00:00:01.340 - 00:00:55.570

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Mhm, Yeah. Mm. Yeah. The most important thing leading to virtually every other opportunity, however you may define a good quality of life, is to have a job. And for all too many, particularly of our young people. They

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don't get that initial break at the time. They need it without it what they have to look forward to. Maybe not just poverty, but the loss of all the opportunities that really aren't necessary if we are to be what we profess to be since our beginnings

00:01:13.850 - 00:01:27.550

in this country and that is a land of opportunity. East Oakland Youth Development Center has done a lot for me because I used to just roam the streets a lot, you know? But then, you know, I came here to play basketball, and you know, they have

00:01:27.640 - 00:01:43.340

job job corps stuff here for, you know, young kids. They're trying to be something, you know, the kids that want to be something that you know and later on in their life. But this center is it's been it's done great things for me because it helped

00:01:43.340 - 00:01:58.540

me get a job, and I know it's helping other young people to get a job, you know, and that's that's the most important thing that I like about it. I'd like to continue our d. C. Because I love to go and order Damn help, help my

00:01:58.540 - 00:02:13.380

sister So and do all kinds of things that make friends. I come because I like the art classes in the soy and the basketball, and I'd like to see the movies were giving me an opportunity to, you know, to find a job for myself and to

00:02:13.380 - 00:02:27.660

keep me off the streets because all these drug wars going on, you know, I don't want to be shot down on the street for something I don't do this is virtually unique. The center. It came from the conception of those involved in the leadership of a

00:02:27.660 - 00:02:47.000

single company, a Oakland headquartered company, some 10 years ago because they had the foresight, the sensitivity to the needs of the community to see the requirement for a job counseling and training and placement organization. I come to the U. S. Senate because it's a place where

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kids can come after school if they don't have anything to do besides going hanging out outside stores and stuff, they can come here and have games, and they can learn how to do things to Why do you come to the O. R D C? Um, because

00:03:01.670 - 00:03:24.670

it gets you off the street. Things I don't like on the street as because I like to pick fights and things. I like it too soon as arching crash. I love because because I don't have no nothing to do at home. This is unique in that

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70% of the funding comes from private sources from individual companies from foundations. But there is, of course, that critical cooperation. That partnership, which was envisioned, in fact, and it's contained in the very title of the federal Jobs Training Partnership Act. It's a place to go. Instead

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of going on the streets, the streets don't lead you to number trouble. It's a place for me to relax and to be off the street. That's a place I don't want to end up, you know, like on the street corner selling drugs. What happened, you know,

00:03:58.640 - 00:04:14.330

But, um uh, the East Oakland Youth Development Center. You know it can offer you jobs, you know, for the youth and the people here are very nice you know, they really relate to the the students and, uh, the little kids and their youth. And, you know,

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I feel very comfortable here. It's not surprising to see Oakland's marry Lionel Wilson at 82nd in East 14th Street in Oakland, but now you have some idea what brings Senator Pete Wilson and the heads of large corporations like Clorox, Bechtel and Kaiser to the East Oakland

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Youth Development Center. This is an investment, a human investment that is paid handsome dividends. And I must say that I am privileged to be invited to participate in a brief ceremony that recognizes the enormous success that the center has enjoyed. Good evening, everybody. I'm Johnny Barnes,

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Selvin. We've all heard a lot about the problems and pressures that face the Children of the inner city. Well, tonight, instead of talking about problems, we're going to talk about an organization, the East Oakland Youth Development Center. It's an organization that does a wonderfully effective job

00:05:03.990 - 00:05:20.410

of addressing some of those problems. The East Oakland Youth Development Center is located in the heart of East Oakland, where families live in neat little houses with white picket fences where unemployment is high where gangs mark their territories for all to see where Children must know

00:05:20.410 - 00:05:40.830

about drug trafficking and the violence that goes with it just to get along, See the car pulled to the curb here, they're up there to make a buy, okay? And that you hear them yelling rollers. Okay, there goes your drug dealer right there. They'll sell anybody,

00:05:40.830 - 00:05:56.760

has the money regardless of age. Okay, this car up ahead of us obviously came up here to cop some dope. They saw us and got raised up and left within a half hour's time. We in the neighborhood Children saw first one drug bust and then another.

