Oakland Community
Organization outlines
strategy on violence prevention, intervention
By Clifford L. Williams,
Globe City Editor
More than
100 residents attended the Oakland Community Organization’s
monthly leadership meeting yesterday at Shiloh
Christian Center to strategize and prepare for
an action meeting to be held on Thursday, May 22
at 6:30 p.m. at the Oakland Convention Center.
Next week’s meeting will
focus on issues related to Oakland’s violence
and crime problem. OCO expects over 3,000 faith
community members to attend the event and are calling
for city officials to publicly support and use
their leadership to execute “The Oakland
Strategy” of connecting young people most
at risk for gun violence to lifelines for opportunity.
Reverend George Cummings, co-chair
of OCO, mapped out the plan OCO will be taking
for the May 22 agenda.
“We want to ensure
that all coalition members understand what the
tasks are, what we are asking the policy makers
who have the authority and power to make decisions
act on, and how we address the issues of crime
and safety in the city of Oakland,” said
Cummings.
“The action is designed to develop
a partnership between churches, schools and civic
organizations and the city administration around
addressing the issue of public safety.
“We
are here to organize our leaders and train them
for the action next week. We want to make sure
they understand what we need to make the meeting
successful. We are expecting over 3,000 people.
We want to walk through the process to make sure
we have bodies. When you build political power
around any particular issue in any city, politicians
who have decision-making authority take notice,” he
said.
“The action plan is to address the
terrible situation of violence in the city. We
are clear about where the problems are focused
and the bottom line is that we would like the city
to address those issues,” said Cummings.
Pastors of Oakland, Oakland Coalition of Congregations,
Baptist Ministers Union, Bay Cities Baptist Ministers
Union and the Interfaith Ministerial Alliance plan
to participate in the upcoming event.
For more
information, call OCO at (510) 639-1444.
