All of Us and Me (510) 919-3078 michaelh@allofusandme.org

portrait of Black Family — One positive sign of a healthy community. Pictured are the daughter, the mother, the older son, the father, and the younger son. When the family in producing adequate disposable income to enjoy the parks, the lakes, the cultural events including museums, community cultural events, the symphony, the theaters for movies and live presentations, the docent walking tours of the various settled neighborhoods, and the Oakland Zoo the community is stable.

ALL OF US AND ME

A Service Disabled Veteran Owned Non-Profit

Mission Statement

Training, transformation, and housing for Veterans and the Community.

SERVICES

TRAINING

We develop and collaborate with job readiness and workforce development training programs to prepare participants to locate, obtain, keep, and excel at their new employment opportunity. Basic employment skills include effective communication, problem solving, resume building, effective interview techniques, and team building.

TRANSFORMATION

We develop transformative services to uplift, strengthen, and bring stability to a neighborhood. These transformative services assist in relieving homelessness, under employment, chronic unemployment, food insecurity, inability to access medical services for physical and mental abnormalities suffered by individuals and families.

HOMES

We work to improve the plight of our male and female veterans and their families. We develop transitional housing, low‐income housing, and affordable housing the least of the society need. For those who suffer from homelessness, collapsing neighborhoods, and instability in access to permanent housing that they can afford.

WHO WE ARE

All of Us and Me is a non‐profit entity created by service disabled veteran to address the needs for credible and innovative solutions to reinvogorate communities. We develop workforce development training and stable housing for those who are homeless or do not currently have a stable domicile environment. We create paths to stable affordable housing and living wage jobs for those whose earnings fall below 30% of the Area Median Income Limits (AMI). We believe that one cannot really being a fully integrated and contributing member of a healthy community when their disposable income is less than 30% AMI.

World War II, Korean War, and World War I veterans saluting — July 23, 1986: World War II veteran Emmet Burke, 72, left, joins Korean War vet Charles Alderson, 52, center, and first World War vet Jack Coopersmith, 94, during salute during protest against sale of Veterans Administration land in West Los Angeles. The sale was later blocked.

Our Story and Approach

The founder of All of Us and Me, having grown up in the City of Oakland, started to notice disturbing trends in the community after returning from service in the United States Navy back in the 1970’s. Fast forward to today, employment opportunities for the unemployed and under‐employed who have low employment skills are disappearing; homelessness and incarceration among the youth and veterans are growing at alarming rates; the quality of the education taught in the public schools has little economic value; neighborhoods are becoming gentrified with little or no regard to current occupants; and affordable and decent housing stocks for most blue collar workers are today nonexistent. The main focus of most cities is to derive revenues from increased residential property taxes while not effectively promoting new small and medium sized business enterprises which are the true spark of revitalization and additional growth to the revenues of the city. This state of tenuous affairs is happening in every municipality in every state and not unique to the City of Oakland, California.

Most cities in the country have the required labor force to tackle the work shortage that has arisen during the current decades. However, the effective solution is proper training and modernization of the skills of the labor force. Yet by the early 1990’s, the number of foreigner workers with temporary H1B Visas was well over 42 thousand people in the City of Oakland. Too many native‐born citizens are being locked out of high paying white‐collar and blue‐collar jobs in Northern California. And the path for middle class individuals obtaining union jobs is rapidly disappearing as most of these jobs have been sent offshore.

Subsequently, the founder has decided that it is time to introduce methodologies for solving the growing issues noted above. Communities can be transformed by offering transformative services to the under‐served members of the community. These services include:

Creating affordable access to physical and mental health services;
Re‐invigorating workforce development and employment training programs to introduce students to various high‐tech service industries including servicing computer and embedded computer control mechanisms;
Introduction to smart homes, energy efficient homes, and zero‐energy homes;
Introduction to green technology, conservation, and rehabilitation services for existing infrastructure to meet the needs of the population.