Latino Men Boys Oakland Project Report - Full Version

LATINO MEN AND BOYS
OAKLAND PROJECT
FINAL REPORT
Prepared by:
Paul Flores Cause Data Collective The Unity Council of Oakland
September 2010
Prcis: The Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Oakland, California is a dynamic city marked by cultural and racial diversity. Currently Latinos make up one of the largest groups in Oakland, and are the fastest-growing demographic. Although there is a general increased awareness of Oakland's Latinos, there has been little systematic research about this important segment of the City's population. By focusing on a particular subset of the Latino population (males between the ages six and twenty-five), this report seeks to shed light on one of the most vulnerable groups within Oakland. Young Latino males in Oakland are often associated with increased violence, low educational outcomes, and limited employment opportunities. This qualitative report describes the work and findings of the Oakland Unity Council's Latino Men and Boys (LMB) Project, which has been systematically engaging Latino community members and stakeholders to better understand the underlying issues facing young Latino males, beyond the general associations noted above. Through a multifaceted investigation of the issues and a grounded participatory research process, the LMB project has generated a practical set of recommendations for policies, programs, and practices that will contribute to the betterment and empowerment of young Latino males, along with that of the general Latino population and the City of Oakland as a whole. This document contains an executive summary of the project findings, followed by a full report on the project as of September 2010.
The Latino Men and Boys - Oakland research project has been a collaboration directed by the Unity Council of Oakland, with lead consultant Paul Flores and research consultants Julia Bernd, Rafael Diaz, Juan Carlos Guerrero, Jorge Snchez, and Kurt Schroeder of Cause Data Collective.
Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project
Report: September 2010
Contents of the LMB - Oakland Report 8/10

Executive Summary of Findings Full Report
1. Introduction to the LMB Research Project 1.1 Scope of the Project 1.2 Overview of Methodology 1.3 Mapping the Demographic Landscape of Oakland 2. Detailed Description of Methods 2.1 Phase I: Interviews with Community Leaders 2.2 Phase II: Interviews with Service Providers 2.3 Phase III: Community Focus Group Discussions 2.4 Phase IV: Meetings with LMB Advisory Board and Key Stakeholders 3. Findings I: Overview of Salient Points and Emergent Themes 3.1 Emergent Themes from Key Informant Interviews 3.2 Emergent Themes from Focus Group Discussions 4. Findings II: Detailed Analysis of Focus Areas 4.1 School Attendance 4.2 Violence Prevention 4.3 Health Homes 4.4 Obesity Prevention 4.5 Employment 5. Concluding Remarks and Next Steps Appendix I: Recommendations for Action Appendix II: Data-Gathering Instruments Appendix III: Focus Group Demographics Appendix IV: Further Reading p. 3 p. 6 p. 6 p. 7 p. 8 p. 11 p. 12 p. 13 p. 15 p. 16 p. 18 p. 21 p. 27 p. 31 p. 36 p. 39 p. 42 Separate Document, Attached Separate Document, Available on Request Separate Document, Available on Request Separate Document, Available on Request
LATINO MEN AND BOYS - OAKLAND PROJECT

~ EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF FINDINGS ~
Introduction to the LMB Research Project
The Latino Men and Boys (LMB) project has been an investigation into disparities facing Latino males in Oakland ages six through twenty-five in the areas of health, education, employment, and violence. It has been conducted by The Unity Council of Oakland with support from The California Endowment, as part of TCE's larger goal of improving the lives of Boys and Men of Color (BMoC) in California. The LMB project has been a participatory research initiative, engaging members of Oakland's Latino community through interviews and focus group discussions to systematically assess how Oaklands systems and current policies intersect with the behavior and subjective experiences of young Latino males in Oakland. The project group has developed an action plan to improve outcomes in the four focus areas covered by the BMoC initiative, School Attendance, Violence Prevention, Health Homes, and Obesity Prevention, as well as the cross-cutting category of Employment.
Summary of Findings and Analysis in Focus Areas

Focus Area A: School Attendance
Student Engagement and Relevant Curricula: Key informants believe Oakland schools are not prepared to deal with the demographic shift toward more Latino students, in terms of culturally-literate staff and relevant curricula. While Latino enrollment in Oakland Unified School District has increased from 25% to 37% over the last ten years, Latino teaching staff have increased only from 10% to 11%.1 Young Latinos often disconnect from an educational system whose content does not reflect their experiences. In 200708, only 38% of Latino males who graduated from OUSD met CSU and UC entrance requirements Dropout Rates and Discipline Policies: Dropout is an OUSD-wide problem, but many informants linked it to culturally-specific issues of engagement for certain groups. However, they also advocated individual attention to students with attendance problems. OUSD is currently shifting to a restorative justice model of discipline, replacing past zero-tolerance policies informants believe did more harm than good. Student Tracking and Interpersonal Connections: Informants are concerned that larger public schools do not have the capacity to track each student's progress and needs. They also raised issues related to a lack of positive, linguistically- and culturally-appropriate communication between teachers and other school staff, students, parents, and communities. Parents often don't know what's going on, and school staff may be unreceptive to them, especially if the parents are not English-fluent. Summary of Preliminary Recommendations: The LMB project team suggests that the Oakland school system should develop student tracking systems, partner with community-based organizations to provide guidance for youth at risk, make curricula more engaging for Latino students, develop the cultural competence of school staff, involve and empower Latino parents, focus on keeping youth physically present at the schools and improving their relationships with staff, and provide better opportunities for immigrants to connect with education.
Focus Area B: Violence Prevention

1
California Department of Education. Ed-Data data for 1998-99 and 2008-09. http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us
Lack of Attractive Alternatives for Latino Youth: Participants in all phases agreed that gang-related crime impacts most young Latino males in Oakland in some way. Most linked it to young men's needing opportunities for meaningful involvement, in culturally-specific, demographically-targeted, economicallyand physically- accessible, and fun recreational, sports, cultural, volunteering, and academics-related activities with potential role models who have similar backgrounds. Anti-Gang Laws and Police Relations: Informants expressed concern about zero-tolerance anti-gang ordinances that undermine youth by cutting them off from family support networks. Police Department informants described their anti-gang tactics as effective, but other participants believe the OPD overapplies gang enhancements and often harasses young Latino men. All informants stressed the importance of police making connections with communities, and of having more Spanish-speaking officers. Crime Against Immigrants: While most conversations about violence centered on gangs, other concerns were raised. New immigrants are especially vulnerable to violence. Yet immigrants, especially the undocumented, are reluctant to report crimes for fear of deportation. For some participants, the immigrant safety issue was racially framed, as a problem with African-American men; others noted that attacks also come from young Latinos. All agreed that Oakland needs to improve interracial and intraracial relations. Summary of Preliminary Recommendations: The LMB project team suggests that Oakland should increase its focus on pro-social Latino-specific gang intervention and prevention programs, especially family- and community-centric programs, work to improve the relationship between Oakland's police and the local Latino community, review and revise the implementation of gang-enhancement laws, provide opportunities to strengthen interethnic and intraethnic connections, and provide more engaging alternative activities for young Latino males.
Focus Area C: Health Homes

Safe Spaces to Learn About Health: Informants are concerned that young Latino males do not access preventive health services, including school-based health clinics, as much as young Latinas. They said the proportion of Spanish-speaking and/or Latino-culturally-literate service providers is not sufficient, and there are very few Latino men employed by those agencies at all. Providers believe young men need more culturally- and gender-specific, safe spaces to talk about problems and get information about issues like sexually transmitted diseases and depression; this education can be linked to other attractive activities. Mental Health Care Needs: Participants in all phases described widespread mental health issues among Latino males, which may go untreated because of lack of resources, cultural taboos, or because symptoms aren't recognized. Focus group participants also described having had off-putting experiences in the past, where healthcare providers were either unwilling or unable to help them. Access for Immigrants: More outreach is needed to immigrants about available services, including clearly advertising when they are open to the undocumented. Providers and focus group participants said undocumented immigrants have a special need for preventive services and health education, especially about mental health, STD prevention, and how to handle on-the-job injuries; these health services need to be linked with other services such as housing and social opportunities. Summary of Preliminary Recommendations: The LMB project team suggests that Oakland would benefit from programs that actively recruit young Latino males into the health professions, building on programs that actively recruit young Latino males into wellness programs such as those run by existing schoolbased health clinics, from expanding the capacity of those clinics, from developing better outreach programs for parents, and from improving the accessibility of health care for men who have sex with men and for immigrants and other institutionally-disconnected Latinos.
Focus Area D: Obesity Prevention

Safe Spaces for Physical Activity: Participants in all phases stressed that lowering cost and improving the physical and cultural accessibility of sports and other recreational programs is key to improving Latino young men's physical, mental, and social health. Knowledge About Nutrition and Obesity: Health care providers are concerned that Latino men and boys don't receive much information about nutrition and exercise; more proactive outreach is needed. Informants discussed the need for more linguistically- and culturally-appropriate outreach to Latino parents, including peer-to-peer information-sharing and recruitment of Latinos into parenting classes. Access to Healthy Foods: Some key informants believe that availability of healthy groceries tends to be more limited in poorer neighborhoods, where Latinos generally live. There was also some concern about the food served in school cafeterias. Summary of Preliminary Recommendations: The LMB project team recommends expanding Latinospecific as well as multicultural recreational programs, using peer-to-peer outreach networks as a means to educate parents about their children's health needs and educate youth about nutrition, using development policies to increase walkability and availability of fresh produce in Latino neighborhoods, and improving the quality of food in school cafeterias.
Focus Area E: Employment

Job Scarcity: The high unemployment rate in Oakland (17.4% from February-April 20102) is especially problematic for young men of color. Informants were concerned that many jobs-creation programs in Oakland do not focus enough on Latinos. There is a lack of Latinos in management in Oakland, compounded by failure to enforce Oaklands Equal Access to Services Ordinance, which mandates presence of bilingual staff in public contact positions. Job Training and Placement: Key informants said that insufficient education and young people's disconnection from the educational system often present barriers to job placement. They asserted that there need to be better connections between job training and job placement (preferably with a stipend even during training) for those training programs to be attractive and effective for young men of color. Immigrant Labor Force: Participants pointed out that Latino males who did not attend school in the U.S. often end up performing the least desirable work for very low pay. Jobs programs that receive federal money are severely limited in their ability to help the undocumented. Immigrants frequently are not aware of their rights as workers and are reluctant to report mistreatment by employers; Day Laborers' focus group participants are also concerned about discrimination and lack of community connection in Oakland. Summary of Preliminary Recommendations: The LMB project team recommends that Oakland expand existing job-training programs that serve Latino males, focusing on fields where culturally-competent services are especially important, create new Latino-male-specific programs, improve enforcement of Oakland's linguistic access policies, develop alternative economic structures for undocumented immigrants, improve connections with labor rights organizations and vocational training for immigrant workers, and reevaluate how economic development money is spent in Oakland.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local area unemployment statistics data for 2/10, 3/10, and 4/10. http://data.bls.gov
LATINO MEN AND BOYS - OAKLAND PROJECT

