About Us
Peoples Oakland is a private non-profit agency established by local residents as a community, planning and organizing agency. Originally, the mission was to enhance the integrity of the community through communications and negotiation among residents, merchants and institutional representatives. Peoples Oakland was very successful in its early organizing efforts, leading to the development of several community wide planning structures which still operate today.
The Peoples Oakland Mental Health Program was founded in response to the crisis faced by thousands of state mental hospital patients who, through deinstitutionalization programs, were released into the community with few supporters or social connections. Peoples Oakland began to organize former state hospital patients, providing education to support them in advocating for the rights.