( ENSPIRE Community Spotlight ) Black Owned Social Enterprise Oakstop Using its Resources to Help Underserved Oakland Community
ENSPIRE Contributor: Joaquin Fernandez
This past month, the social enterprise Oakstop hosted various NBA All-Star Events for a four-day weekend. Oakstop founder Trevor Parham brought together stars like Kevin Hart, Anthony Edwards, and Jaylen Brown for the event. Oakstop created personalized programming for the athletes, business professionals, community members, and the youth. All-Star weekend showcased the flourishing flexibility and imagination of the Oakland community. The event had various activities from local social enterprises in Oakland. An HBCU Alumni Cocktail Party by Deep Rooted. An NBA Hall of Fame Luncheon by the Oakland XChange and 1st Fridays. And a Pursuit of Excellence Summit by the Pursuit Sports group.
Trevor Parham founded Oakstop to utilize commercial real estate to host event venues, meeting spaces, and coworking locations. Oakstop also has gallery spaces for community artists to display their work publicly. Works such as Justice 4 Tyranny, Refa One, Abba Yahudah, and Aaron Beitia reveal deep nuances about the Oakland community. It has a nonprofit called the Oakstop Effect, which helps propel the economic mobility of overlooked communities. The nonprofit highlights its workplace development, entrepreneur ecosystems, and creative economies to assist communities of color.
What exactly pushed you into starting an organization like Oakstop?
Trevor: A couple of key factors pushed me into starting an organization. One was wanting to respond to concerns around displacement in Oakland, particularly in Black artists and entrepreneurs. The other wanted to set a precedent and example for what it looks like for members of the Black community to step up and claim space and real estate. The third piece is understanding the implications of real estate and the black community controlling and owning real estate.
How do your workplace services and event venues help underserved communities thrive?
Trevor: We focus on providing affordable and accessible space. Accessible in that it’s centrally located and that it’s a flexible space. Affordable in that it’s typically lower priced than most other competing spaces. The short-term nature of it is, in essence, affordable because people are not committing to a long-term financial arrangement. Those are two basic ways to keep my answer succinct, but we’d be remiss not to mention the Oakstop Effect! The Oakstop Effect is a non-profit. Born out of Oakstop’s existing direct service work, it leverages Oakstop’s network and social capital to foster social impact programs. Focused on workforce development, entrepreneurship training, and mental health and wellness workshops.
How was the partnership with NBA and Oakstop brought about?
Trevor: Marcus? You can weigh in here, but I feel as if it’s important to distinguish that, like, the NBA itself was not formally partnering. Thoughts there?
Marcus: Oakstop was the host of Oakland All-Star. With All-Star weekend appearing in San Francisco, it was super important that Oakstop helped to elevate the East Bay Community from a standpoint of access and amplification. Oakstop preemptively reached out to both local and non-domestic organizations throughout the country. To make sure some of that programming was anchored in Oakland.
For the NBA All-Star event series. What has working with a major sports organization and high-profile celebrities been like?
Trevor: We didn’t have an official partnership with the NBA. More so, it’s not just high-profile celebrities who recognize the importance of being present and bringing their presence to a place like Oakland. That is not necessarily the center point of All-Star Weekend. It’s validating to see when high-profile celebrities can still access their more human side. That has the sensibility to recognize where they are responsible to their community, black and brown communities, or just communities that need this kind of visibility. It’s not about putting them on a pedestal. Instead, they can function like normal people willing to work toward the same mission.
What was the turnout and public response to the All-Star event series?
Trevor: Yes. We had over 500 guests appear over three days, and the overall response was incredibly positive and grateful. I think I just got an email or a LinkedIn message from somebody a couple of days ago that said they came to the pursuit of excellence event, enjoyed it, and wanted to see how they could be involved with what Oakstop is doing moving forward. I think the response was positive, and it has been sustained positive over the last month, with people still finding ways to let us know how much they appreciated what we did.
Which public events, from the HBCU cocktail party to the pursuit of excellence summit, have been your favorite to work on?
I enjoyed working on the HBCU cocktail party because the organizers understood there was an opportunity to do more than have a party. But showcase and highlight leaders, particularly in the black community, who are working tirelessly daily to demonstrate what leadership should look like. So it was great to see that the organizers, deeply rooted in their name, prioritized that and wanted to ensure that was the focus of our conversations. Ultimately, people see events like that and want to be at the next one, not just because it’s exciting but because they believe in what we’re doing and want to further invest in that positive impact.
Oakstop offers gallery space for art as well. What stands out to you about these artists like Lebo Thoka and Aaron Beitia, and why did you choose to highlight them?
We focused on artists with a message and mission in their artwork. Art is a vehicle for not just self-expression but also for social change and for opening up perspective. We chose artists like Levo and Aaron in an exhibit titled The Shape of Blackness. The focus was on comparing the mission-oriented approaches to artwork between artists in South Africa and artists here in Oakland. We chose them because we felt like they were great artists and with whom we had relationships. Ultimately, what we’re looking for in the artwork is the ability for the art to drive a conversation.
How does your nonprofit, the Oakstop Effect, help increase economic mobility for local communities in Oakland?
The Oakstop Effect focuses on leveraging social capital to unlock financial capital for communities of color in Oakland. We focus on four different program areas. One is workforce development; the other is small business and entrepreneur support. Third is what we describe as the creative economy, helping artists anchor themselves in an economic landscape here in Oakland. And then lastly, mental health and wellness, which focuses on supporting black and brown communities in really helping them stabilize themselves as they prepare to make this journey through economic mobility, making sure that they have the support network they need to navigate the many challenges that are that are part of that journey.
What do you hope to see out of future collaborations with sports organizations?
For future collaborations, particularly the NFL for Super Bowl 60, we’re excited to see ways they can engage the local small business community. For instance, the NFL has a program known as Source LX. The whole idea focused on small business procurement opportunities for Super Bowl 60. That programming is going to kick off this year. We’ll focus on training and preparation for small businesses to take on contracts that arise during Super Bowl 60. Oakstop is a potential vendor, and we know several other organizations throughout Oakland will be engaged. We’d like to see that as a precedent for different things.
Oakstop’s NBA All-Star weekend brought together many stars and collaborators to display the strength of Oakland. Their hosted events allowed members of the community, as mentioned earlier, to band together and highlight pride. Trevor Parham created Oakstop for this very purpose and has already begun future collaborations with other sports organizations. The nonprofit Oakstop Effect helps further assist neglected communities in and around Oakland. The All-Star weekend is evident in the more successful avenues for Oakstop’s social enterprise and support of the community.
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