~ FULL REPORT ~
1.
1.1
Introduction to the LMB Research Project

Scope of the Project
In July of 2009, the Unity Council of Oakland, with the support of The California Endowment, began an investigation into disparities facing Latino males in Oakland ages six through twenty-five in the areas of health, education, employment, and violence. The focus on Latino men and boys (LMB) is related to The California Endowment's larger goal of improving the lives of Boys and Men of Color in California (BMoC) through a statewide effort to develop a strategy for intervening in practices, systems, and policies that currently impact BMoC in some of California's most impoverished communities. The Latino Men and Boys (LMB) project's assessment and resulting action plan will be coupled with similar work conducted by a Black Men and Boys project in Oakland to form a joint policy platform. The LMB project is a participatory research initiative, engaging members of Oakland's Latino community through interviews and focus group discussions to systematically assess how Oakland's systems and current policies intersect with the behavior and subjective experiences of young Latino males in Oakland. The project has been undertaken with the goal of creating an action plan for Oakland's Latino men and boys ages six through twenty-five to narrow disparities and improve outcomes in the four categories covered by the BMoC initiative, School Attendance, Violence Prevention, Health Homes, and Obesity Prevention, as well as the cross-cutting category of Employment. The overarching goals of the LMB Action Plan will be to: 1) Strengthen local assets; 2) Provide capacity-building support resources; 3) Lay the foundation for mobilizing stakeholders; 4) Create a framework for ongoing learning and exchange. The first section of this report presents an overview of the project and a quantitative sketch of Oakland's Latino community. In 2, we describe the methods the LMB team used to collect data and develop the action plan. The project findings are described in 3, which summarizes the major points that emerged during each phase of the project, and in 4, which gives a detailed analysis regarding how well Oakland's systems and current programs serving Latino men and boys address the community's needs and what issues are not being addressed, organized by the five focus areas of the LMB action plan. Concluding remarks and a description of the project's next steps are contained in 5. A full description of the project group's recommendations for action, based on these findings about current best practices and new ideas, may be found in Appendix I to this document. Appendix II compiles the data-gathering instruments used by the project researchers, Appendix III summarizes the demographic characteristics of the community participants, and Appendix IV contains a bibliography of relevant studies related to Latino male youth.3
3 As the goal of this project is to assess the status of Latino young men in boys in Oakland specifically, works cited in this report generally pertain to Oakland or Alameda County. Appendix III reflects a wider body of work that pertains to the project less directly, but was nonetheless useful in informing the research paradigm.
1.2
Overview of Methodology
The Latino Men and Boys project has been guided by a grounded research strategy conducted in four major phases. Each phase of the investigation was designed to drill further down into the current landscape of Oakland for Latino young men and boys, offer a deeper understanding of the disparities LMB face, and progress toward solutions and recommendations for action. The goal of each stage of data collection has been to provide concrete checks on the information gathered in the previous stage and lay the conceptual groundwork for the next stage, providing a system of internal checks and balances for the research team's analysis and findings. Figure 1 shows how the different phases of the research initiative interacted. After a preliminary phase in which the research team began analyzing available quantitative data about Oakland's Latino men and boys (discussed in 1.3) and making contact with potential participants, primary data collection began in September 2009. In Phase I of the project, the LMB project team began generating a broad picture of Latino young men and boys by interviewing ten community leaders in Oakland whose work impacts LMB at the institutional or systems level. The project identified leaders and directors in social services, the health department, the school board, employment services, and the police department, as well as school principals and elected officials. Discussions with all participants were broad-ranging, but centered around major topic areas of education, violence, health, or employment as appropriate to each interviewee's expertise. Interviews were audio-recorded and later analyzed by the research team. Phase II included interviews with fifteen managers, front-line service providers, and clinicians, some of whom were recommended by the community leaders interviewed in Phase I. Almost all of the Phase II interviewees are Latino and all interact with LMB on a daily basis at the ground level. Qualitative analysis of the Phase I interview data, combined with the quantitative data gathered in the preliminary phase, informed the interview protocols used in Phase II. Analysis of the Phase II interviews allowed the project team to confirm and ground the formal narrative about Oakland's Latino young men and boys researched in Phase I and, most importantly, helped the researchers to drill down to the concrete basics of the community's needs and current assets. At this point the project was able to generate a summary of preliminary findings to share with research partners and to begin the process of generating potential recommendations for action. Phase III of the LMB project involved focus group discussions with community members, many of whom are clients of the service providers interviewed in Phase II. The goals of this phase were to get feedback on findings directly from community stakeholders, to further ground those findings in dialogue with the target community and deepen the research team's understanding of their needs, and to ask for additional recommendations for how systems, practices, and policies in Oakland should be improved. In Phase IV of the research, the project team has been presenting its findings to an LMB Advisory Board made up of community leaders and service providers and conducting meetings with key systems heads in Oakland. These stakeholders are reviewing the project's findings and action plan and helping the project team to prioritize recommendations and evaluate what is needed for their implementation. This phase of the project also involves coordinating with other participants in the Boys and Men of Color Initiative. The LMB research team wishes to express its sincere gratitude to the many individuals who have taken time to contribute to this project.
Preliminary Phase:
Quantitative Data Collection
Phase I:
Connect Statistics to Real-World Knowledge Prepare for Interviews
Identify Specific Areas 7/09 - 8/09 9/09 - 11/09 of Concern Figure 1: The LMB Project Strategy and Timeline
Qualitative Interviews with Community Leaders
Ground Developing Picture of LMB
Phase II:
Qualitative Focus Interviews Group with Key Discussions Service with Establish Providers Framework Community
10/09 - 3/10
Confirm Findings and Analysis
Phase III:
Evaluate Implementability Formulate Concrete Action Plan
Phase IV:
Feedback Meetings with Key Stakeholders
6/10 7/10
for Recommendations
2/10 - 6/10
1.3
Mapping the Demographic Landscape of Oakland
General Demographic Sketch: In 2008, Latinos made up 26.1% of Oakland's population, according to American Communities Survey (ACS) estimates; this amounts to nearly a hundred thousand Latinos living in Oakland.4 As of the 2000 Census, Latinos made up only 21.9% of Oakland's population.5 In that time, the actual number of Latinos living in Oakland has grown by only 7.9% (from 87,467 to 94,350), but the proportion of the population they make up has grown by 19.2% as Oakland's total population shrank slightly.6 The LMB project team believes these numbers represent a substantial change in the face of Oakland over the course of the last decade. Among Oakland's Latino population in 2006-08, the ACS estimates that 46.6% were born in the U.S., 9.1% were naturalized citizens, and 44.3% were non-citizens. Among Latino males specifically, 41.4% were born in the U.S., 9.0% were naturalized citizens, and 49.6% were non-citizens. For both genders, there were several times more native-born Latinos than foreign-born among the population under eighteen years of age, and the opposite was true among those over eighteen.7 According to U.S. Census data from 2000, the zip codes in Oakland with the highest concentrations of Latino residents were 94601 (49.6% Latino), 94621 (41.4% Latino), and 94603 (38.1% Latino).8,9 In 94601, they were the largest ethnic group; in 94621 and 94603, Latinos were a smaller proportion of the population than African-Americans.10 By far the largest proportion of Latinos in Oakland, approximately 31%, lived in the 94601 zip code in 2000; approximately 14% lived in 94621 and 14% in 94603 (no other zip code contained more than 10% of Oakland's Latinos).11
U.S. Census Bureau, American Communities Survey. ACS city profile from 2008 one-year data estimates. Available at: http://factfinder.census.gov 5 U.S. Census Bureau. Summary demographic profile from 2000 Decennial Census 100-percent data. Available at: http://factfinder.census.gov 6 U.S. Census Bureau. Summary Demographic Profile from 2000 Decennial Census 100-percent data and American Communities Survey city profile from 2008 one-year data estimates. 7 U.S. Census Bureau, American Communities Survey. ACS three-year adjusted data estimates for 2006-08. http://factfinder.census.gov 8 U.S. Census Bureau. ZIP code tabulation area report from 2000 Decennial Census 100-percent data. Available at: http://factfinder.census.gov 9 By official neighborhood definitions, 94601 encompasses Fruitvale and some of Melrose, 94603 encompasses most of Elmhurst and part of Brookfield, and 94621 encompasses most of Melrose, the Oakland Airport area, and parts of Brookfield and Elmhurst. (Thomas Guides. 2000. The Thomas Guide 2001 Alameda County Street Guide and Directory. Irvine, CA: Thomas Bros. Maps.) 10 The Census Bureau does not have more recent data on Oakland broken down by zip code, but it should be noted that some of the project's key informants believe the Latino population of Deep East Oakland (including parts of 94621 and 94603) has grown significantly since 2000. 11 U.S. Census Bureau. ZIP code tabulation area report from 2000 Decennial Census 100-percent data. (Percentages are approximate because some mostly-Oakland zip codes include small areas of other cities, most notably Piedmont and Emeryville.)
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LMB in Oakland: Out of that Latino population, this project is focusing on young men and boys. The ACS estimates that there were 15,294 Latino males between the ages of five and twenty-four living in Oakland by 2008; this represents 4.2% of the Oakland population and 34.9% of Oakland's male youth in that age bracket. Those Latino male youth represent 16.8% of Oakland's total Latino population in that year.12 In 2000, there were 17,584 Latino males between five and twenty-four in Oakland, representing 4.4% of the total Oakland population, 31.7% of its male youth, and 20.1% of its total Latino population.13 So while Latino males ages five to twenty-four have remained fairly steady as a proportion of Oakland's Latinos and of its total population, they make up a somewhat greater proportion of the male youth population than they did a decade ago. According to the Alameda County Public Health Department (ACPHD), in 2005, 32.4% of live births in Alameda County were to Latina mothers, which predicts continued growth in proportion of Latinos in the younger sectors of the population.14 ACS found that 70.5% of Latino households were family households, compared to Oakland's average of 51.6% family households. Of those family households, 31.7% were single-parent, compared to 37.7% for all family households in Oakland.15 School District Demographics and Educational Outcomes: In the 2008-09 school year, according to the California Department of Education, Latino youth comprised 37.3% of enrolled Oakland Unified School District students, the largest ethnic group attending Oakland's public schools; ten years ago, the percentage of Latino students was 24.7%.16 In 2008-09, 23.5% of OUSD's students were designated English Learners whose native language was Spanish.17 OUSD statistics indicate that 31% of its students speak Spanish as their primary language at home.18 Educational outcomes for Latinos in Oakland overall do not appear encouraging. The situation may be improving somewhat, as Latinos have had one of the highest average annual growth rates in Academic Performance Index over the period 2003-08, according to OUSD data.19 However, indicators for Latinos are still lower than average; for example, Latinos tend to score lower than the district average on statewide standardized tests. In 2008-09, only 31.2% of Latinos scored as proficient or above on English/Language Arts tests, compared to a district average of 41.5%; for Mathematics, 40.2% of Latino students scored as proficient or above, compared to a district average of 47.5%.20 According to the most recent data, 28.8% of Latino males in Oakland drop out of high school, marginally more than the 27.3% average for Latino males across California but lower than the average of 30.6% for males in OUSD.21 Approximately 30% of the school-age youth not currently enrolled in Oakland schools are Latino, commensurate with their representation in the youth population.22 However, of the more than 70% of Latino males who do graduate high school in Oakland, only 38.3% will graduate with UC/CSU
U.S. Census Bureau, American Communities Survey. ACS three-year adjusted data estimates for 2006-08. U.S. Census Bureau. Decennial Census sample data for 2000. http://factfinder.census.gov 14 Alameda County Public Health Department. Alameda County maternal, child and adolescent health indicators 2007. Oakland, CA: ACPHD. (Available at: http://www.acphd.org/AXBYCZ/Admin/DataReports/mpcah_indicator_chart_2007.pdf) 15 U.S. Census Bureau, American Communities Survey. ACS three-year adjusted data estimates for 2006-08. 16 California Department of Education. Ed-Data data for 1998-99 and 2008-09. http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us 17 California Department of Education. Ed-Data data for 2008-09. http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us 18 Oakland Unified School District. OUSD fast facts. Available at: http://publicportal.ousd.k12.ca.us/199410818193832733/site/default.asp 19 Oakland Unified School District. 2008. Annual Report 2008. Oakland, CA: OUSD. (Available at: http://publicportal.ousd.k12.ca.us/ousd/lib/ousd/_shared/Annual%20Reports/AnnualReport2008English.pdf) 20 California Department of Education. Ed-Data data for 2008-09. 21 California Department of Education. DataQuest data for 2007-08. http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest (Adjusted grade 9-12 4-year derived dropout rate.) 22 Source: OUSD Superintendent Tony Smith.
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requirements fulfilled, limiting their opportunity to enter a four-year university out of high school.23 The 2000 Census found that only 9.7% of Latino males twenty-five or older in Oakland have a bachelor's degree or higher.24 Economic Indicators: Data from 2006-08 indicate that 22.6% of Latinos in Oakland live below the federal poverty level, higher than the Oakland average of 18.0%. Among Latino males aged six to twentyfour, 26.2% live below poverty level; for Oakland overall, 24.5% of males in that age group live below poverty level.25 Latinos tend to live in higher-poverty-neighborhoods and attend higher-poverty schools than most other demographic groups. In 2003, 28% of Latinos in Alameda County lived in higher-poverty neighborhoods.26 During the 2007-08 school year, 39.2% of Latino K-12 students in Alameda County attended high-poverty schools, far more than the overall proportion of 23.8% in the county-wide population.27 Although Latinos are somewhat more likely to be employed than the average for Oakland (7.7% estimated Latino unemployment in 2006-08, compared to 8.7% citywide28), they tend to earn less (with a median household income of $44,329, compared to $48,596 for all Oakland households in 20060829). The 2003-05 California Health Interview Survey found that Latinos have roughly double the percentage of uninsured individuals than the Alameda County average: 24.2% of Latinos were uninsured, while 11.5% of all county residents were uninsured. Specifically among youth aged ten through twentyfour, Latinos again had the highest rate of uninsured persons in Alameda County, at 35%, as compared to a county-wide total rate of 15%.30 Crime and Violence: Indicators of Latino male involvement in crime in Oakland are mixed, at least as compared with other sectors of the population. According to the Alameda County Probation Department, Latino males represented 21.1% of Juvenile Hall bookings in Alameda County between November 2009 and April 2010 (25.7% of male bookings), significantly lower than their representation in the county's population of male youth.31 Similarly, Latino males under eighteen had a probation rate of 0.23% in 2007, second among ethnic groups but lower than the county average of 0.30% of males under eighteen.32 However, as the proportion of Latino residents in Oakland grows, the number of young Latinos involved in crime will necessarily grow; for instance, the number of Latino juvenile arrests increased by 12.0% between 1999 and 2003.33 In 2006, the 94601 zip code (including the Fruitvale neighborhood) had the
California Department of Education. DataQuest data for 2007-08. U.S. Census Bureau. Decennial Census sample data for 2000. 25 U.S. Census Bureau, American Communities Survey. ACS three-year adjusted data estimates for 2006-08. 26 Alameda County. 2003. Alameda County vital statistics files. (Quoted in: Beyers, Matt, Janet Brown, Sangsook Cho, Alex Desautels, Karie Gaska, Kathryn Horsley, Tony Iton, Tammy Lee, Liz Maker, Jane Martin, Neena Murgai, Katherine Schaff, Sandra Witt, and Sarah Martin Anderson. 2008. Life and Death from Unnatural Causes: Health and social inequity in Alameda County. Oakland, CA: Alameda County Public Health Department. (Available at: http://www.acphd.org/AXBYCZ/Admin/DataReports/00_2008_full_report.pdf)) (Where 'higher poverty' is defined as 30% of people living below the federal poverty line.) 27 California Department of Education. Data for 2007-08. (Quoted in: Beyers et al. 2008.) (Where 'high-poverty' is defined as 60% of students in the free or reduced-price lunch program.) 28 U.S. Census Bureau, American Communities Survey. ACS three-year adjusted data estimates for 2006-08. (Overall unemployment rates in Oakland have gone up drastically since then, as noted in 3.2.5, but more recent statistical breakdowns by ethnicity are not available.) 29 U.S. Census Bureau, American Communities Survey. ACS three-year adjusted data estimates for 2006-08. (In 2008 inflationadjusted dollars.) 30 California Health Interview Survey. Data for 2005. (Quoted in: Beyers et al. 2008.) 31 Alameda County Probation Department. 2009 and 2010. Monthly statistical reports for 11/09, 12/09, 1/10, 2/10, 3/10, and 4/10. Oakland, CA: ACPD. (Most recent available at: http://www.acgov.org/probation/documents.htm) 32 Alameda County Probation Department. Statistics for 2007. (Quoted in: Alameda County Public Health Department. 2010. His Health: Alameda County male health status report 2010. Oakland, CA: ACPHD. (Available at: http://www.acphd.org/AXBYCZ/Admin/DataReports/umhi_male_health_status_2010.pdf)) 33 Huskey & Associates, Inc. 2004. Alameda County, California Comprehensive Study of the Juvenile Justice System. Oakland, CA: Alameda County Probation Department. (Available at: http://www.acgov.org/probation/documents/huskey_report.pdf)
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highest number of Latinos ages ten to fifteen in Oakland and also had the highest number of all juvenile arrests in Oakland.34 According to Alameda County Reentry Network data, the heavily-Latino neighborhoods of 94621 and 94601 housed the highest proportions of Oakland's probationers and parolees as of April 2009 (15.2% and 15.1%, respectively).35 The ACPHD found that between 2001 and 2003, young Latino men were the victims in 17% of the homicides in Alameda County, 52% of which occurred in Oakland (most homicides in Alameda County involving people of any ethnicity occur in Oakland).36 A study of juvenile crime victims in Oakland in 2000 found that in 69.0% of crimes where a Latino youth was the victim, the suspected perpetrator was also Latino.37
2.
2.1
Detailed Description of Methods

