In the United States, African-Americans, especially men, face adversity including gentrification, police brutality, and mass incarceration, more than any other ethnicity. It seems as if African-American families are stuck in a vicious cycle that affects generation after generation.

Oakland Program Shows Low-Income Youth How To Dream Big By Pairing Them With Role Models

As is the case in many U.S. cities today, it often appears the deck is stacked against youth living in low-income areas of Oakland, California.

The city’s high school dropout rate is nearly 25 percent, while youth poverty has been rising, and youth employment decreasing, in recent years. The city’s youth are also at a heightened risk of violence, as Alameda County is home to one of California’s highest youth homicide rates.

How these 15 Youth-Led Projects are Changing California

Kamani Holmes, The Re-Entry Guide, Oakland, CA. Kamani Holmes provides incarcerated people with a publication that addresses issues such as gentrification, unemployment and education with the guidance and support required for an intentional re-entry process. Kamani Holmes believes that in order to decrease recidivism, we must first increase awareness. The project will use various art mediums, including photography, poetry and storytelling.

Oakland Program Helps Underprivileged Youth Start Businesses

Anyone can become an entrepreneur. But some have less access to the education, mentors and resources that can be a huge help in starting a business.

That’s why Youth Impact HUB Oakland aims to help the youth in low income areas of Oakland, California. Part of the Impact HUB network of co-working spaces around the country, Oakland’s Youth Impact program is the first of its kind in the network’s more than 60 locations. The program provides guidance and training regarding things like continuing education, job seeking and entrepreneurship.

Oakland: Young entrepreneurs pitch socially responsible enterprises

The stakes were high: a $1,000 investment in their Oakland businesses, and they only had an allotted amount of time to convince the judges their plans were feasible, well developed and socially responsible.

Eight entrepreneurs, all younger than 25, made their cases earlier this month at the Impact Hub’s Pitch Day. Some would receive the seed funding, others would have to go back to the drawing board…