Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson and staff  have organized an exciting and important event called Information is Power! African American Organizations Making Connections. The basic focus of this event is to bring together the local African American community to come together NOW. Carson says " It has been far too long since the diverse members of our community have come together to find out who we are and to hear about the work being done now and opportunities for the future.

Come share your best practices and challenges. This will be an opportunity to network and identify points of collaboration to leverage scarce resources. You won’t want to miss this event!

Featured Speakers:

Youth Panel moderated by Ryan Nicole Peters

Oakland Local will be there, as will many of the Bay's people of color media organizations and their leaders. Despite this event happening at the same time as the Museum opening and many MayDay events, this is a really important event.

Carson has a terrific post at Oakland Seen outlining his reasons for the event--you can click over and read the whole thing there, but a couple of highlights include these thoughts:

"It is imperative that we come together to face these challenges and start to identify creative solutions. I also firmly believe that our youth are part of the answer, which is why we will hear from a youth panel and will award prizes for the winners of our Youth Art Contest who have shared their unique artistic perspectives on the state of the African-American community in the East Bay."

Event information
Saturday, May 1, 2010 
Merritt College 
12500 Campus Drive 
Oakland, CA 94619 
Map
8:15 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

THIS IS A FREE EVENT 
* YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND * 
FREE CHILDCARE AVAILABLE

Click here to register
*Every person in your organization that will be attending must register individually. Personal information will not be shared. The information regarding organizations and businesses will be compiled into a resource guide. Please be as detailed as possible.
Transportation
AC Transit: Line 54 
Parking lot is $1 for the whole day (printable parking map) (PDF - 83kb) * 
Additional transportation concerns call 5-1-1 If you have additional questions, call 510-272-6695

Join the “Making Connections” Facebook page