Oakland has become a seedbed for new approaches to urban education, job training, and community design. The city is home to a growing number of programs and projects through which young people are learning about and improving their neighborhoods, as well as expanding their skills and career options. These programs link the classroom and the community, empower youth and make environmental issues relevant to the inner city.

Several of these activities were profiled in a recent issue of Forum News, a newsletter produced by the University-Oakland Metropolitan Forum. The Forum is a partnership of the University of California at Berkeley, California State University at Hayward, Mills College, Holy Names College, the Peralta Community College District, and the Oakland community.

Two exemplary programs featured are the tutoring program at Frick Junior High School and the Fruitvale Youth in Action Video Project. The novel tutoring program for 120 seventh and eighth graders augments the Designing Spaces for People curriculum developed by the Education Development Center of Newton, Massachusetts. The curriculum uses design and construction scenarios as a basis for learning math skills.

The young junior high students learn about the community development process through design scenarios that utilize their experience of their immediate neighborhood. By using the immediate environment, students are introduced to the neighborhood revitalization effort currently underway in Central East Oakland. They are able to do something positive and meaningful which helps them and their community as well. Otherwise, students might "fall through" or flirt with the negative elements in their neighborhood.

In class, students discuss and produce drawings concerning questions like: What is your neighborhood? What is your home? What does an architect do? A site on the Frick Junior High campus is selected for students to design as a common area serving the community. In this case, students selected a community greenhouse and garden for the site. They attended a design charrette with architecture students at the UC Berkeley campus to develop plans for the site and other sites in the neighborhood.

With the support of Project YES, which was recently awarded the single highest funding for President' Clinton's Summer Service projects, Frick students will be recruited and paid to construct the greenhouse supervised by older youth and community volunteers.

The community greenhouse has gained broad-based support and will be used in a number of meaningful ways to make a difference in Frick students' lives:

* The greenhouse will be integrated into teacher lesson plans in science, environmental studies, art and other subjects

* The greenhouse will be available for after-school activities, providing an alternative to the streets.

* Youth working in the greenhouse will develop skills to enable them to obtain part-time and summer jobs

* Flowers grown in the greenhouse will be replanted to beautify the commercial area and to attract increased pedestrian traffic

* The greenhouse will serve as a vehicle for intergenerational activity, a place to establish informal relationships between youths and elders.

* The greenhouse will foster interest in landscaping, neighborhood beautification and nurture community pride

By integrating traditional classroom assignments with hands-on community improvement projects, the Frick Junior High group initiated a comprehensive experiential program that can build self-esteem, self-empowerment, and social responsibility.

The second project involved a cooperative effort between the Fruitvale Community Collaborative (FCC) and the Oakland Museum to implement a summer video production program aimed at youth in Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood. The Fruitvale Youth in Action Video Project uses the video documentation process to increase youths' awareness of their environment and assist them in discovering the sense of history in their community.

The FCC includes almost 20 organizations in Fruitvale organized to empower community residents to improve their quality of life. A goal is to empower youth to deal with the challenges they face. By documenting the history and contemporary environment of the neighborhood, the youth will discover that the community is built upon a rich history of struggle and hope for the future, and that they have a role to play in the development of their community.

The youth will not only learn how to do production work such as interviewing, directing, research, videography, and editing, they will also be responsible for the artistic vision and direction for the video. This historical documentary will be created by young people between the ages of 13 and 19.

The youth will work nine hours a week and be hired through the Private Industry Council (PIC) Summer Youth Employment program, which is managed in Fruitvale by the Spanish Speaking Citizens' Foundation. The success of this program may lead to the development of an after-school program for 1994.

Both these activities explore alternative methods for educating youth. Through a process of learning by doing youth are introduced to their immediate environment in ways that nurture positive and more meaningful values and attitudes which help rebuild neighborhoods and clearly benefit their communities.