News

YA! Advocacy

Posted August 28, 2018

Seeking Change that Lasts

There’s more than one way to change the world. The East Oakland students who started our Teens on Target youth leadership program back in 1989 sought to create a safer community through two approaches: education and advocacy. Today, TNT youth leaders continue to influence the policymakers and community leaders on issues like gun violence and police-community relations. Youth ALIVE! has an advocacy arm that works to design and pass legislation to increase safety and equality an d to promote healing. We also work with our partners in the National Network of Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs to fight for justice and safety. This month, Governor Brown si

On June 21st, Meet Oakland's Youth Activists for Gun Safety

Posted May 23, 2018

Electric Times for Young Activists

These are electric times for the young violence prevention activists like those in our Teens on Target (TNT) leadership program. Since the tragedy at Parkland, and now our latest sorrow in Texas, there is a new national receptiveness to the voices of youth affected by violence. There’s a new eagerness to listen. TNT, housed at East Oakland high schools Castlemont and Fremont, both of which are located at the nexus of Oakland’s decades-long struggle with violence, is the very embodiment of what our community and nation are looking for: resilient, energetic young people of color, informed by hard experience, whose innate abilities to create change are being nurtured and facilitated. Recently, Youth ALIVE!’s talented board member Caitlin Lang spent time capturing some terrific images of our 2018 youth leaders. See some of Caitlin’s wonderful images here. And then join TNT youth leaders from East Oakland, Mayor Libby Schaff, State Senator Nancy Skinner, Youth ALIVE! staff and many other friends and supporters of our work on Thursday, June 21, at our Celebration Dinner & Silent Auction at Blind Tiger Restaurant in Uptown Oakland. We’ll be honoring our long-time partners, Castlemont High School.

Barbara Lee Joins YA!'s Honorary Advisory Council

Posted May 21, 2018

And TNT Leaders Meet Michelle Obama

We Are the Change!

Posted May 21, 2018

Speaking Truth With Power

Last Thursday in Sacramento Youth ALIVE! and Teens on Target youth leaders stood up and said “Enough is enough” and reminded the world that while mass shootings are extremely tragic and must be stopped, it has always been communities of color who suffer the most from gun-related violence. And these communities are where change will come from, if the world will listen. A day of briefings and rallies was organized by State Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-LA), joined by Women’s March Sacramento and folks from the Brady Campaign for Gun Violence.

Former TNT Youth Leader Smooth Wickliff in The Guardian

Posted May 2, 2018

Smooth on Giving up the Gun

On the eve of last month’s March for our Lives, the Guardian sought commentary from current and former Teens on Target youth leaders, including former TNTer Smooth Wickliff. With insight and clarity, Smooth wrote about growing up surrounded by violence in Oakland, about the lure of the gun, and about what TNT taught him about breaking the cycle of violence. Read his Guardian piece, which the publication called “I used to be a gun-toting teenager. If I stepped away from guns, we all can.”

Dymond Garrett is Glad You're Listening

Posted April 3, 2018

TNT Youth Leader on #NeverAgain

TNT youth leader Dymond Garrett has written a searing but hopeful piece for Youth Radio about the #NeverAgain movement, growing up around violence, and the frustration felt by those who have been talking about – and living with – gun violence for years.

Celebrate with us on June 21st!

Posted March 25, 2018

We’re sold out! See you at our annual celebration dinner and auction.

After Parkland, TNT Youth Leaders Speak

Posted March 6, 2018

Young Oakland Voices Heard

The outrageous, unnecessary destruction of lives in Parkland, Florida, has rightly inspired great sympathy for the grieving. For many (though somehow not all), it has reinforced their will to make our country a safer, more peaceful place. It has also opened the nation’s ears to the energizing voices and fresh ideas of young peo

TNT Behind San Quentin's Walls

Posted March 5, 2018

Inmates Preach the Value of Freedom

On a sun-splashed, blue-sky, spring-like winter day in February, some of our Teens on Target youth leaders went behind the walls at San Quentin. They spent an eye-opening day with a group of inmates called SQUIRES, men whose devastating crimes had earned them a life behind bars, and whose collective message to our young men was clear: it takes only a few seconds to end up here, just one bad decision that can ruin many lives, including your own. So be wise, stop and think, find someone you can talk to about life. Stay free.

Youth ALIVE! featured on NPR's Snap Judgement

Posted March 5, 2018

On a year of Oakland violence

Members of the Snap Judgement radio and podcast crew cover a year of homicides in Oakland in their episode called Counted: an Oakland Story. For that they interviewed Youth ALIVE!’s Glen Upshaw and Tammy Cloud, as well as staff from some of our partners working to bring peace and healing to Oakland. Glen is our lead violence interrupter, working with his team to mediate conflicts between groups, gangs and individuals in Oakland before the guns come out. These are men trying to change young lives and make people safer. Tammy is the coordinator of our Khadafy Washington Project, named for the murdered son of its founder, which steps into the immediate aftermath of homicides in Oakland to support traumatized, devastated families at their time of greatest need. Hear full Snap Judgement interviews with Tammy and Glen here.