youth development & leadership
Engaging high school-aged and transitional-aged youth by providing a safe and supportive space that coordinates and supervises programs designed to help young people discover personal interests and abilities through art-making, leadership and civic roles, critical thinking, and innovation envisioning and participation.
Community Futures School
The goal of MOCHA’s Community Futures School (CFS) is to prepare youth (ages 14-17) to be resourceful and contributing citizens of the future through community engagement and art making. Activities will take place at MOCHA’s downtown Oakland facility, at Oakland Public Library sites, on Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) sites, and at community settings that will facilitate youth-led PORCH TALKs. Annual youth internship cohorts will look at existing social structures to revise paths that will lead the human race to a more equitable future; and will add their voices to the evolution and transformation of power structures.
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Porch Talk Series
Racial unrest during the Summer of 2020 agitated years old feelings of anti-Blackness in Oakland and beyond. Mocha’s leadership felt that the methods in which societal conditions and topics were internalized and communicated needed to be updated. Centered on Blackness, the Porch Talk series is a quarterly experience that teaches young people from minoritized communities to research, organize and lead conversations rooted in topics based on their current lived experiences.
Held on a quarterly basis, Porch Talks allow for honest conversations about Anti Blackness that intersect in a multi gendered, multicultural and multigenerational manner.
NEW Counselor-In-Training Program:
The MOCHA Counselor-in-Training (CIT) program gives 6th-8th graders the opportunity to develop their art, customer service, and work experience skills in a supportive, creative museum environment. The one (1) week program consists of work development skills, counselor training, and art projects for the summer.