Last Saturday in East Oakland, California, a bustling number of families and youth attended the Third Annual Sobrante Park Time Bank Health Fair to learn about health and wellbeing through a number of health and community vendors.

Sobrante Park Time Bank is part of the network of Time Banks, a national, innovative nonprofit that brings community members together to help each other through favors and services. The Sobrante Park branch has over 200 members who have recorded over 1,000 hours of services offered to the community.

Our Oakland: Eastside Stories, a community building public art project and online story-sharing platform, joined the event to gather stories from attendees, who shared thoughts about their community in East Oakland. 

The Sobrante Park Health fair is a great example of how an event can develop new connections to collaboratively share knowledge, stories, ideas and dreams to strengthen community. Our Oakland has a similar focus towards supporting healthy community with the power of sharing stories and facilitating new connections among a diverse locale.

Why not organize something similar in your community?

(For Bay Area readers: This Saturday Our Oakland will attend the Love Yo Mama, Earth Day Festival, and hopes to gather more uplifting stories. Help Our Oakland build a platform of supportive stories for East Oakland. If you have a story to share, we invite you to participate by uploading your digital video, photo, written story or music.)