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Gameheads Equips Youth to Get Ahead of the Games of Life

“We teach the art of systems structures of video games and more importantly, we show them how to understand the codes and think of video games as creators,” Packwood.

Published

5 years ago

February 4, 2021

Kiki

Damon Packwood, Founder and Executive Director, Gameheads

Raymond Graham (Board Member & Coding Instructor at Unity Technologies) teaches our students how to code.

Damon Packwood wants Black youth to get ahead and achieve by teaching them to pursue computer-based technology. In Oakland, he created a video game training program called Gameheads.

The Black Video Game Scholars Program is a first-of-its-kind effort to train youth how to understand the video game industry so they can navigate the interactive entertainment and mixed media industries.

Gameheads executive director Packwood reflects back to 2016 when he and other tech geniuses were invited to then-Pres. Brack Obama’s White House. He says the responses to the video game scholars’ program has been greater than he expected.

“We teach the art of systems structures of video games and more importantly, we show them how to understand the codes and think of video games as creators,” Packwood.

Once they shift their level of thinking beyond and behind the screens, the Gameheads students are incrementally “tricked into learning software mid-level technology skills of programs like Unity, Unreal Engine, Miro, Adobe, Microsoft Office suite and others, and with mastery of these processes they are able to migrate through the market of careers and entrepreneurial opportunities,” says Packwood.

Packwood points to the successes of many graduates of Gameheads, such as Doran Williams. A college senior, Doran is working on his own video game and is entertaining offers to be a production intern from top companies like Jam City, Sledgehammer Games/Activision and other Fortune 500 companies.

When the Black Video Game Scholars began, they envisioned a gradual program that would eventually attract some interest. Now, Packwood said, “our social media accounts are on fire.”

“Gameheads overall has exceeded our expectations because more than 90% of our Oakland youth scholars are transitioning into colleges and have gained entrance into the best video game programs taught at USC, UC Santa Cruz and NYU,” said Packwood. “USC, which is heralded as the leader, only admits 17 students a year. We have three Gameheads scholars in that program.”

Students will be given classes in game design, project management and animation. There will also be access to events focusing on Black tech creators, entrepreneurs and video game developers. Students will also meet Black game design students from video game programs at top universities around the U.S.

Packwood’s program now has become such a “must enroll” option that even though his applications process is open to any student between the ages of 15 and 25, the demand is so great that he is focusing on those 15 to 20.

The national frenzy around the Wall Street jitters over the GameStop hedge fund has partially occurred because of the tactics and skills of youthful “gamesters.” They now have caused billionaires to tremble because they are cracking the codes that govern liquidity regulations in the marketplace. “The cat is now out of the bag and this next generation of gameheads will help shape and influence our futures,” said Packwood.

Black people are only 2% of the soon to be $525 billion video game industry and the Oakland Bay Area is one of the centers of this industry’s emergence into our culture by challenging the music and entertainment industry’s market share.

“Ironically, the video game industry has provided a wake-up call by sparking youth to enter the Wall Street investment world and revealing the visibility of how to not just stick it to some rich market-makers but how to get on a wealth track through stock purchases.”

“Our data has proven that 98% of students graduate from high school and we expect that more than 90% of college grads will be employed within a year.

“We want the Pastors of Oakland to help us encourage our youth to come back and give back to their communities by using their knowledge to solve and remedy social and environmental problems,” Packwood said.

“Progress will arrive when these students learn that a video game is a system designed with rules.”

“They can master those rules and start thinking like the person who created the game and then apply those skills to teach people how to navigate things like the housing and police community relations.”

Students who are accepted and participate in the program are expected to dedicate six hours per week to the program during the school year. During the summer months, they will be expected to dedicate 24 hours per week.

Kiki

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

3 days ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

4 days ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

6 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke