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How Five Communities Are Supporting the Transformation, Education, and Employment Success of Young Black Men

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How Five Communities Are Supporting the Transformation, Education, and Employment Success of Young Black Men ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CLASP wishes to acknowledge the Open Society Foundations’ Campaign for Black Male Achievement for its support of our policy work addressing issues impacting the education and labor market outcomes of black men and boys. CLASP greatly appreciates the leaders, providers, and practitioners in each community that participated in the interviews and roundtable discussions. Thank you to the staff of Mayor’s Office of Employment Devel- opment, City of Baltimore; Capital Workforce Partners; Philadelphia Youth Network; San Diego Workforce Partnership; and Economic and Workforce Development Department, City of Los Angeles for their support of the project. Special thanks to those individuals who contributed their expertise and time to coordinate the site visits: Baltimore: Ernest Dorsey, Milena Kornyl, Patricia Morfe, and Kerry Owens; Hartford: Jim Boucher, Gerard Dawes, Deborah Ducoff-Barone, Tom Phillips, Bob Rath, Hector Rivera, and Sean Seep- ersad; Los Angeles: Martin Flores, Nancy Herrera, Kendra Madrid, Ozzie Lopez, Lisa Salazar and Robert Sainz; Philadelphia: Raphaela Browne, Chekemma Fulmore-Townsend, Dona Gonzalez, Stacy Holland, and Laura McHugh; San Diego: Erika Gallardo, Ian Gordon, and Margie de Ruyter. We offer special thanks to Danny Watkins of the Watts Youth Opportunity Movement for his time and openness to share his experiences of working with young men in Los Angeles and leading CLASP staff on a tour of the Watts Community and Camp Gonzalez to gain a deeper perspective of youth circumstances. CLASP also wishes to thank the staff and young men of the programs we observed and those who par- ticipated in the interviews, roundtables and focus groups. In particular, we greatly appreciate the young men who were willing to share their personal stories for the profiles1. Their honesty and integrity was at the heart of this project: Youth Opportunity Westside Center, Baltimore, MD Youth Opportunity Career Academy, Baltimore, MD Our Piece of the Pie, Hartford, CT Opportunity High School, Hartford, CT Coalition for Responsible Community Development, Los Angeles, CA Boyle Heights Youth Opportunity Movement, Los Angeles, CA LA Conservation Corps, Los Angeles, CA Watts Youth Opportunity Movement, Los Angeles, CA Resources for Human Development, E3 Center North, Philadelphia, PA YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School, Philadelphia, PA Escondido Education COMPACT, San Diego, CA San Diego County Office of Education/Juvenile Court and Community Schools, San Diego, CA The author would like to thank Melissa DeShields for partnering with CLASP on this project and leading the youth interviews, focus groups, and analysis. She would also like to thank her CLASP colleagues Linda Harris, Director of Youth Policy, Rhonda Bryant, Senior Policy Analyst, and Andy Beres, Communications Manager for their input and contributions to this report. This report is a part of CLASP’s Corners to Credentials (C2C) Project. The C2C Project documents how local practice and policy supports the transformation, education, and employment success of disconnected and disadvantaged youth. 1For the purposes of this report, the real names of the young men have been changed. Opportunity Says It All: How Five Communities Are Supporting the Transformation, Education, and Employment Success of Young Black Men Kisha Bird December 2013 Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Project Purpose and Methodology 3 Re-imagining the Landscape: Reflections of Local Stakeholders 3 Key Markers of Success 9 Serving Young Black Males: The Data Snapshot 11 Improving Employment Outcomes for Black Male Youth 13 End Notes 20 1200 18th Street, NW Suite 200 Washington, DC 20036 www.clasp.org Kevin is a 21-year-old from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania “Last year, a couple of things happened. Reality really clicked for me; I had no job, and my aunt was struggling with the bills and threatening to kick me out. I was stuck and trying to figure out what I was going to do. Then, one night, a friend of mine was killed on my block. I had just walked in the house. I came back out and saw the body. I didn’t even recognize him, and I was traumatized. Out of everyone, I wouldn’t expect him to die; he wasn’t even into the streets. He just got caught at the wrong place at the wrong time. I started thinking that the same thing could happen to me and [began] reflect- ing on what I wanted out of life. I knew then that I had to go to school and do something with myself. “I dropped out of school in 12th grade. It’s crazy to think about that now, because I was a good