(Grants listed by geography and in descending order of size)

Serving both Alameda & Contra Costa counties

OBDC Small Business Finance (http://www.obdc.com/)

$20,000

Purpose: Green Business Lending Initiative

Organizational Background: OBDC Small Business Finance is a micro-lender and technical assistance provider whose mission is to grow strong communities by providing financing and assistance to small businesses that provide employment, services and community benefit.

Project Description: OBDC Small Business Finance will expand its portfolio to include green businesses that are unable to access mainstream financing.

Serving Eastern Contra Costa County

Antioch, Pittsburg, Bay Point, Brentwood: Opportunity Junction (OJ)

$60,000 (Three grants: $20,000 from the Foundation; $30,000 from one Foundation donor; $10,000 from a second Foundation donor)

Purpose: General Support http://www.opportunityjunction.org/

Organizational Background: OJ fights poverty by helping low-income Contra Costa residents gain the competence and confidence to support themselves and their families. Founded in 1999 as "Opportunities for Technology Information Careers (OPTIC)", OJ promotes its mission through three main programs: 1) an intensive technology-based job training & placement program; 2) an evening Community Technology Center offering free access to computers and the Internet, in addition to drop-in classes in Computer Basics and ESL training; and 3) do-it-yourself tax assistance sessions for low-income working families who use the free I-CAN! E-file web interface to claim their federal and state tax refunds.

Project Description: Funding is for the three core programs of OJ. The job training and placement program is a full-time, three-month program followed by a paid internship of up to four months. Alumni are supported in their job search during the internship, and 83% of those who complete the internship leave with jobs. The technology center provides drop-in modular learning classes four evenings a week, year round, and has an average of 35 students per evening. They offer ESL classes and computer basics. Opportunity Junction services 135 low-income taxpayers through their tax assistance program.

Antioch, Bay Point, Brentwood, Pittsburg:Child Abuse Prevention Council of Contra Costa County (CAPC)

$15,000

Purpose: Newborn Connections (NC) Program http://www.capc-coco.org/

Organizational Background: The mission of CAPC is to promote the safety of children and prevent child abuse and neglect in Contra Costa County by raising community awareness, influencing public policy, educating the community and providing resources.

Project Description: Newborn Connections is a post-partum home visitation program for mothers of infants. NC goes into the homes of new mothers, to address personal and social issues. The goals of NC are to enable parents to build and sustain strong, healthy families by providing education, access to community resources and family support. NC strives to bring positive parenting skills to new mothers through supportive, in-home visits. NC efforts focus on the monolingual Spanish-speaking mothers of eastern Contra Costa County.

Antioch: Bay Area Community Resources (BACR)

$26,000

Purpose: Stipend for Americorps to provide tutoring to east County foster youth and provide other services. http://www.bacr.org/

Organizational Background: Founded in 1976, BACR is a multi-service, multi-county agency that promotes the healthy development of individuals, families, and communities in the Bay Area. Focus areas include: after-school programs, youth development, and programs dealing with alcohol, drugs and tobacco.

Project Description: Two grants of $13,000 each will enable BACR to receive assistance from Americorps. Each year, AmeriCorps provides support to non-profit organizations by offering the assistance of skilled adults of all ages and backgrounds.

Serving Southern Alameda County

Fremont, Newark, Union City: Fremont Family Resource Center (FFRC)

$20,720

Purpose: Family Economic Success Program http://www.ci.fremont.ca.us/Community/FamilyResourceCenter/default.htm

Organizational Background: The FFRC is a collaborative effort of 28 state, county, city and nonprofit service agencies working together to serve families in the Tri-City area of southern Alameda County. Together, these agencies make the FFRC a "one-stop shop," where families can walk gain access to an array of family support services and programs, including: adult and youth employment; child care information, referral, subsidies and drop-in services; counseling and case management; housing information; parent support; immigration services; family economic success programs; services for the disabled; nutrition services for mothers and children; domestic violence prevention services; and health insurance counseling.

