity initiative serving diverse populations. The project implemented by the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network aims to develop culturally responsive mental health services. Safe Passages is also expanding its partnership with AmeriCorps with the possibility of an end-of-year $10,000 education award in addition to developing its workforce program to set young professionals on a path for sustainable careers.