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The Children of East Oakland know about the gang wars and the drug battles. They know about the violence and deaths that have resulted. And they're real happy that there is an East Oakland youth development Center in the neighborhood. When a youngster walks into the East Oakland

00:06:10.230 - 00:06:24.830

Youth Development Center or oh, I d c. He knows there's going to be a lot to do there. The front office is staffed by busy but friendly workers who will help you find your teacher, coach or counsellor. 99% of the activities offered at the center are

00:06:24.830 - 00:06:40.280

free to interested Children. A free lunch is served every day promptly at 11 30 Monday through Friday. To all Children who wish to partake, that usually means 50 to 75 Children a day. There's a variety of programs, including team sports for Kids at E. O. Y.

00:06:40.280 - 00:06:52.120

D. C. All year long, and during the day you'll find adults from the community using the basketball court. Do you think the E. O. I. D. C. Performs a good service for the community by having Since it's been here, it's been a one heck of a

00:06:52.120 - 00:07:04.270

change in the neighborhood professionally. So I can say that cause I've been here all my life. I see a lot of things are going around before was here and went on because you have nothing to do. Connie Dyer is the executive director of the East Oakland

00:07:04.270 - 00:07:19.840

Youth Development Center. What does the East Oakland Youth Development Center mean to this community? Means hope. I think in a lot of cases that's not rhetoric. I think all you need to do is to look at the change in the behavior of young people who attend

00:07:19.840 - 00:07:40.520

here regularly when a kid comes in here exhibiting behavior that is not, uh, beneficial not only for himself, but for others around him. And what we try to do is to place that youngster in programming or some kind of activity where he can gain some discipline,

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gain some knowledge about the need to begin to respect other individuals, to gain some respect for himself if they don't have good values, and if they don't have real good foundations from which they're going to continue to build, we're gonna see them, perhaps on the street,

00:08:00.020 - 00:08:18.710

selling and taking drugs. We're going to see them in our prisons. We're going to see them in the unemployment lines because they've not been trained for jobs. Uh, so we feel that that's part of our supreme responsibility again not to take over the parental role, but

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to kind of assist. One of the many programs working at the O. I. D. C. Is the arts programs sponsored by pro arts and the California Arts Council. I feel good about what I do. The students I work with always happy to see me. They need

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attention, and they need someone to work with them and doing the art process. There are a lot of other things happening, communication and just good feeling, working with kids and just there are people. They're just young people and they have problems and they bring them out

00:08:54.730 - 00:09:14.470

and they're discussing with you. And I enjoy seeing the final product of the expression on the kids face when they take, when they actually create something and take it home and real happy about it. Margie Eaton teaches sewing at the center. I teach approximately 15 students

00:09:14.470 - 00:09:30.440

a day. I have three classes for the summer program each day, and I have to after school classes for the fall program. It's sort of a creative art to be able to so and create your own clothing, and it's an expression of yourself when you have

00:09:30.440 - 00:09:46.100

on something that you've made. I started working here at E O Y D. C two years ago in the sewing department as the soil instructor, and I found it a very rewarding experience. I enjoyed the students here, and, uh, they show a lot of creativity and

00:09:46.100 - 00:10:13.250

a lot of promise. Children who want to study history in the summer or fall worked with Tammy. Frank, This is cannibals. Yeah. Yes, There's this elephant. He seems to write his elephants over the Alps. What are the Alps heels now? Where was hanging from? Mhm. Mhm,

00:10:13.740 - 00:10:50.280

Tunisia. Tunisia. What was it being called? Pass it. Paris. Oh, okay. Thank you for information. The Children have some say about what's offered at the center. So for one morning, they requested a Michael Jackson dance alike contest. Mhm. Okay. Before you. Yeah, Yeah. Mhm. Jesus. Kind

00:10:50.280 - 00:11:11.310

of like this. Yeah. And their choice of videos later that afternoon was you guessed it. The making of thriller with Michael Jackson. Popcorn and punch are on the house. When kids have problems, they can always go to Donna Reinhardt. Donna wears many hats like crisis Intervention

00:11:11.310 - 00:11:34.770

counselor and field trips supervisor. I do family counseling. Individual counseling. Um, I'm presently conducting some groups rap sessions with about five parents. The majority of the Children that are work would come from low income families. Um, I would say most of them come from households that

00:11:34.770 - 00:11:55.100

are headed by single mothers, and they live in this district right here in the Elmer's district and thinking about what adults experience when they go, seek psychiatric help or talk with their therapist? Psychoanalysts, the therapists often tell, Suggest to them changes in their lives. Maybe you

00:11:55.100 - 00:12:05.890

need a divorce. They may not say it directly, but they may imply that you may need a divorce. Maybe you're in the wrong job. Maybe you need to get out and job. You need to do this and do that. Adults needs those things. So do Children,

