Oakland: Our Local Global Village
Spring, 2004

The Bay Area is a microcosm of the world -- over 120 languages are spoken in the homes. Within these diverse communities, there is also some of the world’s greatest innovation.  Young visionaries and pioneers, trail blazers and trouble-shooters, social entrepreneurs and future leaders with a new ideas, a new vision and a new direction for the planet.  Several are featured in our forthcoming book, Stone Soup for a New World: Life-Changing Stories of Young Everyday Heroes.

Oakland has been the hardest hit by California’s economic and political warfare.  This once great city has the distinction of now being the deadliest city in America. Too often, Oakland’s youth are on the front-lines of either the drug wars or even of our military wars.  Now, more than ever, these young people need hope and opportunities to learn how they can help build a new world.  It is here we will begin our 1^st Global Town Meetings. We will set the stage and create a standard for others to follow.

On February 28, in honor of Black History Month, we will launch our 2004 Oakland program. Each month during the school semester, Oakland’s youth will have the opportunity to meet some of the 100 amazing young leaders from our book.  By using the Institute’s educational curriculum, we will bring their stories to life about how they are building a better world. These high school and college students will then tutor 6-7th graders to improve their reading skills.  Oakland students will discover the amazing power of reading and the power they have to make a difference in their world, too. 

Each month, we will address issues that matter to them -- with people who look like them:African Americans, Asians, Latinos and Middle Easterners.  By sharing their personal stories, these young leaders will infuse Oakland’s youth with a passion for learning and ignite their heroic spirits to give back to their community.  Students will share their own hopes and dreams for how they would like to help build a healthier global village – and help create a community service project in April.

Youth Media: The Institute’s intergenerational media team will film each session, edit it so we can air it on local TV to inspire the Oakland community to get involved.  Gotham Chopra, a seasoned young journalist from Channel One, is our on-air host.  With this inspiring footage, we will create a training video for other communities to use with the Institute’s educational curriculum.

The Oakland 2004 Program builds on our successful Oakland pilot program in 2002. Oakland Fire Captain, Ray Gatchalian, our local Stone Soup for the World hero, inspired Oakland’s Media Academy students with his story and kicked-off a semester-long project.  Teacher, Michael Jackson used the Institute’s educational curriculum to inspire students to interview and write essays about local heroes.  The project radically changed their idea of “who is a hero”.  Media students produced the award-winning video, Oakland: In Search of Heroes (from the National TV Academy Award) which was premiered at our Oakland Celebration of Heroes Awards Ceremony with Mayor Jerry Brown.

Our Partners for our 2004 Oakland Program