Education Initiative

OHA’s Education Initiative leverages key partnerships with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), community-based organizations and other service providers with a focus on education.  Our programs and services are designed to increase school attendance, parent or caregiver engagement, academic achievement, and life skills development for youth who reside in OHA residential communities. Research, data and best practices indicate that these types of programs help support youth by preparing them for future academic and professional opportunities through the elimination of academic achievement barriers and by addressing critical needs as early as elementary school.​

The programs offered through OHA’s Education Initiative are geared toward enhancing the following areas:

Additionally, OHA seeks to reduce “Summer Academic Loss,” which is the loss of as much as two months of learning that accompanies summer vacation. To alleviate this loss of learning we offer summer youth employment, summer camps, summer lunch programs. 

OUSD Partnership

In an effort to address the academic achievement barriers and other critical needs, we have entered into a partnership with OUSD. OHA and OUSD agreed to collaborate and develop effective strategies to increase student attendance. Through the joint use of information systems, OHA and OUSD discovered an overlap of 5,700 students. With this information, both OHA and OUSD developed goals to improve the educational opportunities and outcomes of youth served by both institutions through two primary objectives, 1) increased attendance of OHA youth; and 2) increased parent engagement with both their children's education and their school. 

Education Ambassador Program

To meet the educational objectives OHA created the Education Ambassador Program​​. The participating parents serve at seven partner schools, select throughout the district, that pilot our attendance improvement and parent involvement efforts. The Parent Ambassadors work in partnership with OHA staff and the principals at partner school sites to identify tasks and projects that meaningfully contribute to the entire school community, with an emphasis on increasing attendance for those struggling with chronic absenteeism. Parent Ambassadors are role models who exhibit “good neighbor” qualities in support of the full service community school model.​

Scholarships

The Oakland Housing Authority works with various organizations that provide scholarship opportunities to Housing Authority residents.  Information regarding these opportunities will be posted in this section.  The scholarship applications have various eligibility criteria and application deadlines, so plan to check this section periodically for updates.

Consider these current scholarship opportunities:

Scholarship Opportunities: 

Check back for opportunities.​

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​To learn more about FCP or to get involved, please call (510) 587-5104.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​