My Brother’s Keeper: a progress report on how Philly is helping young men of color

My Brother’s Keeper Philly, whose vision is to eliminate the disparity in outcomes for boys and young men of color, recently released updates as to what the program has succeeded in so far. The Philadelphia collective engages and empowers individuals and organizations to take action in dismantling systems of inequality to create measurable change for youth.

More than 200 communities nationwide accepted the President’s MBK Community Challenge. Philadelphia was the first city to release its Action Plan, which addressed all six of the Initiative’s Milestones. In Philadelphia, each of the six milestones is drive by a specific organization.

MBK Philly provided updates to each milestone in its newsletter:

MBK Community Milestone 1: All children enter school ready

Lead Organization.  Mayor’s Office of Community Empowerment & Opportunity

Progress update: A Running Start, the Citywide plan to improve school readiness, launched on June 2.

MBK Community Milestone 2:  All children read at grade level by 3rd grade

Lead organization:  Free Library of Philadelphia

Progress update: The Read by 4th! campaign announced their first Executive Director, Jenny Bogoni, on July 6.

MBK Community Milestone 3:  All youth graduate from high school

Lead organization: Project U-Turn

Progress update:  Project U-Turn, in partnership with America’s Promise Alliance, held the June GradNation Community Summit on June 12 which focused on how to increase Philadelphia’s high school graduation rates.

MBK Community Milestone 4:  All youth complete post-secondary education or training

Lead Organization:  Community College of Philadelphia (CCP)

Progress update:  On July 7, The Philadelphia Tribune highlighted the many accomplishments of CCP’s Center for Male Engagement.

MBK Community Milestone  5:  All youth are employed

Lead organization:  Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN)

Progress update:  The Mayor’s Office and PYN are actively seeking a better understanding of the landscape of youth summer jobs in Philadelphia and is asking employers to complete a youth summer jobs survey. To participate, click here. The survey closes on July 31.

MBK Community Milestone 6:  All youth are safe from violence

Lead organization: Philadelphia Youth Violence Prevention Collaborative

Progress update:  The City of Philadelphia recently secured a highly competitive grant from the MacArthur Foundation to reduce jail populations and increase public safety.

Other updates provided by the MBK Philly include that  MBK Philly partnered with Discovery Communications and the School District of Philadelphia to promote Discovery Channel’s feature program Rise: The Promise of My Brother’s Keeper.

In addition, in June, over 200 youth and youth advocates participated in Securing Our Future: Re-imagining Philadelphia’s Community-Police Relations. As a result, the Police Department will create Police District Youth Advisory Councils which will meet monthly to brainstorm and strategize solutions to build stronger community-police relations.

Image via Mitchell Leff/City of Philadelphia Flickr