Oakland is a participant in the Cities of Service Guiding Opportunities program. Through the program, participating cities engage residents and other local stakeholders to create Opportunity Zone investments that benefit local communities. Cities of Service provides each city with $25,000 and two years of technical assistance and places two full-time AmeriCorps VISTA members in each city hall to build capacity for resident engagement.
Oakland, like other cities in the Bay Area, is vulnerable to natural disasters. As one of seven cities taking part in the Prepared Together program, Oakland is using citizen engagement to improve disaster preparedness through its Civic Design Lab, a collaborative working space where government and citizens can come together to identify preparedness challenges and co-create solutions.
Oakland also participated in the Bay Area Impact Volunteering program, through which it trained citizen volunteers to respond to disasters and emergencies.
Oakland has been a member of the Cities of Service coalition since 2009, when former Mayor Ronald V. Dellums signed the Declaration of Service. Current Mayor Libby Schaaf reaffirmed the city’s commitment to service by signing the Declaration again in 2015.
Oakland City Hall
1 Frank H Ogawa Plaza,
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 444-2489 TTY 238-3254
Mayor Libby Schaaf
Libby Schaaf was inaugurated the 50th Mayor of Oakland, California on January 5, 2015. A native Oaklander, Mayor Schaaf has two decades of public service experience and previously served one term as a member of the Oakland City Council and was a top mayoral aide to Jerry Brown. She is committed to revitalization that preserves and celebrates Oakland’s diversity and leads to direct prosperity for long-time residents and newcomers.
What's Happening in Oakland
Blueprint
Prepared is Protected
Prepared is Protected is a high-impact service strategy in which the mayor’s office mobilizes knowledgeable volunteers to bolster disaster awareness and preparedness of households in their communities.
Program
Bay Area Impact Volunteering
Through the Bay Area Impact Volunteering program, Oakland's Neighbors Helping Neighbors initiative improved disaster preparedness by recruiting participants to the city’s Communities of Oakland Responding to Emergencies (CORE) volunteer program, which teaches self-reliance skills and helps neighborhoods establish disaster response teams. The city did outreach in community districts that had low numbers of CORE volunteers. As a result, 476 new citizens in those districts received basic CORE training, 171 citizens received advanced CORE training, and 77 citizens were certified as disaster service workers.
Blueprint
Prepared is Protected
Prepared is Protected is a high-impact service strategy in which the mayor’s office mobilizes knowledgeable volunteers to bolster disaster awareness and preparedness of households in their communities.
724
number of new citizens that completed disaster preparedness training from May 2016 to May 2017
"With this support from Cities of Service, we look forward to further building upon our Resilient Oakland strategy to increase access to opportunity for all Oaklanders and build more vibrant infrastructure to support our thriving future."
Mayor Libby Schaaf