Project Description: FFRC intends to expand its Family Economic Success Program (FESP) in order to meet pressing needs, and enable more low-income families in the Tri-City area to improve their lives through education, employment and strategies that increase their assets. FESP includes three parts: 1) VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program), Financial Counseling, Education, Back Tax Assistance and Preparation; 2) the Family Support Services Intensive Case Management Program; and 3) the Family Service Team, a multidisciplinary team serving CalWORKs families.

Union City: The Take Home Book Program (THBP)

$27,000

Purpose: Provide the program in all first grade classrooms in the New Haven School District. http://www.takehomebooks.org/

Organizational Background: THBP was developed in 1998 by the Early Literacy Initiative, a collaboration of primary teachers from 27 California school districts. Currently, THBP is working in 2,875 classrooms in the Bay Area. THBP serves children, teachers and parents with a program and materials for both in class and at home use that increase literacy skills.

Project Description: THBP promotes targeted skill acquisition for reading-readiness, parental engagement in early literacy development and mutually supportive home and school learning. The Take Home Books are carefully selected and integrated into the classroom environment by teachers reading them aloud and having children draw, write and tell stories about the books. Parents receive assistance in using the same books at home (all are in both Spanish and English), reinforcing in-school learning.

Serving Oakland & Richmond

Oakland: Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

$40,000

Purpose:Green Collar Jobs Campaign

http://http://www.ellabakercenter.org/

Organizational Background: The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights is a strategy and action center working for justice, opportunity and peace in urban America. Ella Baker Center seeks to create "clean-energy career paths" for people with barriers to employment. They have launched a pilot project in Oakland, laying the groundwork for regional expansion of this pilot project, and building a statewide coalition to promote groundbreaking California state policy in support of clean energy career training and green economic stimulation.

Project Description: Convene, organize and evaluate the Green Employer Council. Launch, support and evaluate Oakland Green Jobs Corps. Build regional green workforce partnerships. Research and develop a regional policy that supports green-collar jobs for people with barriers to employment.

Oakland: Jewish Family & Children's Services of the East Bay (JFCS)

$25,000

Purpose: Support for Next-FAIS project http://www.jfcs-eastbay.org/

Organizational Background: Established in 1877, JFCS promotes and strengthens the social and emotional well-being of diverse individuals and families throughout the entire East Bay community. Over the course of the last 10 years, JFCS has expanded its services for children up to age five and their families. JFCS provides early childhood mental health consultation to preschools and shelters and in dyadic parent-child psychotherapy, and has developed expertise in treating children exposed to violence and trauma.

Project Description: This project provides a comprehensive training program on managing special needs/challenging behaviors for the 13 site directors that oversee the 35 Oakland Unified School District Child Development Centers (CDCs) and State Pre-Kindergarten facilities. This training program will improve the capacity of the site directors to respond to the needs of the 3,733 children in their care, almost all of whom are from low-income and multiple-risk families. Many of the children coming into the CDCs have had no previous preschool experience, and some of them come from unstable family environments. Caregivers in these centers, therefore, face a wide range of behavioral challenges and issues, and need in-depth, focused training on how best to serve these children.

Oakland: The Workforce Collaborative (TWC)

$25,000

Purpose: Support for ATLAS Prisoner Re-entry Initiative of The Workforce Collaborative No website

Project Description: Alameda Transportation and Logistics Academic Support program (ATLAS) targets entry, mid, and upper-level employment opportunities in transportation and warehousing. This model incorporates both employer services and jobseeker services, and utilizes the expertise of the adult education and community college systems working together to help individuals access and succeed in community college vocational training programs. ATLAS training is designed within the context of potential career pathways in warehousing, transportation, and logistics. In addition to specific career skills, ATLAS includes support services and case management activities focused on the reentering felon population in Oakland. The ATLAS program is supported by the Teamsters, ILWU, Port of Oakland, and the Oakland Chamber providing strong employer support and direct placement opportunities upon graduation. For the ATLAS warehousing training, the Teamsters have negotiated agreements with GSC Logistics and work with other employers to create hiring relationships that will ensure placement of ATLAS graduates in local industry.

