Strive For Change Foundation

11/10/2015

How to fix the economy: step one… raise the minimum wage to $15/hour

More money in people’s pockets means more demand for goods and services, which means more jobs not fewer jobs.

More people are brought into the pool of potential employees, giving employers more choice of whom to hire. This reduces turnover and helps employers save money.

Finally, employers who don’t pay enough to lift their employees out of poverty are indirectly subsidized by the rest of us – who are paying billions each year in food stamps, Medicaid, housing assistance, and welfare, to make up the difference.

The former secretary of labor on the urgent need to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour VIDEO

10/30/2015

there's nothing scary about increasing wages

It’s been eight months since Oakland’s $12.25 minimum wage law took effect. So what has been the economic impact of higher wages on the city?...

09/28/2015

Are you going?

We hope to see you on October 8th from 9:00-2:30pm at the Guild Hall, Piedmont Community Church (400 Highland Ave).

In addition to supporting Strive for Change, your $55 registration includes a Continental breakfast, lunch and beverages, a vintage Mah Jong museum, Silent Auction, prizes for selected hands and a raffle which includes an autographed copy of the popular book, “Mah Jongg: The Art of the Game” by Gregg Swain and Ann Israel.

For tournament details and to download a registration form, please go to: www.ChildrensSupportLeague.org.

09/28/2015

An interesting and comprehensive read on the potential impact of Uber settling in Oakland.

"Tech companies that move into Oakland will need to challenge their own assumptions about who can and can’t do the work. For instance, think about the $25,000 to $40,000 that tech companies routinely pay to recruiters as a percentage of a successful hire’s first-year salary. Could some of that be put to work in educational or training programs that level up local residents who have the drive and ambition instead?"

A few weeks ago, I was having lunch with Darrell Jones III, who heads up business development at Clef, at the southern restaurant Pican a few blocks away from..

09/25/2015

The cheapest place in the San Francisco metropolitan area is Pittsburg, where the minimum hourly wage necessary for two earners is $18.14 (per earner), or $36.28 for a single earner.

Map via Zillow In the San Francisco metropolitan area, a household would need to make $126,480 per year to afford the median market-rate rental without spending more than 30 percent...

09/15/2015

part prisoner re-entry program, part small business startup incubator, and part community hub...

The farm employs 10 former inmates on a part-time, rotating basis and pays them $20 an hour. They also landed their first culinary client contract: Picán Restaurant, an upscale Southern-influenced restaurant in the city’s lively Uptown district, and one of the few Black-owned restaurants in the area.

Elaine Brown is no stranger to radical ideas. The 72-year-old former chairwoman of the Black Panther Party has long advocated on behalf of prisoners. Now she is determined to transform a once-blighted vacant lot in West Oakland, California into a thriving urban farm business that employs former offe…

09/10/2015

A new study of seeing what is right in front you…

"When wealthy people find out that their neighbors don’t have the resources they do, researchers find, they’re less likely to help them, or anyone else."

All generalizations aside, how does this finding impact our desire to have a more equitable East Bay community?

A new study shows that the wealthy are less benevolent when they know just how poor their neighbors are.

09/04/2015

A long read for a long weekend - there are many untrue and damaging stereotypes about the poor and working poor that are enforced in our economic policies. As we honor the labor that sustains this great country, let's take a moment to reflect on that legacy and the future we want as a result.

Demonizing the Poor Harsh restrictions on welfare don’t limit fraud and abuse. They advance the interests of the rich and powerful. by Sanford Schram & Joe Soss Outside a New York welfare office in December 1974. In April, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed into law a new set of welfare rules titled,…

08/25/2015

*Building community, creating jobs, and honoring women's leadership*

Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, located in Richmond, works with aspiring business owners, many of whom are low-income.

Women's Simple Steps to Business, an eleven-week course taught several times per year in Richmond, is offered on a sliding scale of $100 to $350 based on income, and scholarships are also available. The program teaches the fundamentals of business ownership and aims to have students graduate with a financially viable, long-term business plan.

In 2013, when billionaire Sheryl Sandberg published her bestselling book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, she spurred a national conversation about...

08/21/2015

It is still acceptable, even popular, to ascribe moral weakness to people in poverty rather than to examine the economic and social structures that hold them there.

Despite Dr. King’s overestimation of progress in attitudes towards the poor, his core message remains relevant today: Only when we change a system that traps so many Americans in a struggle to meet their basic needs will we create an economy defined by opportunity and the chance for anyone to thrive.

It is still acceptable to ascribe moral weakness to people in poverty rather than to examine the economic and social structures that hold them there.

08/17/2015

This is a good reminder that your voice matters and being closer "to the ground" makes you a better funder.

And listening is priceless…"If we listen more, not just to the professionals but also to the people they serve, we acknowledge that our giving is not about us or our generosity; it’s about the people we ultimately try to help. And we just might find that our philanthropy is making a bigger difference than we ever imagined."

So many philanthropists seem removed from the challenges they wish to address but Jay Ruderman of the Ruderman Foundation says “Like all things worth doing, philanthropy requires getting your hands dirty. A good starting point would be for the philanthropist to interact with real people and causes o…

08/13/2015

Chart on where poor black families in Oakland rank on the "double burden" of poverty.

Concentrated poverty is getting worse because poor people — especially poor African Americans — are increasingly left behind. There are a number of forces that drive this pattern, including systemic discrimination, policies that have historically concentrated public housing, and modern zoning laws that keep the poor out of wealthier communities.

And a radical idea for what to do about it.