The Dream...

The mission of the "I Have a Dream" Foundation- East Oakland is to motivate and empower every "Dreamer" (a child "adopted" from a low-income community) to reach their educational/career goals by graduating from high school functionally literate and prepared for further education or fulfilling employment. To this end we will provide a long-term (11+ years) program of mentoring, tutoring, academic advising, enrichment activities, and tuition assistance for higher education.

Description:
The East Oakland Project...

The "I Have a Dream" -East Oakland project will adopt 53 2nd and 3rd grade youth from two public housing developments in East Oakland. We will provide our youth, called "Dreamers", with an intense academic and personal enrichment program for 11-15 years. We promise to provide support and assistance through classroom aid, after-school programs, college and career awareness activities, a full time learning program each summer, literacy programs, cultural and social field trips, community service projects and training workshops dealing with Conflict Resolution, life skills, pregnancy prevention, self-esteem and peer pressure.

History:
The National Model...

The "I Have A Dream"(R) program is based on a successful model which began in 1981 by Eugene Lang, a New York native and businessman. When asked to give a graduation speech to sixth graders at his East Harlem alma mater, he looked out onto their faces and realized that over two-thirds of the children sitting in front of him would not graduate from high school. In a bold move he promised every student in the class a college education if they successfully completed high school. With this one act he changed their lives. The graduation rate rose from 25% to an amazing 90%, with 60% of those graduating students going on to college. Mr. Lang's program grew into the national "I Have A Dream" Foundation with 160 programs in more than 60 cities across the country.


The "I Have a Dream" (IHAD) Program helps children from low-income communities become productive citizens by providing a long-term program of mentoring, tutoring and enrichment, with an assured opportunity for higher education. IHAD believes there are three major categories in which support and assistance must be provided to students:

(1) academic development,
(2) social development, and
(3) strengthening support systems.

Around the country, Dreamers are graduating from schools at twice the rate of children who do not have the opportunity to participate in "I Have A Dream". IHAD projects guarantee each student financial assistance for college or vocational school once they graduate from high school.

Contact person: Tesia Johnson, Executive Director, (510) 663-3331, (email)

Address:

P.O. Box 23244 Oakland, CA 94623

Web Site: http://www.ihad-eastoakland.org