00:12:05.900 - 00:12:19.080

but they don't have as much flexibility. I can't sit here and tell a child you need to be in another family. You need to switch schools because they don't have the flexibility to have certain restraints and obligations. So you have to deal with what they have

00:12:19.080 - 00:12:31.630

and try to do the best you can. I believe in having an open door policy for those who just want to drop in and chat on a regular basis, and they know that I'm sincere. I really care. I'm always enquiring about how they're doing at school,

00:12:31.630 - 00:12:46.530

what's going on at home, what kinds of things are they interested in and make sure that whatever they are interested in, and especially here at the center that they're enrolled in it and participating. Kathleen Sullivan coordinates all of East Oakland youth development centers programs. For many

00:12:46.530 - 00:13:00.040

young people who come here, Oh, I d c is definitely a refuge. Yeah, there's there's clearly for the age group you see here the most. A lot of the younger kids. There's nothing else for them to do, and I'm grateful that they come here. That's all

00:13:00.040 - 00:13:12.060

right, and we are a refuge. We are, There's no doubt about that. But at least you're not driving up and down the street and see chords of kids just standing around with no place to go. That's what I think was occurring to some extent before this

00:13:12.060 - 00:13:26.640

place was built. All of us understand what our limits are in terms of what we can do. And I think that's important, that we know what our limitations are and that we have to focus in on the quality of what we do have here and plan

00:13:26.650 - 00:13:41.360

for what we don't have right now. With an organization like this, with as many services that we're providing, we have to run this place like a business while at the same time understanding we are not strictly a business We're dealing with people. This is a community.

00:13:41.640 - 00:13:57.110

Um, there are things that happen here that have nothing to do with cut and dry profit and loss. Um, and so it's a It's a real juggle, but I think good, strong management, the staff and real creativity is keeping us alive. The art of finding and

00:13:57.110 - 00:14:26.160

keeping a job and team sports at e O I. D. C. Next. Yeah, yeah. Mhm. Mm, yeah. Mhm. Project Joys The acronym for Job Opportunities for Youth. These students are enrolled in Project Joyce. 36 hour class instructor Craig Ramos is teaching them how to find a

00:14:26.160 - 00:14:41.380

job, how to keep a job and much, much more. Now you may or may not state all the activities that you do, either at work or off the job, depending on how well they relate to the employer's needs. In other words, if you read that job

00:14:41.380 - 00:14:56.280

description and says requires excellent or good manual dexterity, there's no sense talking about something that you do with your feet. Your posture should be attentive, not stiff. A good way to do this is when you when you go in for an interview when the person tells

00:14:56.280 - 00:15:09.140

you to sit down immediately with the small of your back, Find the back of the chair, find the bag and chair, moved all the way to the back of the chair because you'll be sitting all the way back in the chair. Your posture will be attentive

00:15:09.150 - 00:15:25.590

yet relaxed. Okay, remember that you are marketing yourself. You are the product that you are marketing to an employer. 20 year old Marlon McCown is a graduate of Project Joy. She now has a job managing Vogue Fashion Boutique in Oakland. What did they give you that

00:15:25.590 - 00:15:39.750

you think is the most important gifts that you took away from Project Joy? They definitely gave me confidence. Confidence is the most important thing to have in anything that you do, and I find that I have so much confidence now that I feel I can get

00:15:39.760 - 00:15:50.600

any job that I set out to get or do anything that I set out to do. They bring out certain things in you that you didn't realize that you had or certain qualities that you see. I didn't know I had that, and they'll bring it out

00:15:50.600 - 00:16:01.020

and let you see it, and you'll see it, and and they'll just kind of basically help you put one and one together and figure out what it is that you want to do with your life. As far as the career is concerned, Project Joy graduate Eric

00:16:01.030 - 00:16:19.170

Richardson has been with World Airways for four weeks. His title. Warehouse clerk Astrid Willis's his supervisor. Well, I was surprised to tell you the truth when when Eric started working for us, that I was getting it. You know, an adult person who who didn't have to

00:16:19.170 - 00:16:32.440

train very much. He seemed to be able to handle almost everything we assigned him to do. He grasps things quickly, you know, and he's not afraid to tackle something new. Most of the other kids don't have any training. So this is it. They just come out.

