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| | These are the worst cities in America for urban youth. How did they get that way and who is doing anything to change them? And why hasn't President Obama responded to this crisis in America? | | | The 5 Worst Cities In America for Urban Youth
By R.L. Donovan / November 10th, 2009 In its commitment to calling attention to the Obama Administration's continued neglect of urban America, ScoopDaily has compiled a list of the 5 worst cities for urban youth. Particular attention is paid to high-school graduation rates, infant mortality rates, unemployment rates, juvenile justice incarceration, and the amount of jobs created in relation to funds received by the Recovery Act.
5. Cleveland, OH
With a high school graduation rate of 34%, the city of Cleveland has among the lowest graduation rates in the country-this according to the America's Promise Alliance. In the most recent annual report filed by Cleveland's Juvenile Division of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, a total of 11,254 "Delinquency and Unruly" cases were filed. African-American youth made up 64% of individual offenders, the highest of any minority group. Moreover, the city's unemployment rate stands at 8.3%. After typing in Cleveland's zip code of 44101 at Recovery.gov, over $27,000,000 in Recovery Act funds has been received, with zero jobs created to show for it.
4. Baltimore, MD
At 41%, Baltimore's high school graduation rate lands it on the list of Cities in Crisis compiled by America's Promise Alliance. According to the State of Maryland's recent annual report of Juvenile Services, African-American youth made up more than 43% of those placed in Juvenile Detention Facilities, 47% of Out-Of-Home Placements, and 80% of those placed in Shelter Care Programs, the highest of any group. Among Baltimore's recent data on Maternal and Infant Health, African-American infants had the highest mortality rate (15.5 per 1000 live births) of any group. Currently the city's unemployment rate stands at 7.6%. Recovery.gov shows that over $113,000,000 in funds have been dispersed for Baltimore's zip code of 21202; some 202 jobs have been created for this area.
3. Atlanta, GA At 44%, the City of Atlanta also boasts one of the nation's lowest graduation rates, landing it in the same pool of Cities in Crisis. The Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice reports that for Atlanta's Fulton County, African-American youth made up over 93% of total intake for unique youth served for criminal offenses; over 92% of admissions for criminal offenses; over 92% of releases for criminal offenses committed; over 96% of the average daily population for criminal offenses; and over 95% of child care days served for criminal defenses. This past summer, The Atlanta Department of Police's Gang Unit has identified some 50 youth gangs in the city, notwithstanding the surrounding suburbs-this according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The city's unemployment rate stands at 10.5%, more than the nation's current employment rate of 10.2%. According to Recovery.gov, the Atlanta zip code of 30354 has received over $42,000,000 in funds, but only 30 jobs have been created.
2. Detroit, MI
The motor city presents a dismal high school graduation rate of 38% according to America's Promise Alliance; it too is struggling with the same educational challenges as Atlanta, Baltimore, and Cleveland. According to the most recent executive summary of juvenile statistics published by the Michigan Department of Human Services, Detroit's Wayne County is at the top of the list of counties identified for targeted intervention due to a high juvenile crime arrest rate over a period of 5 years, and a high prevalence of arrests in the most recent year of documented juvenile justice data. Statewide, African-American youth comprise almost 50% of arrested juveniles. Detroit is also known to be one of the most violent cities, rated as the nation's murder capital by Forbes. The FBI reports 17,428 instances of violent crime out of a population of 905,783, in their most recent published data on U.S. Crime. Michigan Higher Education Land Policy Consortium reports that Detroit has an infant mortality rate of 15.4 per 1000 live births. The city's unemployment rate stands at a staggering 17.3%. For Detroit's zipcode of 48201, more than $20,000,000 in Recovery Act funds has been received, with only 67 jobs having been created.
