As we are emerging (at least some days) from over a year of isolation, I wanted to share with you a report on Oasis’s virtual programming from Spring 2020 - Spring 2021. What I have learned during this time is that we are all essential to each other and nowhere has it been more apparent than with Oasis. Your support made this time more enriching and meaningful for our girls by allowing us to not only continue but to elevate our programming during SIP.

We are incredibly excited to be leaping into Spring with a new Oasis for Girls logo and a refreshed look. This updated logo has been designed to reflect our commitment to ensuring that Oasis is a welcoming, inclusive and positive space for all girls to learn, grow and thrive.

Over this past year we've been spending more time building a virtual Oasis and we wanted to ensure that the “Oasis Way”, our youth development philosophy and practice rooted in sisterhood and social justice, could be seen and felt, no matter the distance.

Driven by the three brand principles of being warmly approachable, unique together, and highly trusted, the new mark uses a warm color palette and an accessible typeface. Palm tree leaves are used to reflect an Oasis and a safe space, with the two halves of the O symbolizing an open door, welcoming in new girls and existing members alike.

Check out and follow our new Facebook page, and refreshed Instagram (@OasisForGirls), Twitter, and LinkedIn pages

Thank you so much to our incredible logo designer, Samantha Novak and our website homepage designer Joleen Hsu, for volunteering their time and creativity and making this possible!

Lupe first heard about Oasis as a high school sophomore in the summer of 2015. She grew up in the U.S. and Mexico and was raised by her mom, grandmother and two aunts. Lupe currently lives in the Bay Area and identifies as a queer feminist Xicana. In her own words, she shares her Oasis story:

“I was going through a really rough time in my sophomore year of high school. My mom wanted me to join an extracurricular, and I found Oasis online. I was into creative writing and poetry, so when I read about the CREATE program, I saw that it was for young girls of color in high school and decided to join. My mom thought it was a great way to connect with people from your ethnicity and other ethnicities, and exchange different beliefs with other women of color.

I started with CREATE, and then I also enrolled in RISE and ENVISION. I loved all of the programs, but the one that stuck with me the most was RISE. I felt empowered when we participated in social justice protests against street harassment.

I also liked that they connected us with different local organizations like Huckleberry House. I remember annotating everything I learned in a notebook: ‘I can call this org if I need mental health support…’ or if my friends have an emergency they can go to a certain organization. It’s great to know which organizations there are to get support and how to refer people to them.

Oasis empowers the participants by exposing them to different perspectives, and it helps to break taboos. For example, not a lot of girls may be taught sex ed or have access to information at home or schools.

Oasis also gives an opportunity to advocate for yourself. In the group discussions we were given the opportunity to really express ourselves. Confidentiality was respected, and we were given the respect to not be judged. A lot of people aren’t able to connect to their teachers and educators, and it’s nice that you could go to Oasis and ask for help and get some direction from someone you admire.

After going through the programs, I stayed connected to the Oasis coordinators. It’s really nice that the sisterhood at Oasis goes beyond just your time in the programs.

I’m currently a Junior at Mills College majoring in Ethnic Studies with a concentration in Race, Sexuality and Intersectionality. I am the first in my family to attend college, and I know Oasis is part of the reason I’m here. When I look back at my time at Oasis, I see how important it was for me. It provided a safe space for young women and other vulnerable groups to support each other in their successes and challenges—a healing journey—and a safe space to discuss taboos forced in their cultures. It allowed us to critically analyze our society while building a personal connection so we can protect our communities’ needs and social movements.

One day I hope to become an educator, a community organizer, or a program coordinator. Witnessing the passion the coordinators at Oasis had, it inspires me to want to support young women just like they did. I would like to give girls the opportunity to learn about their rights and to find their voices by advocating for themselves and their communities.”

Not only did our Oasis programs go virtual during shelter-in-place, our staff meetings did too.

It’s hard to believe, but 2021 is finally upon us and we are excited to post our first article in our new Oasis for Girls Blog! We are starting this blog as a way to share what’s happening with you in our oasis. This past year has been one of the most challenging we’ve ever had, for our organization, staff and our girls. But despite the difficulty caused by the pandemic, I am incredibly proud of what our team was able to accomplish. 

Thanks to our dedicated staff, Oasis rapidly pivoted our summer 2020 session to a virtual programming model so we could continue supporting our girls. We purchased laptops, hotspots, art supplies and other materials for each participant to ensure they could participate fully in the program. Our staff hand-delivered the kits to each of our girls’ doorsteps.

We knew our girls weren't just dealing with distance learning and WiFi issues at home - they were also dealing with family stresses like parents losing their jobs and not having access to basic needs. This led our program leads to add a “Week 0” to the session where they connected with each girl 1:1 for an hour to get to know them better and understand their needs, and then continued to contact each individual girl on a weekly basis to check in on their overall well-being. The ENVISION, RISE and CREATE curricula were all adapted to ensure the programs were engaging, intentional and powerful in our new virtual environment. We’ve received more applications than ever before demonstrating that girls need a safe, girl-centered space more than ever.

Our annual fundraising event, Shine, also went virtual in October and was a huge success thanks to our amazing community. We were so fortunate to hear from many of our girls and have the support of powerful women like our event emcee, ABC7 news anchor Ama Daetz, and Mayor London Breed. We are thrilled that we surpassed our fundraising goal and raised over $50,000, which will go a long way in providing critical support for Oasis’ programs. 

Thank you to our dedicated staff, advisory board, volunteers and our generous sponsors and donors for helping us carry out our mission and giving our youth an opportunity to flourish even in these uncertain times. 

We look forward to sharing more highlights from Oasis with you on this blog, and hope that you will stop back often to see what’s new! 

-Anu Menon
Executive Director