Empowerment Through Arts

OASES empowers students with limited resources through education, mentorship and service to strengthen the Oakland community. Since its inception 26 years ago, OASES has offered a superior after-school model through an unsurpassed volunteer program and has demonstrated the highest level of success and positive impact within the community it serves. OASES was founded by a handful of U.C. Berkeley students to address the needs of low-income, immigrant youth in Oakland Chinatown. Today, OASES has grown to become a non-profit community-based organization with the largest volunteer force (400 college students) in any Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) after-school program, providing individualized support to over 400 youth each year through comprehensive programs on a daily basis, which include tutoring, mentoring, enrichment programs, technology training, youth leadership, and English language/social support for recent immigrant students.

OASES serves diverse K-12 youth from low-income households who would otherwise be unable to access after-school enrichment activities in their neighborhoods. 54% of OASES families earn less than $20,000 a year and over 70% of youth in OASES’ schools are eligible for the school Free/Reduced Lunch Program. Many of these predominately Asian/Pacific Islander youth struggle with limited English skills in English Language Learner (ELL) courses. Responding to the increasing needs of this underserved and primarily immigrant population, OASES offers afterschool academic support through individualized tutoring and diverse enrichment workshops to prepare children for lives as productive members of their communities.

Oakland has the 4th largest Asian/Pacific-Islander (API) population in the Bay Area – 15.3% out of a population of approx. 400,000 – with a majority of this group having limited English proficiency, one of the highest rates of Asian linguistic isolation in the Bay Area (42%). Oakland is also one of the three cities in the Bay Area with the lowest rates of Asian high school completion- 30% or more of Asians in these cities have no high school degree; and in 06-07, less than half of OUSD students took the SAT. OASES has observed that new immigrant youth with limited English proficiency struggle to pass high school exit exams, a direct result of the poor funding of public education. When money and resources are directed away from the poorest school districts, children hear this message – that they are poor investments – and act accordingly. Since 2005, Oakland’s high school drop-out rate has risen from 20% in 2005, to 27% in 2006, and then jumped to 36% in 2007. This in turn has contributed to rising unemployment in the city: 6.9% in 2006, to 7.4% in 2007, and an alarming 11.2% in 2008. This staggering unemployment then directly contributes to the rate of homicide, which has become the leading cause of death among Alameda County youth (primarily youth of color) , with a shocking 48% of all homicides in 2006 involving youth under the age of 24. With this reality, it has become increasingly apparent that for young, poor, people of color, the ability to go to college and get a job has become a matter of life and death. Immigrant youth are especially vulnerable to this downward cycle. In addition to language issues, they often lack parental support because their parents often work multiple, poor-paying jobs for long hours, making parental involvement a luxury. Living in a poor inner-city Chinatown compounds this, as there are few educational resources accessible to them outside of school. There are few agencies that tutor, mentor and train them in a language they understand, in a setting they feel comfortable in, and at prices they can afford.

OASES’ Empowerment Through Arts Program offers comprehensive afterschool services that will reach 260 low-income, immigrant Oakland youth in K-8th grade. OASES programs provide enrichment, arts, technology, individualized tutoring and literacy programs that leverage California State curricular standards. OASES offers needed arts enrichment, diversity and leadership workshops that foster self expression, develop confidence and leadership skills and support academic achievement.