City Government
Oakland Exceeds Performance Expectations for Job Placements
The State of California recently released the 2015-2016 performance report for the state’s federally funded local workforce development services, which found that the city’s employment training providers performed well beyond state mandated goals for both its youth and adult programs.
Evaluating Oakland and other areas, this report compares actual performance for placements, job retention, and average wages to state-mandated goals set at the beginning of each program year.
These particular statistics are of vital importance for our local job seekers. The state’s report shows that the network of employment training providers for the City of Oakland performed well beyond state-mandated goals with both its youth and adult programs.
“In a challenging environment for job seekers, these results are a testament to the hard work of staff and the great partnerships with local employers,” said Gay Plair Cobb, CEO of Oakland PIC.
“We serve those that are most in need, having faced challenges such as lack of job training, incarceration, lack of housing and education, and computer literacy. It is our duty as workforce service providers to open doors of opportunity for our customers and help them achieve employment sustainability,” Cobb said.
![Chris Iglesias, CEO, Unity Council](https://www.postnewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Chris-Iglesias-CEO-e1466021965693-300x262.jpg)
Chris Iglesias, CEO, Unity Council
Chris Iglesias, CEO of The Unity Council, said, “This is a testament to the strengths of Oakland’s workforce provider network. We are proud to see our clients reaching employment success, many of whom face numerous barriers to employment including lack of formal education and limited English proficiency.”
“The Oakland workforce network has come together to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to find a career path and reach self-sufficiency,” he said.
“This year was the best performance of the City of Oakland’s local workforce system in the past three years, demonstrating continued improvement in how the city and its contracted service providers meet the needs of Oakland residents,” said Erica Derryck, Director of Communications for Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf.
The adult service provider network includes the Oakland Private Industry Council, the Unity Council, and ASSETS Senior Services. This performance report reflects the work of staff at these three organizations in providing job training and workforce services to adult job seekers in Oakland, including recently laid off workers.
For unemployed adults, who often have significant barriers to successful employment, the City of Oakland achieved more than 100 percent of the state-mandated goals for job placement, job retention, and average wage.
The report shows that the rate of successful placement of long term unemployed job seekers was 67 percent, (110 percent of the state’s expected placement rate of 60.5 percent). These job seekers had a starting average wage of $13 an hour, and 82 percent were retained in employment for more than six months, well in excess of the state’s goal.
The employment placement rate for laid off workers was even higher at 76 percent with a starting average wage of $19 an hour. Over 85 percent of laid off workers retained employment for more than six months.
All of these results were significantly higher than the goals set by the state.
Similarly, for the youth providers of Oakland, the 2015-2016 performance report indicates that more than 100 percent of state-mandated goals were achieved in two out of the three performance standards.
In particular, job placement for youth reported a success rate of 75 percent, which was 136 percent of the state mandated goal. Oakland’s youth service providers include: Youth Employment Partnership, Lao Family Community Development, Civicorps, Youth Radio and Youth Uprising.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of September 4 – 10, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of September 4 – 10, 2024
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Activism
Oakland Post: Week of August 28 – September 4, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of August 28 – September 4, 2024
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Activism
A New Coalition Says: ‘Respect Our Vote – No Recalls!’
Opposing the recalls of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price and labeling the efforts as a new form of voter suppression, the coalition, “Respect Our Vote – No Recalls!” kicked off its organizing efforts last Saturday, Aug. 17, with a mass, public meeting, attended by over 100 people in East Oakland at At Thy Word Ministries Church, 8915 International Blvd. in East Oakland.
![Jess Inson, Rev. B.K. Woodson, Sr., Stewart Chen, and Mariano Contreras answer questions at the kickoff meeting of “Respect Our Vote – No Recalls!,” Saturday, Aug. 17, at At Thy Word Ministries Church, 8915 International Blvd. in East Oakland. Photo by Ken Epstein.](https://www.postnewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/respect-our-vote-featured-web-1.jpg)
By Ken Epstein
A broad, diverse coalition has come together to mobilize local communities to vote against the recalls of two East Bay reform-minded leaders, who could potentially be thrown out of office in November after serving less than two years in office.
The recall effort is a result of multi-million-dollar campaigns that the coalition says are fueled by fearmongering with funding from a Piedmont financier and promoted by a public relations campaign in the corporate media.
Opposing the recalls of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price and labeling the efforts as a new form of voter suppression, the coalition, “Respect Our Vote – No Recalls!” kicked off its organizing efforts last Saturday, Aug. 17, with a mass, public meeting, attended by over 100 people in East Oakland at At Thy Word Ministries Church, 8915 International Blvd. in East Oakland.
Servant B.K. Woodson, Sr., pastor of the Bay Area Christian Connection in Oakland and chair of the coalition, links the surging national movement to reject the fearmongering and hateful agenda advocated by Donald Trump and the rightwing authoritarian proposals of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 to their own battle against the efforts to unseat progressive leaders in Oakland and Alameda County.
“This is a powerful moment, (and) across the nation you can feel it,” he said. “There’s joy, there’s hope, there’s expectation. We Oaklanders are at the center of the universe right now because the joy that’s bubbling up against the antipathy and the anger and the mindlessness, the battle for hope is being waged right here (against those) who profit by our poverty.”
“This is the inaugural event of ‘Respect Our Vote – No Recalls!’ because we want all people’s votes to be respected,” Pastor Woodson continued. “We are a diverse coalition, and we are open to more.”
The coalition already has the participation of the Wellstone and John George Democratic clubs, the Latino Task Force, and the Asian Americans for a Progressive Alameda, as well as active involvement of African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, whites, and others, he said.
“(Together), we want to expose what’s happening,” Woodson said. “The vehicle of recall (was intended to be) a people’s device against entrenched power (but) has been co-opted by billionaires,” who have funded these campaigns.
Those attending the meeting raised concerns about Foundational Oakland Unites, a political action committee that received $605,000 from Piedmont financier Philip Dreyfuss, which contributed $480,000 to back the Sheng Thao recall.
Dreyfuss also contributed to recall Price. A political action committee, Supporters of Recall Pamela Price, which Dreyfuss helped create, received about $400,000 to pay for signature-gathering, as well as a $200,000 loan.
Other speakers at the rally included Stewart Chen, president of the Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council; Carmen Peng of Asian Americans for Progressive Alameda; Jess Inson, lead organizing fellow for Oakland Rising Action; Chaney Turner, chair of the City of Oakland’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission; and Mariano Contreras, member of the Latino Task Force and co-chair of the African American Latino Action Alliance.
Contreras said in past decades, voter suppression was mostly designed to keep African Americans, immigrants, and poor people from being able to vote.
“(But) now we’re seeing a new type of voter suppression, the denial of our vote after we cast it,” he said.
“The recall process was (originally) designed to ensure that elected officials would represent the interests of their constituents. But the recall process has been hijacked by shadowy, conservative money that finds defeated candidates (and others) who are willing to deny you and me our vote as we originally cast it,” he said.
“This is a new, dangerous voter suppression that exists right here in our city,” he said, adding that: “We are seeing the use of fear and misinformation to attract spokespeople to promote attacks and charges that are nothing more than smokescreens to roll back progressive alliances that have been built in our local government.”
Chen said that there has been a “false narrative” about rampant crime, which is a “bunch of baloney.”
There have long been problems with crime in Oakland, and the recalls against Price and Thao began shortly after they were elected and before they had a chance to do much, he said. “Unequivocally, the people who lost wanted their candidates to win. These are sour grapes.”
“This is undemocratic. We have to stand together, unite together,” Chen said. “That’s why I’m here.”
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