City Government

Programs Halted at West Oakland Youth Center

Published

9 years ago

February 10, 2017

Ongoing programing at the West Oakland Youth Center, an island of services for some of the city’s young people most in need of job training and support, have been disrupted as the city so far has failed to renew the contract that allows the center to operate.

The center’s director and advisory group members say they want the city to expedite the reopening of the center, which has been closed since Jan. 6, laying off staff and young people who work at the site.

They are calling for the city to be more transparent in its dealing with the center, located at 3233 Market St.

“You can’t be letting the safety net be ripped apart, and you don’t even tell anybody,” said Jumoke Hinton Hodge, a member of the center’s advisory group and the Board of Education.

“The language of the city is temporary closure, but the center has been five weeks without a contract and no communication,” said Liz Derias-Tyehimba, the center’s director.

Neither the Office of the Mayor or the City Administrator responded to the Post’s questions.

In an email statement to the Post, West Oakland City Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney said these facts are not correct.

“The center is not closed,” she said.

On Wednesday at 3 p.m.,
a sign center at the West
Oakland Youth Center said
the center was open. But
the building was closed

However, a visit to the center yesterday at 3 p.m. revealed a big sign on the front that said, “We are open!” But the building was closed.

Councilmember McElhaney said the decision to close the center was made by its director.

“At the time of that decision, the city and the fiscal agent had been working to clarify and resolve several issues of operational and management concern that must be addressed. This resulted in a delay in the execution of the contract,” said McElhaney.

The issue is that this is the third time the city has had a lapse in procuring the contact in the last four years, said Derias-Tyehimba.

But there is no reason that the concerns are not worked out before the contract is allowed to expire, she said. There is no reason that the center should be closed, and youth should not be going without the programs that they desperately need.

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

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1 day ago

July 5, 2026

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Inaugural Juneteenth Awards Ceremony Celebrates the Fillmore’s Black History, Leadership and Resilience

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

Published

1 week ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, Pastor Emeritus of Third Baptist Church, SF Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo by Linda Parker Pennington.

By Linda Parker Pennington

The Fillmore Community Ambassadors held its first annual Juneteenth Wesley Johnson White Horse Awards ceremony on June 19 inside the newly reopened Fillmore Heritage Center.

The event featured awards for former San Francisco mayors London Breed and Willie Brown, along with Third Baptist Church Pastor Emeritus, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown.

The Koret Heritage lobby at the newly reopened center at 1330 Fillmore St. held a standing-room-only, culturally diverse and multi-generational audience while the art gallery featured photos of Fillmore community members in action, red Japanese lanterns, art and calligraphy, and Chinese artwork, giving the space a multicultural feel.

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood acknowledged that “the Fillmore community has had a difficult history. Thanks to Rev. Amos Brown’s continuous focus on accountability and resistance, you hold us accountable and continue to inspire us.”

Mahmoud is referring to the Fillmore’s Japanese residents who were forced from their homes and sent to concentration camps during World War II. Black people occupied those homes until the return of their Japanese neighbors and then gave them back, while homes that had been unoccupied were lost. The presence of the Asian community on Juneteenth is a testament to that shared history.

In receiving his honor, Amos Brown elicited a powerful spontaneous call-and-response, where members of San Francisco’s many Black churches proudly shouted out the names: “Bethel AME! Providence Baptist! Jones Memorial! Glide!”

Awards program Master of Ceremonies Shawn Richards of Brothers Against Guns warmly introduced Breed, highlighting her many accomplishments, particularly on “March 16, 2020, when she became the first mayor to shut down a major U.S. city due to COVID-19, saving thousands of lives.”

The audience was captivated by Breed’s emotional speech touching on past traumas, present conditions, and future hopes for the neighborhood where she grew up.

She recalled another trauma of the neighborhood during the City’s redevelopment era in the 1960s, where Black residents were forced to move with a promise of being able to return that was largely unfulfilled.

“We remember when this land was just a field because they bulldozed hundreds of Victorian homes that Black people owned. They built the Fillmore Center, where most Black people can’t afford to live or start their own business. But we are still here.”