Our mission is to train and empower the Oakland and East Bay, Calif.-area people to learn skills that support economic development, job and college readiness at the same time that we help them to make their voices heard. We also provide skills building and development to our interns, community contributors and reporters and we work with small business people to make them discoverable in search and teach them social media marketing. We also partner with school and youth organizations to teach these skills to youth and to help them share their views on issues.

Current training programs include:

Hack the Hood: This economic-development provides web tech job training to local youth, who then work with local business associations to list local merchants visible in online maps, directories and listings. The project provides youth with real workplace experience, employable skills and mentoring. Local businesses become discoverable on the web and on mobile devices – which most of them are not right now – increasing their visibility and business. The 2012 pilot was funded by Google; Oakland Fund for Children and Youth is providing some support for summer boot camps for this program. See oaklandlocal.com/tags/hack-the-hood

Oakland Education Voices: Oakland’s public school system is both one of the most challenged in the state – and one that is improving the most quickly.  Supported by The California Endowment, Education Voices pairs professional reporters with high-school aged youth to tell in-depth stories about education and health innovations and challenges in the education system. Youth learn reporting skills and share their perspectives as they collaborate on in-depth stories. See oaklandlocal.com/tags/education

Code for Oakland-: Started in 2011, Oakland’s annual civic hackathon is a community-focused affair that was conceived of and is organized by a group of Oakland-based organizations, including Oakland Local and Open Oakland/Code for America. See codeforoakland.org

Nonprofit community site Oakland Local is both a media platform and a capacity building organization. Events, trainings, workshops, one-on-one coaching, internships and mentoring are at the heart of our goal to help Oakland’s underserved communities make their voices heard and their concerns discussed.

WANT TO STAY INFORMED ABOUT TRAININGS AND WORKSHOPS? EMAIL TRAINING@OAKLANDLOCAL.COM with sign me up in the subject line.