$1m investment to bring peer mentoring programme to Oakland schools
GreenLight Fund Bay Area is investing $1 million in a programme that will train older students to mentor younger classmates in an effort to tackle chronic absenteeism and keep more children in school.
The multi-year investment will bring the Center for Supportive Schools’ Peer Group Connection programme to Oakland. Over the next four years, the initiative is expected to reach more than 7,200 students across 10 schools, train over 1,100 peer leaders and connect them with more than 6,100 incoming sixth- and ninth-graders.
The programme uses a year-long, credit-bearing leadership course to prepare older pupils to support younger students as they adjust to middle and high school. Through regular sessions, the peer mentors will help students build relationships, set goals, develop decision-making and help-seeking skills, and strengthen their sense of belonging.
GreenLight said chronic absenteeism emerged as a leading concern through its community-led assessment of needs in Oakland. State data showed that 32.2% of students in the Oakland Unified School District and 22.7% of students in Oakland charter schools were chronically absent during the 2024-25 school year. The measure covers pupils who miss at least two days of school each month.
The Center for Supportive Schools said a 2018 longitudinal study of 32 schools found that ninth-graders and older peer leaders who took part in Peer Group Connection attended school an average of six more days than non-participants. Participants also reported stronger connections with classmates, a greater commitment to graduating and a deeper sense of belonging, with improved attendance continuing a year after the programme ended.
“What really stood out about CSS’s Peer Group Connection model was how it supports students during the critical transition to middle and high school by training upperclassmen to become peer mentors,” said Kate Schwass, executive director of GreenLight Fund Bay Area. “CSS meets students at exactly the moment they are most vulnerable to disengagement in school.”
The programme has already begun in Oakland through a partnership with Education for Change, a local charter school network. GreenLight said the investment is its ninth in the Bay Area and is intended to help schools develop a more positive culture in which students are encouraged to attend, lead and support one another.
