Health center for East Oakland youth breaks ground

On the corner of 86th Avenue and International Boulevard, across the street from Allen Temple Baptist Church and the Boys and Girls Club, a “sanctuary” for young people is coming to life. 

The Young People’s Wellness Center, a project of Roots Community Health, has broken ground, with the expectation that it will open in 2026. The goal is to provide confidential health care services, along with safe social spaces and workforce development opportunities, exclusively for 13- to 26-year-olds. That age range was selected, Roots CEO Dr. Noha Aboelata said, as the health center will become the only one in East Oakland focused on that age group. 

“There are too many cliffs that our young people are prone to falling off,” Aboelata said during a groundbreaking event on Wednesday. “They leave the school setting, they graduate, or they become disconnected from school. They drop out. At 18, they fall off with certain benefits, or at 21 or 24. Because of the way our resources and systems are set up, young people fall through the gaps.”

Dr. Noha Aboelata, the CEO of Roots Community Health, celebrates the completion of the first phase of fundraising for the Young People’s Wellness Center. Roots is hoping to raise another $3.2 million for five years of programming and services. Credit: Ashley McBride/The Oaklandside

The center will offer physical and mental health services, sexual and reproductive healthcare, and substance use treatment. Plans also include a cafe and a makerspace, as well as a pop-up barber and salon. On Friday and Saturday nights, the center will stay open until 10 p.m., said Aquil Naji, the chief operations officer at Roots, “so that our children don’t have to be at the bus stops or on the streets.”

“This is not a project where we’re trying to make money,” Naji said. “We’re trying to build an asset to hand back over to our community.”

Wednesday’s groundbreaking marked the end of the first phase of the project, during which Roots and its partners raised $2.3 million for construction from private companies and foundations. In the second phase, Roots hopes to raise $3.2 million more to fund the first five years of programming and counseling services. Civic and community leaders gathered at 8600 International Blvd., a warehouse that once housed artists and before that, repossessed cars, to participate in the ceremonial dirt shoveling. 

“We know this is an area that has been disinvested in generationally, and what better way to say that we’re standing up for our beautiful young people than by saying we’re going to create a sanctuary space for you,” Mia Bonta, the state assemblymember representing Oakland and other parts of the East Bay, said at the event. “A place where you can thrive, where you can get health care that you need, where you can have the conversations that you need to so that you can have agency and power over your body.”

Major funders of the project include BMO Commercial Bank, which gave a $1 million gift, as well as the Stupski Foundation, Fremont Bank, and the East Bay Community Foundation.

The Young People’s Wellness Center is a part of the Rise East initiative, an ambitious $100 million plan to revitalize a 40-by-40 block of East Oakland by investing in health, education, workforce, safety, and housing. Roots Community Health is a member of the 40×40 Council, which is spearheading the project with Oakland Thrives.  

“I’m a parent of five kids and I know one thing for sure is that young people do not really care about what we say to them as much as what we show them,” said Greg Hodge, the CEO of the Brotherhood of Elders Network, another member organization of the 40×40 Council. “This building is us showing our young people that we care about their well-being, their safety, their health, their fun, and their recreation.”