More work and more needs at Oakland Serves

11/18/2022

End of the year is approaching fast
We have certainly had an interesting fall semester this year. We will give you the final year end summary in our December newsletter, but we cannot wait to talk about a new project that we’ve been asked to participate in (see below). In addition, Giving Tuesday on November 29th is a critical fundraising milestone for us and we look to your support more than ever to achieve our 2023 goals.

A new project for Oakland Serves!
Unexpectedly last month we were asked by Gina Hill, the leader of OUSD’s new Central Academic Recovery team, to provide additional support for students who are negatively impacted by the pandemic, due to which almost half of the tenth graders are off track for graduation. Gina asked our help to participate in CAR’s credit recovery classes for 9th and 10th graders; unfortunately, we had placed almost all of our mentors with individual students at one of the schools we work with directly. As we feel this issue aligns exactly with our mission of assisting students on their path to graduation, we have placed one mentor in the AR program at Castlemont starting this month, and are re-dedicating ourselves to recruit more mentors for this project.

Interested in volunteering as a mentor? Go to our volunteer page.

This giving season is critical to our organization
Oakland Serves’ mentors and academic supporters directly help Oakland high school students, and without sufficient funding, we cannot help OUSD and the students.
Our 1:1 mentoring program requires much individual attention to create a difference in the student’s academic trajectory. OUSD and school-specific projects that are consistent with our mission also require us to develop a strong in-school academic volunteer organization. Our ability to hire qualified staff to provide student and mentor support truly depends on your donations this season, and without your contributions, we cannot sustain and grow our program in Spring 2023 and beyond. Please give today to help our mission.

Let Oakland know we support their studentsThere are many ways to help:

A donation of $25, $50, $100 or $250 or more will help us provide mentors and additional support to more high school students. Donations can be done online through credit card or Paypal on our website.
Venmo is also available through Linktree.
Matching gifts – many employers provide donations in kind to those given by their employees. We are registered with organizations that work with many local employers to coordinate matching corporate gifts. A partial list is on our website here.
Consider us for your donor-advised funding! A one-time donation of $1000 or more will provide the full support for one high school student and help expand Oakland Serves services. You can find us on Guidestar among other sites that provide information on nonprofits.

Mentoring opportunities continue into Spring 2023
The CAR program needs our support! We want students to pass 10th grade and be on their way next year with sufficient credits. Rather than working with a matched student, volunteers will be working with several students within a specific credit recovery class.
We also expect more mentors for our “traditional” 1:1 mentoring projects in the schools. This is an opportunity to develop a relationship with an individual student in and outside of the classroom. Again, having mentors that can help with English learners are often requested for both projects.

New logo, new social media team.
Finally, if you haven’t noticed, we introduced a new logo in October to identify our mission more easily. Thanks to our new social media volunteers , Edward Ichwan and Leah Urena, we hope to increase our visibility for mentor recruitment and to our generous donors.