1. Chicago, IL
With the highest graduation rate of the 5, Chicago still barely manages to graduate more than half of its Urban District students with a high school graduation rate of 55.7%-this according to the special analytic report on high school graduation published by America's Promise Alliance. According to the Illinois Criminal Justice Authority's most recent annual report, almost 300,000 youth live in poverty in Chicago's Cook County. Over 26,000 crimes against youth have been reported. Over 31,000 youth in Cook County have been arrested for criminal offenses; and of those arrested, 72% were African-American youth, the highest of any minority group. Chicago's struggle with youth violence has received national attention over the past year. In the previous academic school year, 36 Chicago-area students have been killed, with the recent death of 16-year old Derrion Albert receiving the most national attention. According to the most recent data on Infant Mortality by the Cook County Department of Public Health, African-Americans have a mortality rate of 14.7 per 1000 births, also the highest of any racial group. Chicago's unemployment rate stands at 10%. For Chicago's zipcode of 60603, more than $800,000,000 in Recovery Act funds has been received, with a dismal 19 jobs created. ************************************************************ Please click here to tell President Obama that you are not happy with the lack of support from the White House on the issues of urban youth in America and ask him to work with The Black Star Project to fix these problems. | Beyond the Bricks Broadcasts America's Education Crisis for Black Boys The Association of Black Foundation Executives features Shawn Dove from Open Society Institute's Campaign for Black Male Achievement | | Guest Columnist By Shawn Dove Campaign Manager for the Open Society Institute's Campaign for Black Male Achievement While attending the recent Schott Foundation for Public Education's Opportunity To Learn Summit one of the speakers asserted that responding to the education crisis of Black boys in America is the civil rights challenge of today's generation. And while a complex web of inequities and disparities exist that force Black boys and men to the bottom of almost every success indicator in America, it's not hard to agree that the deplorable educational outcomes are at the heart of the systemic problem preventing Black boys from realizing their full potential in American society. The current education crisis is like a slow drip Katrina; the likes of a category 5 hurricane that steadily erodes not only the schooling conditions of Black boys, but too many low-income students of every gender and all races attending under-resourced schools across the country. Yet, the slow-drip Katrina metaphor does not come with constant CNN clips of Black male students standing on school rooftops across America holding up signs that read "please save me," reminiscent of the TV news images of Hurricane Katrina victims. Consequently, education advocates are more and more becoming masters of their own media, broadcasting the opportunities and achievement gaps within the public education system for Black boys - sounding an alarm and shining the light on the educational slow drip Katrina that, in its totality, presents a perfect storm for fueling the school-to-prison pipeline. The Open Society Institute's Campaign for Black Male Achievement was conceived to help improve the life outcomes of Black men and boys, with the premise that if America transforms the structural opportunities and outcomes of its most marginalized individuals it will improve the life outcomes of all its citizens. Two of the core goals of the Campaign are to integrate strategic communications across its three foundational grantmaking areas of Education, Family and Work to promote positive frames and messages about Black men and boys and to ensure that Black boys have the opportunity to excel academically, to prepare for college, and to learn skills essential to earning a living wage. The Campaign is committed to cultivating philanthropic partners and making strategic investments in organizations to achieve these goals, so it made sense for us to support the recent Newark, New Jersey and New York City premieres and panel discussions of the film Beyond the Bricks. A 30-minute documentary produced by Koen & Washington Media, Bricks explores solutions to the poor academic performance and low graduation rates of school-aged Black males in the United States. The film follows two students from Newark, New Jersey, as they struggle against the school system to improve their educational circumstances, and includes interviews with educators, researchers, administrators, elected officials and activists who offer their ideas for solutions to the crisis facing Black boys. Bricks illuminate a web of issues such as zero tolerance push out policies; school violence; absent fathers and the lack of innovative classroom engagement strategies that fuel America's school-to-prison pipeline. In addition to portraying the problems, Bricks also uplifts the solutions and the policy advocacy levers that help the two strikingly bright young men featured in the film to get back on track with pursuing their education goals. But the real power and beauty of new films like Beyond the Bricks and Bring Your A Game, the 21st Century Foundation's cinematic clarion call to adolescent Black males to focus more on educational achievement as the pathway to adult success, is their potential to be catalysts for community mobilization, advocacy action campaigns and policy change conversations. For example, during a recent trip to Chicago, Phillip Thomas, senior program officer for the Chicago Community Trust, excitedly shared with me how A Game was being used as an organizing and advocacy tool in several Chicago neighborhoods. Judging from the capacity crowd attendance for the Bricks viewings, the documentary is another welcomed media tool that can fuel education reform. It is critical that philanthropy continues to support arts and culture, media and technology that stimulate social change. Films like Beyond the Bricks are created with a vision beyond the viewing. The lasting impact and catalyst for change Bricks brings to its audience emerges after the closing credits when the action steps are made to stop America's slow-drip Katrina. ___________________________________________________________________ About ABFE The Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE) holds the distinction of being the first of the Council on Foundations 38 Affinity Groups. We were established in 1971, and since then the organization has grown into an independent membership organization that counts among its members the most influential staff, trustees and donors of grantmaking institutions that promote effective and responsive philanthropy in Black communities.
