[VIDEO] My Brother’s Keeper Wins Broad Support

The My Brother’s Keeper initiative works to address the persistent and life-determining challenges faced by boys and young men of color (African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, and Alaska Natives) to a disproportionate degree. The challenges are real: poverty, absentee fathers, high dropout rates, low employment, violence, and high rates of imprisonment.

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Last year, President Obama launched My Brother’s Keeper in an effort to address these problems. The initiative is working with leading foundations and businesses to help young men of color fulfill their potential and contribute to our country’s social and economic fabric.

Broderick Johnson, assistant to the president and cabinet secretary and chair of the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force, recently met with an editor at the offices of Black Enterprise to talk about President Obama’s historic initiative, the challenges ahead, and what has surprised both him and the president about the work of My Brother’s Keeper. Johnson is encouraged with its progress so far.

“There are about 200 My Brother’s Keeper communities across the country,” Johnson said in an interview. “The president was in Indianapolis in February meeting with the Republican mayor there, Greg Ballard, and the mayor brought up My Brother’s Keeper. There’s been an outpouring of interest, and the president and I have been surprised by the level of Republican mayoral support–they’ve started My Brother’s Keeper programs.”

Johnson said that the way to meet the challenge is to bring people in a community together and develop plans that are data driven–which is what cities are doing. He noted that the city of Philadelphia recently released a great plan after consulting with a broad base of stakeholders; Indianapolis has developed a three-year plan.

Johnson asserts that My Brother’s Keeper will survive the president’s term of office in at least two ways: in the community-based work–because the initiative is essentially a local, community-based program–and at the federal level. Johnson heads a task force that comprises 12

domestic agencies, including the Departments of Education, Justice, the Interior, and Energy. Each of the 12 agencies is involved with the initiative, and each has examined its policies and identified ways to make them more effective in addressing the needs of children of color, especially boys. For example, last year the Department of Education and the Department of Justice issued discipline guidelines to reduce the use of out-of-school suspensions, which are used disproportionately against black students across the country, especially boys.

The business community has also enthusiastically embraced the goals of My Brother’s Keeper, Johnson said. “There’s been lots of engagement on the national level. Finance services firms have developed and extended mentorship programs that are focused on African American and Hispanic males in their 20’s. AT&T has launched a program of 25,000 mentors over five years which it’s driving through its employees.”

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In Newark and Philadelphia, local businesses are engaged, Johnson said. He

noted that My Brother’s Keeper has also talked with the Black Chamber of Commerce and that employment and entrepreneurship will be large through the next year. “These young men want to work, Johnson said. “They don’t want to be in trouble.” He also mentioned re-entry programs for young men coming out of the criminal justice system.

Education Is Key

Johnson noted that education is at the core of the initiative’s goals, and is recognized as critical to the success of these boys. “The deputy secretary of education was named executive director to handle the day-to-day work of My Brother’s Keeper. That’s one indication of the importance of the department,” Johnson said. “It’s the Department of Education that makes sure the program is administered and run the right way.”

Johnson is quick to point out that communities that change so that they can invest in young men of color will end up helping all young people.

“What’s exciting is that business leaders and faith leaders

and local officials are coming together in ways they hadn’t before,” Johnson said. “For example, a mayor in a city will say he’d been trying to get a local business engaged in an after-school program, and now, with My Brother’s Keeper, there’s a framework to make it happen.”

Johnson said that My Brother’s Keeper is already making a difference, that in many of the initiative’s “action zones” in cities across the country, many of the boys there would be on their way to prison if not for My Brother’s Keeper.

“My Brother’s Keeper aims at identifying and scaling what works,” Johnson said, “and investing in what works rather than doing things that don’t work well or that won’t lead to the kind of change we need.”

For more on My Brother’s Keeper, go to https://www.whitehouse.gov/my-brothers-keeper. If you are an educator, parent, or concerned member of the community and want to examine the discipline guidelines issued by the Department of Education, go to http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/school-discipline/guiding-principles.pdf.