In Focus
Apr 03, 2013 | Permalink »
Investing in Boys and Young Men of Color: The Promise and Opportunity
The path to adulthood can be especially difficult for many middle- and high-school-aged young men of color. They are more likely to grow up in poverty, live in unsafe neighborhoods, and go to under-resourced schools—all of which affect their lifelong health and well-being. What is at stake for America is the possibility of losing an entire generation of productive men who will fall short of their potential, live less healthy lives, and fail to build and strengthen their communities.
In 2011, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) created the Forward Promise initiative within its Vulnerable Populations Portfolio to place a strategic emphasis on the needs of middle school- and high school-aged young men of color. RWJF’s goal is to strengthen educational opportunities, pathways to employment, and health outcomes for these young men.
CLASP worked with RWJF to conduct a scan of issues facing boys and young men of color in the areas of education, health, and pathways to employment. The goal of the scan was to understand both the barriers and opportunities in this work in order to make an informed decision about where to place resources to best influence outcomes for boys and young men of color. The results of the scan are available in our brief, “Investing in Boys and Young Men of Color: The Promise and Opportunity.”
From the scan came eight key ideas for investing in boys and young men of color:
Recommendation #1: Promote school discipline approaches that address behavioral problems without pushing students out of school
Recommendation #2: Increase the use of data to target interventions to boys of color at risk for dropping out of school
Recommendation #3: Expand opportunities for young men of color to work, learn, and develop career-enhancing skills
Recommendation #4: Elevate the importance of a “caring adult” in policy and programmatic efforts to re-engage out-of-school males
Recommendation #5: Provide options for out-of-school males to attain a secondary credential with pathways to postsecondary education
Recommendation #6: Increase the cultural competency of health professionals and educators who work with boys and young men of color
Recommendation #7: Change the philosophy and culture of how youth systems provide services to youth experiencing violence and trauma
Recommendation #8: Increase access to health care services for boys and young men of color
Jan 18, 2013 | Permalink »
Race Still Plays a Role in Defining Poverty
Recently, I was on Huff Post Live (a live-streaming program on Huffington Post) with an interesting panel of people discussing whether class defines segregation and poverty in our nation and whether race has lost its relevance. This discussion was based on a blog by Janita Poe on AI.com which asserts that class, not race, is what separates society today.
If race were no longer a factor, then the experiences of the poor would not vary along racial lines. In fact, black and white families experience poverty very differently.
Black families in poverty are far more likely to live in segregated communities of concentrated poverty while white families in poverty are more likely to live in suburban areas of mixed income. This is not simply by choice. Discrimination in housing is still alive and well, albeit less overt than the historical days of redlining. This difference in geography has long term effects for black families on outcomes including health, education, employment, and family formation outcomes. Families have less access to quality health services, jobs that provide a livable wage, education that prepares youth for college and careers, community programming, and healthy food options. The difference of location makes a difference in future life outcomes.
Black children are more likely to live in persistent poverty, whereas white children are more likely to cycle in and out of poverty as parents' income fluctuates. This is largely a function of access to employment. Black unemployment rates are consistently about double that of whites, with the widest gaps being for low income people. Living in poverty for more than one-half of childhood has a significant impact on how young people view the world and their prospective future within it. The ability to envision a better life is a critical step to actually achieving it.
When we shift the conversation to middle-class black families, we see that the racial inequities remain. Gaps in education access and attainment, employment, health, and family formation persist across all socioeconomic levels. In some of our nation's most diverse suburban school districts, high schools with high minority populations fail to offer the full menu of courses that prepare students for college admission. While the racial gaps in unemployment decrease as level of education increases, the gaps do not go away. Race is still a factor in employment, regardless to whether you are a high school dropout or hold a PhD.
There is no mistaking that race remains a major divider in our nation. For me, the most compelling sentiment of this 30-minute dialogue was the one expressed by Carey Fuller, the only person in poverty on our segment: she said that as a nation, we could fix this if we wanted to.
Jan 04, 2013 | Permalink »
Philanthropic Effort Advances Youth Jobs
At a convening in December held at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., Patrick McCarthy, President and CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, asked a national audience of policymakers to reflect on their first job - their first pay check -- and to remember the confidence and pride those early work experiences instilled; the lessons learned on surviving in the real world; and the job and social skills, values, and expectations that were imparted. He asserted that these are values that last for a lifetime and are passed on to our own children. He reminded the audience that today, with youth employment rates at the lowest level in 60 years, so many youth, particularly youth of color, don't have access to jobs and early work experience during the important period from age 18 to 24 - exactly when they should be building the foundation for lifelong economic success.
Today, there are 6.5 million youth who are neither in school nor working and who face the prospect of chronic unemployment or underemployment throughout their adult life. With the December launch of its 2013 KIDS COUNT Report, the Annie E. Casey Foundation has joined several other major foundations in drawing attention to this youth employment challenge. The Foundation has released the report "Youth and Work: Restoring Teen and Young Adult Connections to Opportunity," which documents the dimensions of the challenge, provides state-by-state data on youth unemployment, and calls for the development of a national youth employment strategy that expands jobs and work opportunities and creates multiple pathways to reconnect these youth to employment. The Foundation has also released the video Opening Doors: Connecting America's Youth to Opportunity to feature young people sharing their own stories. The Annie E. Casey Foundation is adding their considerable influence to the growing number of foundations and national efforts to expand opportunity for our young people. Other important initiatives include the Robert Wood Johnson Forward Promise Initiative, OSF Campaign for Black Male Achievement, Campaign for Youth, Opportunity Nation, and the White House Council for Community Solutions.
The Casey report advances several recommendations that reinforce those from these and other groups involved in the national movement to support community-based strategies that align public, private, philanthropic, and community resources to implement comprehensive programming to address the education and labor market needs of youth outside the labor market mainstream. Hopefully, this heightened attention and advocacy will generate the public support needed to sufficiently fund strategies for addressing youth disconnection at scale.