Creating Safer Schools through the Meeting Girls Needs at Oakland Unified School District (OUSD)

Based on the key findings from Valuing Girls’ Voices: Lived Experiences of Girls of Color in OUSD (2016), AFG, African American Female Excellence (AAFE) (formally the OUSD Initaitive for African American Girls and Young Women Achievement), Equal Rights Advocates, the Respect Institute, MISSSEY, Girls Inc. of Alameda County, Community Works, the Mentoring Center, the Title IX Collaborative Working Group, community leaders, school champions, and girls themselves successfully advocated for the incorporation of a gender and gender identity lens in the OUSD Equity Policy and co-cradted OUSD’s Modified Sexual Harassment Policy (formally passed in 2017) to incorporate appropriate preventative, restorative, and responsive strategies to address sexual harassment and repair the harm it causes to students. AFG and our partners also contributed to the implementation guidelines to be used by administrators and school staff to implement the Modified Sexual Harassment policy in their schools.

From 2017-2021, AFG and our members continued to work closely with OUSD school administration including the OUSD Office of Equity and stakeholder working groups including the Girls Collaborative and the Girls Task Force, to continue to strategize on how best to meet the needs of girls and gender expansive youth, especially those of color attending OUSD schools.

For more information about the Meeting Girls Needs Initiative at Oakland, please refer reach out to AFG at info@alliance4girls.org.