oakland workforce development

Oakland Workforce Investment Board – a city organization helping employees and employers get matched up in Oakland. On the surface it sounds like a lot of dysfunctional city bureaucracy, but maybe there is something here. Need to look into it further.

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same idea, different clientele

TWO ROOMS – A work space for freelance moms. Or at least it used to be. Their website is still working but it looks like their physical space is closed for the time being. I wonder what happened?

The main idea (from their website): “Parents work and children play at a facility designed to meet the needs of the growing population of freelance workers who are parents – a group that requires flexibility, professional resources and childcare. Our mission is to provide a comfortable and complete work environment for parents, with quality childcare on site, to give parents and children the room they need to be creative and productive.”

Childcare + Office Space – their tagline “You work, they play.”

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brothers with money

Knight Brothers 21st Century News Challenge

My brother found this. They have ALOT of money and very open guidelines. But their deadline is December 31!

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thinking WAY ahead

PacificCare Foundation – I heard an underwriting message about these guys on KQED. They are a health care provider that gives grants to various organizations… not exactly useful at the moment but worth filing away.

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help from politicians?

While it looks like Aimee Allison is not going to defeat Pat Kernighan in the District 2 City Council race, she still might be a helpful ally in developing a small business in Oakland.

From her campaign website:

Support Small and Local Businesses
• Adopt a plan to attract retail that will include development of key neighborhood business districts like the Grand Lake, Eastlake, Chinatown, and 23rd Avenue
• Encourage Oaklanders to develop independent businesses
• Provide marketing and promotions grant and loans to merchant associations
• Encourage successful, well run small businesses to open a second or third site in Oakland (e.g. coffee shops/restaurants)

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how could I forget

The Grotto – home of Po Bronson and other freelance superstars. It’s an amazing organization with one major problem – it’s exclusive to folks who are already relatively established in the freelance world.

Here’s an article by Po Bronson about writer communities.

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this one is fun – nanowrimo

NaNoWriMo – These guys sponsor National Novel Writing Month, challenging folks to write a 175-page novel between November 1 and November 30. But more than that, they are trying to create a community of writers who would otherwise be alone in their rooms/offices/local cafes. The founder, Chris Baty, is an Oakland-based freelance writer.

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