Phase I: Interviews with Community Leaders
In the first phase of the project, beginning in September 2009, researchers conducted one-on-one interviews with leaders in Oakland's Latino community and heads of key institutions and agencies serving Latino men and boys, in order to get a high-level picture of the main concerns for LMB and what is being done to address them in Oakland. Participants were asked about their own work with LMB and about their understanding of the issues facing Latino young men and boys in Oakland in general. Trained interviewers used qualitative interview protocols developed by the project team in each of the broad categories of health, violence prevention, employment, and education as they relate to LMB, to engage the community leaders in their areas of expertise. (Key informant interview protocols may be found in A of Appendix II.) Key informants to be interviewed were identified by Unity Council CEO Gilda Gonzales, by The Unity Council staff and board, and through recommendations made by other key informants. Most of the interviews were conducted by Paul Flores, with a few being conducted by Jorge Snchez, and took place in private, mostly in the offices where the informants worked. All interviews were conducted in English. Interviews were recorded with permission on audio devices, and then deleted once relevant information had been incorporated into analysis documents. Key Informants Interviewed in Phase I: I. Education and School Attendance Larissa Adams, Principal, ASCEND Elementary School Romeo Garca, Co-Principal, Arise High School David Kakishiba, (then) President, Oakland Board of Education II. Violence Prevention and Gang Issues Rick Orozco, Captain (Central Oakland), Oakland Police Department Henry Rosales, Executive Director, Spanish-Speaking Citizens' Foundation
Alameda County Probation Department. Data for 2006. (Quoted in: The National Council on Crime and Delinquency. 2008. Latino/Hispanic Youth in Oakland: Data report. Oakland, CA: The Center on Culture, Immigration, and Youth Violence Prevention. (Available at: http://www.yvpcenter.org/media/docs/3911_LatinoDataReport08.pdf)) 35 Urban Strategies Council. Alameda County probationer and parolee populations report from 2009-2010 data. Oakland, CA: USC. (Available at: http://acreentry.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Alameda-Parolee-Probation-Pop-5.7.2010.pdf) 36 Brown, Janet, Julie Garcia, Sonia Jain, and Wendi Wright. 2006. Youth Health and Wellness in Alameda County 2006. Oakland, CA: Alameda County School-Based Health Center Coalition and Alameda County Public Health Department. (Available at: http://www.acphd.org/AXBYCZ/Admin/DataReports/00-youth2006-final.pdf) 37 Le, Thao, and Janelle Chan. 2001. Invisible Victims: Asian/Pacific Islander youth. Oakland, CA: The National Council on Crime and Delinquency.
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III. Health Access, Health Homes, and Obesity Alex Briscoe, (then) Interim Director, Alameda County Public Health Department Ignacio Ferrey, Lead Planner, La Clnica de la Raza IV. Employment Yolanda Baldovinos, Director, Alameda County Social Services Agency Michele Clark, Executive Director, Youth Employment Partnerships Ignacio de la Fuente, Vice Mayor, City of Oakland
2.2
Phase II: Interviews with Service Providers
In Phase II, beginning in October 2009, researchers interviewed key service providers in institutions and organizations serving Latino men and boys in Oakland and nearby cities. Like the Phase I interviewees, these expert providers were asked about their specific work with LMB and about their general assessment of the issues they face. The interview protocols developed for Phase II also included a more detailed set of statistics and findings the research team had gathered about LMB in the four broad topic categories as a probe for interviewees to comment on. (Statistics used in Phase II interviews may be found in B of Appendix II.) For instance, key informants in this phase were asked for their thoughts about the demographic shift in Oakland Unified School District to being 37% Latino,38 about the 29% high-school dropout rate for Latino males in OUSD,39 about high juvenile arrest rates in heavily-Latino zip codes such as 94601,40 or about the tendency described by Phase I interviewees for Latino males not to seek preventive health services. The goal of this phase of the project was to gain a better picture of what is and isn't working on the ground with regard to the programs and policies the research team learned about from Phase I interviewees, to fill in any gaps in the project's developing picture of the community landscape in terms of education, violence, health, and employment, and to provide a solid practical grounding for formulating recommendations. The procedures for identifying and interviewing informants were the same as those used in Phase II, with the exceptions noted by asterisks below. Key Informants Interviewed in Phase II: I. Education and School Attendance Randall Bustamante, English Teacher, Mandela High School* Jeff Duncan-Andrade, English Teacher, Mandela High School/Professor of Raza Studies, San Francisco State University** Mario Rivas, Counselor, The Unity Council/Professor of Psychology, Merritt College Hector Rivera-Lopez, Psychologist, Contra Costa County Department of Health/Mt. Diablo High School II. Violence Prevention and Gang Issues Csar Cruz, Director of Intervention and Support Services, Oakland YMCA*** Peter Ellis, Managing Partner, Community Crime Prevention Associates Fred Mestas, Sergeant (formerly gang unit leader), Oakland Police Department III. Health Access, Health Homes, and Obesity
California Department of Education. Ed-Data data for 2008-09. California Department of Education. DataQuest data for 2007-08. Available at: http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest (Adjusted grade 9-12 4-year derived dropout rate.) 40 Alameda County Probation Department. Data for 2006. (Quoted in: The National Council on Crime and Delinquency 2008.)
39
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Arnold Chavez, Community Health Services Coordinator, Urban Male Health Initiative (Alameda County Public Health Department) Ignacio Ferrey, Lead Planner, La Clnica de la Raza**** Gustavo Madrigal, Director, Young Men in Leadership Program (La Clnica de la Raza)**** Laura Lopez, Executive Director, Street Level Health Project Ani Sharma, Adolescent Services Program Director, Clnica Alta Vista**** Andres Soto, Project Director, Neighborhood House of North Richmond/West County HEAL Collaborative* IV. Employment Marsha Murrington, (then) Executive Vice President, The Unity Council Sofia Navarro, Program Manager for Employment Services, One Stop Career Center/The Unity Council
* Held in a caf. ** Not recorded. *** Recruited based on previous acquaintance with Paul Flores. **** Group interview held at Oakland Technical High School's health clinic.
2.3
Phase III: Community Focus Group Discussions
Phase III of the LMB project began in February 2010. The LMB research team conducted four focus group discussions with six to thirteen people at a time about each of the major issues under investigation, focusing on certain key subpopulations connected with those issues. The purpose of these discussions was to get a more concrete idea of the consequences and contexts of the institutional structures and policies the research team learned about in interviews with community leaders and service providers, including what the major barriers are to success, and to get community feedback on the specific goal areas identified for potential policy recommendations. The research team chose focus group topics and developed protocols to guide the discussions based on the California Endowment's Building Healthy Communities initiative's four major desired results for boys and men of colorimproving school attendance, reducing youth violence, reducing obesity levels, and finding a health homeand on what the project's research indicated were core concerns for Latino men and boys, such as employment. (These focus group protocols may be found in D of Appendix II.) Key informants and community leaders helped project researchers to identify and contact individuals who would be willing to participate in the focus groups. (Descriptions used in recruitment may be found in C of Appendix II.) Each participant received a $25 Visa gift card to thank them for their time. Descriptions of Focus Groups (see Appendix III for detailed demographic breakdowns): Violence Prevention/Gang-Impacted Youth: Researchers Paul Flores and Jorge Snchez met with seven young Latino men aged sixteen to twenty-one who are in or affiliated with Oakland's Latino gangs. All seven currently participate in the YMCA's gang intervention programs (Homies' Empowerment Dinner and/or La Raza History Classes) and are trying (to varying degrees) to disentangle themselves from gang involvement. All were recruited by the program facilitator, Csar Cruz, who also sat in on the discussion. (Conducted in English.)41 Employment/Day Laborers: Jorge and Paul met with eleven Latino men aged twenty-seven to fifty who work or have worked on a day labor basis in Oakland. The men are originally from Mexico or Central America, and all have been living in Oakland for at least a year. All are clients of Street Level
41
See D2 of Appendix II for discussion protocol.
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Health Project and were recruited through programs there by Laura Lopez and Rosendo Aguilar, who also sat in on part of the discussion. (Conducted in Spanish.)42 Health Homes and Obesity Prevention/Parents of Latino Young Men and Boys: Jorge and Paul met with thirteen Latino parents from Oaklandeleven mothers and two fathersbetween the ages of twenty-three and forty-seven who have male children in the target age range. Most of the parents are from Mexico, except one who was born in California. Two are single parents and the rest married or partnered. All were recruited by staff at the De Colores Head Start Center operated by The Unity Council. (Conducted in Spanish.)43 School Attendance/High School Students: Paul and Jorge met with six Latino male students aged fifteen to eighteen who attend Mandela High School (part of the Fremont Federation of High Schools). Most were juniors or seniors, with one ninth-grade participant. Most consider themselves college-bound, at least in orientation. All were recruited by Mandela teachers Randall Bustamante and Jeff Duncan-Andrade; Bustamante also sat in on the discussion. (Conducted in English.)44
The project team also began the process of organizing focus group discussions with young Latino fathers (on Health Homes and School Attendance) and formerly-incarcerated young men (on Violence Prevention), but were unable to develop sufficient recruitment contacts within the time span of the project. Some existing quantitative data on those subpopulations of Oakland's Latino males are incorporated into this report, but a review of the literature confirmed the researchers' impression that the needs of those groups have not received much qualitative study. As part of Phase III, the research group also analyzed qualitative interview and focus group data from the Nuestras Voces research study in Oakland (commissioned by La Clnica de la Raza) regarding another key subpopulation, men who have sex with men. Discussion of Potential Recommendations: As part of the discussion in each focus group, the facilitators elicited feedback on recommendations under development by verbally paraphrasing a few potential recommendations specific to the topics being discussed and asking for participants' comments. Facilitators phrased the recommendations in general terms, in order to stimulate a broad discussion. At the end of each session, participants were asked to individually rate a written version of those recommendations as part of a self-administered exit interview presented in the form of a "Report Card", using a scale of A to F. The Report Card also included an open-ended question soliciting other suggestions. (Written exit interviews, including Report Cards and demographic questionnaires, may be found in E of Appendix II.) When facilitators presented potential recommendations verbally, participants in the focus groups responded fairly positively to most of the ideas, connecting them with points they had made earlier in the discussion. Most of the concerns expressed or suggestions for improvement were about details of implementation, and were very important in helping the project team to refine the recommendations. Many points made by the participants during those discussions are included in the analyses in 3 and 4. In analyzing the written exit interviews and using them to help evaluate the pertinence of the potential recommendations, the research team focused mostly on the responses to the open-ended question; however, it should be noted that these data were not as rich as the responses generated during the group discussions. Analysis of the quantitative responses (in the form of "grades" for proposed recommendations) revealed that participants' responses generally reflected the sentiment of the group's discussion about those recommendations.
42 43
See D4 of Appendix II for discussion protocol. See D3 of Appendix II for discussion protocol. 44 See D1 of Appendix II for discussion protocol.
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Overall, the points community participants made throughout the sessions about their situations and needs provided strong support for the major findings of the Phase I and II interviews with key informants and the direction of the recommendations that were under development.
2.4
Phase IV: Meetings with LMB Advisory Board and Key Stakeholders
Several of the project's key informants were invited to participate in a project Advisory Board based on their experience with the issues at hand, and based on the success of the innovative solutions they are currently implementing or directing that address the disparities faced by Latino men and boys in Oakland. In Board meetings and individual discussions, the LMB Advisory Board has been working with the research team to review, critique, and prioritize the project's recommendations, in order to further finetune them and assess their potential political impact and effectiveness, as well as to develop any further suggestions that emerge from discussions. They are also helping the project team to evaluate what practical and interpersonal prerequisites will be necessary for implementation. Once the project is completed, Advisory Board members will help build support among their constituents and advocate for the recommendations. LMB Community Advisory Board Members: Arnold Chavez, Community Health Services Coordinator, Urban Male Health Initiative45 Csar Cruz, Director of Intervention and Support Services, Oakland YMCA Ignacio de la Fuente, Vice Mayor, City of Oakland46 Ignacio Ferrey, Lead Planner, La Clnica de la Raza Romeo Garca, Co-Principal, Arise High School Gilda Gonzales, Chief Executive Officer, The Unity Council Laura Lopez, Executive Director, Street Level Health Project47 Gustavo Madrigal, Director, Young Men in Leadership Program As part of Phase IV, project researcher Paul Flores and Unity Council CEO Gilda Gonzales have identified key leaders in Oakland's educational, health, social services, and government systems whose work impacts Latino young men and boys (including some key informants from Phase I of the project) and are meeting with them to present the LMB project's findings and preliminary recommendations. The purpose of these meetings is to raise awareness of the needs of Latino young men and boys at a high level, build support for programs and policies that address those needs, get feedback on the action plan under development, and assess how implementation of the recommendations in the plan would fit into or affect current strategies for improving outcomes for males of color in Oakland. Key Stakeholders Engaged in Phase IV: Yolanda Baldovinos, Director, Alameda County Social Services Agency Alex Briscoe, Director, Alameda County Health Care Services Agency Adrian Kirk, Family and Community Office Director, Oakland Unified School District Tony Smith, Superintendent, Oakland Unified School District Andrea Youngdahl, Director, Oakland Department of Human Services
Chavez did not attend the first LMB Advisory Board meeting, but met with project researchers individually to discuss findings. De la Fuente did not attend the first LMB Advisory Board meeting, but met with project researchers individually to discuss findings. 47 Laura Lopez was represented at the first LMB Advisory Board meeting by Rosendo Aguilar, (then) Community Connection and Empowerment Program Coordinator, Street Level Health Project.
46
45
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Flores and Gonzales will be continuing to identify and meet with such key systems leaders and personnel throughout Phase IV of the project. The third element of Phase IV involves coordinating with partners in the Boys and Men of Color Initiative. Key staff at PolicyLink and The California Endowment will be working with the Latino Men and Boys and the Black Men and Boys research teams and advisory boards to review and refine recommendations for action and combine them into a joint Action Plan for boys and young men of color in Oakland. The meetings conducted in Phase IV of the project have not been recorded and analyzed as primary data, but major points are incorporated into the analysis in 4.
3.
3.1
Findings I: Overview of Salient Points and Emergent Themes

