Youth Leadership
Real Hard
REAL HARD, which is short for Representing Educated Active Leaders Having a Righteous Dream, is OKF’s longest running youth leadership program. The REAL HARD program’s goal is to center young people’s voice, agency and decision-making power through organizing around their own educational experiences.
REAL HARD has chapters on high school campuses that meet twice a week after school and engage 120 total student leaders in grades 9-12. Youth participate in stipended activities focused on community-building and healing, skill development, political education, power mapping, campaign planning and civic engagement in order to improve the culture and climate at their school.
THOUSANDS OF STUDENTS REACHED
- Surveying and interviewing over 1,400 OUSD high schoolers about their priorities for safe and supportive campuses when returning to school after Covid-19 closures. This research informed development of a Student Justice Platform.
- Pre-registering over 450 16 and 17-year olds to vote as preparation for participation in local school board elections as soon as Oakland Youth Vote is implemented. Efforts will continue for all eligible voters, each school board election cycle, including 16 and 17 year olds.
- Developing school-wide Codes of Respect. Castlemont’s Knight Way, the Pillars of Oakland Tech and the Fremont Way were all created through REAL HARD leaders’ research, and synthesizing of shared values. Youth now run school stores at Fremont and Castlemont to incentivize students to uplift positive school culture by demonstrating code of respect values and earning currency that can be traded in for items that boost school pride.
Each year, REAL HARD brings students together across campuses through an overnight retreat and field trips to build community while developing campaigns.
Partner Schools In Oakland
- Castlemont
- Fremont
- Oakland High School
- Oakland Tech
- Skyline
Reach Out to US
Interested in joining the program or bringing a chapter of REAL HARD to your campus? Reach out to Peter@kidsfirstoakland.org
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TOP
Skills Gained
Building relationships
Facilitating and leading activities, processes or conversations
Improving collaboration or learning how to work with other youth
Feeling more connected to their community