The Live Oak Leagues (LOL) began as a community response to stabbings and other gang activity in Live Oak and quickly became adopted by the Live Oak Community Resources (LOCR).  The program fits into the larger organizational structure of the agency for several very important reasons.  The program was designed to be a family activity that would help to promote collaborations between community members who wanted to share their stories with one another, build power together, and take action related to broad-based issues experienced in communities (e.g., poverty, violence, disenfranchisement, discrimination, etc.).  Ultimately, many hope that the community would collectively benefit from the Live Oak Leagues as it promotes unity, safety, fun, parent involvement, and health, all of which are in line with the LOCR's overall programmatic goals.  The theory of change was based on the notion that if young people and their families engaged in positive, non-violent, healthy, safe activities such as indoor soccer and baseball, the community would be less afflicted by gangs and other violence-driven activities. 

While LOL started out as a focus of the LOCR, it soon became a collaborative effort when its coordinators joined forces with the Live Oak School District (LOSD), and Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Activity League (SAL).  Traditionally, however, the primary administrating agency among the three has been the Live Oak Community Resources.  The clients served by the program are comprised of up to 400 children/youth living in and/or attending school in Live Oak.  The program number is intentionally capped at around 400 players due to a host of resource limitations; however, the number of people who have signed up and who want to sign up has been increasing each year since the program’s inception.