For nearly four decades ABFE has been a trailblazer for championing the interests of Black communities within the philanthropic sector. While we celebrate this history and influence, we also recognize that Black communities and the philanthropic leaders who serve those communities still face institutional and structural barriers that often hinder efforts to leverage philanthropy's powerful tools for positive, enduring social change.
Today, along with our members and supporters across the country we continue the urgent work that advances our mission in the field of philanthropy.
What is ABFE's mission?
ABFE's mission is to promote effective and responsive philanthropy in Black communities.
What is ABFE's philosophy? Our members and supporters, by way of the work they do and the role they play in philanthropy, are catalyst for advancing philanthropic practices that build on a tradition of self-help, empowerment and excellence to solve the challenges faced in Black communities. How Does ABFE Meet Its Goals? To meet our goals and objectives, ABFE focuses on the following approaches: - We create professional training programs and initiatives, such as our Connecting Leaders Fellows program, to develop leadership and talent.
- We support the sharing of Best Practices for Supporting Diverse and Inclusive Leadership.
- We convene and sponsor high-engagement learning opportunities for active members.
- We prepare and distribute a series of annual briefing papers that identify priority issues in Black communities and make recommendations for strategic philanthropic investments to address those issues.
- We strengthen our collaborations with key affinity groups, regional Black philanthropic networks, and nonprofit organizations to leverage our collective institutional influence, effectiveness, and impact in Black communities.
| | The War Between Black Children and the World in Which They Live
This war that our children are fighting against each other in the schools they attend, and against the communities in which they live, started for them in their homes. It can only be stopped in their homes. | | COMMENTARY: The War Between Black Children and the World in Which They Live by Phillip Jackson, first published in 2005
Many Black children and students are socially and emotionally out of control and are choosing violence and aggression as a way to solve problems in the world in which they live. They swear, fight, vandalize, challenge authority and exhibit other overly-aggressive behaviors. Too many of these children have little respect for authority and no fear of consequences for their actions.
They do not fear or respect clergy, teachers, their parents or even the police nor will they listen to well-meaning adults or respond to positive guidance. In some schools in the United States, the daily classroom environment is a war zone with the possibility of crippling, and sometimes deadly, violence amongst the children themselves and the world in which they live. In Chicago, a study by the Advancement Project entitled "Education on Lockdown: The Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track" reports that in the public school system of more than 400,000 students, 29,700 students were suspended in the 2002-2003 school year and possibly up to 3,000 students were expelled in the 2003-2004 school year. But both of these figures pale in comparison to a reported 8,539 youths arrested in 2003. These arrests included about seventy 7-, 8- and 9-year-olds; hundreds of pre-teens; and thousands of 14- to 16-year olds. While Black students constitute 50% of the student enrollment, they comprised 76% of the suspensions, 78% of the expulsions and 77% of those arrested, mostly young Black males. When children and students are not cooperative, self-managed and self-disciplined, they cannot effectively learn. Teachers are being asked to be social workers, disciplinarians and police officers as well as teachers. With this expectation, there is no way that they can be successful in any of these roles, especially that of teacher! In many schools, the school day is spent on containment rather than enlightenment. It is no coincidence that the student populations with the highest suspension, expulsion and arrest rates have the lowest reading, math and writing scores, and lowest graduation rates. School districts across the country are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on security that should be spent on education enhancements. Calling the police, hopefully a last resort, is not an effective way to manage students who misbehave. Police officers are not trained as social workers or disciplinarians. They are trained in crowd control and in pre-incarceration tactics and operations. The solution to the problem of violence among Black children does not lie predominantly with schools, police or jails. This problem cannot be solved by government or social service agencies by themselves. This war that our children are fighting against each other in the schools they attend, and against the communities in which they live, started for them in their homes. It can only be stopped in their homes. While educators, society and government all have a role, it must be acknowledged that the parents, families and communities of these youths hold the key to stopping violence in our schools and communities. Parents, families and communities must establish a new culture with new standards and new expectations that allow and encourage Black students to succeed in mainstream American society without violence and physical aggression. A national infrastructure must be created to manage the resources, programs, ideas and people who can solve this problem. Programs and good intentions cannot fix this problem. The solution needs to be comprehensive, systemic, well-conceived, well-funded and well-executed.
