Update: 2022-25 Strategic Plan Implementation

​The Oakland Starting Smart and Strong 2022-2025 Strategic Plan was created with action at its center – we did not intend for it to sit on a shelf (or in a PDF). The plan, developed in collaboration with over 300 stakeholders, builds on our past successes, maps a clear strategic direction forward, and is deeply rooted in our commitment to racial justice and equity. This summer, we took a look at our progress as we embark on the last year of the plan. Here are just some highlights:

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Goal 1: Racial Justice: Expand and improve Oakland’s early childhood system for children farthest from opportunity, with a focus on Black and brown children.  ​

• ​The Boys of Color Work Group developed an Action Toolkit and Reference Guide: 10 Promising Practice s in Early Learning for Black Boys and OSSS released a report: Promising Practices Portfolio: Strategies for Supporting Boys of Color and Their Families for Improved Early Years Outcomes.  In 2023-24,  we completed two Community of Practice Boys of Color cohorts with more than 50 early learning educators.

• ​​​Resilient Oakland Community and Kids (ROCK) Earlier in 2024, we released our homegrown trauma-informed toolkit for educators,  based on ROCK practices. ROCK continues to be offered at OUSD preschool sites, and the toolkit was the featured topic at the May Oakland Early Learning Symposium.

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Goal 2: Community and Family Leadership: OSSS will ensure the voices of families, early childhood educators, and community-based providers are centered in decisions affecting Oakland’s early childhood ecosystem

• Over the last four years, over 1,000 early learning professionals in Oakland and beyond participated in Oakland Early Learning Symposium events. We consistently receive high satisfaction rates from our post-meeting evaluations, often above 95%. 

• The Family Child Care (FCC) Policy Program, comprised of Oakland FCC providers, proposed an FCC emergency fund to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, requesting $1 million from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to support providers in keeping their businesses open. Watch the short film “Economic Justice for Oakland Family Child Care Providers” to learn more about their priorities, in their own words, and why they need our commitment to advocate for economic justice.

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​Goal 3: Systems Change: OSSS will advocate for investments in Oakland's early childhood system that are sustained, aligned, and equitably implemented.​

• ​OSSS met with most City Councilmembers and OUSD School Board Directors between 2022-2023. Meetings included a broad range of OSSS partners with connections to an elected official’s district.  

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​​​Goal 4: Data, Policy, and Advocacy: OSSS will inform early childhood policy and resource decision-making in Oakland through asset-based, community-designed research, data, and tools.

• The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is a community snapshot of Kindergarten children’s health, development, and school readiness. In 2023, the EDI survey was completed for 2,363 children across 50 OUSD schools for a 94% completion rate. 1,000 families also completed the associated family survey.

• ​OSSS created an interactive resource for Oakland’s early childhood community, the Oakland Early Childhood Ecosystem Data Portal, which gathers the wide variety of local research and data on our Early Childhood (EC) Ecosystem. 

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​​Goal 5: Collective Impact: OSSS will be a fully established and sustained cross-sector collaborative that leverages and coordinates efforts to make the early childhood system in Oakland more effective and equitable.​

• Received an unsolicited $1 million gift from MacKenzie Scott, as an investment in our ability to create systemic changes to the early childhood ecosystem.

• ​The OSSS Executive Committee is currently developing an investable plan for funders, which will lay out the strategic priorities and cost projections for OSSS and early childhood collaborators for the next ten years. 

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The above is just a small portion of the outcomes that OSSS achieved in partnership with many of you over the last three years. We will continue to work towards reaching our goals in 2025!​​