We organized community members to demand city council create a resolution for a ceasefire in December 2023. After winter recess, community members desired more actionable steps to show material support for community members here in Hayward and abroad. In January 2024, we pushed the City Council to divest 1.6 million dollar from corporations supporting Israeli apartheid and profiting from the Genocide in Gaza, making Hayward the first in the country! This is less than one percent of the city's total investment portfolio. 

$350,000 of funding was used to run a city-wide, neighborhood-level participatory budgeting process for Hayward. We supported the accessibility of the survey to reach as many eligible residents as possible. We raised awareness through door knocking and social media campaigns. 

Some of the projects include:

Hayward Night Market (Many Vendors Sold Out!)

Palma Ceia Park Renovation

Cumbia in Hayward: A Day of Bonanza

Roller and Inline Skating

StackFest

ReFRESH: Mental Health Camp for Teens

English and Math Tutoring for ESL Students

Tennyson Community Farm

Tree Planting

Pop-up Community Garden

Hazel Garden Community Connect

Sun Gallery Community Space

To learn more about this process and the projects that have been successful, click here!

After a year of protests, demands, council meetings, and workshops - the Hayward City Council voted unanimously on June 1st, 2021 to adopt a budget allocating over a million dollars towards piloting public safety models that prioritize professional, non-police responses for people in crisis. This resulted in the creation of a mobile mental health crisis response team (the HEART program).

Additionally, $350,000 of stimulus funding was awarded for the People's Budget. 

HayCoCoa secured half a million dollars in funding to provide legal aid for tenants experiencing evictions after the moratorium expired. We also held community sessions to support Hayward renters with accessing information and legal aid specific to their needs. 

HayCoCoa partnered with the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, and the Workers Community Kitchen to provide the South Hayward community with warm meals and essential supplies. We look forward to organizing or assisting with more mutual-aid events for the Hayward community!

HayCoCoa partnered with the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, R.I.S.E. Coalition, Filipino Advocates for Justice, The Hayward Collective, and Decarcerate Alameda County to host an event for the Hayward Community after Officer Chauvin received his guilty verdict.

Many Hayward families impacted by police violence spoke publicly for the first time, demanding change from a City Council that had refused to take action for the entire year.

Hayward City Council voted to give the police $18,000+ for drones (even though the police could already afford it with their current budget) despite numerous concerns raised by the the City Council-appointed Community Advisory Panel (CAP), community members, and our budget demand to ban the purchase of military, riot, or surveillance equipment, 

Police departments have a history of abusing drones, especially to monitor protestors exercising their first amendment rights. We must keep mobilizing against drone use and increased police surveillance in Hayward. 

HayCoCoa held listening sessions and supported community conversations on public safety to explore use policies for Hayward Police Department's compliance with AB 481 regarding militarized equipment. This resulted in limiting HPD's acquisition of militarized police equipment to 8 of the allowed 15 categories specified in AB 481.  

One of our original budget demands was to end the School Resource Officer (SRO) Program at HUSD, the contract of which was set to be renewed later that month. We kept ourselves updated on the District’s contract discussions and mobilized the community to call in to School Board and City Council meetings. One of our members and School Board candidates, Sara Prada, went on to win her election to the HUSD Board and officially voted as a Trustee in the decision to end the SRO program.

We produced a voter guide to share our values and promote local leaders fighting for social justice during the November 2020 General Election and 2022 local and state elections. Some of our members ran for Hayward City Council, Hayward Unified School District Board, and State Assembly and received endorsements by progressive organizations across the bay such as Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), Our Revolution-East Bay, Bay Area Rising Action, East Bay DSA (& Bernie Sanders!).

In response to today’s news that no officer was charged directly in Breonna Taylor’s death, HayCoCoa, along with East Bay Resistance, held a vigil and open mic in remembrance of Breonna Taylor at in front of City Hall.

While we remain deeply upset and saddened by the verdict, it brought us joy to see our community come together and stand in solidarity with our Black brothers, sisters, and family.

Our budget demands were the result of multiple community town halls and conversations with families impacted by police brutality.

Many of our original demands were dismissed throughout our interactions with Hayward City Council and the Hayward Police Department. The police chief accused our ideas as coming from “the same 30 people”, willfully ignoring the countless public comments that were made reaffirming our vision for a safer Hayward.

Rather than addressing our demand to reallocate police funding back into the community, City Council commissioned a third party consulting firm to conduct a survey of nearly 2000 Hayward residents. 

In response, HayCoCoa mobilized our community to create a caravan in front of the Mayor's home with a clear message: CONSULT WITH US.

The survey's findings demonstrated what we already knew: a majority of residents were in support of reducing the budget we spend on policing, and moving those funds towards other services.

The Hayward Community brought 7 demands to Hayward's City Council on June 2nd, 2020, in the wake of George Floyd's murder and the national uprising against police brutality.

These demands began a conversation in the Hayward community about how we could create better public safety alternatives to the standard, armed police response that has become the norm, and raised questions about what roles were actually necessary for the Hayward Police Department to fill (such as providing Youth and Family Services or patrolling school campuses).