Young Oakland social entrepreneurs win $1000 seed capital each

Published on Sunday, March 07, 2010
Last updated on 08:10AM, Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Youth Roots members proudly display their t-shirts which they sell to Oakland youth -- now in partnership with local schools.

Youth Roots members proudly display their t-shirts which they sell to Oakland youth -- now in partnership with local schools.

The next generation of Oakland's social entrepreneurs got a boost this weekend: Seven youth teams won $1000 each as seed capital for their mission-driven ventures. This was the first Bay Area round of Youth Venture funding from Ashoka, a global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs

These prizes were awarded in a March 6 event where each team presented. Oakland Local was there, and interviewed several of the young entrepreneurs. Watch our video...

During the event, each team presented their project and answered questions before a sizeable live audience at the Goldman Auditorium in the David Brower Center, Berkeley. Then, panelists convened privately to examine information such as budgets, revenue estimates, and marketing plans for each project. At the end, all seven teams were approved for funding. For six of these, panelists specified additional requirements to be satisfied before full funding is released.

One project, the Healthy Neighborhood Store Alliance (a service to make fresh produce more accessible in West Oakland), was deemed complete enough to merit unconditional full funding. James Berk, 19, is a West Oakland resident who says his initial motivation for this project was his personal quest to overcome health problems. Other members of the West Oakland Youth Standing Empowered team: Ennis Jones, Jamelah Isaac, and Alshea Mitchell.

The other winning teams are:

  • Grown Your Own Green, community gardening in West Oakland: Rachelle Reed
  • Oakland Youth for Peace with Police, improving the relationship between Oakland youth and police: Tamara Lawrence.
  • O Zone Music Group Hip-hop with a purpose, youth empowering youth through music: Olondis Walker
  • Youth Roots, Creating a positive-message t-shirt line, sold online and now also distributed through local school uniform programs: Diego Rivera, Mario Rodriguez, Hazel Rodriguez, Juan Perez, Isabel Gonzalez.
  • Project Jatropha, supporting rural schools in Haiti and India: Adarsha Shivakumar, Apoorva Rangan, Callie Roberts.
  • Creating Hope for Future Leaders, sponsoring a school in Nicaragua: Miguel Olivares

Oakland Local congratulates all of the Youth Venture winners. We hope to cover these projects as they unfold over the next year.

About Amy Gahran
Amy Gahran is an itinerant troublemaker and info provocateur who moved to Oakland CA after spending 14 years in Boulder, CO. Her background is as a journalist, editor, and managing editor mainly covering energy, environment, and business. For the last 12 years she's been happily and gainfully self-employed, mostly helping organizations, institutions, and individuals wrap their brains around the internet. Speaking of brains, Amy is also Oakland Local's official zombie reporter.