Cities United and Leadership to Promote Black Male Achievement

1. Cities United and Leadership to Promote Black Male Achievement Leon T. Andrews, Jr Senior Fellow October 9, 2012

2. YEF Institute:Five Core Program Areas 4) Safety of Children and Youth • Gang Prevention 5)Youth Development • Disconnected Youth • Obesity in Children and Youth • Youth Leadership • Youth Violence • Young Men of Color • Youth Master Planning 1) Early Childhood Development • Early Learning (0-8 years) 2) Education and Afterschool • K-12 School Improvement • Afterschool Programs • High School Reform • Post Secondary Success 3) Family Economic Success • Asset Building • Benefits for Working Families • Transitional Jobs

3. NLC’s New Release:BMA Municipal Action Guide • BMA Guide: • The Challenge • Strategies • Action Steps • Resources • Action Steps: • Strengthening families • Improving educational achievement • Expanding access to family-supporting jobs • Reducing violence and violent-related deaths

5. BMA Strategy:Cross-System Collaboration Education Health & Food Social Services Child & Family Services Mental Health & Probation • Public Schools • ESEA, Title I • School Lunch & Breakfast • Head Start • IDEA • After-School Programs • Textbook Funding • Tests & Achievement • Teacher Issues • GED • Medi-Cal – EPSDT • Healthy Families Parent Expansion • Child Health & Disability Program • Expanded Access Primary Care • Trauma Case Funding • Co-payments for ER Services • Child Lead Poisoning Prevention Program • HIV/AIDS Prevention & Education • Breast Cancer Screening • Food Stamps • WIC • TANF • GAIN, CAL Learn, Cal WORKS, etc. • Child Care – CCDBG, SSBG, Cal WORKS Child Care, etc. • After-School Programs – 21st Century Learning Centers, etc. • Promoting Safe & Stable Families • Child Abuse & Neglect Programs • Foster Care – Transition, Independent Living, Housing, etc. • Adoption Assistance, Adoption Opportunities • School-Based MH Services for Medi-Cal Kids • Probation Officers in Schools • Cardenas-Schiff Legislation • Health Care Through Probation • Mental Health Evaluations • Juvenile Halls Boyfriend in trouble Mom Dad 9 year old 5 year old Baby 1 1/2 Mom’s sister Children’s Services in LA CountySource: Margaret Dunkle, IEL

6. BMA Strategy:City Leaders’ roles – 5 Cs and a P • Conceptualizing – vision • Convening • Commissioning – research, intermediaries • Co-financing • Cross-walking – with counties, school districts, foundations, businesses • Promoting

7. BMA Action Step:Strengthening Families • Create opportunities for positive involvement of fathers in their sons’ lives • Enhance fathers’ capacity to financially support their children • Connect families with effective parent education and support programs • Boost family incomes and assets

8. BMA Action Step:Improving Educational Achievement • Promote reading proficiency by the end of third grade • Recruit mentors to help black boys stay on track in school • Push for in-school alternatives to suspension and expulsion • Work to reduce chronic absence and truancy • Develop alternative pathways to high school completion

9. BMA Action Step:Expanding Access to Family-Supported Jobs • Expand opportunities for early work experience and career exploration • Invest in YouthBuild programs and local youth corps • Explore ways to create transitional jobs for young black men • Ensure equal access and effective targeting in workforce development programs • Promote linkages to foster care and juvenile justice systems • Reduce employment barriers for those with a criminal record

10. BMA Action Step:Reducing Violence and Violent-Related Deaths

11. The Interrupters http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS5Hjhy1RhM

31. False Universalism:Reducing Violent Deaths Among Black Males • Armed with this knowledge, many communities still take a universal approach to violence prevention strategy, programming, and evaluation. • “Universal approaches that are not sensitive to the needs of the particular have uneven impact” (Powell, 2011). • False universalism assumes that targeted policies that address the needs of certain populations become a divisive wedge.  • False universalism also assumes that everyone benefits from universal approaches. But universal approaches that are not sensitive to the needs of the particular are never truly universal; they tend to have an uneven impact, and can even exacerbate racial inequality at times. • We need to be universal in our goals but not in our process.

32. Five Tasks • Create Urgency – Developing a call to action for the need to address this issue with immediacy • Dispel Myths - Providing information to change the perception of black males who are victims of violent-related deaths • Unpack the Reality - Increasing understanding around the reasons for violent deaths, and how that disproportionately happens for black males • Name the Challenge - Identifying obstacles and opportunities to serving black males in violence prevention efforts • Understand and Implement What Works - Increasing knowledge about effective approaches currently being used

33. Cities United:Vision (Targeted Universalism) Mayors and municipalities across the country will form partnerships with other local government officials, community leaders, families, youth, funders, and other stakeholders within their respective cities dedicated to reducing violence and violence related deaths among African American men and boys

34. FORGING A COMMON VISION Creating a BMA Local Action Plan:Five Key Components ENGAGING ALL STAKEHOLDERS DEVELOPING STRATEGIES SHARING ACCOUNTABILITY COORDINATING INFRASTRUCTURE

35. Cities United:Key Partners Principals • City of Philadelphia • City of New Orleans • Open Society Foundations’ Campaign for Black Male Achievement • Casey Family Programs • National League of Cities Core Planning Team • Association of Black Foundation Executives • Grantmakers for Children Youth and Families • Knight Foundation • U.S. Conference of Mayors • Three appointed youth leaders

36. Safe Communities = Healthy Youth Healthy Youth = Better Students Better Students = Healthy Communities Healthy Communities = Healthy Future Simple Equation

38. National League of CitiesInstitute for Youth, Education, and Families • City Leadership for Black Male Achievement: • Request additional print copies by emailing iyef@nlc.org • Young Men of Color network: • To join, email karpman@nlc.org • Contact: • Leon T. Andrews, Jr., (202) 626-3039 or andrews@nlc.org • New Position: • Senior Associate, Youth Violence Prevention, apply at www.nlc.org