Emergent Themes from Key Informant Interviews (Phases I and II)48
A number of central themes emerged in qualitative interviews with key service providers and institutional leaders. For instance, when asked, "What is happening with Latino men and boys in Oakland?" many key informants immediately responded by talking about the prevalence of gangs in the Latino community. Although the best available data is that only 10-14% of Latino youth eighteen and under in Oakland participate in gangs,49 oftentimes gang violence framed much of the discussion with project informants; the consensus among interviewees was that gangs impact many more youth beyond the ratified gang members. They agreed that gangs are a significant part of the social fabric of Oakland; some expressed concern that zero-tolerance anti-gang policies are having a disproportionate effect on young Latino men, many of whom find themselves connected at least peripherally with gangs whether they want to be or not. Gang prevention funding is a major problem; Oakland's Measure Y was cited by several informants as the only likely possibility for generating needed support and funding for gang-impacted youth. (Though there was some disagreement among participants over whether a reasonable proportion of Measure Y funding is currently specifically directed toward Latinos and mitigating the effect of Latino gangs.) A close second in frequency of mention was the Latino male high-school dropout rate, which is currently 29% in Oakland Unified School District.50 In short, many informants' perception of Latino young men and boys in Oakland is consistent with the stereotype of a gang-affiliated high-school dropout. However, this is not the reality for the majority of young Latinos in Oakland, over 70% of whom graduate high school. Beyond gangs and the high dropout rate, LMB key informants blamed the (perceived or real) problems of Latino men and boys in Oakland on several agents and factors; ones that were most frequently mentioned included current school curricula, generally unresponsive institutions and systems, social and economic stresses on family networks, the perpetuation of negative images of Latino males in the media, and the dearth of organized pro-social recreational activities for Latino youth in Oakland.
48
Themes that emerged from these two phases are being discussed together because the data showed strong agreement between participants in the two phases. (Any disagreements occurring in the Phase I and II LMB data have tended to be between informants working in different areas, rather than between informants working at different levels in the community.) 49 WestEd/California Healthy Kids Survey. CHKS data for 2007. http://www.wested.org/cs/chks/print/docs/chks_bsearch.html 50 California Department of Education. DataQuest data for 2007-08. (Adjusted grade 9-12 4-year derived dropout rate.)
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Lack of access to meaningful, stable employment for Latino males in Oakland was also frequently raised; nearly all key informants mentioned it at least in passing, whatever their own area of endeavor. Sometimes the nature and source of the employment problem was a point of contention; one key informant asked that the tape recorder be shut off so they could candidly discuss the hiring practices of one of Oakland's public institutions. Several informants said that prioritization of recruiting and hiring Latinos results from the lack of Latinos in positions with recruiting and hiring authority, such as management, HR, executive, and elected positions. The perception is that despite the growing proportion of Latino residents in Oakland, most city jobs with benefits are filled by African-Americans and whites, which fuels a competitive distrust between Latinos and African-Americans. According to project interviewees, this is compounded by a failure to enforce Oakland's Equal Access to Services Ordinance, which is meant to ensure translation of key documents and the presence of bilingual staff in public contact positions. While California's Proposition 209 precludes explicit ethnically-targeted hiring, the necessity of linguistic access should open up many possibilities for hiring Spanish speakers. Interethnic competition for city jobs and the inertia in social service structures is seen as part of a larger struggle for scarce resources as Oakland adapts to its shifting demographics; several key informants stressed the need to build coalitions between ethnic groups to try to overcome this attitude of conflict. There is an overwhelming awareness among Phase I and II informants of the growth in the Latino population of Oakland. These demographic shifts are being most profoundly felt in systems such as education (OUSD students are 37.3% Latino51) and health. Informants noted time and again that current systems do not have the capacity to meet the necessary requirements or that staff cannot adequately serve this growing population. Specifically, several of our key informants emphasized the immediate need to hire more Latino/Spanish-speaking teachers and education staff, and to hire more Latino/Spanishspeaking health care providers to stem the growing health disparities for LMB in Oakland. In addition to making services more accessible for Latinos and providing job openings, this offers opportunities for young Latino men to be leaders and agents of change within their communities. Another issue that came up in discussions across domains is the overall lack of positive male support for young Latinos in Oakland, which is having a detrimental affect on their health outcomes and their ability to take advantage of opportunities. There is very little in the way of support and services for Latino fathers to engage in positive activities with their children; informants believe institutions and agencies need to find more ways to include fathers in family services. The perception of some interviewees was that many Latino fathers are present in the home, but not active in the young men's lives. Mothers tend to play the key role for guidance, motivation and inspiration; informants said they are also targeted for more services in health, education, and employment. There was a general belief among nearly all of the key informants that, in addition to (or as a substitute for) positive male support within the family, Latino boys and young men need to see more people in institutions that they can relate to, men who have had similar experiences. They have found that cultural specificity and gender specificity are important in making young men feel safe and comfortable accessing services and joining social enhancement programs where they may feel vulnerable. Several key informants have pointed out that involvement with such programs can be perceived as failure to live up to norms of masculinity in Oakland's Latino community, where toughness and respect on the street are prized and book-smarts are devalued. (And indeed, some programs explicitly try to counteract that outlook.) The gang lifestyle is the epitome of those values of normative masculinity, and some interviewees worry that gangs are becoming increasingly central to Latino male identity in Oakland, especially in the hardscrabble barrios of the Fruitvale and East Oakland. Without the creation of organized, supportive, and sustainable systems and outlets for Latino boys and young men to pursue the higher values in life, the LMB project team believes it is easy to understand why gang culture is attractive to them.
51
California Department of Education. Ed-Data data for 2008-09.
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Relatedly, some key informants noted that self-betterment through higher education or creative expression may be viewed with suspicion in the Latino community. It may be seen as being less important than getting a regular job (e.g. in construction) or starting a family, or may even be seen as a betrayal of Latino culture in favor of pursuing lo gabacho or white ways. Deciding to pursue a hobby or play a sport that is not traditional for Latinos (as soccer is), or deciding to study science and mathin fact, deciding to pursue academics at allcan be perceived as going against the grain of community culture. This fits with the experiences of project researchers, who, as institutionally-successful Latinos, have experienced a strong pull within the Latino community from a tradition of conformity that views such success as a threat to community cohesion and so isolates and alienates ambitious students, artists, and individuals. (These limitations are present whether mothers, fathers, and young people are conscious of them or not.) LMB project researchers and key informants are concerned that these cultural considerations are undermining success ratios for Latino males who want to pursue higher educationor who simply want to do something different than what they see happening immediately around them. Where race has come up in discussions with interviewees (and with community partners also involved with the California Endowment's BMoC Initiative) about improving outcomes for Oakland's boys and men of color, it has generally been in the context of framing disparities facing boys and men of color in relationship to structural racism, including institutional policies and practices that systematically discriminate against Latino and African-American youth (such as zero-tolerance policies that result in disproportionate incarceration rates for males of color, or the fact that a high proportion of males of color attend impoverished, underresourced schools). However, while the LMB researchers believe that addressing structural racism is crucial to eliminating disparities, race itself may also be a central consideration. Though the particular cultural factors related to the Latino community mentioned above rarely came up directly in interviews, they were referred to obliquely a number of times, and many informants said quite emphatically that understanding cultural nuances generallyand dealing with them respectfullywill be important in forming more functional relationships between Oakland's systems and its Latino community. These informants believe any effort to improve the lives of Latino men and boys must account for cultural mores within the Latino community and structure policies that form a balance around family, community, neighborhood, and cultural values. If they are to succeed, policies that target a Latino child or young adult as an individualand potentially encourage him to look outside his family's barriersmust account for those pressures or traditional limitations the community places on itself.
3.2
Emergent Themes from Focus Group Discussions (Phase III)
The community participants in all of the discussions in Phase III were very engaged by the focus group process and interested in the goal of relating the experiences of Latino men and boys to the contexts and structures that shaped them. They were forthcoming about their own physical and emotional vulnerabilities and very explicit about what they need in the way of help and support. Major points raised in each of the groups are covered below, largely in the order in which the groups were held. Although the participants in the Violence Prevention group are from (or at least loosely affiliated with) opposing gangs, they currently have similar life trajectories, in that they are trying to disassociate themselves from gangs and pursue more positive goals. As well as expressing fears for their own physical safety and that of their families and friends (the contagion of danger), all expressed very negative views of the gang life and seem to view gang power structures with the same skeptical eye they apply to the power structures of more socially-legitimated institutions. Their main concerns with those latter institutions (including schools, social programs, and police) are a lack of genuine caring on the part of authority figures and a (related) tendency for those authority figures to make broad (and frequently incorrect) assumptions about gang members and other young people; they expressed a feeling that most
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adults don't have any interest in knowing who they really are or what they really want out of life. (Although some participants expressed a belief that some sectors of police and government may deliberately fail to do anything really constructive about gangs because fear of gangs keeps them in business, there was general agreement that the most pervasive problem is lack of caring and understanding of Latino youth as individuals.) In contrast, all of the group participants were very enthusiastic about the YMCA's gang intervention programs (Homies' Empowerment) and had many positive things to say about the program facilitators (both male and female), who they feel genuinely care about them and can relate to them in ways that other authority figures don't seem to. (The program was also mentioned positively by participants in the School Attendance group.) The importance of connections with adults who not only care about these young people but really understand what they're going through, because of their own backgrounds, came up repeatedly, confirming emphatically what researchers heard from a number of interviewees in Phases I and II. The other major reason participants gave for their enthusiasm was the content of the programs. The relevance and attraction of learning about Latino culture and history was elaborated on at length by many of the participants and cited as motivation to pursue further education and civic engagement; they also described the transformative power of actively helping others in the Latino community (in their case, by organizing free breakfasts for Latino day laborers). There were many points of similarity in the major concerns raised by the gang-affiliated youth and by the day laborers, frequently stemming from the fact that both are marginalized subpopulations within the Latino community. One point of similarity was in how often concerns about misperceptions and stereotypes came up, including common assumptions that all gang members or all day laborers are in the situation they're in for the same reasons, as well as more extreme prejudice that members of both groups frequently experiences from service providers, and harassment by law enforcement. Both groups' participants expressed the belief that it is most effective to be taught or helped by people who've had similar experiences and faced similar barriers to one's own (in both cases, with some group members contending that combining personal experience with institutional training in how to teach or provide a given service is most effective, and others focusing solely on the personal experience element). Other points of similarity included an emphasis on the importance of solutions that empower and encourage self-development, and how frequently concerns about physical safety were the first to come up in answer to facilitators' questions. (These points had been raised by various Phase I and II intervieweesespecially by those involved in the programs the focus group participants were recruited throughbut the importance given those particular issues within the target communities is worth noting.) The Day Laborers' focus group discussion centered for the most part around their economic situations, with the instability of employment, high levels of competition and consequent opportunities for abuse by employers, and constant anxiety about having enough money for necessitiesespecially rentbeing the main concerns. However, economics and employment served as a jumping-off point for discussion of many other issues, especially around health and community. Several participants mentioned the isolation and loneliness felt by day laborers, especially those recently arrived with few connections, but also those who have been in the U.S. for a long time; some attributed this to the level of competition in the labor market (something mentioned by Phase II interviewees as well), but more consider it a consequence of the lack of community-mindedness among Latinos in the U.S. in general. This feeling of isolation is important to consider when thinking about service provision; group members confirmed findings from Phase I and II interviews that one of the main problems with services available to Oakland's Latino immigrants is that the target population doesn't know about them and that better avenues for outreach need to be developed. (In general, participants who have had experience in other U.S. cities do feel that Oakland has better services for undocumented immigrants and day laborers than most, if only people know about and are willing to make use of them.)
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Participants also described experiencing a sense of isolation and helplessness in their relationships with authority. Due to marginal living situations, many day laborers in the group have been, or have close friends who have been, victims of robberies or violence, but have not reported the crimes for fear of deportation or retribution; they reported that most day laborers do not trust police at all. In relationship with safety, the discussion also touched on race relations; many expressed distrust toward AfricanAmerican males in particular. But others were quick to point out that there is a problem with Latino-onLatino violence as well, which some related to tensions between the immigrant and native-born sectors of the community. They expressed the belief that native-born, more affluent Latinos look down on or distrust new immigrants, and some admitted that they in turn do not trust U.S.-born Latinos. It should be noted that despite these issues, group members were generally open to the idea of trying to improve race relations, to try to make things better in Oakland as a whole. Participants in the Health Homes and Obesity Prevention focus group with parents of Latino young men and boys were fairly unanimous in presenting violence as the top concern they have about their children; most said they feel very insecure in their neighborhoods, and all worry about their children becoming targets of violence. However, like participants in the other focus groups, they expressed mistrust of the police and unwillingness to call on them for help with problems, if nothing else for fear that police would not take steps to protect them and their families from appearing to be informants. Unlike most of the participants in the Day Laborers' group, the parents did not tend to frame violence or other problems in terms of groupings by race or origin, and few discussed those issues at all. The parents expressed their desire to know more about violence prevention and how to protect their children, including warning signs of gang involvement, as well as willingness to learn about other parenting topics such as health and nutrition. Some referred to helpful programs at schools or community institutions, but pointed out that classes or programs for parents are often scheduled at inconvenient times or cost too much money. Economic accessibility was also a major issue in relation to recreation and other supplemental programs for their children. Some participants mentioned a lack of accessible programs as a factor in gang and drug involvement among young Latinos; the prevalence of drugs in Oakland was another major topic of concern. Language barriers are another issue in access, especially to health care. Since many members of this group are monolingual or at least Spanish-dominant, they do not feel comfortable getting care at most hospitals; most parents said they prefer institutions such as La Clnica de la Raza, which is specifically oriented toward Latinos and where most of the staff are Spanish-fluent. Even when they can get an interpreter at an English-dominant institution, several participants said they do not feel the quality of care is as good if they can't communicate directly, or if they are forced to wait for an interpreter (which can sometimes take hours). Language barriers also came up in relation to schools. Parents expressed interest in developing better communication with their children's schools, but a number said they have had problems when schools are not well-equipped to deal with non-English-speakers. Another issue that came up was communication between parents and their own children. All of the group participants agreed that talking with one's children and spending quality time as a family is very important, but a number of parents have had trouble because their children are English-dominant and, especially as they become teenagers, do not communicate easily in Spanish. Generally, the parents in this group (recruited through Head Start) believe it is important to be involved in their children's lives and to support them in getting a good education, but some attributed the gang problem to families where those values do not seem to be in play. They agreed with participants in the Violence Prevention group in emphasizing that help and guidance for young men needs to include help and guidance for families as a whole. A lack of parental support for education was a major topic of discussion in the School Attendance focus group; several participants said their parents are not active in or encouraging of their academic efforts. They cited that lack of support as having had the largest damaging impact on their self-esteem and
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capacity to envision a better future. In fact, some of the participants broke down in tears when revealing the disappointment and isolation they feel as students whose parents either are not available, or are incapable of or not interested in supporting them with their studies or congratulating them on successes. Only two out of the seven participants said that their parents had come to school in the last year to meet their teachers. Beyond what this may say about poor parenting skills, it shows that schools' policies and practices regarding parent-teacher dialogue should be reviewed, so that communication is not skewed toward concerns regarding negative behavior and provides time for celebrating student accomplishments. Even when parents are well-intentioned regarding education, some students have had negative experiences due to a lack of communication with their parents. For instance, one participant's mother had applied on his behalf for a U Visa (which helps undocumented victims of crimes change their citizenship status). However, the participant was unaware of this, and became discouraged about his college options as an undocumented youth; he gave up trying for good grades, and when the U visa came through, he was unable to use it to apply for college. Several of the students cited the possibility of attaining a better future as one of the things that keeps them coming to school; also mentioned were social opportunities, friends, and positive interactions with teachers and other adults they feel genuinely care about them. However, one of the most prominent topics of discussion was conflicts students have had with adult staff on campus. Participants described instances of having been insulted, stereotyped, intimidated, or generally discouraged from success by school staff on multiple levels, from principals to teachers to janitors and security guards. Like participants in the Violence Prevention group, they expressed the belief that many teachers and counselors do not care about their students (especially older teachers), and described a frequent tendency among school staff to automatically assume the worst of young people (especially Latino males). Several participants described such conflicts with security guards, often as a result of being late to school; these interactions caused them to miss even more class time. Some participants also said they had been intimidated by guards and interrogated about supposed gang affiliation; one described having been "checked" by a security guard who flashed his own gang colors, leading to questions about background-checking and hiring procedures for school support staff. Like participants in the Violence Prevention and Day Laborers' groups, many of the young Latino men in the School Attendance group described feelings of isolation and loneliness; finding people they feel they can really talk to was one of the most important positive factors they described in their lives. Like the Latino males in the other focus groups, they cited societal stereotypes and negative interactions with authority as being factors in that feeling of isolation, though, as mentioned above, a lack of connection with their families is also a large problem for several participants in this particular group.
4.
Findings II: Detailed Analysis of Focus Areas
