The Oak­land – Bay Area Chap­ter of NCBW is com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing pro­grams that increase the par­tic­i­pa­tion of African Amer­i­can women in eco­nomic, civic, entre­pre­neur­ship, and human ser­vices are­nas of their respec­tive com­mu­ni­ties through edu­ca­tion, schol­ar­ship, and col­lab­o­ra­tion. NCBW is involved in a vari­ety of diverse activ­i­ties focus­ing on young women, low-to moderate-income fam­i­lies, women’s health, and polit­i­cal and eco­nomic awareness.

Pro­grams and Com­mu­nity Action

Sistah’s Get­ting Real About HIV/AIDS

This ini­tia­tive was cre­ated by the Oak­land – Bay Area Chap­ter and fur­ther expanded to a nation-wide Coali­tion effort.

• In 2008–2009, NCBW OBAC in part­ner­ship with com­mu­nity agen­cies, pro­fes­sion­als, faith-based orga­ni­za­tions and busi­nesses coordi-nated two com­mu­nity forums in San Fran­cisco and Oak­land, where an aver­age of 150 peo­ple were in atten­dance. Through its part-nerships and com­mu­nity events, NCBW efforts have resulted in over 500 peo­ple being tested. for HIV/AIDS.
• NCBW, OBAC has spon­sored an annual bill­board media cam­paign, which includes twelve bill­boards strate­gi­cally placed in low– and moderate-income neigh­bor­hoods around the Bay Area to pro­mote HIV/AIDS testing.
• On World AIDS Day, 2008, NCBW observed its fifth anniver­sary of the “Sis­tahs Get­ting Real About HIV/AIDS” bill­board cam­paign, which is designed to increase aware­ness of this epi­demic within the African Amer­i­can community.

Women’s Health Initiative

Areas of focus include the fol­low­ing health top­ics impact­ing the African Amer­i­can com­mu­nity: HIV/AIDS; Heart Dis­ease; Health and Nutri­tion; Dia­betes; and Breast Cancer.

Pos­i­tive Steps Program

Pos­i­tive Steps is a men­tor­ing pro­gram which pro­vides young women ages 12–17 the oppor­tu­nity to rec­og­nize their full poten­tial through the intro­duc­tion of edu­ca­tional, deve-lopmental, and cul­tural pro­grams, focus­ing in the areas of health and well­ness, careers, lead­er­ship and per­sonal devel­op­ment as well as cul­tural awareness.

• Our vision is to see young women step into a pos­i­tive future, one step at a time. While our pro­gram is open to all girls, on aver­age, 75% of our par­tic­i­pants are from low-to moderate-income households.
• Par­tic­i­pants also receive grad­u­a­tion and matric­u­la­tion awards, and have an oppor­tu­nity to receive a Stu­dent Schol­ar­ship Award through the NCBW/ OBAC Schol­ar­ship Program.
• Each year, our girls par­tic­i­pate in the Madam C. J. Walker Essay Con­test and the win­ner presents her essay at our annual Madam C. J. Walker Busi­ness and Com­mu­nity Recog­ni­tion Awards Luncheon

Pub­lic Ser­vice and Education

Com­mu­nity Grants

NCBW– OBAC has awarded over $140,000 in com­mu­nity grants dur­ing the last five years. Some of our recent recip­i­ents include:

• A Safe Place
• Build­ing Diver­sity in Science
• East Oak­land Youth Devel­op­ment Center
• Ile Omode School
• Jones Memo­r­ial Foun­da­tion, Inc.
• Women’s HIV Pro­gram at UCSF
• Young Schol­ars Program

Leg­isla­tive Advocacy

NCBW-OBAC encour­ages women and girls to rec­og­nize and under­stand the impor­tance of local, state and national leg­isla­tive issues that impact our communities.

• NCBW pro­vides oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn how to engage with local gov­ern­ment on issues of vital importance.
• We encour­age active mem­ber involve-ment and par­tic­i­pa­tion in the civic process which can deter­mine the progress and qual­ity of life in the com­mu­ni­ties where we live and work.

NCBW-OBAC has awarded more than $187,000 in scholarships.

NCBW helps to advance young and mature women in their aca­d­e­mic pur­suits by award­ing schol­ar­ships to those who aspire to improve them­selves through higher education.

• Our Work­ing Women Schol­ar­ships sup­port women who delayed their higher edu­ca­tion goals and are return­ing to col­lege as adults.
• The National Coali­tion of 100 Black Women’s Young Black Schol­ars Pro­gram offers scho-larships to stu­dents in Bay Area schools who are bound for a four-year col­lege, com­mu­nity col­lege or trade school.
• Recip­i­ents of NCBW OBAC’s schol­ar­ships receive sup­port through sev­eral years of aca­d­e­mic suc­cess at var­i­ous uni­ver­si­ties and col­leges around the country.

Recip­i­ents have received degrees in:

• Mar­ket­ing
• Finance
• Bio Tech­ni­cal Sciences
• Med­i­cine