Richmond: Rubicon Programs

$25,000

Purpose: General support for programming that provides living wage jobs for residents of Richmond. http://www.rubiconprograms.org/

Organizational Background: Since 1973, Rubicon has provided vocational and placement services with a "one stop" case-management process that addresses multiple needs of low-skill workers in Richmond. Rubicon owns two businesses, a bakery and a landscaping company, and is one of the original social purpose business models funded by the Roberts Foundation. They have recently expanded services to Berkeley and Hayward.

Project Description: Rubicon's Workforce Services program will provide integrated support services to assist individuals in preparing for, finding and keeping living wage jobs. Rubicon has developed partnerships with local employers and with the City of Richmond that enable them to place over half of those who participate in the 13-week training program in jobs that pay $11/hr. Many of those participating in Rubicon's programs have criminal records that can be a barrier to employment. Rubicon addresses this issue via a program to help ex-offenders expunge their records where possible, reinstate drivers' licenses, and develop strategies to reach their career goals. Rubicon recognizes that Green Collar jobs represent an important new category of work force because they are relatively high quality jobs, with relatively low barriers to entry, in sectors that are poised for growth. Cultivating green collar jobs for people with barriers to employment can be an effective strategy to provide low-income men and women with access to jobs that provide workers with meaningful work, living wages, benefits, and advancement opportunities.

Richmond-Oakland: Women's Initiative for Self Employment (WISE)

$22,000 (Two grants: $20,000 from the Foundation; $2,000 from a Foundation donor)

Purpose: Creating Economic Self Sufficiency for Low-Income Women http://www.womensinitiative.org/index.htm

Organizational Background: WISE builds the entrepreneurial capacity of women to overcome economic and social barriers and achieve self-sufficiency. Through comprehensive, woman-centered business training, support and financial services, WISE provides low-income and minority women with the skills and confidence they need to turn their dreams into businesses.

Project Description: The WISE Self Sufficiency program includes Entrepreneurial Readiness, a 22­session business training plan curricula (in English and in Spanish) and ongoing coaching support. Clients can also opt to access financial services which provide micro-business loans from $500 to $25,000. The financial services program provides loans, lease grants, and matched savings accounts.

Oakland: Oakland Ready to Learn (ORL)

$20,000

Purpose: West Oakland Early Learning Project http://www.oaklandreadytolearn.org/

Organizational Background: Since its inception in1992, ORL has been leveling the playing field for Oakland's youngest residents. Working with public agencies and numerous nonprofit organizations, ORL has invested in Oakland's children by bringing parent involvement, literacy promotion, and enriched learning activities to the most underserved parts of the city. Low-income families and marginalized groups such as teen parents, refugees and residents of transitional housing are ORL's constituents. ORL embraces children and parents with disabilities and special needs.

Project Description: This project will optimize and expand ORL's work underway in West Oakland through culturally relevant direct services led by African-American educators, artists and facilitators, including literacy promotion, school readiness and parent education and involvement.

Richmond: Anew America (AA)

$20,000

Purpose: Virtual Business Incubator Program http://www.anewamerica.org/

Organizational Background: AA is a regional nonprofit asset-building organization, a designated Small Business Administration Business Center, and a Community Development Entity. AA's mission is to promote the long-term economic empowerment of new Americans – new citizens, immigrants and refugees – and to encourage their full participation in the political, social and cultural growth of America. Anew America was founded in 1999 by a group of community leaders representing immigrants and community development advocates who saw a continuing lack of integrated job creation, asset development, and community empowerment strategies for low-income new Americans in the Bay Area.

Project Description: The Virtual Business Incubator program is a three-year comprehensive, anti-poverty approach based on an entrepreneurial, asset-building agenda working with immigrants and their families to "access the system," and plan and implement long-range financial, social and personal goals. The intensive 25-week curriculum is designed to help clients build a business plan while learning the fundamentals of business management. This continues with the Bridge 2 Success program to create marketing opportunities and coaching for business expansion and retention for AA clients.