The best school safety solutions start in the homes and the communities of the children. The best disciplinarian for a child is the cultural framework of mutual respect and self-discipline taught to children at a young age by their parents and the community in which they live. The best mentors for children are loving, nurturing and caring parents. Black boys and girls need to be to be in the presence of strong, positive Black men and women if they are to follow a similar path in life. If your school or community is not utilizing these kinds of solutions to eliminate violence and improve academic performance, it has become a disservice to the children and the community it is suppose to serve and part of the overall problem of violence among our youth.
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Please click here to tell President Obama that you are not happy with the lack of support from the White House on the issues of urban youth in America and ask him to work with The Black Star Project to fix these problems. | | 34.5 percent of young African American men are unemployed | |
Blacks hit hard by economy's punch
34.5 percent of young African American men are unemployed
By V. Dion Haynes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
These days, 24-year-old Delonta Spriggs spends much of his time cooped up in his mother's one-bedroom apartment in Southwest Washington, the TV blaring soap operas hour after hour, trying to stay out of the streets and out of trouble, held captive by the economy. As a young black man, Spriggs belongs to a group that has been hit much harder than any other by unemployment.
Joblessness for 16-to-24-year-old black men has reached Great Depression proportions -- 34.5 percent in October, more than three times the rate for the general U.S. population. And last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that unemployment in the District, home to many young black men, rose to 11.9 percent from 11.4 percent, even as it stayed relatively stable in Virginia and Maryland.
His work history, Spriggs says, has consisted of dead-end jobs. About a year ago, he lost his job moving office furniture, and he hasn't been able to find steady work since. This summer he completed a construction apprenticeship program, he says, seeking a career so he could avoid repeating the mistake of selling drugs to support his 3-year-old daughter. So far the most the training program has yielded was a temporary flagger job that lasted a few days.
"I think we're labeled for not wanting to do nothing -- knuckleheads or hardheads," said Spriggs, whose first name is pronounced Dee-lon-tay. "But all of us ain't bad."
Construction, manufacturing and retail experienced the most severe job losses in this down economy, losses that are disproportionately affecting men and young people who populated those sectors. That is especially playing out in the District, where unemployment has risen despite the abundance of jobs in the federal government.
Traditionally the last hired and first fired, workers in Spriggs's age group have taken the brunt of the difficult economy, with cost-conscious employers wiping out the very apprenticeship, internship and on-the-job-training programs that for generations gave young people a leg up in the work world or a second chance when they made mistakes. Moreover, this generation is being elbowed out of entry-level positions by older, more experienced job seekers on the unemployment rolls who willingly trade down just to put food on the table.
The jobless rate for young black men and women is 30.5 percent. For young blacks -- who experts say are more likely to grow up in impoverished racially isolated neighborhoods, attend subpar public schools and experience discrimination -- race statistically appears to be a bigger factor in their unemployment than age, income or even education. Lower-income white teens were more likely to find work than upper-income black teens, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, and even blacks who graduate from college suffer from joblessness at twice the rate of their white peers.
Young black women have an unemployment rate of 26.5 percent, while the rate for all 16-to-24-year-old women is 15.4 percent.
Victoria Kirby, 22, has been among that number. In the summer of 2008, a D.C. publishing company where Kirby was interning offered her a job that would start upon her graduation in May 2009 from Howard University. But the company withdrew the offer in the fall of 2008 when the economy collapsed.
Kirby said she applied for administrative jobs on Capitol Hill but was told she was overqualified. She sought a teaching position in the D.C. public schools through the Teach for America program but said she was rejected because of a flood of four times the usual number of applicants.
Finally, she went back to school, enrolling in a master's of public policy program at Howard. "I decided to stay in school two more years and wait out the recession," Kirby said.
On a tightrope
The Obama administration is on a tightrope, balancing the desire to spend billions more dollars to create jobs without adding to the $1.4 trillion national deficit. Yet some policy experts say more attention needs to be paid to the intractable problems of underemployed workers -- those who like Spriggs may lack a high school diploma, a steady work history, job-readiness skills or a squeaky-clean background.
"Increased involvement in the underground economy, criminal activity, increased poverty, homelessness and teen pregnancy are the things I worry about if we continue to see more years of high unemployment," said Algernon Austin, a sociologist and director of the race, ethnicity and economy program at the Economic Policy Institute, which studies issues involving low- and middle-income wage earners.
Earlier this month, District officials said they will use $3.9 million in federal stimulus funds to provide 19 weeks of on-the-job training to 500 18-to-24-year-olds. But even those who receive training often don't get jobs.
