Offline Oakland: A Community Link Up IRL
On September 13, young people, families and community organizations gathered in Oakland, CA for Offline Oakland: A Community Link Up IRL, a youth-led phone-free afternoon built around creativity, play and spending time together in person. With a dozen local youth organizations (who are also Fund IRL coalition members) participating, Youth Speaks and Safe Passages led the event, with sponsorship from Fund IRL. Young people took center stage through singing, dancing, rap, spoken word and poetry, while others made jewelry and phone charms, played lawn games and spent time connecting with friends and community organizations. Tong Thao from the California Department of Justice also joined the gathering and delivered opening remarks.
For Fund IRL, Offline Oakland offered a chance to show what investment in young people can look like in a community: welcoming places where they can create, play, explore their interests, build relationships and simply spend time together. These are the kinds of opportunities Fund IRL wants communities to be able to expand if public funds emerge from social media litigation involving harms to young people. The gathering also showed the value of putting young people and the organizations that already know and serve them at the center of that conversation.
Offline Oakland focused on the power and importance of bringing Oakland youth together in real-time, showing what is possible when young people have spaces designed for connection and creativity. The well-being of Oakland’s youth is our shared responsibility, and that means investing in the people, programs and places that allow them to feel supported.
Oakland has always been a place where young people find each other, create culture and turn community into action. Our youth have never been short on ideas, creativity, or vision. Offline Oakland was about getting off our phones and getting back to each other through food, music, art, laughter and shared experiences. When we create spaces where young people can connect, be heard and see themselves reflected in the people and possibilities around them, we’re not just building community, we’re building power.
Accountability for the harms young people have experienced must be followed by meaningful repair and investment. Offline Oakland gave us a picture of what that can look like: young people surrounded by creativity, caring adults, community and opportunities to connect in real life. If settlement funds are intended to address harms to youth, young people and their communities should help decide how those dollars are invested, and the resources should reach the programs that support them every day.
Bring an IRL Gathering to Your Community
Coalition members can build on the Offline Oakland model with an event that reflects what young people already enjoy and value in their own community. The goal is to bring young people, youth-serving organizations and community partners together around experiences that make connection, creativity and belonging visible.
- Start with young people and local partners. Ask young people what they’d want to do, create or share, and work with organizations that already have strong relationships with them.
- Build the day around participation. Mix performances with hands-on activities that allow them to explore their interests such as art, sports, games, music, making things, food or other experiences that give young people plenty of ways to join in.
- Show what’s already happening locally. Invite youth-serving organizations to participate so families, community leaders and policymakers can experience the range of opportunities available to young people and see where greater investment could make a difference.
- Invite people who help shape public investment. Consider welcoming state and local officials, funders and other community decision-makers, while keeping young people and their experiences at the center of the event.
- Capture and share the story. Photos, video and youth reflections can help the experience travel beyond the event itself and give your community concrete examples of what investing in young people IRL can support.