Richmond: Solar Richmond (SR)

$20,000

Purpose: Solar Bid Evaluation Program http://www.solarrichmond.org/

Organizational Background: The mission of SR is to bring the economic and ecological benefits of the green economy to the City of Richmond, with a focus on its low-and moderate-income residents. While promoting and developing local solar power and energy efficiency, SR provides green collar job training to residents in the form of solar panel installation skills, and then helps them find well-paying jobs in the solar field. As a part of the job training program, SR's students install solar systems for low-income Richmond homeowners, reducing their long-term energy bills along with their carbon footprint.

Project Description: This grant will promote and grow the Solar Bid Evaluation Program, which assesses customers' sites to ensure the right system and the company for their site. They plan to formalize the service into a self-sustaining and demand-driven program in which customers pay or make a donation for the service, and Solar Richmond is able to provide corporate partners with business leads.

Oakland: Oakland Private Industry Council (OPIC)

$16,243

Purpose: Support for Community Opportunities for Re-Entry (CORE) program. http://www.oaklandpic.org/

Organizational Background: Founded in 1978, OPIC helped pioneer the "One Stop" Career Center model for providing workforce services to job seekers. It is OPIC's mission to provide accessible, high quality training and employment services to local residents and employers.

Project Description: CORE is a re-entry employment one-stop program that provides an array of services and resources to formerly incarcerated program participants, in an effort to reduce recidivism and improve public safety. When fully funded, CORE will serve 100 parolees.

Richmond: Contra Costa Childcare Council (C5)

$15,000

Purpose: Road to Success Program in Richmond http://www.cocokids.org/

Organizational Background: Since 1976, the nonprofit C5 has helped to ensure that Contra Costa's children achieve their full potential. As the only child care resource and referral agency serving the County, C5 is at the center of the child care delivery system. Through a wide range of services and programs, C5 continues to support and improve the quality of care and early education.

Project Description: The Road to Success program for Richmond is a 30-year-old program that assists low-to moderate-income Richmond residents (primarily in the Iron Triangle) to become licensed family child-care providers. It assists and supports them during the licensing and start-up phases of their new enterprise, and offers ongoing education and technical assistance.

Richmond: Aspiranet

$15,000

Purpose: Support for Hand-to-Hand Collaborative http://www.aspiranet.org/

Organizational Background: Founded in 1975 as Moss Beach Homes, Aspiranet is a state-wide agency serving children, families and their communities in six overlapping core competencies: family, foster care, adoption, education, community and after-school programs. Aspiranet reaches more than 5,000 children and families year-round from 25 offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, the East Bay, and statewide. Aspiranet will serve as the lead agency for the Hand-to-Hand collaborative with Bay Area Community Resources, Lao Family and Neighborhood House participating as the other partners in the collaboration.

Project Description: Hand-to-Hand will implement the nationally-recognized home visiting curriculum "Growing Great Kids," focused on strengthening the parent-child relationship, and built on the premise that parents are a child's first teachers, including teaching early literacy skills. Hand-to-Hand will provide comprehensive outreach, home visiting, and community resource linkages to support families with children from birth to age five in raising healthy and school-ready children, strengthening family resiliency and mitigating risk factors. Services focus on providing families basic parenting, life and communication skills, child development education and coaching, as well as linking families to other community based services. Each family is provided with individualized service plans that include core skills training and assistance with their unique issues. The program will target 125 families, mostly African-American (100) and Asian-American (25); Medi-Cal beneficiaries or uninsured; multi-generational families; families with a history of child or substance abuse or domestic violence; teenage parents, families with their first child, homeless women and families; and families with limited education.

Oakland: East Bay Agency for Children (EBAC)

$15,000

Purpose: West Oakland Early Learning Project: www.ebac.org/programs/school/hawthorne.asp

Organizational Background: EBAC was founded in 1952 by local parents. Since then it has grown from a small program serving 18 chi8ldren into a comprehensive regional agency making a lasting impact on more than 15,000 children and families every year. EBAC's programs, located throughout Alameda County, prepare children to succeed in school; assist families through times of crisis, and provide therapeutic support for children suffering from abuse or neglect.

