During the Fall of 2018, I had the opportunity to visit New York City for the first time. As a native of Birmingham, AL, I was enthralled with how massive and concrete the city was (there were literally buildings everywhere). I know New York is known as the concrete jungle, but it was the first time I'd been to a city with so little greenery. Birmingham is known as Tree City, USA, and many people are shocked when they first visit Birmingham that we have so much greenery and that it sits at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. So imagine my surprise when the greenery I saw was little planted trees outside of office buildings and apartment complexes.
While I was captivated by the abrupt change of scenery, the concrete buildings, swirling snow, and freezing temperatures were not why I visited. I was there to receive training at the Red Hook Community Justice Center, which is part of The Center for Justice Innovation. The training focused on restorative peacemaking rooted in Native American practices. During that time, I worked for the City of Birmingham Mayor’s Office, and we were looking to bring more deferment and restorative practices to our municipal justice system. This program sought to “bring together disputants, family members, friends, and other community members to discuss how a disruptive event affected each person. The purpose was not only to resolve the immediate dispute but also to heal the relationships among those involved and restore balance to the community.”
On February 27, 2014, President Obama launched a new initiative called My Brother’s Keeper (MBK). MBK sought to connect cities, non-profits, education systems, businesses, and philanthropists around increasing outcomes and opportunities for Boys and Young Men of Colore. This audacious goal was built around six milestones:
Getting a Healthy Start and Entering School Ready to Learn
All children should have a healthy start and enter school ready – cognitively, physically, socially, and emotionally.Reading at Grade Level by Third Grade
All children should be reading at grade level by age 8 – the age at which reading to learn becomes essential.Graduating from High School Ready for College and Career
All youth should receive a quality high school education and graduate with the skills and tools needed to advance to postsecondary education or training.Completing Postsecondary Education or Training
Every American should have the option to attend postsecondary education and receive the education and training needed for the quality jobs of today and tomorrow.Successfully Entering the Workforce
Anyone who wants a job should be able to get a job that allows them to support themselves and their families.Keeping Kids on Track and Giving Them Second Chances
All youth and young adults should be safe from violent crime; and individuals who are confined should receive the education, training, and treatment they need for a second chance.1
For the next five years, I would reorient my work around helping Birmingham implement systems and strategies to achieve these milestones. I spent countless days and nights reading as much material as possible to better understand the scope of our challenges as a community. I met with community leaders from grassroots to "grasstops" to assist in building a strategy for increasing outcomes. As the second city (Philadelphia, led by Mayor Michael Nutter at the time, was the first) to sign on to the My Brother's Keeper Community Challenge, we worked alongside consultants from Bloomberg Foundation, community leaders, and business leaders to develop a holistic strategy for funding and policy change. Spurred on in the pursuit of a better, more opportunity-filled Birmingham, I gave my energy to the work of system transformation. Did I mention that I was also leading a church plant at this time? That's a different post, but one worthy of its own series.
I digress.
This is one of the contributing factors that led me to Brooklyn, New York City, in the fall of 2018. We were looking for more opportunities to keep people out of jail and to co-create safer communities as our city was growing increasingly violent. While in Red Hook, I learned about programs that gave students and people of color real second chances. Programs that were integrated into the community and had gained the trust of the people it was created to serve and support. I loved how they not only provided programs for intervening in the lives of those whose lives were threatening to veer off course but also provided preventative programs that created learning and skill-building opportunities.
I must also admit that at this time, I’d grown disillusioned. The local My Brother’s Keeper Program had died a political death, and while much activity went into the initiative, little substantive policy or funding followed. This is true both locally and nationally. President Obama was no longer in office, and the mayor who “championed” the cause lost a hotly-contested election in 2017. Many people I’d labored with had transitioned to other positions in the Mayor’s Office. Even before the election of 2017, the program began to lose its potency due to unclear leadership, a political campaign, and uncertainty over funding. The funding was tied to the gutting of a 40-year-old program known as Community Schools that ran programs like Camp Birmingham (summer camps), after-school programs, teen workforce development opportunities, and adult education programs. While this program had long since lost its effectiveness and accounts of mismanagement were rampant, it was a long-standing community staple.
In 2018, I began looking for ways to apply the lessons I’d learned while working on MBK and other community initiatives. I was now exposed to organizations and cities attempting innovative approaches to solving some of the most entrenched challenges urban communities face. I applied for the American Express Leadership Academy Points of Light Cohort and was accepted as one of 25 national up-and-coming civic and nonprofit leaders.
This experience was enriching but still incomplete. I questioned my place in municipal government and whether the change I wanted to see could be accomplished in government. So, later that year, I found myself in Brooklyn learning about peacemaking while being recruited to join a different city department. I would go on to join that department but realized that not much was different there. While the peacemaking strategies we learned were transformational, fully implementing them would take precisely what we didn’t have: a well-coordinated & programmatically integrated government. By this, I mean intergovernmental communication and collaboration. While the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing is suitable for acts of service and giving, it makes for inefficient government. That is when I realized it was time to take my passion from city government to building organizations and institutions on the local community level.
Building A Village is a series of posts about the challenges and rewards of pursuing a better today and a brighter tomorrow. Each post will be filled with stories of my experience and my thoughts on how we can see transformation in life and community. These posts will be available for free for seven (7) days, then you must be a paid subscriber to see them. To become a paid subscriber, please click the link below.
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/my-brothers-keeper