Activism

Cat Brooks Awarded Unrestricted $250,000 Grant for 3 Years

Published

3 years ago

February 10, 2022

Cat Brooks

The Rosenberg Foundation announced that they have awarded $250,000 unrestricted grants to nine bold movement leaders who have been selected as Leading Edge fellows for the next three years. With support from the Leading Edge Fund, the fellows will work to end and replace the incarceration and criminalization of young people of color, build economic hubs led by and for transgender people, create alternatives to police response, end child poverty, and much more.

Cat Brooks, activist, actress, playwright and poet said, “I do this work side by side with some of the most passionate, committed, fierce, smart and principled people on the planet: The Anti Police-Terror Project Team. While I am the recipient of this honor, it really belongs to them and more importantly to the families who are survivors of state violence and channel their pain into fighting for justice. These funds will be used to build alternatives to public safety that don’t rely on the violence of the carceral state but rather invest in our humanity and prevention strategies that stop “crime” from happening in the first place, to develop art pieces that tell our stories for our eyes, ears and souls, to interrogate interrupting the daily trauma inflicted on our communities by white supremacy, lingering racism. I’m honored and humbled and grateful to so many Oaklanders for leaning hard into true progressive values and the legacy of resistance that is The Town.”

The 2022 to 2024 formation of Leading Edge Fund Fellows are:

Aria Sa’id aims to end the economic oppression and marginalization of transgender people by creating thriving economic hubs led by and for transgender people of color.
Brandon Anderson is disrupting the 911 system and ending aggressive police response by building an alternative dispatching system that meets people’s needs during acute crises without ever involving police.
Cat Brooks is revolutionizing public safety in cities across the state by engaging visual arts, theater and organizing to imagine and implement abolitionist solutions to effectively respond to community crises with care — not a badge and a gun.
Chaney Turner is working to win tax and policy changes so people in the communities most harmed by the drug war can enter the cannabis economy and realize equity and economic mobility by increasing reinvestment in those communities.
Christina “Krea” Gomez’s vision is replacing punitive and dehumanizing systems with a comprehensive new architecture that provides young people with the support and resources they need to address their trauma, heal and thrive.
Jackie Byers is inspiring radical change through grassroots organizing, telling the story of Black organizing that led to historic victories and a national reckoning around the role of police in schools and communities.
Malkia Devich Cyril is creating a Radical Loss Movement, mobilizing California’s bereaved Black, Indigenous, Latinx and other communities of color to build a radical practice of grief that can fuel transformative grievance and governance, replacing racialized policies and practices that punish and disenfranchise BIPOC grief.
Nicole Lee is working to end youth incarceration in Alameda County and pass that torch to the next generation of activists who are reimagining an entirely new youth justice system across California
Shimica Gaskins vision is to close the racial wealth gap and create economic mobility for California’s most vulnerable children by piloting the baby bond program.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

Biden to Nominate Black Woman to Supreme Court

Don't Miss

IN MEMORIAM: Former Miss USA Cheslie Kryst, 30

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of May 14 – 20, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 14 – 20, 2025

Published

2 hours ago

May 16, 2025

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

The Best Advice for Raising Children: Discipline That Makes Sense

In his book Developing Positive Self Images and Discipline in Black Children, Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu suggests that primary aims for socializing Black children should be: establishing goals related to God and the church; familiarizing children with religious texts like the Bible or Quran; educating them of Black culture like Khemetic (Egyptian) Civilization; enlightening them about Black leaders like Malcolm X and Sojourner Truth; and teaching them to strive to be employers, not employees.

Published

3 days ago

May 13, 2025

Oakland Post

Headshot of Dr. William A. Thomas. Photo courtesy of Dr. William A. Thomas.

By William A. Thomas, Ph.D.

In many African societies, the primary aim of socialization is to raise children to be socially responsible and eventually provide economic support to their parents and extended families. Ghanaian philosopher Kwame Gyekye taught that children are raised to be respectful of the wishes of their parents and extended adult family members.

In his book Developing Positive Self Images and Discipline in Black Children, Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu suggests that primary aims for socializing Black children should be: establishing goals related to God and the church; familiarizing children with religious texts like the Bible or Quran; educating them of Black culture like Khemetic (Egyptian) Civilization; enlightening them about Black leaders like Malcolm X and Sojourner Truth; and teaching them to strive to be employers, not employees.

Effective disciplinary strategies appropriate to a child’s age and development teach them to regulate their behavior; keep them from harm; enhance their cognitive, social, and emotional executive functioning skills; and reinforce the behavioral patterns taught by their parents and caregivers.

Below are some specific guidelines for disciplining children.

Listen to what children are talking about with interest and show them you understand their feelings. Remember, children mirror and learn about their emotional selves by hearing their feelings reflected back to them. Staying on target also means avoiding labels. When children fail to do what is expected, discussing it is helpful rather than saying how stubborn, lazy, dumb, or bad they are. By the same token, more positive labels can be helpful.

Dependability is another essential component of the discipline process. When parents are dependable, their children learn what to expect and are helped to feel secure. When parents are consistent, children learn to trust, that is, predict their parents’ behaviors with certainty. A child thinks, “When I spill something, I will always be asked to wipe it up.” A child thinks, “If I use foul language, I will always be corrected.” A child thinks, “If I take something that doesn’t belong to me, I will always have to give it back.” The ability to predict with certainty leads children to rely on their parents and the village/community in which they live. Children feel safe when they know what to expect.

Conclusions

It takes a village/community to raise the divine gift that is the Black child. Parents look to therapists for guidance concerning a variety of parenting issues, including discipline. Keep in mind that evidence suggests that corporal punishment is both ineffective in the long term and associated with cognitive and mental health disorders. When parents want guidance about the use of spanking, a child therapist can explore parental feelings, help them better define the goals of discipline, and offer specific behavior management strategies. In addition to providing appropriate education to families, the Bay Area Association of Black Psychologists (Bay ABPsi) can refer them to community resources, like parenting groups and classes.

About the Author

Dr. Thomas is a licensed clinical psychologist with a private practice in the SF/Oakland Bay Area and Beaumont. He is a member of Bay ABPsi, a healing resource committed to providing the Post Newspaper readership with monthly discussions about critical issues in Black Mental Health. Readers are welcome to join us at our monthly chapter meetings every 3^rd Saturday via Zoom and contact us at bayareaabpsi@gmail.com.