Project Description: The Hawthorne Family Resource Center has launched a Parenting Education Support Program for the 2008-09 school year. The Center is capitalizing on its network of community partners to offer a program that will provide parenting classes structured to deliver family literacy training, parenting classes, and early-childhood support groups for parents of children up to age five.

Oakland: Jumpstart for Young Children

$15,000

Purpose: Jumpstart Oakland http://www.jstart.org/

Organizational Background: Jumpstart works so every child in America enters school prepared to succeed. In pursuit of this goal, Jumpstart recruits and trains college students, called "Corps members," to deliver a kindergarten-readiness program via yearlong individualized relationships with preschool children in low-income communities. Jumpstart began at Yale University in 1993 and today engages 3,500 Corps members to serve 13,000 preschool children across 20 states, in partnership with 300 preschools and nearly 70 universities.

Project Description: Jumpstart began working in Oakland in 2005, and today works with Saint Mary's College and UC Berkeley with 60 Corps members serving 225 preschool students in low-income neighborhoods. Students travel to partner schools to work one-on-one with children through twice weekly Jumpstart sessions that focus on building language, literacy, social, and initiative skills. Through this program model, Jumpstart Oakland builds school success, family involvement and future teachers.

Oakland: Bring Me a Book Foundation (BMAB)

$15,000

Purpose: Oakland Regional Expansion http://www.bringmeabook.org/home.html

Organizational Background: BMAB is a partnership-driven, early literacy specialist that provides libraries of new, multicultural hardback books in multiple languages; First Teacher training workshops for parents, preschool teachers, and caregivers; and community outreach programs. BMAB's goals include providing equitable access to quality children's literature; encouraging a daily ritual of reading at school, after school, and in the home; fostering an early love of reading and learning; preparing children for school success; enabling English language development; and, ultimately, attainment of family literacy.

Project Description: BMAB has been working in Oakland for three years, and has hired an Oakland Regional manager to oversee the implementation of bookcases in each state-funded and Head Start preschool and Child Development Center classroom in Oakland. BMAB will use EBCF funding towards the hire of a part-time Training Coordinator to coordinate implementation of trainings, facilitate workshops, and build the organization's training capacity in Oakland.

Oakland: Super Stars Literacy (SSL)

$15,000

Purpose: General Support http://superstarsliteracy.org/

Organizational Background: Created in 2002 by the Junior League of the East Bay, SSL to build early literacy skills for primary grade children in communities with limited resources. Now an independent non-profit organization, SSL provides comprehensive, daily after-school literacy instruction, combined with social/behavioral skills development. It is designed to intervene early with children in kindergarten through 2nd grades, attending schools in underserved communities in Oakland and other portions of the East Bay, where students exhibit significant delays in reading acquisition or reading skills development.

Project Description: Funding from EBCF will support Super Stars' service to 270 K-2 students at six Oakland schools, all in low socio-economic neighborhoods: Think College Now, International Community School, EnCompass Academy, East Oakland Pride, Hoover Elementary and Parker Elementary. Super Stars is undergoing a strategic expansion plan and aims to be in 12 schools serving 720 students by the 2010-11 school year.

Richmond-Oakland: Cypress Mandela Training Center (CMTC)

$15,000

Purpose: Support for Pre-Apprentices Training Program http://www.cypressmandela.org/

Organizational Background: CMTC trains and develops men and women who have been disenfranchised from the inner cities and under-employed for careers in the building trades. In addition, CMTC is the City of Oakland's partner on the newly formed Green Jobs Initiative.

