She's A Woman First: Single Moms
Tax deductible
Who We Are
Based in Oakland, urban university is a 501c3 non-profit organization with the mission to improve the social and economic status of impoverished individuals. Our mission is to improve the social and economic status of impoverished individuals. For more than 20 years, we have prepared more than 2,000 low-income individuals for gainful employment. Today, we deliver an ecosystem of support, housing and employment specifically for one of the most impoverished family units in the bay area, single mothers. Click to our website to learn more.

Lisa, working at urban furniture & boutique
What We Do
Employment
urban furniture and boutique is our reuse social enterprise that exists to deliver Single Moms at Work, on-the-job training for single mothers with employability barriers who desire to transition from public assistance. The Single Moms at Work Program is delivered in partnership with the Alameda County Social Services CalWorks Department. Entering into our tenth year, we've helped 25 single parents transition from CALWORKS and enter into gainful employment.
Kimberly and Himani with families at the urban house
Housing
We operate urban house, transitional housing as a solution to address homelessness for single mothers and their children. In our fourth year, we've helped house six families, disrupting the new social trend of families living from couch to couch or in their cars with their children.
BAY AREA PEOPLE Urban University Oakland short news spotlight.
She's A Woman First, our 2018 Campaign
Over our life cycle, urban university has been honored to work on the front-lines with impoverished single mothers across differences. As we move forward to sustain our housing and employment services, we've recently realized that the proximity we've shared with the women over time, has provided us with a very unique view into the realities of single motherhood.
One important acknowledgement is that most single mothers have faced traumatic life experiences that shaped their selfhood, way before they entered motherhood. These life experiences (generational poverty, sexual assault, lack of resources to name a few), bind many women, our work is incomplete if we don't address root issues. To test this theory, we conducted interviews of single mothers outside of our programs. With this new insight, we understand that looking at a single mother only at the point she entered motherhood is narrow.
In order to facilitate enduring change, we need to acknowledge that She's A Woman First. Before she was a mother, she was a woman. With this new insight, we can now shape programming to facilitate enduring change for women. The challenge for us is, we need to build our staffing and resources in order to do this important work. Our giving campaign this year is not only focused on delivering direct services, but also building our organization's capacity. When we're strong, single mothers are strong.
Partner with us as we enter into this significant work.
Our giving campaign goal is to $20,000. With this unrestricted funding, we will:
-Hire 2 new single moms (last year we successfully raised 11,000, with that we employed 1 single mother with the funds raised);
When the 2 single mothers are employed at our store, they receive:
- six months of paid on-the-job training with a special focus on retail skills in the context of a reuse enterprise;
- contextualized hard skills training to include online keyboarding, math, and donations processing. Retail hard skills include clothing editing, visual merchandising and enterprise standards of operations;
- contextualized soft skills training to include customer service, communication skills, professionalism and team work.
-Sustain our housing program that currently serves two families;
When a single mother lives in the urban house, she receives:
-24 months of housing in a safe and positive neighborhood with access to resources that promote well-being for her and her children;
-individualized and holistic case management services designed to meet the unique needs of single moms to include goal attainment & barrier remediation;
-monthly workshops and events that promote well being and community to include self-esteem, co-housing best practices, team work, and community meals.
-Build upon our housing well-being curriculum to address the needs of our participants in a more holistic manner;
Introduce health, arts, financial and education workshops and coaching.
We will update our curriculum by May 2019 and
- Utilize funds for program staffing and operational expenses.
We thank you in advance for your support. We know that we are still here in the community because of your committed support. Help us continue to scale this one-of-a-kind model for single mothers, into it's brightest vision.
From the heart,
Tracey
Based in Oakland, urban university is a 501c3 non-profit organization with the mission to improve the social and economic status of impoverished individuals. Our mission is to improve the social and economic status of impoverished individuals. For more than 20 years, we have prepared more than 2,000 low-income individuals for gainful employment. Today, we deliver an ecosystem of support, housing and employment specifically for one of the most impoverished family units in the bay area, single mothers. Click to our website to learn more.
Lisa, working at urban furniture & boutique
What We Do
Employment
urban furniture and boutique is our reuse social enterprise that exists to deliver Single Moms at Work, on-the-job training for single mothers with employability barriers who desire to transition from public assistance. The Single Moms at Work Program is delivered in partnership with the Alameda County Social Services CalWorks Department. Entering into our tenth year, we've helped 25 single parents transition from CALWORKS and enter into gainful employment.
Kimberly and Himani with families at the urban houseHousing
We operate urban house, transitional housing as a solution to address homelessness for single mothers and their children. In our fourth year, we've helped house six families, disrupting the new social trend of families living from couch to couch or in their cars with their children.
BAY AREA PEOPLE Urban University Oakland short news spotlight.
She's A Woman First, our 2018 Campaign
Over our life cycle, urban university has been honored to work on the front-lines with impoverished single mothers across differences. As we move forward to sustain our housing and employment services, we've recently realized that the proximity we've shared with the women over time, has provided us with a very unique view into the realities of single motherhood.
One important acknowledgement is that most single mothers have faced traumatic life experiences that shaped their selfhood, way before they entered motherhood. These life experiences (generational poverty, sexual assault, lack of resources to name a few), bind many women, our work is incomplete if we don't address root issues. To test this theory, we conducted interviews of single mothers outside of our programs. With this new insight, we understand that looking at a single mother only at the point she entered motherhood is narrow.
In order to facilitate enduring change, we need to acknowledge that She's A Woman First. Before she was a mother, she was a woman. With this new insight, we can now shape programming to facilitate enduring change for women. The challenge for us is, we need to build our staffing and resources in order to do this important work. Our giving campaign this year is not only focused on delivering direct services, but also building our organization's capacity. When we're strong, single mothers are strong.
Partner with us as we enter into this significant work.
Our giving campaign goal is to $20,000. With this unrestricted funding, we will:
-Hire 2 new single moms (last year we successfully raised 11,000, with that we employed 1 single mother with the funds raised);
When the 2 single mothers are employed at our store, they receive:
- six months of paid on-the-job training with a special focus on retail skills in the context of a reuse enterprise;
- contextualized hard skills training to include online keyboarding, math, and donations processing. Retail hard skills include clothing editing, visual merchandising and enterprise standards of operations;
- contextualized soft skills training to include customer service, communication skills, professionalism and team work.
-Sustain our housing program that currently serves two families;
When a single mother lives in the urban house, she receives:
-24 months of housing in a safe and positive neighborhood with access to resources that promote well-being for her and her children;
-individualized and holistic case management services designed to meet the unique needs of single moms to include goal attainment & barrier remediation;
-monthly workshops and events that promote well being and community to include self-esteem, co-housing best practices, team work, and community meals.
-Build upon our housing well-being curriculum to address the needs of our participants in a more holistic manner;
Introduce health, arts, financial and education workshops and coaching.
We will update our curriculum by May 2019 and
- Utilize funds for program staffing and operational expenses.
We thank you in advance for your support. We know that we are still here in the community because of your committed support. Help us continue to scale this one-of-a-kind model for single mothers, into it's brightest vision.
From the heart,
Tracey
Organizer
Tracey Weaver
Organizer
Oakland, CA
urban university
Beneficiary