President Obama and NBA star Steph Curry teamed up in a new PSA encouraging others to mentor our youth. Check it out below.
African American news blog that features news that may get little or no coverage in the mainstream media
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Monday, July 21, 2014
NBA to help sponsor Pres. Obama's "My Brother's Keeper" initiative.
[ SOURCE] The National Basketball Association will be among the corporate sponsors that have committed to helping young minority men as part of the White House’s “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative.
The NBA, in coordination with its players association, will launch a five-year effort designed to connect 25,000 mentors with young men of color. The league will work with at-risk students to improve attendance and performance at schools. Current and former players will also participate in after school workshops designed to help vulnerable children.
Additionally, NBA hall-of-famer Magic Johnson and Deloitte CEO Joe Echevarria will launch a new “National Convening Council” designed to bring together business, philanthropic, and faith leaders to coordinate their efforts to help young men of color.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Black Men Ask Obama to Include Women in Brothers Keeper Program
More than 200 African American men, ranging from a taxi driver to university professors, sent a letter to President Obama on Tuesday urging him to expand his Black male initiative to include Black girls and women, saying they were “surprised and disappointed” that the president had sought to include only half of the race to tackle community-wide issues.
After praising the president for saying that addressing the needs of those left behind is as important as anything else he is undertaking, authors of the letter wrote, “So we were surprised and disappointed that your commitments express empathy to only half of our community – men and boys of color. Simply put, as Black men we cannot afford to turn away from the very sense of a shared fate that has been vital to our quest for racial equality across the course of American history.”
The letter continued, “As African Americans, and as a nation, we have to be as concerned about the experiences of single Black women who raise their kids on sub-poverty wages as we are about the disproportionate number of Black men who are incarcerated. We must care as much about Black women who are the victims of gender violence as we do about Black boys caught up in the drug trade.”
Read more: Black Men Ask Obama to Include Women in Brothers Keeper Program
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Overview of Pres. Obama's program ( My Brother's Keeper ) to help black & brown boys.
FACT SHEET: Opportunity for all: President Obama Launches My Brother’s Keeper Initiative to Build Ladders of Opportunity For Boys and Young Men of Color
- Assess the impact of Federal policies, regulations, and programs of general applicability on boys and young men of color, so as to develop proposals that will enhance positive outcomes and eliminate or reduce negative ones.
- Recommend, where appropriate, incentives for the broad adoption by national, State, and local public and private decision makers of effective and innovative strategies and practices for providing opportunities to and improving outcomes for boys and young men of color.
- Create an Administration-wide “What Works” online portal to disseminate successful programs and practices that improve outcomes for boys and young men of color.
- Develop a comprehensive public website, to be maintained by the Department of Education, that will assess, on an ongoing basis, critical indicators of life outcomes for boys and young men of color in absolute and relative terms.
- Work with external stakeholders to highlight the opportunities, challenges, and efforts affecting boys and young men of color.
- Recommend to the President means of ensuring sustained efforts within the Federal Government and continued partnership with the private sector and philanthropic community as set forth in the Presidential Memorandum.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Obama to announce initiative aimed at young black men
Continuing his push to use executive powers as a way of advancing his agenda, President Barack Obama will announce Thursday a new effort to help improve the lives of young African-American males.
A White House official said the "My Brother's Keeper" initiative would partner government with businesses to "make sure that every young man of color who is willing to work hard and lift himself up has an opportunity to get ahead and reach his full potential."
Young African-American men are unemployed at a higher rate than the population at large, and are more likely than peers of other races to be incarcerated. Obama said during last month's State of the Union address he was working with public and private partners to "help more young men of color facing tough odds stay on track and reach their full potential."
The plan, which the White House official said was "focused on implementing strategies that are proven to get results," will convene business and foundation leaders to test strategies in various cities around the country designed to intervene at key moments in young men's lives, including at school and in interactions with law enforcement.
Read more: Obama to announce initiative aimed at young black men