Oakland Kids First

The mission of Oakland Kids First is to increase youth voice, leadership and power to create engaging and equitable public schools where all students learn and lead. Over the past 20+ years, OKF has trained 1,500+ high school youth in Oakland to organize for and implement educational equity and racial justice focused campaigns resulting in: - A Meaningful Student Engagement district policy (2006) - A policy aligning OUSD graduation requirements with the University of California A-G college requirements (2007) - A ballot initiative increasing city funding for youth services from 2.5% to 3.0% (2008) - The creation of a "Civic Engagement & Social Movements" class, the only OUSD leadership course qualified as an A-G college requirement (2014) - Institutionalized school-codes, currencies and stores developed and ran by students to uphold positive school culture (2016-17) - Successfully organized a coalition of students, families, and organizations under the banner of Justice for Oakland Students (J4OS) to pressure OUSD to hire a local superintendent in alignment with community demands (2017). - In 2018 organized "The Free Supper for Hungry Minds Campaign" to ensure over 10,000 low-income students in OUSD continued to receive free hot, nutritious meals after school and that the district could build out a central kitchen - Co-wrote Oakland Youth Vote legislation that received unanimous support from Oakland City Council, advancing it as a ballot measure in November 2020. Youth leaders successfully organized and advocated for Measure QQ to lower the voting for local school board elections in order to include 16 and 17-year old voters, and Measure QQ passed with over 67% of the vote.