The Future of Oakland's Youth is the Future of Oakland

    The Future Of Oakland's Youth 
Is The Future 

Of Oakland 



YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT 
Fact: Unemployment among black and minority youth 
in Oakland exceeds the national average. 

Fact: Oakland has the highest unemployment rate 
among youth between 16 and 21 in the Bay Area. 

Why should Oakland's youth unemployment problem 
concern you? 
Youth unemployment causes long-range economic 
and social problems which affect all segments of a 
community: 

• students who face exclusion from becoming 
productive members of society. 

• parents who want their children to lead 
economically self-sustaining and useful lives. 

• employers looking for an educated and 
disciplined work force. 

• community leaders and elected officials try­
ing to cope with the city's problems on declin­
ing re.venue. 

• taxpayers revolting against increased public 
expenditures. 

WHY VOCATIONAL 
EDUCATION? 

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. 
published a report in April , 1981 which states that the 
Oakland Public Schools are not adequately preparing 
and training students for the world of work. 

Vocational education causes youth unemployment 
when it trains students for jobs that do not exist and 
when it inadequately prepares them for those that do ex­
ist. Vocational education can help to reduce youth 
unemployment if it is closely related to the current and 
emerging labor market needs of the economy and if it 
prepares students to secure both entry level employ­
ment and advancement within an occupation. 

As jobs are becoming more technical and competition 
for them more acute, vocational-technical training and 
career preparation provide a means to secure full and 
equal participation in the economy. 

WHAT CAN YOU DO? 
THE OAKLAND SCHOOL SYSTEM: 

Recognizing the need for linkage between schools and the 
world of work, the School Board should adopt policies to be 
implemented in actions and programs by the district and 
the schools that will: 

1. Communicate the message that preparation for the 
world of work and for postsecondary education is 
equally valued 

2. Translate that message into curriculum offerings 
and scheduling of classes so that students will 
take seriously the availablility of opportunities for 
learning in both the academic and vocational areas. 

3. Provide an adequate number of trained vocational 
counselors. 

4. Eliminate sex bias and stereotyping in vocational 
education and actively recruit boys and girls for 
courses that are non-traditional for their sex. 

5. Target funds to the disadvantaged. 
6. Reach out to employers and seek new ways of in­

volving them in joint efforts to improve the quality 
and relevance of the curriculum and to expose 
young people to workplaces. 

7. Explore the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of 
centrally located vocational programs and of other 
innovative ways of offering a range of quality pro­
grams district-wide. 



EMPLOYERS IN THE GREATER OAKLAND 
METROPOLITAN AREA: 

Recognizing their vested interest in a skilled workforce, and 
also their responsibility to contribute to its development as 
a long-range investment, employers should expand existing 
models of school-corporate partnership and could: 

1. Assign their employees on a full-time or rotating 
basis to work as career counselors, job placement 
specialists, and instructional advisors in junior and 
senior high schools. 

2. Adopt a vocational program, loan or donate equi,r 
ment, provide cooperative vocational education to 
students, or make downtown space available for 
both classroom and worksite training. 

3. Establish new Regional Occupational Programs to 
meet employers' needs. 

4. Create employee exchange programs with the 
Oakland Public Schools in which employers pro­
vide training tor youth while instructors whose 
skills are outdated are retrained. 

PARENTS AND COMMUNITY LEADERS: 

Oakland parents and community leaders can make a dif­
ference by translating their concern about unprepared 
and unemployed young people into informed action. 
They can: 

1. Send for the document Vocational Education: 
Cause or Cure for Youth Unemployment? A Re­
port to the Citizens of Oakland, California. 

2. Encourage your organization or church to spon­
sor a workshop on Youth Unemployment, Edu­
cation, and Career Development. 

Working together we can make a difference 

3. Communicate to the School Board and ad­
ministrators that equal priority must be given to 
preparing young people for employment. 

4. Urge the Legislature and State agencies to make 
more effective use of education and youth train­
ing funds by enforcing requirements for Region­
al Occupational Programs and targeting re­
sources on students most in need. 

5. Investigate vocational programs to determine 
their purpose, worksite training opportunities, 
and job placement record. 

6 Counsel students that the pursuit of academic 
learning and the acquisition of occupational 
skills are mutually supportive goals and encour­
age young people in their efforts to make the 
most of the school years. 

7. Contact LDF Education and Career Develop­
ment Project for information about what is hap­
pening in your area or neighborhood. 

For more information: 

Designed by Amarha Hicks 
Photos by Joffre Clarke 

Produced by H&C Graphics 

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. 
Education & Career Development Project 
1515 Webster Street, Suite 516 
Oakland, CA 94612 
(415) 444-7064 

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund is not a part 
of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored 
People although it was founded by it and shares its commitment 
to equal rights. LDF has had for over 20 years a separate Board, 
program, staff and budget. 



<Oaklanb tribune 
EAST BAY 

TODAY 
Monday, May 11, 1981 

Albert Dolata 
President and Publisher 

Roy Grimm 
Man1glng Edilor 

Robert C. Maynard 
Editor 

Jo Murray 
Associate EdilOf 

EDITORIALS 

Youth and hope 
Spending billions of dollars 

to pen up society's failures, as 
Gov. Brown proposed in his 
speech last Wednesday night, is 
a tragic waste of scarce re­
sources. Little is gained, other 
than an illusion of safety, and 
much is lost, economically and 
in the human spirit. 

On the same evening, the 
governor called for a tax in­
crease to raise money for pris­
ons and police, the Oakland 
School Board heard of a far 
more sensible approach to the 
problems that breed crime. 
Representatives of the NAACP 
Legal Defense and Education­
al Fund presented recommen­
dations, based on a two year 
study of Oakland high schools' 
vocational education program, 
on how schools, business and 
the community can take steps 
to break the cycle of unem­
ployment, poverty and family 
decay which contributes to 
crime. 

Vocational education is the 
"Stepchild of the secondary 
school curriculum," represent­
atives of the fund told the 
board. The report offers con­
siderable evidence that the 
schools do not give students, 
particularly disadvantaged 
students, the kind of training, 
counseling or experience in the 
workplace necessary to make 
vocational education useful. 
Or, more important, to make 
of vocational students more 
useful citizens. 

The need for a useful pro­
gram should be clear: Seventy­
five percent of Oakland high 

school graduates do not imme­
diately go on to college. 

The most distressing finding 
of the Fund's report is the wide 
gap between the schools' train­
ing and the needs of em­
ployers. Several programs 
train students in skills for 
which no market exists, and 
potential employers have little 
involvement in the design of 
the vocational curriculum. 

For many students then, vo­
cational classes tum into a 
pleasant way of fulfilling re­
quirements, instead of a step 
on the road to a job and a 
better life. 

To bridge this gap between 
schools and the real world, the 
report recommends more 
counseling for students, an in­
creased role for employers in 
designing curricula more rele­
vant to the labor market, and 
more worksite training. It also 
asks business, which depends 
on the schools to train skilled 
workers, to expand its contri­
bution to the vocational pro­
gram. 

Oakland schools cannot by 
themselves cure youth unem­
ployment. But a vigorous vo­
cational education program 
with substantial involvement 
by business, is vital to the 
city's hopes of economic devel­
opment and breaking the vi­
cious cycle of poverty and 
crime. 

The NAACP Legal Defense 
Fund has performed a valuable 
service for Oakland in lighting 
an important path toward that 
brighter future.