Project Description: Once accepted into the program, candidates receive 16 weeks of pre-apprenticeship training and life skills building workshops that include classroom and hands-on instruction that make the students eligible for state-recognized certification in Hazardous Waste, Lead Remediation, Asbestos Removal, Confined Space and three to six units of credit from Laney College. The recently integrated Voltaic training emphasizes solar installation, and allows the center to help participants enter the green job market. This is a demanding program that only graduates a quarter of the applicants but those who do complete the program receive salaries in bona fide apprenticeship programs ranging from $16-$22 per hour and have skills that allow them to build careers in the trades.

Oakland: Lao Family Community Development, Inc. (LFCD)

$15,000

Purpose: General Support http://www.laofamilynet.org/

Organizational Background: Established in 1980, LFCD's mission is to provide employment-related supports and services, asset-building programs and other family-strengthening assistance for multilingual low-income refugees, immigrants, public assistance recipients, and other vulnerable populations in an effort to help them achieve long-term economic and self sufficiency.

Project Description: To support a service-deliver model that incorporates bundling of services that are key to helping families build and grow assets and gain self-sufficiency. Services include job training and placement, job readiness training, vocational training, income support services, financial coaching, financial counseling and education and multilingual homeownership support.

Richmond-Oakland: Stride Center (SC)

$15,000

Purpose: General Support http://www.stridecenter.org/

Organizational Background: The Stride Center's mission is to empower men and women facing barriers to employment to gain economic self-sufficiency. They accomplish this through a career development program that includes job skills training, credentials, career coaching, work experience, and job placement assistance.

Project Description: To prepare clients for careers in information technology, the Stride Center focuses on four components: 1) Education and credential (technical training including IC3 Certification, CompTIA Computer Technician, MCDST and more); 2) Hands-on experience through SC's social venture program, Relia Tech; 3) SC's own refurbished computer program; and 4) One-on-one job placement assistance and access to hiring partners.

Richmond: Building Blocks for Kids (BBK)

$13,201

Purpose: New Generations http://westcc.ymcaeastbay.org/about

Organizational Background: BBK is a collaboration of 26 nonprofit agencies working in the Iron Triangle neighborhood in Richmond to affect community transformation using the principles of a place-based initiative, as developed by New York City's Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ). By replicating HCZ's model of focusing on the healthy development and education of all children in a geographically-defined "zone" characterized by extreme poverty, crime and violence, BBK focuses the assets and resources of multiple organizations on poverty conditions in the Iron Triangle. The mission of BBK is to support the health development and education of all children and the self sufficiency of all families by engaging the community, block by block.

Project Description: This grant will provide support for New Generations. This concept was piloted in 2007, modeled after HCZ's Baby College. The program involves recruiting expectant parents who are not connected with area resources and for whom parenting classes and preparation for the newborn is not common practice.

Oakland: Junior Center of Art & Science (JCAS)

$12,820

Purpose: Support for the "Little Leapers" program to be offered at the Carmen Flores Recreational Center in the Fruitvale District of Oakland. http://www.juniorcenter.org/

Organizational Background: JCAS was founded in 1954 and offers workshops, classes, exhibits, drop-in activities, and community events in the visual arts and sciences for children and teens ages two to 17. JCAS also offers professional development workshops for classroom teachers. The "Star Party" and "Science of Ice Cream" programs serve over 35,000 children annually.

Project Description: A majority of the families to be served live within walking distance of the Carmen Flores Recreation Center and their primary language is Spanish. Children ages two to five years and their parent or adult caregiver will participate in a structured program which will prepare child and parent for the regular school day. The program will also provide parent and child with time to interact, have fun and learn about age-appropriate activities of art and science projects, which they will be able to replicate at home with minimal time and expense. The program will last 12 weeks over the summer and will be presented in Spanish and English.

Richmond-Oakland: C.E.O. Women

$11,000 (Two grants: $10,000 from the Foundation; $1,000 from a Foundation donor)

Purpose: General Support http://www.ceowomen.org/

Organizational Background: Founded in 2000, C.E.O. Women works to create economic opportunities for low-income immigrant and refugee women through teaching English, communications and entrepreneurship skills, so they can establish successful livelihoods. C.E.O. Women provides women with intensive mentoring, coaching and access to capital needed to start a small business.

