Parent Voices Oakland organizes parents and caregivers to build the political power needed to expand child care access, defend the families and communities most under attack, and reshape the systems that have not been designed to reflect the true needs of community.
Community organizing is the heart of PVO. We empower parents to organize each other and their own communities through our Leadership Academy, our Organizing Jobs Training program, and frequent governance opportunities that put parent leaders in front of decision-makers at every level including local, state, and federal. Our leaders sit on local and state committees, councils and advisories that shape the policies and budgets that have a direct impact on their lives.
Current Campaigns Include:
Defend Federal Child Care Funding & Save Head Start
Oakland Head Start is under attack! While we won $14.4 million in emergency funding to prevent 3 site closures and 50 layoffs, we demand that the future of Head Start is shaped by parents and workers directly impacted.
Learn more about Save Head Start
Measure C Implementation
PVO’s affiliated political organization, Parent Voices Action in collaboration with the Care4Kids colaition, organized, qualified, and passed Measure C in 2020, Alameda County’s dedicated $150 million per year stream for child care and pediatric health, upheld by California courts in 2024. With full implementation now underway, PVO parent leaders sit on the Measure C Community Advisory Committee and places parent leaders on oversight bodies such as the Alameda County Early Childhood Policy Committee and the Early Care and Education Planning Council. Our approach to co-governance ensures impacted families help shape how Measure C money actually reaches the providers and parents it was passed to serve.
Voices for Health Justice
Voices for Health Justice (VHJ) brings the power of organizing and the realities of reproductive justice disparities to the center of our conversation about justice and equity through a racial and gender justice lens. In Alameda County, Black infant mortality has run two to three times the rate for white infants for decades, rooted in the same structural conditions that produce the child care gap. VHJ organizes Black birthing people, perinatal health workers, parent leaders, and county supervisors around shared policy demands.
Through this project, we aim to:
- Integrate Black birthing and infant health, community-driven interventions into public health language, training, and resources across County agencies
- Build a larger, more impactful statewide effort to decrease Black infant and birthing mortality
- Develop leaders through PVO organizing and policy training
- Make state halls of power accessible to our base and constituents
- Cultivate and support the movement leadership of Black women most impacted by the heallth care systems we are working to change
Reflections from Parent Voices Oakland’s VHJ Survey 2026
Stand for Children Day
Stand For Children is Parent Voices California’s Annual Legislative Action day at the State Capitol in Sacramento. Join hundreds of parents from across the state to rally, march, and visit our representatives to demand our joint platform is supported. Stand For Children generally takes place in early May.