Lincoln Program Spotlight: West Oakland Initiative Program Spotlight (WOI)

Lincoln WOI Program Spotlight

Ocie M. Parks

West Oakland Initiative, Program Manager

I’m the Program Supervisor of Lincoln’s West Oakland Initiative (WOI) that works with students, parents, and West Oakland schools to support Social Emotional Learning and literacy gaps. At school, our focus is empowering youth, increasing literacy and parent involvement. We also built in an at-home component to support parents with home structure.

With a main focus in West Oakland, we have partnered with OUSD to identify students struggling with reading, behaviors, and/or trauma. Through parent engagement and one on one sessions with scholars, we work to build relationships and develop trust with the student and family. Only then can we find out the family’s strengths and needs, and work together to set goals to work towards. Academic Mentors work one-on-one with students in the classroom with literacy tutoring and other supports they might need. School Engagement Coaches work directly with parents, helping them build routines and structure in the home.

Family engagement is about supporting parents and helping them advocate for their kids. It’s hard for parents to effectively support their kids when they’re still healing from their own past trauma. Our Parent Empowerment Series and Retreat helps parents learn self-care for healing, skills for dealing with stress, and how to build strong relationships with their children.

We want to see all of our students thrive and experience opportunities outside of Oakland. That’s why we go on college tours every year. These experiences help them to see that school doesn’t stop after 12th grade and empowers them to think forward and towards the future. We want them to understand that even if their parents didn’t make it past a certain level, that they can be the one to start a new legacy and cancel out generational cycles.

Not being able to see our students every day at school during the pandemic has been hard, and we have had to change the way we support them and their families. Our staff have been going above and beyond calling parents to provide support, and video-calling with students to stay connected.

As I reflect on my time here at Lincoln, there is one family that I’ve worked with who have had struggles with attendance, which reflected in the scholars' academics. Although the mother was very involved with her kids, they weren’t showing up to school until 10 am, which meant they often missed reading and math. After spending time with her, she felt trust and was comfortable sharing that the family slept together, which made it hard for the kids to go to bed and wake up on-time. We gave her tools to use at home, including getting her children on a regular schedule and bedtime, which allowed her to have some time to herself at night. After that, we were able to give her even more supports when she opened up about concerns she had about one of her children developing at a slower rate. Our goal at WOI is to support and empower parents and kids, and be culturally relevant in the process. Seeing the successes of our students and families are the best part of the work we do.