The LMB project recommendations have been developed based on the following analysis for the key issues of school attendance, violence prevention, health homes, obesity prevention, and employment. Each section below includes a description of the issue, a discussion of the major points made by informants that project recommendations will address, with supporting quotes from community focus group participants, and a summary of the LMB project team's recommendations in that area. Detailed recommendations and examples of successful models can be found in Appendix I to this document.
4.1
School Attendance
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Overview of the Issue: It became clear early in this research that issues within the education system cut across all of the domains the LMB project is concerned with. The community and institutional leaders and key service providers the researchers interviewedboth those working within the educational system and those working in other fields such as health or employmentall asserted that Latino men and boys in Oakland too often do not receive the education and training they need to succeed, beginning with deficiencies at the elementary and secondary education level and continuing with low college enrollment rates. This perception of disparity is confirmed by California Department of Education statistics, which show that Latinos score well below the Oakland Unified School District averages on statewide standardized tests; in 2008-09, the number of Latinos scoring as proficient or above for English/Language Arts tests was 31.2% and for Mathematics was 40.2%, whereas the district averages were 41.5% and 47.5%, respectively.52 In 2005-06 (the most recent year for which OUSD provides data), the district-wide grade point average for Latinos was 2.40, lower than the overall district average of 2.47.53 For high schools, the disparity was even greater, with an average GPA of 2.17 for Latinos and 2.36 for all high school students. In the education domain, the Boys and Men of Color Initiative (of which the LMB project is part) is focusing on improving school attendance. But while some key informants did bring up the issue of truancy per se and suggest treatments for the symptom, the main focus was always on what they see as the real problem, student engagement. The importance of focusing on engagement was clear to everyone in the Phase I and II interviews who had dealt with young people, and participants in the Phase III focus groups with high school students and with gang-affiliated young men confirmed it emphatically. For attendance to improve, Latino young men and boys need to see that they are getting something out of school, in terms of both short-term interest in the material and long-term improvement of their prospects. However, while curriculum and teaching style play the most crucial roles in improving engagement with school, several key informants in the education and health fields and participants in the School Attendance focus group described environmental and life factors as playing a large role as well. Unmet health needs, especially mental health issues such as depression, difficult social situations such as gang recruitment or lack of friendship circles, and family conflicts (or simply neglect) can significantly impact students' ability to maintain interest in school. Key informants discussed the need to make strong, on-site connections between schools and agencies or community organizations that can help to mitigate those factors. Participants in the School Attendance and Violence Prevention focus groups, as well as some Phase I and II informants, also stressed the need to create a school environment that feels welcoming to young men of color; this can be facilitated by personal connections with teachers and school staff. Key informants and focus group participants pointed out that interactions between young Latino males and school staff or systems are too frequently negative, leading to disconnection from the educational enterprise. Discipline procedures affect students of color disproportionately; in 2004-05, according to OUSD, 17.8% of suspensions were of Latino studentsa lower rate than their representation in the student body, but far higher than any other ethnic group except African-Americans.54 Major Problem Areas to Address: College and Employment Preparation: A number of key informants, including those in school leadership but also those who work in supplementary or community programs, noted that young Latino men frequently do not graduate high school having met the requirements to enter the state university system,
52
California Department of Education. Ed-Data data for 2008-09. Oakland Unified School District. Data for 2005-06. (Quoted in: The National Council on Crime and Delinquency 2008.) 54 Oakland Unified School Distric. Data for 2004-05. (Quoted in: The National Council on Crime and Delinquency 2008.)
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and that many Latino students and parents do not even know what those requirements are or have access to information about colleges. According to the California Department of Education, only 38.3% of Latino males graduated from OUSD in 2007-08 having met the CSU and UC entrance requirements.55 (This seems to be a district-wide problem; Latino males were only slightly behind the overall OUSD level of 42.0%.56) Key informants who work or have worked in the area of employment agreed that low academic success and high dropout rates mean many young Latino men in Oakland aren't prepared for meaningful employment; insufficient education and/or disconnection from the educational system hampers many job-placement and even job-training programs. Whether their focus was on academics or employment, informants in both Phase I and Phase II of the data-gathering agreed that young Latino men need more concrete information about what a successful future life could look like and what paths they can take to get there. Such guidance is especially important for subpopulations who are less institutionally-connected, such as undocumented immigrant minors and criminally-impacted youth; participants in focus groups confirmed that those populations frequently assume that there are simply no such paths open to them, and so do not seek them out.
Voices from the Community Focus Groups:
"I know that even though I'm not going to be able to go to college that easy, I know in the future, if I do good, school is gonna help me to move forward." (Ryan, a Latino male youth participating in the School 57 Attendance/High School Students Focus Group) "Okay, so they say if you go to school you're going to become something good, because you're going to go to college and all, you're going to get this working position that will pay you good, will pay for your life and all that. And then you realize you dont have papers. Wait, so once I get to the end of the road of my education, maybe I won't even be able to go to college and get that job which everybody says is going to pay for your life expenses. So why should I even try?" (Adam, a Latino male youth, School Attendance Group)
Student Engagement and Relevant Curricula: Key informants familiar with the school system believe that Oakland schools are not yet prepared to deal with the demographic shift toward having more Latino students (discussed in 1.3), in terms of having sufficient culturally-literate staff and relevant curricula. While Latino enrollment in OUSD has increased from 24.7% to 37.3% over the last ten years, the already-low proportion of Latino teaching staff has increased barely at all, from 10.1% to 11.3%.58 The young Latino men who participated in Phase III of the research confirmed that they feel disconnected from an educational system where they don't see many adults like themselves (even by demographic category, much less by life background) and whose content does not reflect their own experiences and culture. (Some participants framed the issue in terms of Latino culture, while others advocated for a more general breadth of cultural education.) Participants agreed that there needs to be more recruitment of talented Latinos, especially males, into the teaching profession; informants who are themselves Latino males in education suggested that there need to be more attainable paths to such a career. (However, Phase IV stakeholders who work in OUSD pointed out that increasing the number of minority teachers does not necessarily result in an improvement of outcomes for students in that minority group, especially male students, if it is not part of a broader comprehensive effort.) The current lack of Latino teachers exacerbates the problem noted by some Phase I and II informants that young Latinos, especially males, often feel pressure not to succeed in institutional contexts, fearing that peers will see them as selling out their community's culture. Key informants from small charter or experimental schools discussed their effortswhich they believe to have been successfulto make their regular curricula more engaging for Latino students. However, at larger schools, not much effort has been made to teach Latino culture and history in any coordinated way; it tends to be treated as an add-on rather than truly integrated into the curriculum. Adolescent focus group participants who are involved in supplemental programs on Latino
55 56
California Department of Education. DataQuest data for 2007-08. California Department of Education. DataQuest data for 2007-08. 57 All names given for community focus group participants are pseudonyms. Most quotes are word-for-word, but some are slightly altered for brevity or clarity. 58 California Department of Education. Ed-Data data for 1998-99 and 2008-09.
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culture were very enthusiastic about them, describing the transformative power of learning who they are and what they can be proud of as a community. Both key informants and community participants pointed out that teaching Latino youth about Latino history mitigates the tendency for them to view gang culture as the center of Latino culture, and defuses some of the intraethnic hostility that divides the Latino community along gang and nativity lines. And having a curriculum they can connect with, of course, builds enthusiasm about learning in general. But informants involved with the programs, including the young people themselves, stressed thatenjoyable as they may beafter-school activities are not sufficient to solve the problem of keeping students engaged with school.
"I told them, I'm not trying to disrespect ya'll or be racist, but I'm tired of hearing about Martin Luther King, and they're like, What?!?, but I said, Hear me out. I've been learning about this since the sixth grade, and I told the teacher, What about my history, what about where we come from?" (Manny, a Latino male youth participating in the Violence Prevention/Gang-Impacted Youth Focus Group) "It's better off to get taught by a Latino teacher, I say, because a Latino student could relate to a Latino teacher more than the white teacher. Because you come from the same place, like the family, the roots." (Luciano, a Latino male youth, School Attendance Group) "There's never been a person who's taught me where I come from, all the things that my people have built. And because we're all separated by this distance, we're fucking each other over just cause I wear this, you wear that, or just what block we're from, the labeling. This teaching us who we really are and our history is something I could never get in my normal school. I would miss a day of school, if I feel sick, but the time comes for La Raza History Class and I'll go even if I didn't go to school, because it's my own class, I'll learn my own history. I'd rather not go to school, but I'll go to this class." (Romero, a Latino male youth, Violence Prevention Group)
Dropout Rates, Truancy, and Discipline: Latino males have slightly higher dropout rates than the districtwide average, but the disparity is not as great as in other indicators such as test scores. The four-year derived dropout rate for Latino males in OUSD's class-of-2008 cohort was 28.8%, as opposed to 28.1% for the district overall; however, it should be noted that Latino males' dropout rate was actually slightly lower than the district average of 30.6% for males specifically.59 OUSD does not provide an ethnic breakdown of truancy numbers, but the overall rate in 2008-09 was 40.9% of students having three or more unexcused absences or tardies.60 While some key informants framed dropout and truancy as problems specific to Latino males, most of the existing or potential solutions they discussed would be helpful to any vulnerable demographic group. (Other than the basic problem of student engagement, which, as discussed above, many feel is best addressed with attention to particular cultures.) Although OUSD has some general anti-dropout and anti-truancy campaigns and programs (which OUSD informants described as underfunded), participants stressed that there is no substitute for individual attention to students with chronic attendance issues. Attendance is also affected by discipline policies; most education-oriented informants interviewed in Phases I and II believe that OUSD's past zerotolerance-style discipline policies did far more harm than good by cutting young peopleespecially young men of colorout of the system, and all prefer policies that focus on the issues confronting an individual student. Youth participants in the violence prevention focus group agreed that efforts to change their behavior are more effective when they feel authority figures are treating them as individuals. Key stakeholders interviewed in Phase IV said that OUSD is shifting to district-wide use of restorative-justicebased discipline in 2010-11. However, they pointed out that training teachers and principals in appropriate implementation will be key, especially as they can choose to override the policy and administer traditional punishments. Youth participants in the community focus groups believe that many school staff are too quick (and may even go out of their way) to find something wrong with student behavior; this supports the view that follow-through on implementation and practice will be vital to the success of the policy. (This type of attention to practice was exemplified at Skyline High School in 2000,
59 60
California Department of Education. DataQuest data for 2007-08. (Adjusted grade 9-12 4-year derived dropout rate.) California Department of Education. DataQuest data for 2008-09.
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where teachers and students worked together to clarify rules and improve each group's attitude about the other.61) While key informants and focus group participants agreed that students need to feel safe for education to be effective, participants in the School Attendance group described current efforts at security on large campuses as intrusive and sometimes ineffectual; they raised particular concerns about security guards who are known to be gang members.
"Some teachers, they think they know you, just by the way they look at you. Like, let's say, they see you dress like this and they're like, Oh, he's a thug. I already know off the top of my head, he's a thug. He's nothing good. He's probably going to drop out by the end of tenth grade." (Luciano, School Attendance Group) "The system and the schools have the mentality that all gangbangers are gangbangers just because they don't care about school, or they just want to fuck up, and that's not true. You do it for many reasons, not just that." (Oscar, a Latino male youth, Violence Prevention Group) "It's profiling. It comes from the background of Oakland, the assumption that Oakland people are violent, and they're criminals. They have several cop cars surrounding the school, and I think they feel like they can have control of people and hopefully find more criminals within Oakland. So they feel like, This is where we might catch some bad action, some criminals. Which are, like, teenagers, basically." (Adam, School Attendance Group)
Student Tracking and Individual Attention: A major problem that came up repeatedly in interviews with professionals at all levels is that most public schools do not support individual relationships between staff and students, such that there is any one person responsible for tracking any one student's progress toward graduation and need for guidance with tutoring, special programs, college admissions, personal troubles, etc. Students with academic or emotional problems can easily fall through the cracks and become completely disconnected from the educational enterprise without anyone noticing, and even students who aren't especially struggling may lack guidance in how to actually succeed. Key informants consider this to be a particular problem at the larger public schools, where they have found most students do not tend to get consistent, positive attention from school staff unless they are in a special program. Informants discussed a number of factors they believed to be responsible for this lack, including large class sizes, lack of administrative support for teachers, deficiencies of teacher training (especially about communicating with youth), and teacher burnout. Key informants in the leadership of small charter schools discussed successes in mitigating these factors through increased teacher support, and in more directly addressing the problem of attention through advisory and mentorship systems. (The School Redesign Network's study of small schools in Oakland also found advisories to increase academic performance.62) Informants familiar with the breakup of Fremont and Castlemont High Schools into colocated smaller schools said increased personal attention to students has been the main positive result. The lack of (positive) attention from school staff was also a major theme of the two focus group discussions with adolescent community participants, who said they do not feel like many teachers care about students or try to understand them as people, and discriminate against those they perceive as ganginvolved. Participants in both groups noted that they put in more effort academically when it is apparent that teachers really care.
"I think we can have more people that put more effort and care more about their students and making sure that they succeed. Because right here in the Oakland district, we need teachers that are devoted to what they do, because they are dealing with people that are constantly being put down and profiled as lowercapacity students. And other high schools just keep on throwing the bad students out and sending them over here, and they expect them to meet the same standards. And I think that if they do expect them to succeed Day-Vines, Norma L. and Veronica Terriquez. 2008. A strengths-based approach to promoting prosocial behavior among African American and Latino students. Professional School Counseling 12:2. 62 Vasudeva, Ash, Linda Darling-Hammond, Stephen Newton, and Kenneth Montgomery. 2009. Oakland Unified School District New Small Schools Initiative Evaluation. Stanford, CA: Stanford School Redesign Network. (Available at: http://www.srnleads.org/resources/publications/ousd/ousd.html)
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and meet the same standards, they need to have better faculty that will be able to deal with them better." (Adam, SA/HHS Group) "What helps us, in Castlemont, not all the teachers support you, or actually care about you, they just do their job. But there's a few that really care about you and support you and are there when you need help, in school and stuff outside of school, like even give you a ride home. Encourage you and guide you in a good way." (Romero, Violence Prevention Group) "My mom said, Damn, I can't believe you have a teacher like Csar, that really cares about you. Because all the schools, the programs I've been in, she's never seen anyone care about us, about me like that." (Max, a Latino male youth, Violence Prevention Group)
Interpersonal Connections: The problem of tracking and attention is part of a general trend noted by many participants of a lack of positive, linguistically- and culturally-appropriate communication between school staff, students, parents, and the surrounding communities. Educational professionals interviewed in Phases I and II pointed out that school staff frequently do not live in the neighborhoods where they teach and don't know what's going on in their students' communities (for instance, how prevalent gangs are in some neighborhoods and the necessity of interacting with them at least at some level); they often tend to isolate themselves rather than reaching out to help and be helped. Key informants and participants in the focus group with parents of Latino men and boys also raised the issue that parents, especially those who don't speak English fluently, frequently don't know what's going on with their children's education or what to do about problems. Even when parents do try to get involved or seek help, school staff may not be receptive (again, especially if the parents are not English-fluent). Some key informants and parent focus group participants also discussed cultural issues within the Latino community, where success in the (traditionally Eurocentric) educational system may not be valued and may even sometimes be seen as a betrayal of Latino culture or traditions. Participants in the Parents' and High School Students' focus groups described the difficulty for students of staying motivated in school when parents are unsupportive or even hostile to success, whether because of cultural devaluation or because of their personal hangups. Respectful, culturally-sensitive communication will be key in solving these problems. Focus group participants and key informants and stakeholders both within and outside of the school system believe that more active, positive conduits for communication between parents and schools are crucial in attaining better outcomes for students; these conduits need to accommodate practical considerations such as language and work schedules.
"Parents need to be informed or to be taught how to assure their children have a better education or better services. What are all the organizations, school and community groups available and what do they do and how to get involved." (A Latina mother participating in the Health Homes and Obesity Prevention/Parents of 63 Latino Young Men and Boys Focus Group) "When I was in seventh and eighth, for two years, I had 4.0s. And when I told my mom about that, she was like, Oh, that's good. And then for me, it felt like she didn't care. And then when I came to high school, I decided to think, Why would I care about my work if they don't care about me? So that's when my grades went down." (Gabriel, a Latino male youth, School Attendance Group) "We need more information for parents. We dont always have time to go to the classes. We need to learn what are the signs of gang affiliation or drug use. We need programs for parents in the evening, not just 64 during school hours." (Lupe, a Latina mother, Health Homes & Obesity Prevention Group)
Summary of Recommendations: Based on these findings, the LMB team suggests that the Oakland school system needs to focus on improving attendance and graduation rates for Latino males by developing comprehensive systems to track student progress, by partnering with community-based organizations to provide mentorship and
63 64
Translated from Spanish. Translated from Spanish.
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guidance for youth at risk, by making curricula more accessible and engaging for Latino students, by developing the cultural competence of school staff to facilitate better connections with Latino students and their families, by involving and empowering Latino parents, by focusing on keeping youth physically present at the schools and improving relationships between youth and school staff, by implementing peer mentorship for English Language Learners, and by providing better opportunities for immigrants to connect with education. (Details of these recommendations may be found in A of Appendix I.)
4.2
Violence Prevention
