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The Village in Oakland

The Village in Oakland

Grassroots & volunteer-run by unhoused, housing insecure and formally unhoused folks

  • LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
  • About Us
  • Reframing homelessness
  • Our Community
    • Core Team
  • Upcoming Events
  • Our Work
    • Direct Services
    • Policy Advocacy
      • Policy Advocacy
      • Policy Reports We Have Worked On
    • Education
    • Word On The Curb – Media Advocacy
      • About Word On The Curb
      • Word On The Curb – Blog & Youtube Playlist
      • Word On The Curb Podcast
    • Cardboard and Concrete
      • What We Believe
      • Tarpestries
      • Past Events
    • 510Day!
    • Living Room Block Parties
    • Deeply Rooted Oakland – Oakland General Plan 2045
  • The Village in Oakland Years in Review 20017 – 2024:
  • Resources
  • Media
    • News
    • The Village Youtube Playlists
    • Past Events
    • Word On The Curb
  • Job Opportunities
Piece thrown up at first village aka The Promised Land on Marcus Garvey Park in West Oakland, January 2017

The Village in Oakland is a grassroots organization that provides direct services, support, policy advocacy, arts and culture programming, and media literacy and advocacy programs for unhoused residents of Oakland. We also engage in non-violent direct actions to demand policy changes, to demand an end to in-humane practices, and to provide unhoused residents with their basic needs as humans who fighting to stay alive.

The Village in Oakland Executive Director Needa Bee shares our organzation’s statement on the Grants Pass v. Johnson verdict.

Our Street Smart School offers unhoused residents with know your rights trainings to inform them about city policies, California penal codes, and Supreme Court decisions that protect the civil rights of curbside dwellers. Our program also takes testimonies of unhoused residents who have survived illegal demolitions of communities and illegal tows of vehicles they live in. These testimonies are taken to Oakland City Council and Administrators to document the City’s harmful and inhumane practices, and they are also used so unhoused residents can take legal recourse. Check out the video of some of the work done in the Street Smarts School.

Walking The Path of Plants

The Village August 23, 2023 No Comments
By Joyous De Asis Miralle For Soul Food Shack/Word On The Curb One of the very first moments that I wanted to learn and understand our plant …
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The City’s Has A Chop Shop Under Contract to Tow Vehicles Unhoused People Live In!

The Village November 16, 2021 No Comments
By Needa Bee I just got home from working last Wednesday- (i have been living in my vehicle in District 3 for three years in the …
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Don’t Call Charity Mutual Aid!

The Village November 6, 2021 No Comments
By Needa Bee During the Covid 19 Pandemic and the shutdown, we saw the best of humanity emerge as people mobilized to take care of each …
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Oakland’s New Encampment Management Policy Isn’t New At All

The Village July 27, 2021 No Comments
By Needa Bee Like all U.S. cities, the CIty of Oakland’s approach to homelessness and the unhoused is rooted in the false belief that encampment evictions …
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Oakland Residents to Hold 6th Annual “510 Day” Anti-Displacement Dance Party at Lake Merritt

The Village May 9, 2021 No Comments
By Joyous De Asis Intergenerational Community Members Fight Against BBQ Beckys, Jogger Joes and Knife  Wielding MAGA Men With Grills, Music & the Electric Slide. On Friday …
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**GOVERNMENT** or ***COINCIDENCE***?

The Village March 1, 2020 No Comments
By Tracy Lee As the corona virus grows the numbers of homeless grows. still there is no resources or help is being provided by the  county. …
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HOT OFF THE PRESS!

“The Farmacy: Plant Medicine.” its 106 pages of easy to read instruction on how to turn more than a dozen common plants into medicines. she also included chapters on using smoke/smudges, teas and crystals as medicine/tools for wellness. And it’s written with unhoused people in mind. The publication is free to unhoused residents, and low income housed residents (with EBT cards).

OUR WORK


Direct Services

We offer several direct services and support to unhoused residents, including sharing hot meals and groceries, building tiny home villages, building collective structures in existing curbside communities, and sanitation services at informal settlements.

Education

We offer political education to unhoused Oakland residents so they understand their constitutional rights, human rights, and government policies that apply to unhoused residents.

Cardboard & Concrete Collective

Our multi-disciplnary art collective of unhoused and formally unhoused residents of Oakland and Berkeley curates exhibits at galleries, provides art activities and political education to curbside communities, and organizes block parties for unhoused residents and their housed neighbors.

Policy Advocacy

Working with a human rights lens and in coalition with other advocates and unhoused leaders we draft, help inform and advocate local government polices on and audits of unhoused interventions.

Media Advocacy

Our media literacy program offers unhoused residents education and training on media advocacy, media critique and platforms for media production.

Word on the Curb

Our media advocacy program has a written word platform and two social media platforms.

NEW! WORD ON THE CURB PODCAST!

Every Wednesday from 5-7pm on Bay Life Radio on the Twitch platform, check out or live WORD ON THE CURB podcast. You can also watch past episodes on Bay Life Radio channel on YouTube. Check out episode 5 with our special guest – the executive director of Where Do We Go? attorney Andrea Henson.

WORD ON THE CURB BLOG!


Walking The Path of Plants

The Village August 23, 2023
By Joyous De Asis Miralle For Soul Food Shack/Word On The Curb One of the very first moments that I wanted to learn and understand our plant community, and that we are surrounded by medicine was when I was about 6 years old. As a baby, I was born with blocked tear ducts. My mother works with plant medicine, and …

The City’s Has A Chop Shop Under Contract to Tow Vehicles Unhoused People Live In!

The Village November 16, 2021
By Needa Bee I just got home from working last Wednesday- (i have been living in my vehicle in District 3 for three years in the same spot) – to find out four vehicles that were used as homes/businesses/livelihoods/services to the unhoused were stolen by the city of Oakland.  Our vehicle and three other vehicles people live and work …

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