Project Description: This grant will provide general support to train, mentor and offer micro-equity grants to women to begin and grow their businesses so that they may establish successful livelihoods.

Oakland: Girls Inc. of Alameda County

$10,000

Purpose: Support for GIRLStart literacy Program at Cesar Chavez Educational Center in the Fruitvale district. http://www.girlsinc-alameda.org/programs/oakland/oakland_girlStart.htm

Organizational Background: Founded in 1958 by local businesswomen responding to their community's lack of a supportive center for girls, Girls Inc. provides year-round academic enrichment, leadership, health and sexuality, and fitness programming, as well as affordable mental health services for girls in grades K-12 in Alameda County. Girls Inc. incorporates local needs into research-based programming, ensuring highly relevant and innovative services.

Project Description: GIRLStart, is a successful early elementary literacy program that targets girls in kindergarten through third grade whose teachers have identified them as reading below grade level or otherwise needing extra literacy support. GIRLStart's programming is specifically designed to counter the societal obstacles low-income girls face in their early school years by offering daily, intensive, after-school literacy programming to these at-risk girls in kindergarten and the early elementary grades. This grant will support services in English and in Spanish.

Oakland: Raising A Reader (RAR)

$10,000

Purpose: Frank G. Mar Head Start site expansion http://www.raisingareader.org/

Organizational Background: RAR's primary mission is to build "read aloud" routines in the homes of low-income families with young children up to age five, thereby fostering early brain development, parent-child bonding, early literacy skills, and improved kindergarten readiness. Currently, RAR works closely with both the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) as well as City of Oakland Head Start. The RAR program operates in 20 of the 36 OUSD Child Development Centers and four of the 17 Head Start Centers run by the City. RAR also partners with the Unity Council at the two Head Start and three Early Head Start programs they operate, and at their Home Visitor and Family Literacy programs.

Project Description: RAR will implement its program at Frank G. Mar Head Start located in the Chinatown neighborhood of Oakland. This expansion will also include books and teacher training materials, training and on-going support and program assessment for the 50 children and their families served by this center over the course of the school year.

Oakland & Richmond: Bay Area Parent Leadership Action Network (PLAN)

$5,000

Purpose: Parents Ready for School Program http://www.parentactionnet.org/

Organizational Background: Bay Area PLAN is a regional network of parent leaders and organizations working to build a social justice movement for families. PLAN unites and strengthens diverse parents and organizations fighting for educational equity, economic justice, quality child care and parent representation through trainings. Since 2004, PLAN has trained 300 Bay Area parents.

Project Description: Following an April 2008 pilot of Parents Ready for School, PLAN is rolling out this six-part, six-week leadership development curricula targeted to low-income and immigrant parents of children up to age five in Oakland and Richmond communities with underperforming schools. They aim to reach 100-150 parents over the 2008/09 academic year.

Oakland-Berkeley: Aquatic Park School (APS)

$1,000

Purpose: General Support http://www.aquaticparkschool.com/

Organizational Background: Since 1992, Aquatic Park School has served children aged three months to five years. It provides a program of mixed age groups, adult/child interaction, shared creative play, and structured activities that promote the learning of social/emotional skills, verbal skills and self confidence. It provides a school experience for children with a goal to help raise confident and happy learners. APS encourages parent and community engagement and believes that parents are children's first teachers.

Project Description: For general support of the school.

Oakland-Berkele

y: Haste Street Child Development Center (CDC)

$1,000

Purpose: General Support http://www.housing.berkeley.edu/child

Organizational Background: The Haste Street Child Development Center (CDC) provides full-day care for 32 children ages 32-56 months. Haste Street CDC is a part of the Early Childhood Education Program at UC Berkeley. Its philosophy is to provide developmental child care for children of University families and provide a warm and challenging environment where the child is both an individual and an integral member of the group. It strives to support all aspects of a young child's growth within an atmosphere of respect and encourage partnership between staff, parents, and children.

Project Description: For general support of the center.