Overview of the Issue: As discussed in 3.1.1, violence, especially gang violence, is often the first issue that is cited when service providers and community leaders in Oakland are asked about Latino men and boys. The actual total number of Latino gang members in Oakland is uncertain, but the 2007 California Healthy Kids Survey estimates that about 10-14% of youth in Oakland are actively involved in gangs.65 Whatever the actual numbers Oakland-wide, participants in all phases of the LMB research cited gangs and gangrelated crime as a prominent feature of life in some Latino neighborhoods, especially in Fruitvale and East Oakland. (Fruitvale is part of the Oakland zip code (94601) that had the highest number of Latinos aged ten to fifteen in 2006 and that also had the highest number of juvenile arrests in that year.66) Despite this perception of the disproportionate impact of gangs in the Latino community, informants said that there is not a gang unit division currently operating within the Oakland Police Department (OPD), due to a lack of consistent sources of funding and changing priorities in the OPD. Project participants spoke ofand, for the most part, agreed withan overwhelming perception that gang-related and other crime impacts most young Latino males in Oakland in some way or another, whether the young men are themselves gang members or not. According to FBI statistics, 66% of Latino males in Alameda County live in neighborhoods with a high violent crime rate.67 Both key informants and community participants noted that many Latino youth have parents or other family members who are or have been in gangs; this can make it especially difficult for young people who want to leave the gang life, as they may risk being seen as betraying family as well as friends. While many respondents share in the perception that gangs are pervasive, many also feel that it leads to a tendency within the Oakland community to view all young Latino men as potentially dangerous, to the detriment of their functioning in society. Some key informants expressed special concern about how draconian anti-gang policies further disenfranchise an already-marginalized subpopulation of Latino youth; as gang-impacted community focus group participants pointed out, it is almost impossible not to run afoul of such policies one way or another when gangs are so much a part of the social fabric. While participants in the LMB research had different perspectives about how prevalent the gang problem is and what factors are most relevant to that prevalence (discussed further below), there were many more points of agreement than disagreement, even between such disparate participants as police officers and gang members. The biggest thing participants in all phases of the research have agreed on is that, in neighborhoods and schools where gang involvement is a real issue, it can generally be linked to a lack of engaging alternatives and meaningful opportunities for success in pro-social settings. Recreational, sports, and cultural programming, academics-related programs, and employment opportunities are insufficiently supported or lacking altogether. Gang members who participated in the focus group research (as well as
65 66
WestEd/California Healthy Kids Survey. CHKS data for 2007. Alameda County Probation Department. 2006. (Quoted in: The National Council on Crime and Delinquency 2008.) 67 Federal Bureau of Investigation. Unified Crime Reporting statistics for 2008. (Quoted in: ACPHD 2010.) ('High violent crime rate' is defined as having a rate above the California average of ~500 per 100,000 persons.)
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those described by key informants who work in gang prevention) are well aware of the problems with gang involvement and, despite the attractions of perceived safety or the necessities of family or social connections, have said they would avoid it if there were something yet more attractive to do instead, as long as those alternatives were offered in a respectful way. Major Problem Areas to Address: Lack of Attractive Alternatives for Latino Youth: While some key informants mentioned a number of laudable gang-intervention programs, all of the participants who discussed gangs stressed the need for more proactive prevention programs. Both institutional informants and participants in the three focus groups discussed in this report agree that there is a need for more culturally-specific, economically accessible, and fun activities for Latino boys and young men, especially during the after-school hours; for those of working age, employment opportunities are also seen as crucial in preventing involvement with gangs and crime. Young people need opportunities for meaningful involvement and success, and for some young Latinos in Oakland, gang involvement and crime may look like the best opportunity they have access to. Most key informants in Phases I and II of the project brought up the need for more interesting activities and opportunities during their interviews, and community participants in the Violence Prevention focus group were emphatic in their support for any such efforts. Though all of the LMB informants felt that Oakland would benefit from having more youth programs in general, the focus of discussion was generally on demographically-targeted activities that would be specifically engaging for young Latino males, that would connect to their personal identitiesand help them develop those identities in a setting that doesn't center around gang culture. Phase IV participants on the LMB Advisory Board pointed out that the framing of spirituality can be one means to shift such identity development. Many informants, including gang-prevention service providers, psychologists, and community participants, also stressed the importance of making connections in these programs with potential role models, preferably young men with similar backgrounds to the target population. Focus group participants talked at length about the importance of having adults in their lives who can understand them and to whom they feel they matter, and of having those peoplefamily members, teachers, service providersvalidate their successes. One activities-related issue that was raised several times was that of accessibility, in terms of visibility, the possibility of safe passage for gang members, and cost. Activities need to be available in neutral spaces in various different neighborhoods; more potential spaces for such programming, such as Latino cultural centers, need to be found or created.
"Before the jornaleros' program, I never seen myself helping somebody besides my family or a friend, helping somebody that I didn't know. And my mom was like, Why you gotta go so early, and I said, I wanna go feed some day laborers, and she was shocked, didn't believe me at first. But she gave me some money to go buy bread for them, and the next morning she woke me up and made me go, and she was proud of me because I'm doing something that she would normally never see me do. And if it wasn't for the Y, the program, everything, I would've just been home sleeping." (Justin, a Latino male youth, Violence Prevention Group) "There's a lot of guys where I stay at who wouldn't come over here to the Y because it's not our territory. I come over here, not to be brave but just because I like it here. It's the only place I can learn about where I come from. But I'd rather have something small over there in Deep East Oakland. I'd feel safer because it's my territory, I'd know nobody's going to shoot at me." (Manny, Violence Prevention Group)
Disconnection from Institutions: Key informants as well as the youth who participated in the LMB project's research pointed out in discussions across different topic areas that young Latino men may be reluctant to engage with schools and other institutions because they don't see many adults they can relate to. Even when they know they need help (for instance, with a serious mental health problem), they may not feel comfortable seeking it if they don't feel they can establish any kind of connection with the service provider. For such interactions to work, each participant needs to have a stake in it, and needs to see that the other does too; similarity of background can aid in both. A number of key informants in the health
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fields pointed out that social services programs tend to be oriented toward (and staffed by) women, which tends to marginalize men, especially men of color, potentially reinforcing feelings of disenfranchisement. This marginalization, particularly of certain subpopulations, came up frequently; the young men participating in the Violence Prevention focus group are especially concerned about stereotypes and misperceptions about gang members and about Latino youth in general that they have found in interactions with school staff, service providers, and others in their community. A few of them directly attributed their (former) choice to align with gangs at least in part to (perceived) discrimination against young Latino males in the more institutionally-legitimated sectors of Oakland society. (The importance of that factor is supported quantitatively by a 2006 study that included Oakland Latinos, which found that a perception that Latinos are respected predicted a more positive attitude toward larger societal systems.68) While some key informants in earlier phases brought up stereotyping as well, they tended more to focus on how the media, especially the Spanish-language media, reinforces stereotypes by running negative or sensationalistic stories about Latino young men and boys. As well as affecting comfort levels or reinforcing feelings of marginalization, the lack of Latino men in institutions and agencies may contribute to Latino young men's fears of being seen as sellouts or chumps for engaging with institutions, as discussed in 3.2.1. A related problem of disconnection that came up a few times was that parents (especially new immigrants) frequently don't know that their children are being recruited or are in gangs (though some key informantsespecially those connected with the policeattached more importance to parental ignorance than others). A number of key informants and focus group participants stressed that stronger, more culturally-competent connections need to be made between institutions and families as well as between institutions and youth.
"I'd rather go to this kind of therapy, because Csar's been through some of the things I been through." (Romero, Violence Prevention Group) "I'm gonna look at that therapist, and know the questions he asks me are questions he's getting paid for. And the questions he's gonna be asking me: How's your day, ten dollars. How are you feeling, twenty dollars. If it was a volunteer, then I would probably get to know that person, because I know that he's not doing it for money." (Luciano, School Attendance Group) "It just depends how you grew up, where you grew up, what neighborhood you be in, what is the label you're going to have. There's people from Deep East Oakland who don't bang, or people from over here in the 30s who don't bang, but they still got the label." (Manny, Violence Prevention Group)
Relationships Between Police and Oakland's Latino Community: Many of the LMB informants, in government institutions and outside them, discussed a long-standing mistrust of the police in Oakland among communities of color, and a historically oppositional relationship between police and youth especially. Only a few key informants and community participants outright accused the police of racial profiling, but several brought it up as a perception they'd noticed in the Oakland Latino community; the (perceived or real) tendency of police to pay more attention to problems in richer, whiter neighborhoods also came up as a factor in this distrust. Carelessness about protecting the identities of people who report problems was mentioned by key informants, and several participants in the parents' focus group said they would never call the police for fear of being exposed. Police anti-gang tactics were one of the biggest points of disagreement among informants. Key informants connected with the Oakland Police Department tend to think the OPD's anti-gang tactics are fairly effective (or would be if properly funded), whereas a number of other key informants, and the community participants in all four focus groups, believe that the OPD tends more toward harassment of young Latino men (which, even if those young men really are involved with gangs, may be more likely to breed resentment rather than prompt constructive life change). However, it is notable that most of the disagreements were about what police officers actually do, rather than about policy. Key informants associated with the OPD were as likely as
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Huo, Yuen J. and Ludwin E. Molina. 2006. Is pluralism a viable model of diversity? The benefits and limits of subgroup respect. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 9:3.
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any others to stress the importance of making connections with the community, dealing with gang members and other youth as individuals deserving respect, and having Latino and/or Spanish-speaking officers who are better able to form relationships in Oakland. (Though there was disagreement even among OPD informants as to how well the department actually does in hiring such personnel.) Among the gang members in the Violence Prevention focus group, some believe that the problem with young Latinos' relationship with the police is structural and inherent to the OPD (even deliberately selfperpetuating), but others attribute it more to the attitudes of individual officers.
"Witnesses dont come forward because they are afraid or dont trust the police or feel the police wont do anything, and they are afraid of someone coming after them." (Alicia, a Latina mother, Health Homes & 69 Obesity Prevention Group) "We're giving the cops a job. Being in a gang is a no-no. If you wear red, you could get thrown in prison. If you're affiliated with it, you get thrown in prison. But police knows gangs are here, the government knows the police are there, but the police are not actually doing anything about it." (Oscar, Violence Prevention Group) "I think there's a lot of cops that probably do care, but they just follow orders, because otherwise they don't get paid. So I think you could sit down with a cop that's Mexican or Latino, they could relate. A white person might care too, but we see them as, They pigs. They be fucking around with us. It's like stereotypes: All cops are bad." (Romero, Violence Prevention Group)
Anti-Gang Laws and Policies: Several of the key informants interviewed in Phases I and II of the project expressed concern about zero-tolerance policies and anti-gang ordinances, including California's Proposition 21, that undermine young people by shunting them out of society and support networks. Several informants expressed a belief that the Oakland police over-apply gang enhancements when arresting Latinos and said there needs to be more awareness of how gang-related parole and probation policies lead to increased criminalization of Latino males, as well as awareness of the practical effects in terms of young men losing access to their schools, communities, employment opportunities, and even families just when they need those support networks most. As those informants, and the community participants in the Violence Prevention focus group, repeated numerous times, gangs are pervasive enough in parts of Oakland that one simply can't ignore them; one can't help but be involved one way or another. Interestingly, though focus-group participants had a number of negative things to say about government and police, they did not talk much about such specific policies; however, several of them expressed the belief that they need to learn more about such policies, and about their rights in general, in order to protect themselves from getting chewed up by the legal system.
"You'd think it's because you need someone to back you up, but it depends on how you grew up. For most of us, it's just what we were born into, how we grew up. You just breathe it in and breathe it out, and it's not good." (Romero, Violence Prevention Group) "We need a class that's about the law. Because everybody don't know about the law, and we need to learn the law, how the system works. We learn that shit too, not just the officers." / "The police can just abuse you if you don't know your rights. They might just say bullshit and you don't even know it's not true." (Andre and Manny, Latino male youths, Violence Prevention Group)
Crime Against Immigrants: Though much of the discussion about violence prevention in the LMB research has centered on gangs, other issues have been cited. Though there is little public awareness of Latino males as victims of crime, a number of informants brought up concerns about the vulnerabilities of particular subpopulations, including day laborers. New immigrant males are most vulnerable to becoming victims of violence, especially those who have no stable living situation and have to carry all of their cash on them. Yet those immigrants, especially if they are undocumented, are most reluctant to report crimes and problems, for fear of deportation. Day laborers who participated in the focus group, key informants
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Translated from Spanish.
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who work with day laborers, and police themselves brought up this fundamental problem of distrust on the part of undocumented immigrants; when one is living on the margins of legality, any interaction with the legal system seems fraught with danger. (And some of the community participants mentioned past experiences they described as harassment by Oakland police.) For some of the focus group participants, the safety issue was racially framed, as a problem with African-American men, but others pointed out that attacks also come from young Latinos, or from members of other demographic groups. All agreed that Oakland would benefit from efforts to improve both interracial and intraracial relations.
"I have been robbed twice, and in both cases it was Blacks who robbed me. In other instances, I have seen Latinos commit robberies, but they were U.S.-born Latinos." (A Latino male adult participating in the 70 Employment/Day Laborers' Focus Group) "I imagine that if African-Americans were given the opportunity or there was space or a program maybe there would be some who would come and try to understand our cultureor to create a way that they could understand our culture. Hopefully they can realize that we aren't here to get rid of them or to hurt them, but to the contrary. Just like they are trying to survive, that's what all of us are doing here." (A Latino male adult, 71 Employment Group) "Language is a barrier between them. They may want to be friends. The kids talk to each other, but if a very young child does not speak English, then they can't communicate beyond a certain point, so they don't develop a stronger bond." (Alicia, Health Homes & Obesity Prevention Group)72
Summary of Recommendations: Based on these findings, the LMB project team suggests that Oakland should increase its focus on prosocial Latino-specific gang intervention and prevention programs, include families and communities in programs and outreach, work to improve the relationship between Oakland's police and the local Latino community, review the implementation of gang-enhancement laws, divert more youth into alternative justice or mental health programs, provide opportunities to strengthen interethnic and intraethnic connections in Oakland, and develop more engaging alternative activities for young Latino males, especially organized cultural and arts activities. (Details of these recommendations may be found in B of Appendix I.)
4.3
Health Homes
Overview of the Issue: All of the agency heads and service providers working in the health field who were interviewed in Phases I and II of the LMB project expressed concern that young Latino males do not readily access existing health systems in Oakland. Key informants and youth who participated in the Violence Prevention focus group reported that Latino use of non-emergency services and participation in health education programs is mostly by females. They indicated that this is in part because of stigma around health problems, especially mental health problems, and in part because of issues with the practical and cultural accessibility of those services. The general consensus among study participants in discussions on health is that demographicallytargeted, personally-engaging outreach and education are key in addressing the issue of stigma. Outreach can also be a component of addressing accessibility issues, but some informants noted that structural
70 71
Translated from Spanish. Translated from Spanish. 72 Translated from Spanish.
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changes may also be necessary. Studies by the Alameda County Public Health Department (ACPHD) have found that there is a deficit of Latino-culturally-fluent health care workers in most health institutions in the county.73 Meanwhile, as key informants pointed out, most health careers are female-dominated; this may preclude some males from feeling comfortable or welcome accessing such services, or being reached out to effectively. La Clnica de la Raza is currently conducting a study of how Latino males use its services and how gender specificity may play a role in accessibility.74 Even where clinics and service agencies are generally set up to provide culturally-competent care, a few key informants and Phase IV participants were concerned about possible institutional prejudices against serving the most vulnerable subpopulations of Latino men and boys, including undocumented immigrants, men who have sex with men, gang members, and parolees. Although discussions mostly focused on cultural issues in access, informants did also note financial and bureaucratic barriers, such as insurance. While Alameda County is making efforts to get as many of its residents as possible into some type of health insurance program, key informants pointed out that there are still great disparities; this is backed up by survey data. In 2003-05, the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) found that Latinos had the highest percentage of uninsured individuals (24.2%) of any ethnic group in Alameda County (roughly double the overall county rate of 11.5% uninsured, and five times the rate for whites).75 Specifically among youth aged ten to twenty-four in Alameda County, Latinos again had the highest rate of uninsured persons in 2003, at 35%, as compared to a county-wide rate of 15%. Male youth were more likely than females to be uninsured across all ethnic groups.76 Healthservices informants who work with immigrants and immigrant community participants in the Day Laborers' focus group noted that insurance and paperwork is a major barrier for the Latino immigrant population, especially those who are undocumented. The 2005 California Health Interview Survey found that 26.4% of non-citizens in Alameda County are uninsured, twice the rate for citizens.77 Formerlyincarcerated young men also have high barriers to insurance and care. A recent survey by the County's Reentry Health Task Force found that 57% of the formerly incarcerated had no health insurance; the task force attributed this to a lack of pre-release service planning and coordination between services.78 However, while access was a key point in most discussions with the LMB informants about health, social and environmental issues came up repeatedly as well. Many community leaders and service providers pointed out that in order to improve Latino men and boys' health and well-being, one needs to look at their whole situation, including structural issues and life needs. These key informants believe that wellbeing is very dependent on social and economic factors, and that Latino young men and boys in Oakland face tremendous barriers to well-being from unemployment, undereducation, family and housing instability, and violence and other pressures in their neighborhoods. They frequently stressed that a holistic approach is a vital element of the most successful programs and services; many of the providers and a number of focus group participants (as well as several key informants in non-health fields) emphasized the need for connections and referral-making between health care and other programs that help Latino men and boys stabilize other aspects of their lives. Major Problem Areas to Address:
Source: LMB study participant Alex Briscoe. Source: LMB study participant Ignacio Ferrey. 75 California Health Interview Survey. Data for 2005. (Quoted in: Beyers et al. 2008.) 76 California Health Interview Survey. Data for 2003. (Quoted in: Brown et al. 2006.) 77 California Health Interview Survey. Data for 2005. (Quoted in: Beyers et al. 2008.) 78 Heiser, Bill and Junious Williams. 2008. Reentry Health Care in Alameda County: Initial assessment and recommendations of the Alameda County Reentry Health Task Force. Oakland, CA: Alameda County Reentry Health Task Force and Alameda County Reentry Network. (Available at: http://www.urbanstrategies.org/documents/ReentryHealthTaskForceFinalReportFINAL_000.pdf)
