It all started with a conversation between a school administrator and a representative of the mayor's office about doing something tangible to decrease youth gang violence in East Oakland.

Soon, community groups began to step forward, and leaders began to round up the needed resources. The result: an innovative program that delivers after-school jobs for 70 East Oakland teenagers, providing their schools with career and youth centers and creating opportunities to earn college credits and embark on a pathway to professional jobs.

Laura Moran, Chief Services Officer of the Oakland Unified School District, and Isaac Taggart, Reentry Specialist in the Mayor Ron Dellums' office, came up with the idea together.

"Creating opportunities for youth, not simply ramping up the police presence, is an obvious solution to a pressing need," Taggart said.

"If we want to end gangs, we need to replace the things gangs provide – a little money, a sense of belonging, protection," added Moran.

They started with a few basic principles, cutting through the potential for bureaucratic red tape, and built from there.

According to their proposal, “Everyone gets a voice, including the youth themselves; the resources exist – we just need to put them together; and we are going to start now, not wait for a long planning process.”

The first step was a roundtable discussion with participants at Fremont High School, near High Street and Foothill Boulevard. The program has since expanded to Castlemont High, near 86th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard.

The young people named the program "One World, One People." The Spanish Speaking Citizens' Foundation offered the schools a community-building program called Libre. The Oakland Private Industry Council is placing a career center at Fremont for students and their families. Leadership Excellence provides leadership training.

The school district brought the school principals into the mix and created a space for the career and youth centers. The mayor's office found money for a youth worker to staff the effort. At the same time, Laney College has offered specially-designed classes so students could earn college and high school credit during a summer program.

Now, organizers are figuring out how these 70 young folks can be employed on their way to potential teaching careers or other jobs in human services.

Often, creating something new seems to take forever, but every once in a while, it all just falls in place.

“Maybe this is an idea whose time has arrived,” said Taggart.