About Empower Oakland
Empower Oakland is a movement fueled by Oakland residents who recognize that “business as usual politics” will only further perpetuate Oakland’s downward spiral. For Oakland to thrive, we must empower Oaklanders to amplify their collective voices for greater political impact and influence. We must proactively ensure that the system we live in best serves those of us most impacted by it.
The starting point to reclaiming our power in our city is education. We must educate ourselves and our neighbors on:
- The Policies – what’s working and what isn’t
- The People – who’s working and who isn’t
- The Process – how to influence the people and policies so they work better
Genuine relationships.
Consistent engagement.
In-depth understanding.
Empower Oakland knows that transformational education comes from genuine relationships, consistent engagement, and in-depth understanding. Through our intentional approach we will neutralize the influence of wealthy interest groups that have had their way in Oakland by advancing experimental ideology, elevating unproven candidates, and spotlighting corporate developments detrimental to Oakland and its residents.
In Oakland we continue to suffer the consequences of an inefficient government as seen by our escalating public safety crisis, skyrocketing homeless population, and ever-increasing structural deficit. And what’s worse is that our current systems give us no hope that things will ever get better.
We are the hope and knowledge that will fuel Oakland’s resurgence. That’s why we are taking back our city. That’s why we are empowering our neighbors. Join us today!
About Our Founder
As a third-generation son of Oakland, Loren Taylor has seen the life transforming potential of our amazing city. The Town equipped him to become a biomedical engineer, an entrepreneur, an Oakland city councilmember, and now CEO of Zaru Systems, a social impact startup company focused on generating $1B of Black wealth. Despite Oakland’s potential, Loren, like everyone else, has seen our city flounder due to ineffective leaders and bad policies.
But his years fighting for Oaklanders on the city council and as a Mayoral candidate showed Loren the path by which authentic Oaklanders can reclaim our city. Losing Oakland’s mayoral election by only 677 votes (despite being outspent by more than $850K) showed Loren that Oaklanders CAN overcome the overwhelming impact of outside money with authentic relationships, consistent engagement, and in-depth voter education.
Supported by a diverse cross-section of Oakland residents, all eager to see the conditions in their city improve, Loren is guiding the efforts of Empower Oakland to support real change in our home.