student; I earned As and Bs. When I turned 18, I got into a conflict with my aunt and I moved out and went to live with my mom. Things went downhill from there. I lived with my aunt all of my life and, when I moved away, I really didn’t have anyone who was pushing me to do the right thing. Eventually, I stopped going to school and started hanging with the wrong crowd, and selling weed. I was drifting away. Then I got a job at Wendy’s and I thought I was the man, so I dropped out of school. Within a few months, I was fired from my job, my relationship with my mom was getting worse, and I didn’t have a stable home. All the while, more of my friends were dying in my neighborhood every day. I eventually moved back in with my aunt, and I was on the hunt. I had been applying to different programs, but all of them helped you get your GED and I didn’t want a GED—I wanted my high school diploma.” After enrolling in a program that offered a high school diploma, Kevin changed… “I really wanted to do something with my life, help myself and help others. I decided I was going to try my hardest; I was putting in the time and effort, staying after school until 6 o’clock at night.” Kevin is making great progress towards earning his high school diploma. He plans to earn a degree in biomedical engineering, get a car, buy a house, and help support his family. He wants very much to inspire his peers and family members to do better… “Then I would feel content.” Introduction The daily lives of young black men living in communities of concentrated poverty than any other racial group. And of high-concentrated poverty can be a complex maze of research suggests that people who live in communities split-second decisions, each of which challenges their of concentrated poverty are more likely to experience safety and ability to attend work or school, visit family, or violence and to be victims of violence.v These are grim run routine errands. Living in resource-poor communi- realities for young black men. ties, young black men have less access to positive work opportunities and social capital. Social capital, the fabric Despite the odds facing young black men living in poor of a given community, is often referred to as the pool of and low-income communities, the young men we met human resources and networks that enable a community possessed a great sense of purpose. The fact that they to thrive. In absence of strong social capital, young black were not only alive, but thriving was amazing. The set of men are often left to fend for themselves. They are often programs and services, coupled with caring staff and forced to make choices under extreme distress, with lit- positive adult connections, provided more than just tan- tle modeling or insight into the lasting impact and those gible employment and education skills. For them, the choices will have on their lives. engagement was part of a rebuilding pro- The physical and psychological “My son was born when I was 16 and cess that restored their sense of self and toll this places on young minds he was really sick when he was born accomplishment and established a new and cannot be underestimated. up until he was about 18 months old, vibrant social capital that defied grim statis- so I had to take off from school a lot tics. But these are the most fortunate males; Young black men endure some of to be at the hospital until he got better. most don’t have access to these services the worst employment and edu- That’s how I got behind and ended up because funding and infrastructure are in- cation outcomes. High school dropping out.” sufficient to deliver services at scale. graduation rates of African Ameri- can students nationally and in - Youth Focus Group Participant CLASP embarked on this project with a par- many of the nation’s school dis- ticular interest in understanding the essential tricts continue to lag behind their white counterparts. mix of policies and practices needed to support young Available data for high school graduation rates for black black men on a positive transformative journey that in- males in Baltimore Public School District, Philadelphia cludes successful transitions to work, school, and life. Public School District, and Los Angeles Unified School Acknowledging that it takes much more than a single District show that less than half of the black male popula- quality youth program—or even several programs—to tion graduate on time (40 percent, 24 percent, and 41 address the disparities and inequalities young black men percent respectively)i. Employment levels are just as face, we worked with five communities in the Commu- ghastly. Just 13 percent of all black male teens age 16 nities Collaborating to Reconnect Youth (CCRY) Net- to 19 are employed, down six percentage points from a work2: Baltimore, MD.; Hartford, CT; Los Angeles, CA; decade ago.ii For young adults age 20 to 24, black men Philadelphia, PA; and San Diego, CA.
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