Community Voices

Share your perspective with Oakland Voices.

Key points

• Community Voices contributions are generally unpaid unless an Oakland Voices editor offers a paid assignment in writing before the work begins.
• Oakland Voices publishes perspectives and personal stories from individuals who live, work, learn, play, or pray in Oakland.
• Community Voices is a space for Oakland residents and community-rooted contributors to speak in their own voices.
• Respond to an Oakland Voices story, correct a misunderstanding, add relevant information, or contribute a different perspective.
• Please do not spend significant time completing a piece specifically for Oakland Voices before hearing from an editor.

You do not need to be a journalist or a professional writer. If you have lived experience, knowledge, or a point of view that can support Oakland understand an problem differently, we want to hear from you. Submit a Community Voices proposal. What is Community Voices?

Community Voices is a space for Oakland residents and community-rooted contributors to speak in their own voices. We welcome perspectives that.

We especially encourage submissions from individuals whose experiences and perspectives are often missing from traditional news coverage. What can I contribute?

Create a clear argument concerning an matter relevant to Oakland. Explain what you believe, why it matters, and what you want readers or decision-makers to consider. Suggested length: 500-700 words.

Tell a first-person story that connects your experience to a larger question, community, or matter in Oakland. Letter to the editor.

Respond to an Oakland Voices story, correct a misunderstanding, add relevant information, or contribute a different perspective. Maximum length: 250 words.

Include the headline and publication date of the story you are responding to.

Tell us regarding an Oakland story, person, event, question, or community concern that deserves attention.

Notably, a story suggestion is not the same as an assignment. We cannot pursue every idea, but we may invite you to develop your idea as a Community Voices contribution.

We additionally occasionally consider photo essays, book excerpts, artwork, audio, video, and other forms of community storytelling. Community Voices contributions should.

Organizational leaders and advocates may submit commentary, but the author and their connection to the matter must be clearly identified.

We do not publish campaign materials or candidate submissions intended to promote an election campaign.

We ordinarily publish contributors under their real names. In extraordinary circumstances involving safety, immigration status, employment, or another serious risk, we may consider withholding a name or using a pseudonym. Oakland Voices must still know and verify the contributor's identity, and we will explain the decision to readers. How to propose a contribution. Start by completing our short Community Voices form. We will ask you for.

If we are interested in considering the contribution, we will ask you to submit the complete work and any photographs or supporting materials through our submission form. What happens after I submit?

Oakland Voices has a small staff and receives more requests and ideas than we can pursue. We will review proposals as our capacity allows, but we may not be able to respond to every submission. Submitting a proposal or draft does not guarantee publication. If we decide to work with you, an editor may.

Oakland Voices makes the final decisions regarding publication, headlines, photographs, presentation, and timing. A piece may be declined or withdrawn from consideration if its factual claims cannot be verified or if it does not meet our editorial standards. Photographs and other materials. If your proposal is accepted, we may ask for.

Do not submit photographs or private information without the permission of the individuals involved.

Your contribution should reflect your own knowledge, reporting, experience, and voice. Do not employ artificial intelligence to invent reporting, facts, quotations, sources, residents, or experiences.

Tell your editor if you applied an AI tool and explain what it assisted you do. Limited assistance such as brainstorming, outlining, transcription, or grammar review may be acceptable, but all information must be checked by a person. Oakland Voices is still developing our full AI policy.

Contributors retain the copyright to their original work while granting Oakland Voices permission to edit, publish, distribute, promote, and archive an accepted contribution. Any extra terms will be explained before publication. Ready to share your perspective?

Tell us what you want Oakland to understand, and why your voice belongs in the conversation.

Need support using the form or requesting an accommodation? Email [email protected] with "Community Voices" in the subject line.

Want to hear regarding future calls for contributions, workshops, and reporting from Oakland? Subscribe to the Oakland Voices newsletter. Sample op-eds and essays.

Taken together, the developments around community Voices point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.