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Health Disparities: Recent studies by the ACPHD and CHIS have found that, although health is generally improving in Alameda County, it is not improving equally for all demographic groups. For many health indicators, Latinos seem to be doing around the same or even better than the overall population of the county, but there are significant differences between foreign-born and U.S.-born Latinos.79 The all-cause mortality rate in 2002-04 was 0.63% for Oakland's Latinos as a group, whereas it was 0.83% city-wide; the mortality rate was lower for Latinos than for African-Americans or whites.80 But as the ACPHD points out, Latino mortality rates are starkly different depending on place of origin: in 1999-2001, the mortality rate was 0.59% for Alameda County's foreign-born Latinos and 0.73% for those born in the U.S.81 ACPHD and CHIS studies on Alameda County's young people82 found that Latino youth: are more likely than any other ethnic group to be overweight or obese (38% of Latino ninth-graders vs. 29% of all ninth-graders in Alameda County in 2004-0583); have the highest pregnancy rates of any ethnic group (8.0% teen birth rate among Latinas vs. 4.1% among all young women in Oakland in 2003-0584); and are the least likely to have seen a dentist in the last year (67% of Latinos aged ten to twenty-four vs. 78% of all youth aged ten to twenty-four in Alameda County in 200385). Rates for male youth specifically are not available, but Latinos had a slightly higher rate of unintentional injury mortalities in 2003-05 than the Oakland average (0.37% vs. 0.33%).86 However, on other measures, Latino youth are doing better than African-American and white youth; the hospitalization rate for youth aged fifteen to twenty-four in Alameda County in 2001-03 was 1.9% for Latinos, as opposed to 2.7% for all youth in that age bracket.87 Hospitalization rates for asthma among Oakland's youth under fifteen were 0.42% for Latinos, as opposed to 0.77% for all youth, in 1999-2000.88 Rates of infection in recent years for Latino males in Oakland are average or lower for HIV, chlamydia, and gonorrhea; their rates were second-highest among ethnic groups but disparities were not large.89,90 Oakland Latinos had lower rates of hospitalization for depression and alcohol and drug problems than either African-Americans or whites.91 Latinos had the lowest smoking rates among males of any ethnic group in Alameda County for which rates could be determined.92 Connecting Young Men with Safe Spaces to Learn About Health: Many key informants in the health field expressed concern that young Latino males don't tend to access non-emergency and preventive health
Unfortunately, ACPHD does not have many statistics specific to Latino males, so the numbers here are given for each crosscutting category. 80 Alameda County. Alameda County vital statistics files from 2002-04. (Quoted in: Alameda County Public Health Department. 2007. Select Health Indicators for Cities in Alameda County, 2007. Oakland, CA: ACPHD. (Available at: http://www.acphd.org/AXBYCZ/Admin/DataReports/health_indicators_cities_2007.pdf)) 81 Alameda County. Alameda County vital statistics files from 2001-05. (Quoted in: Beyers et al. 2008.) (Note that Alameda County has lower average mortality overall than Oakland alone, so these numbers should not be compared with the mortality rates given above.) 82 Despite the above-mentioned studies highlighting the importance of including immigration status in breakdowns of health data, unfortunately, ACDPH's and CHIS's numbers are not broken down by place of origin for most indicators. 83 California Department of Education. Data for 2004-05. (Quoted in: Brown et al. 2006.) 84 Alameda County Public Health Department. 2007. Select Health Indicators for Cities in Alameda County, 2007. Oakland, CA: ACPHD. 85 California Health Interview Survey. Data for 2003. (Quoted in: Brown et al. 2006.) 86 Alameda County Public Health Department 2007. 87 Brown et al. 2006. (Data do not include childbirth-related hospitalizations.) 88 Alameda County Public Health Department. 2004. Oakland Health Profile 2004. Oakland, CA: ACPHD. (Available at: http://www.acphd.org/AXBYCZ/Admin/DataReports/ohp2004_complete.pdf) (Asthma hospitalization rates have gone down since then overall, but 1999-2000 was the last year for which ethnic breakdowns were available.) 89 Alameda County Public Health Department. 2006. Alameda County Health Status Report 2006. (Available at: http://www.acphd.org/AXBYCZ/Admin/DataReports/00_chsr2006-final.pdf) 90 Alameda County Public Health Department 2004. 91 ACPHD 2007. 92 California Health Interview Survey. Data for 2005 and 2007. (Quoted in: ACPHD 2010.)
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services as much as Latina females. They pointed out that school-based health clinics are underresourced and that students, especially males, frequently don't know what services are available; young men who are not in school are even harder to reach because they don't have access to school-based clinics. This was confirmed heartily by the young men who participated in the Violence Prevention focus group, many of whom said they basically considered clinics and preventive medicine to be something young women need, not themselves. (In fact, some said they wouldn't even know how to access emergency services should they need them, much less preventive services.) Health providers who work with youth framed the access problem as one of young men needing more safe spaces to talk about problems and get support and health information, including about how to avoid common risks such as obesity, sexually transmitted diseases, and pregnancy, as well as how to recognize and get care for illnesses and problems. Several of those health providers mentioned that gender and cultural specificity is an important component of that feeling of safety. Participants in the LMB project's and other groups' research have said that members of subpopulations that are frequently discriminated against, such as undocumented immigrants, formerlyincarcerated males, or men who have sex with men, may feel more comfortable in programs or clinics targeted specifically toward them.93,94 Those providers mentioned successful programs that combine health education with other activities such as sports, volunteering, and cultural activities; however, they pointed out that aggressive recruitment is needed to get young men into such programs (especially at-risk young men), preferably via peer-to-peer communication and cascading mentorship structures. Despite the Violence Prevention focus group participants' comments about clinics, they did speak well of the general effectiveness of peer outreach, at least in getting them into violence-prevention programs. Community participants in the Nuestras Voces/Oakland research project especially advocated for programs that present health information as part of other fun activities.95
"The only ones who really use the clinics are the young ladies, because they're the ones who really need it. Every time I see a guy going there, I'm, Oh, you going to the clinic? For what?" / "Oh, you got AIDS?" (Manny and Justin, Violence Prevention Group) "If I ever had an accident, like if I happened to get shot, which luckily I didn't, but I could have, I wouldn't know what to do. I do have health insurance, but I've never used it." (Oscar, Violence Prevention Group)
Unmet Mental Health Care Needs: Latino males who participated in Phase III described a widespread need for psychological help, either in recovering from specific traumas or in dealing with general depression and ongoing mental health issues. Most of the younger community participants do not see substance addiction as a significant issue in their peer groups, but participants in the Day Laborers' focus group described it as a common problem among immigrant adults. (According to CHIS, 38.3% of Latinos males over eighteen report binge drinking, a higher rate than males of any other ethnic group.96) Health care providers interviewed in Phases I and II frequently expressed concern that Latino men's and boy's mental health problems often go untreated; a number of key informants mentioned a lack of resources for most mental health treatment in schools and public health systems, as well as in the juvenile justice system. (A 2003 report on Alameda County's juvenile justice system attributed this largely to inadequate intake screenings.97) However, providers are also concerned that many Latino men don't seek out what treatment is available, either because of cultural taboos or because mental health symptoms aren't recognized because they aren't commonly seen as illness. Young men who participated in the Violence Prevention and School Attendance focus groups confirmed those reasons, and also brought up the strong
Heiser and Williams 2008. Diaz, Rafael, Kurt Schroeder, and Diane Burkholder. 2009. Nuestras Voces/Oakland: A needs assessment of young Latino MSM commissioned by La Clnica de la Raza. Ms. 95 Diaz, Schroeder, and Burkholder 2009. 96 California Health Interview Survey. Data for 2007. (Quoted in: ACPHD 2010.) 97 Huskey & Associates, Inc. 2004. Alameda County, California Comprehensive Study of the Juvenile Justice System. (In its response to the report (available at: http://www.co.alameda.ca.us/probation/documents/huskey_response.pdf), the County's Probation Department expressed intentions to improve screening processes, but it has issued no further updates.)
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deterrence of having had negative experiences with institutional care in the past. They have found that many therapists and other adults don't really seem interested in their problems, or even when they are well-intentioned, they may simply not get it. Participants in all four phases of the research suggested that young men's mental and emotional health needs can be at least partially addressed by including an element of (overt or covert) group therapy in programs for at-risk youth. Several focus group participants mentioned the importance of having people they feel they can talk to about problems; feelings of isolation are an issue even for high school students with many social contacts, and are even more so for members of more socially marginal groups such as day laborers or gay-identified men. However, providers and community participants all stressed that the efficacy of group treatment depends on the program facilitators' ability to connect with and show caring for the youth. Phase IV participants on the LMB Advisory Board also emphasized the importance larger systems' being prepared to follow through with continuing care once a service provider or program facilitator has helped a young man open up to the possibility of healing.
"The worst part is that, my teachers, the people I interact with, they say, You got the capacity to do good, man. You can go it, you've always been able to jump out of a crowd. But this year, depression's just kept me down. Like, why should I even try to impress people." (Adam, School Attendance Group) "I stopped going to therapy because it wasn't a conversation like we're having right now, it was like they put me on the spot. And there was a time when the lady put a little timer thing, like, You got sixty minutes, and I was just sitting there like, What's up, what you trying to do? I was supposed to talk about my brother's death, but how the hell am I supposed to share that with you?" (Romero, Violence Prevention Group) "I think that it's very difficult for people here to open up and have a more human relationship." (Latino male adult, Employment Group)98
Latino Men as Health Care Providers: Several Phase I and II interviewees mentioned that, while the number of Latinas employed by health and social service agencies is increasing, they believe that the proportion of Spanish-speaking and/or Latino-culturally-literate service providers is still not sufficient to meet the needs of Oakland's changing population; participants in the Health Homes and Obesity Prevention focus group confirmed the importance of being able to communicate in Spanish to having an effective health care interaction. Key informants said that there are very few Latino men employed by those agencies at all; most health and social service providers (with the exception of MDs) are women, which can lead to a focus on serving women and sometimes a bias against serving men. (Some key informants raised the particular issue that 'family' services tend to actually be oriented almost solely toward mothers.) Participants in all of the focus groups agreed strongly with what the research team heard from Phase I and II informants about the need to have more service providers and program facilitators with similar backgrounds to their clients; this came out especially strongly in discussions about mental health services. However, as some key informants in employment programs pointed out, it can be difficult to overcome traditional views in the Latino community of what is appropriate work for men; attention to cultural nuances will be important in recruitment for any health care jobs program for Latino males.
"Csar's always going to be there, the good times and the bad times, right on the spot. If we have a problem we could open up to him. He won't be laughing, he'll actually take it seriously and say something about him, too, because he's been through that same path. So we need someone to understand us like that." (Max, Violence Prevention Group) "A service provider should be someone who has lived our same lives and experiencesor who has walked in our same steps." (A Latino male adult, Employment Group)99
Access for Immigrants: Although informants involved with County and County-funded health institutions said they try to provide as many services as possible without asking for immigration paperwork, and make them cheap or free whenever they can, health-services informants who work mostly with the
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undocumented populationas well as participants in the Day Laborers' focus groupsaid access is still a major issue for immigrants. If nothing else, they said, new immigrants who aren't familiar with how social services work in the U.S. are likely to have extra trouble completing all the requisite paperwork. (For those who are eligible for insurance, there are a different set of bureaucratic problems; some interviewees and Parents' focus group participants mentioned particular difficulties with MediCal.) Some service providers raised a particular concern about unaccompanied immigrant minors, who have trouble getting health care services because they can't get the requisite parental permissions. Whatever they consider to be the reasons for the lack, all key informants and community participants who were asked about undocumented immigrants believe this particularly vulnerable subpopulation has a special need for better access to population-specific preventive health services and general health education, especially about mental health and depression and how to handle on-the-job injuries, and that these health services need to be linked up with other services undocumented immigrants need but may not have information about, such as housing and social opportunities. The Day Laborers' focus group especially stressed the need for targeted outreach that clearly advertises when health services are open to all, regardless of immigration status. They also cited a need for more outreach and health education efforts in indigenous languages, for immigrants who don't speak Spanish. Another issue a couple of informants raised around this subpopulation was that immigrant laborers are frequent clientele for prostitutes, and need more information and practical support regarding prevention of and testing for sexually transmitted diseases. (Participants in the Day Laborers' community focus group were all recruited through Street Level Health Project and seemed to be reasonably well-informed, but when asked, they said that day laborers in general do not have enough information about STDs.)
"The current drug and alcohol services are not tailored for day laborers. They are available for anyone, and that makes it seem inaccessible to them." (A Latino male adult, Employment Group) "We are human, and we have needs as men. The first thing we do is look for women on the street, and we do not know the risks we are taking. Usually we do not start taking precautions until after we have become infected." (A Latino male adult, Employment Group)
Summary of Recommendations: Based on these findings, the LMB project team suggests that Oakland would benefit from programs that actively recruit young Latino males into the health professions, building on programs that actively recruit young Latino males into wellness programs such as those run by existing school-based health clinics, from expanding the capacity of those clinics, from developing better outreach programs for parents, and from improving the accessibility of health care and other services for men who have sex with men and for immigrants and other institutionally-disconnected Latinos. (Details of these recommendations may be found in C of Appendix I.)
4.4
Obesity Prevention
Overview of the Issue: Few key informants addressed the issue of obesity per se at any length, but statistics indicate that Latino young men and boys are at a significantly higher risk for obesity than most other youth in Oakland. According to the California Health Interview Survey, in 2007, 22.6% of Latino male children in Alameda County were overweight for their age, as compared to 9.9% on of all children in the county. Among teens and young adults, 31.8% were of Latino males were overweight or obese, as compared to an overall rate of 22.8% of all teens and young adults in the county.100 Historically, obesity rates among Latino children
100
California Health Interview Survey. Data for 2007. http://www.chis.ucla.edu
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and youth in Oakland have not been as high as the average rates for Latino children and youth across California,101 which the research team believes may contribute to obesity not being as high-priority for key informants as other problems for Oakland's Latino young men and boys. However, in this latest CHIS data, the obesity rate for Latino male children in Alameda County (22.6%) exceeds that for Latino male children across the state (15.5%), though the rate for Latino male teens and young adults is still lower in Alameda County (31.8%) than statewide (39.9%).102 Latinos are still the ethnicity with the highest teen obesity rates in Alameda County, and males tend to have higher rates than females.103 Although most Phase I and II research participants did not address the issue of obesity head-on, it came up in discussion of problems at a number of levels, including the community level (lack of recreational outlets), systems level (insufficient preventive services tailored to males), and family level (lack of information about children's health and resources to access nutritious food). Many community leaders, service providers, and focus group participants stressed that a lack of healthy, pro-social recreational opportunities in Oakland contributes to a number of negative health outcomes for Latino young men and boys, including obesity. Most of the parents who participated in the Health Homes and Obesity Prevention focus group believe that space for recreation is the most important factor in children's maintaining healthy weight, though some did express concerns about having time and resources to cook healthy meals and to get their children to eat fruits and vegetables. (A few admitted to having basically given up on trying to force their children to eat healthily.) Several health providers who were interviewed expressed concerns about young Latino males' access to information about preventive health, as discussed in 3.2.3; the research team also got input from a number of health care and social services providers and from participants in the Parents' focus group about the need for more proactive, culturally-appropriate outreach to families about children's health needs, including nutritional needs. A couple of key informants addressed the issue of nutritional access more directly, discussing the need for more outlets for fresh produce and healthy foods in Latino neighborhoods. Major Problem Areas to Address: Safe Spaces for Physical Activity: Young Latinos' lack of access to good recreational facilities came up in discussions with participants in all phases of the project, and their perception is confirmed by statistics; the California Health Interview Survey found that lower-income people have fewer safe spaces for exercise in their neighborhoods and consequently lower rates of physical activity.104 In Alameda County, CHIS found that Latino teens are less likely than whites or Asians and Pacific Islanders to get regular exercise,105 and that Latino males are less likely than white or API males to use public parks.106 Several key informants, as well as Parents' focus group participants, expressed concern that many Parks & Recreation Department facilities in Oakland are not considered safe, putting a damper on community sports, exercise programs, and similar activities, and that Oakland Unified School District facilities are frequently old, broken-down, and not accessible after school hours. Service providers in recreation programs for youth said that current cooperative agreements between OUSD, Parks & Rec, and community groups about joint use of OUSD and city facilities do not cover even as much sports and recreational programming as those community groups would be able to provide staffing for. (Phase IV stakeholders in OUSD described this as an issue of janitorial budget.) There was broad agreement among community leaders, key service providers, and participants in community focus groups that finding more safe spaces for recreation and increasing and improving the accessibility of sports and other recreational
101 102
California Health Interview Survey. Data for 2003 and 2005 combined. (Quoted in: ACPHD 2007.) California Health Interview Survey. Data for 2007. 103 California Department of Education. Data for 2004-05. (Quoted in: Brown et al. 2006.) 104 California Health Interview Survey. Data for 2003. (Quoted in: Beyers et al. 2008.) 105 California Health Interview Survey. Data for 2003. (Quoted in: Brown et al. 2006.) 106 California Health Interview Survey. Data for 2007. (Quoted in: ACPHD 2010.)
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programs is key to improving Latino young men's physical, mental, and social health. Parents in the Health Homes and Obesity Prevention focus group especially discussed the need for activities to be more affordable for low-income families. A number of key informants and community participants in the Violence Prevention and Day Laborers' focus groups stressed that it is most beneficial to have programs that are specifically oriented toward Latino males, that will be attractive because they engage the young men's sense of themselves and their place in their communities. They suggested these programs can also provide opportunities for connection between Latinos in each age bracket and youth in the next age bracket up with similar backgrounds, who can act as potential supportive role models.
"Honestly, I passed by the Y during the summer, and I was like, Looks boring, and kept walking. Passed back, still looks boring, kept walking. I never thought I was gonna enter through those two gatesjust maybe thought, Oh, I'm gonna tag right here, but I never thought I'd enter those gates." / "Before Csar came over here, just... The Y never caught nobody's attention until he came." / "Just a place to play basketball." (Justin, Andre, and Oscar, Violence Prevention Group) "I'm trying to leave the gangs. I'm trying to move to something else, something way better, something bringing me a positive feeling and positive energy, like Danza Azteca. Every time I hit the drum, it's just relieving the stress." (Manny, Violence Prevention Group) "My daughter likes to ride her bike around the neighborhood, but I am afraid to go with her for fear of being robbed or assaulted. I need to be accompanied by my husband or one of my sisters, otherwise I wont go." (Sharon, a Latina mother, Health Homes & Obesity Prevention Group)107
