White House's 'My Brother's Keeper' Initiative Releases Report Outlining Plan to Help Young Men of Color
The White House released the first report Friday from a task force focused on helping young black, Hispanic and Native American males receive quality education, stay out of jail and become successful members of the work force.
Statistics show that young men of color are less likely to graduate from high school and become employed than white males, as well as more likely to become incarcerated.
President Obama therefore launched "My Brother's Keeper" three months ago to focus on solutions to rectify the deep socioeconomic inequalities faced by young men of color. The initiative includes a task force to analyze the many issues facing young black, Hispanic and Native American males, and a plan to get businesses and foundations to help right the endemic societal wrongs.
"No excuses. Government, and private sector, and philanthropy, and all the faith communities, we all have a responsibility to help provide you the tools you need," Obama told a group of black students in February when he announced the new initiative. "We've got to help you knock down some of the barriers that you experience."
On Friday, the task force released its first report that spells out the challenges faced by young men of color, including poverty and frequently unstable households, CNN reports.
In a conference call with reporters, Cecilia Munoz, the White House director of domestic policy, said the initiative's goal is on "sharpening what we do to make sure we are really maximizing the impact of the federal resources that we have."
White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett noted that the Obama administration also launched the White House Council on Women and Girls five years ago to focus on equal opportunity for women and girls, and the "My Brother's Keeper" initiative seeks to do the same for other historically marginalized groups.
The new 60-page report also identifies a plan for achieving equality and success for non-white young men.
Some steps identified to achieve success are: getting a healthy start in life, reading well by the third grade, graduating high school, completing post-high school training or college, getting a job and staying out of prison.
"At each of these milestones, some individuals start to fall behind," the task force report says. "Once a young person falls behind, success becomes exponentially more difficult."
The report also includes the statistics that black, Hispanic and Native American children are twice as likely to live in poverty as white children, and that two in three black children and one in three Latino children live with one parent. Children raised by a single parent are also more likely to drop out of school.
The leading cause of death for black males 10 to 24 years old is homicide, and in 2012, black males were six times more likely to be incarcerated than white males. Hispanics were 2.5 times more likely to be imprisoned than white males.
Obama said he will call on Americans to commit to long-term mentoring or tutoring programs to provide guidance to children and young men of color.
Some other planned solutions are to expand access to pre-school and early education programs, increase literacy and reading programs and eliminate expulsions and suspensions in early learning.
The new initiative also includes investments of more than $200 million from foundations involved in alleviating social ills and educational inequity.
Additionally, the report calls on federal, state and community leaders, as well as police, to work to keeping children and young men of color out of reform schools or jail, and to ensure that those in prison have access to education.
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