For the latest feature in our All In For Oakland blog series, I had the opportunity to speak with George Galvis, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ). Since 2011, CURYJ has been building community and mobilizing young leaders in the movement to end youth criminalization and mass incarceration in Oakland.
Read my interview with George to learn more about his and CURYJ’s work to unlock the leadership of young people to transform communities through healing and activism.
— Ray Colmenar, President of Akonadi Foundation
The millions of dollars we spend on law enforcement should actually be invested in the things that make people feel hopeful: food, clothes, shelter, resources, mental health programs, and viable employment and engagement opportunities.“
A: We were very disappointed. It’s unfortunate that we have this antiquated, knee jerk reaction to public safety. If we actually look at the empirical evidence, police budgets have risen by 30% in the last four years, and so has crime. So, more police is just not the solution. 2019 was a year of one of the lowest crime rates in Oakland and other cities throughout the country, and I think that was because there was hope for criminal justice reform and a large pushback against police terrorism. It wasn’t perfect, but people felt more optimistic. And then in 2020, Black and brown families were hit hard by the pandemic and inflation, and there was no accountability for police murders, so people began feeling more discouraged.
CHP feels like an occupation, like internal neocolonialism in our community, and it means there will be more racial profiling and abuse, which will not make our communities safer. The millions of dollars we spend on law enforcement should actually be invested in the things that make people feel hopeful: food, clothes, shelter, resources, mental health programs, and viable employment and engagement opportunities.
Our inspiration was to replace systems, which only perpetuate harm, with community-led solutions. We know the more contact families and communities have with systems, the worse outcomes they have – even when they interact with systems that seem benign. I have the privilege of being in partnership with Oscar’s family – Oscar represents the young people we work with at CURYJ. He was a 22 year old, previously incarcerated, transitional age youth at the time he was murdered by BART police. That is what inspired us to name the youth power zone after him and his legacy.
Alameda County is currently spending $700,000 to $1 million a year to incarcerate one young person, and that amount continues to rise. So, we want to see a world where we can liberate those resources to improve outcomes and replace those systems of harm and oppression with spaces that offer opportunities to heal, grow, and thrive. That’s the vision for The Oscar Grant Youth Power Zone.
Oakland is the birthplace of the Black Panthers, and we have a host of activism and vibrant, innovative energy to change systems, primarily led by Black, Indigenous and people of color. That’s why we believe Oakland should be the catalyst for de-carcerating youth across the country, and we hope the Oscar Grant Youth Power Zone serves as a demonstration model for other organizations doing similar work. We are currently talking to other partners across the country to see how this work can continue to grow and expand.
Oscar represents the young people we work with at CURYJ. He was a 22 year old, previously incarcerated, transitional age youth at the time he was murdered by BART police. That is what inspired us to name the youth power zone after him and his legacy.”
We will offer a cultural cafe called Culture is Healing with an art gallery exhibiting local artists, a space for mic nights, and a book store featuring books on liberation from Black and Indigenous authors. We will also offer an entrepreneurial fellowship, a two-year co-op model to help young people learn all aspects of running a business, and we will provide them with a micro grant and support them with developing a business plan.
We will also use the space to support and guide young people in their healing process. Black and Indigenous people have historical and generation wisdom that has been lost due to slavery, colonialism, and genocide. While those traumas are part of our history, so is the culture of healing, which we can connect to by reclaiming and returning to our ancestral traditions and practices. So we will offer African drumming and dance classes, Aztec dance classes, pow wow classes, and guerilla theater. They exist as creative outlets for young people to express themselves.
We can transform the trauma into something beautiful by telling our stories in creative ways. In addition to dancing and healing practices, young people will have access to creative tools such as 3D printers for digital art and a sound lab for making music.
We’re also looking to employ people from the community through our Hood Healers of Oakland program, where young people can serve as community ambassadors and engage with the community in positive ways by linking folks to opportunities, resources, and programs. Hood Healers will be trained in restorative practices, conflict resolution, and martial arts. They serve as first responders, specializing in diffusing conflict and keeping communities safe versus perpetuating the harms brought by policing.
I would love to shout out some of our closest partners: Legal Services for Prisoners With Children, Anti Police-Terror Project, Love Life Foundation, Young Women’s Freedom Center, Love Not Blood campaign, Oscar Grant Foundation, Families United for Justice, Ella Baker Center, Black Organizing Project, APEN, and so many more! There is strength in unity.
The Bay Area has the highest concentration of nonprofits, but that is what makes us such a vibrant community! Sometimes, there is a scarcity mentality that can divide us, but there is not a shortage of resources, just a shortage of political will.
Philanthropy can produce and reproduce systems of oppression and problematic hierarchical arrangements. For example, the salary for a grassroots leader on the front lines, likely Black or brown folks, does not reflect the salary of those working in philanthropic offices or with other intermediaries, and we need to assess and close that wealth gap. That would mean a shift in grantmaking and the way grants are allocated, one that considers cost of living, so that our folks on the front lines can have the economic stability and security they need to sustain themselves in their work.
Philanthropy sometimes imposes collaborations and coalitions, but they really have more impact when they are formed organically. We are stronger together, and philanthropy can support us by letting us do the work and providing us with the resources we need to keep going.
We are who we serve. We are also a reflection of Fruitvale’s community and character. Me, my managing director, and my co-founder are all formerly incarcerated. We all have networks and relationships with people who have been impacted by systems, including family members of incarcerated folks, so we know the geniuses who have been incarcerated, and we work with them when they come home. Many of our staff are also former participants of our programs, so the leadership pipeline we create for the people we serve is real.
We want to build a foundation toward the goal through initiatives like the Oscar Grant Youth Power Zone and work with partner organizations that can then apply this work to regions across the state. We want to see youth power zones all across the country, and by 2030, we will have proven the efficacy of what we do to show we have much greater impact in a way that consumes less resources than probation and the juvenile justice system, and that abolition truly works.
At CURYJ, we hold traditional ceremonies like Inipi sweat lodges and community building events to bring joy as an act of liberation. During these gatherings, we highlight local talent, offer resources and giveaways, share civic and political information, and provide entertainment and childcare. We also hold healing spaces when loved ones are lost by bringing in healing practitioners.
Healing is also about celebration – we do over 50 community building events a year. We invite spaces where we challenge misogyny, homophobia and transphobia and educate folks to learn different systems of oppression, so that we can see our commonality and heal together. Healing is the heart and spirit of what we do, and culture is rooted in all of the healing work that we do.
We are first and foremost a movement building organization committed to social impact, so the first step for our participants is usually to work at one of our engagement events, where they can be compensated for serving their community. A third of our annual operating budget is about investing in our community, which doesn’t even include our staff who are directly impacted.
The next step is for us to bring them into one of our leadership development programs, and then ultimately, they become community organizers, thriving as leaders in the community and leading the change they want to see – which can open career opportunities. President Obama started as a community organizer, and the skills you learn as a community organizer can take you anywhere. Community organizers from CURYJ go on to pursue more education and attend some of the best universities in the country. They also take on leadership roles with our partner organizations or stay on as leaders with CURYJ.
We are hosting a Gala on Friday June, 7 at the Oakland Scottish Rite Center to celebrate the opening of the Oscar Grant Youth Power Zone, and we want everyone from the community to join us and celebrate. There will be live music, delicious food, and updates on what is to come.
We will also launch our first of the summer Town Night series beginning June 14, which will highlight our co- sponsorship of Assembly Constitutional Amendment 8 to end legalized slavery as punishment for a crime in California.