"I thought after I finished the [training] program, I'd be working. I only had three jobs with the union and only one of them was longer than a week," Spriggs, a tall slender man wearing a black Nationals cap, said one afternoon while sitting at the table in the living room/dining room in his mother's apartment. "It has you wanting to go out and find other ways to make money. . . . [Lack of jobs is why] people go out hustling and doing what they can to get by."
"Give me a chance to show that I can work. Just give me a chance," added Spriggs, who is on probation for drug possession. "I don't want to think negative. I know the economy is slow. You got to crawl before you walk. I got to be patient. My biggest problem [which prompted the effort to sell drugs] is not being patient."
The economy's seismic shift has been an equal-opportunity offender, hurting various racial and ethnic groups, economic classes, ages, and white- and blue-collar job categories. Nevertheless, 16-to-24-year-olds face heavier losses, with a 19.1 percent unemployment rate, about nine points higher than the national average for the general population.
Their rate of employment in October was 44.9 percent, the lowest level in 61 years of record keeping, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment for men in their 20s and early 30s is at its lowest level since the Great Depression, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies.
Troubling consequences Unemployment among young people is particularly troubling, economists say, because the consequences can be long-lasting. This might be the first generation that does not keep up with its parents' standard of living. Jobless teens are more likely to be jobless twenty-somethings. Once forced onto the sidelines, they likely will not catch up financially for many years. That is the case even for young people of all ethnic groups who graduate from college.
Lisa B. Kahn, an economics professor at Yale University who studied graduates during recessions in the 1980s, determined that the young workers hired during a down economy generally start off with lower wages than they otherwise would have and don't recover for at least a decade.
"In your first job, you're accumulating skills on how to do the job, learning by doing and getting training. If you graduate in a recession, you're in a [lesser] job, wasting your time," she said. "Once you switch into the job you should be in, you don't have the skills for that job."
Some studies examining how employers review black and white job applicants suggest that discrimination may be at play.
"Black men were less likely to receive a call back or job offer than equally qualified white men," said Devah Pager, a sociology professor at Princeton University, referring to her studies a few years ago of white and black male job applicants in their 20s in Milwaukee and New York. "Black men with a clean record fare no better than white men just released from prison."
| The Black Star Project's Fathers Club Invites Fathers and their Children (and Mothers) to See Women's College Basketball at Its Best!!! | | Calling All Fathers, Stepfathers, Foster Fathers, Grandfathers, Godfathers, Uncles, Brothers and Male Caregivers!
Join The Black Star Project's Fathers Club versus The University of Illinois Chicago Flames versus the Dayton Flyers Women Basketball Game Monday, November 30, 2009 7:00 pm at The Chicago Pavilion 525 S. Racine Street (500 south and 1200 west) Chicago, Illinois This is a fantastic opportunity to bond with
your children and to see two of the top women's college basketball teams in America.
Men and women of all races, ethnicities and faith backgrounds may and should attend this event with their children.
If you would like to attend, please RSVP with Bruce at The Black Star Project at (773)285-9600 by 3:00 pm on Monday, November 30, 2009 and please also call him for more information about the Fathers Club. Please pick up your tickets at 6:15 pm at the Pavilion | | Join The Black Star Project's Fathers Club at the Chicago Children's Museum on Saturday, December 12, 2009 | | Join The Black Star Project's Fathers Club for our pre-holiday outing at the Chicago Children's Museum. Admission is FREE to fathers and their children (and mothers and their children).
The Black Star Project's Fathers Club The Chicago Children's Museum Saturday December 12, 2009.
From 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm
700 East Grand Avenue at Navy Pier
Chicago, Illinois Please call Bruce at the Black Star Project, 773.285.9600, to RSVP your tickets. Tickets are limited, so call ASAP. Transportaiton can be provided in some instances. Please inquire. Special Exhibits: Open through March 1
Where can you build a snow fort, throw snowballs, dress up a snowman, and ice skate inside? Chicago Children's Museum, of course! Snow Much Fun-CCM's much-loved winter celebration-features more frosty fun and cool inspiration than ever this year! Open through January 3Are you ready for the ultimate fort-building experience? Chicago Children's Museum has everything you need to make a cool and cozy space that's all your own. You can't build these forts at home! | | | | | |
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Hello,
I wanted to read the articles on your blog. However, they are cut off on the right side in both Firefox and Internet Explorer. Please let me know if you are able to fix this.
Peace,
Dr. Debra
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