00:16:32.450 - 00:16:51.490

They come from from high school with no training at all. And they they they're most of them are willing to learn. But they you spend sometimes months just teaching them how to file. And we don't have time for that. When we interviewed Eric, he just learned

00:16:51.490 - 00:17:05.800

he'd been given a promotion. You just told this morning you've been promoted. How do you feel about that? Ecstatic? Um, it's like I'm shocked because I didn't think that they would hire me after being here only for four weeks for a permanent job at the wage.

00:17:05.800 - 00:17:23.250

Together they are offering, and I'm very happy for that. I'm learning how to deal with people on a more serious level, how to work four people, you know, I usually have worked for me. One person. This is a very large company. I'm trying to become part

00:17:23.250 - 00:17:40.900

of the company, and it's working. Kathy Campbell, a Project Joy graduate, has been a clerk typist for Grand Avenue Van and Storage for two years. Wanda Goddard as her supervisor, Kathy has done wonderful, Uh, since she has been here, and the thing that I am so

00:17:40.900 - 00:17:57.380

impressed with Kathy is that she is not the type of person that sits and waits for someone to tell her to do something and sits and does nothing. She's always asking, May I help you with something, or is there something I can do? And she has

00:17:57.380 - 00:18:13.860

learned so many of the things that I haven't really had time to teach her. But she has learned on her own because she wanted to learn. How do you like your job here? I like my job very much. I like working with people, and I like

00:18:14.440 - 00:18:40.920

to have satisfied customers. What exactly do you do? I'm in charge of daily dispatch, registration of orders and building and claims assisting. I felt Project Joy was very helpful, and it was the reason I got this job and I would recommend it to anyone. William Cromartie

00:18:40.920 - 00:18:54.680

is a Project joy graduate. He's also a senior at the University of California at Berkeley. William wanted to know what it felt like to be the boss, so he became the president of the Oakland Youth Corporation. College should be viewed as just, just like going to

00:18:54.680 - 00:19:05.660

a job every day. You have to be there every day, and you have to really do the work. And college is one place where you sit down and you do the work and you get graded when in the business world, you're getting graded, too, so there's

00:19:05.660 - 00:19:17.110

really no difference. You've got to do your best and to build this campus, I have to do my best or I won't stay here if I'm in a job. If I'm performing. If I'm trying to reach some objective, I've got to do my best. And if

00:19:17.110 - 00:19:34.300

I don't the competition to eat me up. Kathleen Sullivan is his supervisor. William Prim RT. Is the epitome of a success story for the East Open Youth Development Center, and some people in meeting him have said this isn't the typical kind of young person that comes

00:19:34.300 - 00:19:57.070

through the Joy program. Well, they're absolutely right. There's always somebody that comes through that's got uh huh aspirations to be the president, and that's William Cromartie. He's not only got those kinds of aspirations, but he's got all of that potential. Personally, I want to devote the

00:19:57.080 - 00:20:11.750

rest. At least it's next semester of my life strictly going to U. C. Berkeley and learning as much as I can and graduating as soon as possible so I can go to law school. William is taking a short break from his corporation to finish his undergraduate

00:20:11.750 - 00:20:30.320

studies. What I learned from Project Joy and developing the Oakland Youth Cooperation I'm the fourth president is that employers need good people to work with them and trying to imagine what an employer is looking for looking for or what you would look for as an employer

00:20:30.330 - 00:20:48.860

makes you straighten up. You look at yourself in the mirror and say to yourself, If a guy who looks like me and talked like me walk into my office without hire him if you can't say yes, unequivocally, then you're having problems. Project Joy has been the

00:20:48.860 - 00:21:02.450

place to go for me the place to get that sort of direction. 36 little hours, 36 little hours. It's more than just 36 little hours because it sticks to a few more than anything. You've got to sit down and look at yourself, and it forced me

00:21:02.450 - 00:21:13.720

to look, to sit down and say, What can I do? What do I want to do? How am I going to do it? And until that time, I hadn't had I hadn't had to do that, you know? And that's that's the problem. I see with a

00:21:13.720 - 00:21:26.770

lot of young people now, Yeah, being alive and being a person or something, you take for granted and just walk around and you bump and you make your mistakes and you're having a great time and you wake up in your 35 you haven't done anything when

00:21:26.770 - 00:21:42.280

you're when you expose the project joy. You find out more than anything else that as a person you have options and you learn how to exercise all of your options. And I'm sure I would have learned these things later on. I like to think that I

00:21:42.280 - 00:21:57.130

was mature enough for intelligent enough to come to this realization on my own. But who asked that kind of time? Learning this 18 when I was 18 years old was a big help to me. Karen Henderson, chief recruiter for Project Joy. Getting out there and doing