Knowledge About Nutrition and Obesity: As discussed in 3.2.3, key informants and community participants agreed that young Latino men don't tend to participate in preventive health education programs at the same rate as young Latinas, so they don't receive as much information about health issues such as obesity; more proactive outreach is needed to educate young Latino men about nutrition and exercise. The health services providers interviewed in Phase II of the project who did discuss issues of obesity in more detail pointed out that many Latino families do not have access to information about children's nutritional needs, portion control, how to cook healthily, and how to teach their children about diet and exercise, and that they need better support networks through which they can learn. They believe having such information and networks would help parents address some of the problems discussed by the Health Homes and Obesity Prevention focus group; several participants cited the difficulty of finding time to cook healthily and of how to get their children to eat more healthy food. These providers believe that more linguistically- and culturally-appropriate outreach targeted toward Latinos is needed, including proactive peer-to-peer information-sharing and recruitment of Latino parents (especially fathers) into linguistically-accessible parenting classes. In particular, they pointed out that new immigrants may be unaware of the options available in Oakland for healthy eating and may switch over to a prototypicalAmerican-food diet without being aware of the comparative nutritional content of those choices.
"We want to teach them what to eat. They dont want to try vegetables. One picks at his rice to pull out the veggies. I cant obligate them to eat it." (Carmen, a Latina mother, Health Homes & Obesity Prevention 108 Group) "Eating vegetables lost importance to me because it was so much of a battle. There are more important things." (A Latina mother, Health Homes & Obesity Prevention Group)109
Access to Healthy Foods: There was a perception among the Phase II informants who discussed nutrition and obesity that grocery availability (especially a variety of fresh produce) tends to be more limited in poorer neighborhoods (such as West and East Oakland), where Latinos generally live. The statistical support for this at the neighborhood level is equivocal, but there is at the least a county-wide problem
107 108
Translated from Spanish. Translated from Spanish. 109 Translated from Spanish.
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with food availability. The Alameda County Public Health Department's study of health inequities found that "Although there is not a clear spatial, racial/ethnic, or poverty correlation in these data, it can be seen that there are many areas in Alameda County with a high density of unhealthful food outlets. A recent study in California determined that there are over four times the number of fast food restaurants and convenience stores compared to grocery stores and produce vendors in Alameda County."110 An Oakland Children's Hospital study determined that mobile food vendors provide a significant portion of children's nutrition in some of Oakland's Latino neighborhoods.111 There was also some concern expressed by key informants and some of the parents in the Health Homes and Obesity Prevention focus group about the variety and nutritiousness of food served in school cafeterias; OUSD, La Clnica de la Raza, and others are currently working on a study of school lunches.112 However, providers working in school-based clinics pointed out that information and outreach are vital in that arena as well; if students don't have the knowledge and encouragement to make good choices, they will pick less healthy options or even go out for fast food. Summary of Recommendations: Based on these findings, the LMB project team recommends expanding Latino-specific as well as multicultural recreational programs, using peer-to-peer outreach networks as a means to educate parents about their children's health needs and educate youth about nutrition, increasing the availability of fresh produce in Latino neighborhoods through development policies and support for innovative entrepreneurship, developing policies that lead to more walkable neighborhoods, and improving the quality of food in school cafeterias. (Details of these recommendations may be found in D of Appendix I.)
4.5
Employment
Overview of the Issue: Numerous project participants repeatedly emphasized young Latino men's need for training and placement in skilled jobs that are valued by the community as well as paying a living wage. The lack of jobs was framed as being a major factor in violence and gang activity, health disparities, and even educational engagement, by key informants working in those areas as well as those who deal more directly with employment programs. (An ACPHD study for 2002-04 found that 86% of suspected perpetrators in Oakland homicides and 75% of victims were unemployed.113) Phase I and II informants and community focus group participants stressed that employment is key to mental/emotional, physical, and social health, especially skilled and/or pro-social employment that gets respect and provides young men with a sense of meaning and purpose. For this reason, the LMB project team is developing an analysis of needs and a recommendation framework in the area of employment; although it is not one of
Beyers, Matt, Janet Brown, Sangsook Cho, Alex Desautels, Karie Gaska, Kathryn Horsley, Tony Iton, Tammy Lee, Liz Maker, Jane Martin, Neena Murgai, Katherine Schaff, Sandra Witt, and Sarah Martin Anderson. 2008. Life and Death from Unnatural Causes: Health and social inequity in Alameda County. Oakland, CA: Alameda County Public Health Department. (Study quoted is Babey, Susan H., Allison L. Diamant, Theresa A. Hastert, Stefan Harvey, Harold Goldstein, Rebecca Flournoy, Rajni Banthia, Victor Rubin, Sarah Treuhaft. 2008. Designed for Disease: The link between local food environments and obesity and diabetes. Los Angeles: California Center for Public Health Advocacy, PolicyLink, and UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.) 111 Tester, June M., Irene H. Yen, and Barbara Laraia. 2010. Mobile food vending and the after-school food environment. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 38:1. 112 Source: LMB study participant Ignacio Ferrey. 113 Alameda County Public Health Department. 2006. Violence in Oakland: A public health crisis. Oakland, CA: ACPHD. (Available at: http://www.acphd.org/AXBYCZ/Admin/DataReports/violenceinoakland.pdf)
110
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the Boys and Men of Color Initiative's four focus areas, its impact on all of those areas is such that the team believes it deserves independent consideration. According to key informants who work in job-training and job-placement, employment prospects in Oakland overall are scarce, and Latino menespecially youthtend to have even more trouble finding sustainable employment at a living wage than other groups due to lower education levels and, frequently, lower skill levels. They noted that Latino males rarely participate in the few available job training programs, and pointed out that many work in the informal economy (through family connections and/or under-the-table work), which makes it somewhat difficult to assess the situation. But though accurate statistics may be lacking, these key informants' long experience working with Latino men in jobs programs and the project's focus group discussions with the target community are painting a picture of a situation where factors such as educational history, English fluency, interactions with the justice system, and (according to several informants) institutional racism have led to a cyclical economic struggle that keeps many Latino males in poverty and disenfranchises successive generations. The job market is even more difficult for this population's subset of undocumented men, who are especially in need of vocational training and sustainable employment opportunities. To the extent that it can be counted on, given the high number of undocumented laborers in Oakland and the aforementioned problem of under-the-table work, official statistics support a picture in which, even though Latino males have higher employment rates than the city average, they are working in lowerpaying, lower-status jobs. According to American Communities Survey data from 2006-08, 15.1% of Oakland's Latino males aged sixteen through twenty-four who considered themselves in the labor force were officially unemployed when surveyed, as compared to 23.3% for all males in that age group. Among all adult Latinos as a group, 7.7% were unemployed, as compared to an 8.7% unemployment rate across Oakland.114 However, ACS data for Oakland also indicate that, in 2006-08, Latinos had far lower family and per capita annual incomes than the total Oakland population, earning a median of $41,228 a year per family and $16,277 per capita, as compared to a median of $55,949 per family and $30,094 per capita for the entire Oakland population.115 ACS data on occupation types in 2006-08 indicate that Latino males are far less likely than average to be in professional or managerial positions (10.6% of Latino males; 40.3% of the total working population of Oakland) and are more likely to be in construction and maintenance (35.3% of Latino males; 9.1% of the total Oakland working population), service jobs (22.0% vs. 18.5%), or manufacturing and transport (21.4% vs. 10.9%).116 Major Problem Areas to Address: Job Scarcity: There was general agreement among participants in the LMB project's research that the employment market in Oakland is not good; this is especially so given the current economic recession. (The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that Oakland's average official unemployment rate for February April 2010 was 17.4%,117 as opposed to 9.8% for the U.S. as a whole.118) Finding and keeping a job was foremost among the concerns of young Latino gay men surveyed for the Nuestras Voces/Oakland report.119 Employment is, of course, a problem for everyone in the city, but especially the most vulnerable populations, such as young men of color; some Phase I and II interviewees expressed concerns that existing job-creation programs in Oakland do not focus enough on the demographic groups most in need
114 115
U.S. Census Bureau, American Communities Survey. ACS three-year adjusted data estimates for 2006-08. U.S. Census Bureau, American Communities Survey. ACS three-year adjusted data estimates for 2006-08. (In 2008 inflationadjusted dollars.) 116 U.S. Census Bureau, American Communities Survey. ACS three-year adjusted data estimates for 2006-08. 117 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local area unemployment statistics data for 2/10, 3/10, and 4/10. http://data.bls.gov 118 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Labor force statistics data for 2/10, 3/10, and 4/10. http://data.bls.gov 119 Diaz, Schroeder, and Burkholder 2009.
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of assistance. Some key informants also framed the issue in terms of larger structural problems with economic assistance programs, pointing out that government and NGO money directed toward improving communities frequently does not get used to employ people in that community.
"First we should be accommodating those here, and newcomers after that." (A Latino male adult, Employment Group)120 "Later on, we're going to need that job. I'm going to need a job when I graduate from high school because I need to pay for community college." (Oscar, Violence Prevention Group)
Job Training and Placement: Key informants who work in job training and placement programs serving young Latino men agreed that there is a significant problem with insufficient education (and/or young people's unwillingness to further interact with the educational system) hampering job placement; it can even be a problem in training programs, where remedial education and basic workplace-behavior skillbuilding are frequently necessary before specialized training can begin. Service agencies working with parolees run into this problem especially frequently. Connections between job-training and job-placement problems also came up frequently in interviews with employment specialists, who said there need to be better pipelines from training to placement for the entire enterprise to be effective. These key informants believe that jobs programs are most effective when they show young people a clear pathway to success, by providing stipends during training and by linking them with job opportunities at the end of it. Also on the question of effectiveness, some service providers also expressed concern that many job-training programs, especially those that are part of state or federal initiatives, may be providing training for careers that are not actually in demand locally; they believe more focus on the local economic landscape is needed.
"A great job is something I would like to do, not something that's just because, Oh, I need a job, but something I would like to do, that relates to me. (Justin, Violence Prevention Group) "If you stay at home, you don't do nothing. You're just becoming another day laborer, waiting right there to get picked up to get a job, when you could be out there being the person owning the business, when you come to school. Go to college, get an education, become someone in life." (Luciano, School Attendance Group)
Immigrant Labor Force: When asked about employment, participants in the LMB research frequently raised the need for special attention to the immigrant subpopulation in jobs programs for young Latino men. Key informants in Phases I and II described how immigrant Latino males who did not attend school in the United States are often disenfranchised educationally and linguistically, and are forced to perform the least desirable work for very low pay. This was confirmed emphatically by the community participants in the Employment/Day Laborers focus group; many thought it nearly impossible to get regular work without knowing English and having experience with getting along in America. Immigrants who are undocumented have even more limited options for gainful employment with community value; key informants in job training and placement said programs that receive federal money are severely limited in the help they can give anyone without papers. Key informants and Day Laborers' focus group participants also expressed concern that undocumented, and even documented, immigrants frequently are not aware of their rights as workers and are reluctant to report mistreatment by employers. Community participants gave a number of examples of situations where they or people they knew put up with unfair treatment or unsafe conditions, either because of fear of being turned over to ICE or simply because they couldn't afford to have the job given to someone else. They also expressed concern about a lack of community connection in Oakland in general and lack of understanding of and support for day laborers in particular. As well as employment-related support and education about workers' rights, day labor focus group participants and service providers who work with day laborers described a general need for better
120
Translated from Spanish.
41
support structures (social and practical) and proactive outreach about available services for immigrant males, especially newly-arrived ones. Although most of the day laborers who have lived elsewhere in the U.S. consider Oakland to have better services than most places, they pointed out that those services are only of use if one knows they're there and has the will to use them. The community participants also stressed the importance of targeting services to a particular group, not just because of their special legal and social issues but because (as LMB researchers have heard from participants in other areas) they have found services to be most effective when delivered by someone who has a close understanding of their particular situation (preferably someone with the same background).
"Either you do it even though it hurts your health, but you eat, or, if you don't do it, either you don't eat or you don't pay the rent." (A Latino male adult, Employment Group)121 "The thing is that we aren't unified. We're really fractured. If we Hispanics see in another country that they're beating somebody up, instead of helping him we leave him there. There's a lot of us, but at the same time 122 very few because we don't get together." (A Latino male adult, Employment Group)
Summary of Recommendations: Based on these findings, the LMB project team recommends that Oakland expand and improve access to existing job-training programs that serve Latino males, focusing on fields where culturally-competent services are especially important, such as health care, create new Latino-male-specific job-training programs, open up more job opportunities for Latinos by improving enforcement of linguistic access policies, develop alternative economic structures for undocumented immigrants, improve connections with labor rights organizations and vocational training for immigrant workers, and reevaluate how economic development money is spent in Oakland. (Details of these recommendations may be found in E of Appendix I.)
5.
Concluding Remarks and Next Steps
The Latino Men and Boys - Oakland project is an important effort to collect qualitative ethnographic data to supplement quantitative data about Oakland's Latino men and boys on a broad range of topics relating to well-being. For many of the community members who participated in and contributed to this work, the project offered a unique opportunity to be involved in in-depth dialogue specifically about outcomes for Latino males. In fact, it was often the first time some of the young men had had the opportunity to share their experiences about their relationships to Oakland's systems with a caring, interested listener. The resulting report describes a great need on the part of Oakland's Latino young men and boys, highlighting the systems, practices, and programs that have neglected to address disparities in health, employment, and education. However, by its very nature, it also reflects the dedication of providers to improving the lives of young Latinos and the openness of the community to creative solutions. It is undeniable that Oakland's systems need to evolve quickly in order to meet the needs of its growing Latino population. The lack of capacity to address gaps in services is stark and alarming; the inability of systems to address the needs of the growing Latino population in Oakland is presenting increasing risks to the health of the greater Oakland community. Despite growing awareness and interest on the part of systems leaders, those systems have been slow to adjust to demographic shifts. This inertia is exacerbated by budget restraints, lack of resources, and a dearth of pipelines for training and hiring of Latinos
121 122
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institutional employers often cite a lack of education, experience, and talent in the Latino employment pool. The sooner those issues are addressed, the better. Across the board, this research shows that an overall improvement in the livelihood of Latino men and boys will depend on a focus on educational outcomes for Latino youth. It is imperative that an effort be made to engage as many segments of the community as possible to build connections between various systems and programs that interact with Latino males in Oakland, with a focus on humanizing and individualizing relationships between systems and Latino youth and reducing their isolation. The LMB research has shown that the success of any plan to improve the well-being of Latino young men and boys depends vitally on an effective strategy to engage the family unit. It has become clear in the course of this project that strategies to address the needs of Oakland's Latino community as a whole are inseparable from strategies to address the issues facing Oakland's most disenfranchised Latino males. For instance, the unique complexities of immigration and citizenship status are extremely important to consider in trying to improve services for Latinos. Issues related to marginal subpopulations are complex and often charged, and in many cases, it is necessary to evaluate current social and media perceptions in developing strategies. For example, project research indicates that increasing membership in Latino gangs is a result of the alienation of young Latino men and an absence of organized pro-social activities and positive role models, combined with a lack of social tools to combat negative stereotypes and develop culturally-grounded self-knowledge. These factors all point to a lack of community and political will to aggressively address issues from multiple perspectives, resulting in part from the predominant but misleading view of gang culture as the center of Latino male culture in Oakland and beyond. Mitigating this view is part and parcel of mitigating the problem of gang involvement. Looking at the bigger picture, research carried out by members of the Oakland Boys and Men of Color Coordinating Committee has identified a lack of general knowledge and understanding that Oakland's African-American and Latino communities have of each other. This gap in understanding impacts community leadership and institutional and systems leadership, resulting in fragmentation, lack of coordination, and missed opportunities for community and systems change. A key component for the success of this work must focus on the creation of a shared policy platform that fleshes out a joint action agenda and improves relationships between the two ethnic communitiesnot just as an outcome, but as a strategy. Over time, such a platform could be further expanded to include all of Oakland's diverse communities of color. Going forward, the LMB project team will continue to engage the Latino Men and Boys Advisory Board, key leaders in Oakland's systems and services, and partners in the Boys and Men of Color Initiative to present the research findings, finalize and advocate for the Action Plan, and begin the steps necessary for its implementation. Based on the findings in this report, the Unity Council will make implementation of the LMB project's recommendations the goal of a sustained program within their social development and youth leadership services, by bringing on a salaried staff person who will direct continued efforts to improve outcomes for Oakland's Latino young men and boys. This staff person will, among other things, continue to convene community meetings of Latino young men and boys in Oakland, their families, and service providers. These meetings will act as a springboard from which to expand the process begun by the LMB research project, allow the community to evaluate the status of efforts to implement the project recommendations, and provide general opportunities for community members to come together and talk about common problems and potential solutions. This effort, facilitated by an established entity in Oakland's Latino community, will ensure that stakeholders are held accountable for realizing the changes in policies and systems that are needed to increase healthy outcomes for Latino men and boys in Oakland.
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LATINO MEN AND BOYS

Paul Flores Cause Data Collective The Unity Council of Oakland

Prcis: The Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010

Contents of the LMB - Oakland Report 8/10

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010

LATINO MEN AND BOYS - OAKLAND PROJECT

Summary of Findings and Analysis in Focus Areas

Focus Area B: Violence Prevention

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010

Focus Area C: Health Homes

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010

Focus Area D: Obesity Prevention

Focus Area E: Employment

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010

LATINO MEN AND BOYS - OAKLAND PROJECT

Introduction to the LMB Research Project

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010

Qualitative Interviews with Community Leaders

Ground Developing Picture of LMB

Confirm Findings and Analysis

Mapping the Demographic Landscape of Oakland

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010

Detailed Description of Methods

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010

Phase II: Interviews with Service Providers

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010

Phase III: Community Focus Group Discussions

See D2 of Appendix II for discussion protocol.

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010

Findings I: Overview of Salient Points and Emergent Themes

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010

California Department of Education. Ed-Data data for 2008-09.

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010

Emergent Themes from Focus Group Discussions (Phase III)

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010

Latino Men and Boys - Oakland Project

Report: September 2010