The Community Economic Justice (CEJ) practice is committed to developing innovative, long-term economic development solutions to address the systemic problems confronting the low-income community. Since 1995, Law Center staff and students have provided legal services to community-based organizations in the East Bay, including technical assistance related to microenterprise start-up, job creation, nonprofit management, housing development, and neighborhood preservation. Organization to which the Law Center has provided significant assistance and leadership include: People’s Community Partnership Federal Credit Union; Bay Area Construction Sector Intervention Collaborative; Regional Non-Profit Pro Bono Initiative; and, HOPE Enterprises. CEJ helped lead the community organizing and legal campaign at Pacific Renaissance Plaza in Oakland’s Chinatown, as a result of which the homes of more than 50 mostly elderly, mostly non-English speaking low-income people were saved.

Current CEJ projects include a focus on equitable practices with respect to large-scale housing and commercial developments in Oakland. CEJ is working closely with community groups to ensure that low-income residents benefit from the economic growth taking place in Oakland, from the implementation and enforcement of living wage and local hiring preferences to the provision of affordable housing and local business opportunities.

A current project that CEJ has been incubating for the Train Station Partnership, a collaboration of community and labor organizations, is the redevelopment of the historic 16th and Wood Train Station to transform it into a community institution serving the needs of West Oakland’s residents, showcase the African American and labor organizing history, provide financial and employment services, and harness the sustainability movement to directly benefit the community.

Children’s Health Justice Policy Advocacy Project

A central tenet of the Law Center’s work is that increasing clients’ access to medical care and food—by advocating for them around legal issues related to housing, income, and immigration—will improve their health. The collaboration with Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland (The East Bay Medical-Legal Partnership) is directed toward this goal of increasing access. Another tenet of the work is to engage in policy change advocacy so that the underlying conditions that lead to lack of access to critical resources for low-income people can be improved. With the Children’s Health Justice Policy Advocacy Project, the Law Center is building on its collaboration with Children’s Hospital to include the Alameda County Public Health Department, and other partners. The goal of the Project is to change local policies affecting the socio-economic determinants of health. The strategy focuses on developing the policy change skills of impacted families, medical providers, and other human service professionals. They have the deepest knowledge of the connection between poverty and poor health in children.

This community-wide effort to address the socio-economic roots of children’s ill-health through policy changes is being driven by impacted community members. It addresses the main socio-economic roots of ill-health: equal access to quality and affordable health care, education, housing, and sustainable employment opportunities. This is the “four-legged stool” of a healthy community infrastructure.

The objectives and activities of the project are to:

1. Create a policy advocacy team—the “Children’s PACT” (Policy Advocacy Coordination Team),
2. Conduct a needs assessment to develop policy change priorities—the “Children’s Needs Assessment,”
3. Develop leadership skills of the policy advocates—the “Children’s Health Advocates,”
4. Frame a public message—the “Children’s Health Bill of Rights,” and
5. Put policy advocacy into action—the “Children’s Health Policy Change Campaign.”