Year End Letter from OLC
In 2015 Oakland Leadership Center ran a leadership program for young adults, grew a basketball league to 9 teams, launched a life coaching program, hosted 40+ BBQ and prayer meetings for young men, distributed literally thousands of diapers to young men working hard to establish new lives and care for their children, hosted Real Talk events with inspiring speakers, ran a music studio for young men who desperately need a safe and creative atmosphere and established new friendships and partnerships with the City of Oakland and local pastors to work to reduce gun violence in our beloved city.
We don’t ask for money as often or as directly as we should. We run our programs on small budgets and give small stipends to young adults in our leadership program. We buy hamburger supplies in bulk at Costco to feed more young men with less money. Today we purchased supplies for our annual Christmas party at the dollar store. As a small grassroots faith based organization we do not receive much of the grant money that flows through Oakland. We rely on families, churches and small businesses who care about young adults in East Oakland.
At a recent fundraiser event, I told two stories back to back. The first story was of a young man who played in our basketball league who was killed by gun violence, leaving a baby and hundreds of mourning friends behind. The other story was of a young man, already beaten up by life, who is currently fighting the evils of poverty and struggles of depression. He pushed himself to work hard on a new resume and secure a new job at a cafe. OLC has provided hours of mentoring and employment readiness training, funds for transportation and a community with listening ears and supportive actions.
East Oakland is no joke. Poverty is real. Anxiety and depression due to constant trauma and violence are real. Gun violence is real. No money for the bus is real. Discrimination and racism are real. Electricity being turned off is real. Getting pulled over on the way to OLC because you fit the profile is real. Being surprised you made it to age 25 is real.
We need to be able to pay young adults in our leadership program bigger stipends to do bigger and better work. Our local leaders know what the problems are and how to address them. We need to be able to pay our rent and utilities. We need to buy very large amounts of food for hungry young men who want to spend time at OLC. We need to hire another staff person in the future to mentor additional young men and help us push forward in our work.
Please consider a year end gift to OLC. We’ll put it to good work as we mentor and develop leaders in East Oakland.
The Christmas story reminds us to have hope. We believe that God loves each young man and woman in East Oakland and has given them unique gifts and abilities that they can use to bring goodness and peace to our streets. We hold onto hope. Please stand with us. Please pray for us. Please support us.
On behalf of our leaders, rappers, ballers, organizers, hustlers, cooks and entrepreneurs in East Oakland, thank you.
Grace and peace,
Nate Millheim for the Oakland Leadership Center
