AKRON, OH – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and the White House Chair of the “My Brother’s Keeper” Task Force helped launch a local initiative to help prepare students for college and career readiness in Akron today. Brown joined Broderick Johnson, Chair of the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force, community leaders, and a group of Akron-area mentors and mentees during a community kick-off event at the Akron Urban League.  

“It’s up to all of us to ensure that all our children – regardless of their zip code or the color of their skin – have the opportunity to succeed,” Brown said. “And I hope more cities across our state follow Akron’s lead and accept the My Brother’s Keeper Challenge, and work toward that goal.”

The My Brother’s Keeper initiative works to connect male students of color with community leaders through mentoring relationships and educational events. This program is aligned with the White House’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative and its goal to ensure that all youth receive a quality high school education and graduate with the skills and tools needed to advance to postsecondary education or training.

In September 2014, President Obama issued a challenge to cities across the country to become “MBK Communities.” This challenge represents a call to action and encourages communities to implement a coherent cradle-to-college-and-career strategy for improving the life outcomes of all young people to ensure that they can reach their full potential, regardless of who they are, where they come from, or the circumstances into which they are born. Nearly 200 mayors, tribal leaders, and county executives across 43 states and the District of Columbia have accepted the MBK Community Challenge.

The six goals of the Challenge are:

  • Ensuring all children enter school cognitively, physically, socially, and emotionally ready;
  • Ensuring all children read at grade level by 3rd grade;
  • Ensuring all youth graduate from high school;
  • Ensuring all youth complete post-secondary education or training;
  • Ensuring all youth out of school are employed; and
  • Ensuring all youth remain safe from violent crime.

Community leaders can lay the groundwork for an MBK Community in four steps:

  1. Accept the President’s Challenge.
  2. Convene a “Local Action Summit” to build an MBK Community.
  3. Conduct a policy review and form recommendations for action.
  4. Launch a plan of action, next steps and a timetable for review.

Immediately before the launch event, Brown and Johnson convened a roundtable of community leaders to discuss efforts to build and expand the mentoring program in Summit County. Individuals from the following organizations attended the meeting:

  • Akron NAACP
  • Akron Urban League
  • Big Brothers Big Sisters
  • City of Akron
  • East Akron YMCA
  • House of the Lord
  • iCARE Mentoring
  • University of Akron
  • Education, Motivation, Success
  • Fame Fathers
  • Zion Apostolic Faith Church

Individuals who are interested in participating in the Akron My Brother’s Keeper effort should contact Dr. Terry Albanese with the City of Akron at TAlbanese@akronohio.gov.

 

 

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