00:21:57.130 - 00:22:11.090

recruiting and let them know that we're just not another program, that they're going to fall through the cracks. You know, we have something that works, You know, we're offering something that's really going to work from this time, and we don't give up. As long as they

00:22:11.090 - 00:22:26.060

are willing to work and give us everything they have, we're going to give them everything. We have a lot to director of Project Joy. Our ratio of placements is that 50% of our placements are recorded directly as a result of our activity in our employment department

00:22:26.540 - 00:22:43.910

and the other 50% roughly, um, as a result of just self placement where they've gone out and found jobs on their own. A lot of it because of what they picked up in the job search, training and career counseling. So somewhere way down the road, we

00:22:43.910 - 00:23:05.190

would like to see that ratio 100% self placement because we just don't want that constant dependency of find me a job. The old seat of mentality was you were guaranteed a job, and that is not the case here. The private sector does not guarantee anybody jobs,

00:23:05.190 - 00:23:22.360

so we can't either. We can only say that we will do the best we can to find an opening that suits you, but that you're the one who is ultimately responsible for actually landing that job. Thank you. Let's go. Let's go, Let's go. Everybody get everybody.

00:23:24.220 - 00:23:43.700

Team sports attract lots of people old and young. Oh, I D c Clifford fiber coaches the basketball team. What do you think you learn from basketball from basketball? One thing I describe in basketball is mostly is discipline discipline within yourself because if you have discipline here,

00:23:43.700 - 00:24:05.210

you can have it anywhere else. Herb Yarborough is director of all athletic programs at the CDC. What do you think Sports teaches kids, teaches them discipline. It teaches himself respect, uh, teaches and respect for others property. And it teaches them about rules and rules, obviously, in

00:24:05.210 - 00:24:25.770

some cases translated into laws. So it teaches them to respect those and teaches them how to work within that those take your marks. I like running track like being my teammates. And like my coaches, it's a good program because it gets you in shape for a

00:24:25.770 - 00:24:39.310

lot of stuff. And you get to know a little a lot of people. Well, I like being on the e o Y. D C track to you because it helps me stay in shape for football. Sometimes you might win. Sometimes you might lose, but you have

00:24:39.310 - 00:24:55.600

to work more harder to be aware. Go Shelton Winder, Track coach. Your former project Joyce student. How does it feel to be the teacher? Well, if it feels a lot different, Uh, it was pretty easy just being a student, and then once I became the teacher,

00:24:55.600 - 00:25:09.960

I've seen all the problems that my teachers had. How do you do when you're out there competing. Well, they do pretty well. They win most of the time. They're going to the nationals and everything. So a pretty good team. Oh, Jean. So why are all these

00:25:09.960 - 00:25:24.810

kids lining up for taekwondo lessons at five o'clock in the evening so I can have more discipline and protect myself? Being up in the class is better to bend in the streets. So somebody using me, I just know what to do. Herbert Hall, the kids call

00:25:24.810 - 00:25:41.220

him. Mr. Hall is the taekwondo instructor. At 90% of martial art is disciplined, other 10% is physical. And the physical part is the easiest part to teach the discipline. It all depends on what the individual wants. And they're just trying to give them an example of

00:25:41.220 - 00:26:06.770

what discipline is and how it affects you in everyday life. And, uh, I believe this is a good place to start. Our class model is, uh, self discipline. Self control creates self confidence. That's what we're all about. 12 Turn to him. Him. Hey, 55 to 60%

00:26:07.140 - 00:26:34.860

of our offending is corporate. Um, this year, about 30% The balance of our operating budget this year is foundation money and about 10% federal money. You know, I d. C has a very bright future. We're going to shore up, uh, and expand our job readiness and

00:26:34.860 - 00:26:52.140

employment training program. We're going to obviously the next step for us. We're going to have to think about getting into skills training. Uh, so it's a very exciting future, and I'm looking forward to it. And so, uh, all the staff, the search for discipline, self respect,

00:26:52.140 - 00:27:07.510

camaraderie, job skills, and just a safe place to be has attracted many of the Children of East Oakland and beyond to the East Oakland Youth Development Center. The nice thing. And the truly impressive thing is that because of well planned and well managed programs, many of

00:27:07.510 - 00:27:49.940

those Children have a chance to find what they seek here. I'm Johnny Barnes. Selvin. Goodnight. Mm hmm. Yeah, Yeah, yeah. Mhm. Mm. Mhm. Yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah. My mama. Yeah.