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Schaaf Administration Cuts Youth Jobs Programs

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The City of Oakland under the leadership of Mayor Libby Schaaf is continuing to cut funding for jobs and training programs that serve young people in need.

 

Federal job funds for year-round youth job programs have been reduced from $1.1 million in 2015-2016 to $886,000 in 2016-2017, a cut of $164,000 or 16 percent.

 

Since July 2014,the cut has been 33 percent.

 

 

The cuts have been implemented even though federal funding has been nearly steady over the past few years, and the state has not yet released what the funding levels will be for 2016-2017, which begins July 1.

 

 

This money serves low-income young people who face additional barriers to employment, whether they are teen parents, on probation, homeless or in the foster care system.

 

 

The money is dispersed by the city to nonprofits that help youth with job preparation, gaining their high school diploma or other education credential and placing them in a job.

 

 

Further, Mayor Schaaf’s administration is reorganizing youth services without discussion or agreement by the Oakland Workforce Investment Board (WIB) or the Youth Council of the WIB, which is a federal requirement for structuring and recommending funding for youth employment programs according to activists who are fighting for jobs for Oaklanders.

 

 

Mayor Schaaf did not re-spond to questions submitted by the Post,

 

 

The administration oversees these agencies, and due to lack of effective technical assistance, the city is failing to meet its state required youth performance measures. The last year in which those results were reported was 2013-2014.

 

 

Over the past several years, several of the nonprofit agencies that serve youth have been forced to shut down due to delays in city payments and the hostility of the city bureaucracy, activists say.

 

 

Overall, the Schaaf administration has reorganized the city’s job programs unilaterally, without involvement of the WIB or the agencies that work with youth and adults and provide crucial support for immigrants, the formerly incarcerated and long-term unemployed, according to the activists.

 

 

The mayor’s changes will mean that three Oakland career centers, including the ones in Central Oakland, East Oakland and West Oakland, will be closed down.

 

 

Jobs and housing activists are concerned that the mayor’s reorganization and reduction of jobs programs – combined with the city’s failure to respond to the housing emergency – will mean that low-income residents will continue to be forced out of the city.

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Oakland Post: Week of November 26 – December 2, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of November 26 – December 2, 2025

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Oakland Post: Week of November 19 – 25, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of November 19 – 25, 2025

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IN MEMORIAM: William ‘Bill’ Patterson, 94

Bill devoted his life to public service and education. In 1971, he became the founding director for the Peralta Community College Foundation, he also became an administrator for Oakland Parks and Recreation overseeing 23 recreation centers, the Oakland Zoo, Children’s Fairyland, Lake Merritt, and the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center.

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William "Bill" Patterson, 94. Photo courtesy of the Patterson family.

William “Bill” Patterson, 94, of Little Rock, Arkansas, passed away peacefully on October 21, 2025, at his home in Oakland, CA. He was born on May 19, 1931, to Marie Childress Patterson and William Benjamin Patterson in Little Rock, Arkansas. He graduated from Dunbar High School and traveled to Oakland, California, in 1948. William Patterson graduated from San Francisco State University, earning both graduate and undergraduate degrees. He married Euradell “Dell” Patterson in 1961. Bill lovingly took care of his wife, Dell, until she died in 2020.

Bill devoted his life to public service and education. In 1971, he became the founding director for the Peralta Community College Foundation, he also became an administrator for Oakland Parks and Recreation overseeing 23 recreation centers, the Oakland Zoo, Children’s Fairyland, Lake Merritt, and the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center.

He served on the boards of Oakland’s Urban Strategies Council, the Oakland Public Ethics Commission, and the Oakland Workforce Development Board.

He was a three-term president of the Oakland branch of the NAACP.

Bill was initiated in the Gamma Alpha chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.

In 1997 Bill was appointed to the East Bay Utility District Board of Directors. William Patterson was the first African American Board President and served the board for 27 years.

Bill’s impact reached far beyond his various important and impactful positions.

Bill mentored politicians, athletes and young people. Among those he mentored and advised are legends Joe Morgan, Bill Russell, Frank Robinson, Curt Flood, and Lionel Wilson to name a few.

He is survived by his son, William David Patterson, and one sister, Sarah Ann Strickland, and a host of other family members and friends.

A celebration of life service will take place at Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center (Calvin Simmons Theater) on November 21, 2025, at 10 AM.

His services are being livestreamed at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1250167107131991/

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Euradell and William Patterson scholarship fund TBA.

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