MY BROTHER’S KEEPER LOCAL ACTION PLAN

In February 2014, President Obama launched the My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) initiative to address persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color. The MBK Community Challenge is a call to action to cities, towns, counties and tribal nations to build and execute “cradle to college and career” plans around six crucial milestones for success:
1. Enter School Ready to Learn
2. Read at Grade Level by Third Grade
3. Graduate From High School Ready for College and Career
4. Complete Post-Secondary Education or Training
5. Successfully Enter the Workforce
6. Safe From Violence and Provided Second Chances

The national Task Force further identified areas of opportunity or priorities spanning across all milestones, which cities and communities can choose to focus their efforts.

THE CITY OF LONG BEACH ACCEPTS THE CHALLENGE
The Long Beach City Council voted to accept the MBK Community Challenge in January 2015. Many of the MBK Community Challenge goals are in strategic alignment with Safe Long Beach, the City’s Violence Prevention Plan. While Safe Long Beach is a comprehensive effort to reduce violence and enhance protective factors among Long Beach residents, the City recognizes that special attention must be paid to boys and young men of color, as data continually illustrates that men of color are disproportionately exposed to violence in their communities, overrepresented in the criminal justice and child welfare systems, and underrepresented in the employment and education sector.

Mayor Garcia convened the Long Beach MBK Task Force (Task Force), a broad-based group comprised of more than 40 representatives, consisting of City officials, educators, law enforcement; local hospital executives, faith- and community-based organizations. The Task Force is staffed by personnel from the Office of the Mayor, the City’s Development Services Department, and the Technology and Innovation Department. Bloomberg Associates, a consulting group whose mission is to help city governments improve the quality of life of their citizens; and PolicyLink, a national research and action institute that advances the creation of sustainable communities of opportunity that enable everyone to participate and prosper, have provided consultation on a pro-bono basis to City staff and the Task Force on the development of the MBK Local Action Plan. The Task Force met several times in 2015 and 2016. During these meetings, Task Force members reviewed the Summit’s proceedings, provided input, and through a voting process identified which priorities from among those proposed by the White House were determined to be most appropriate for Long Beach.

Through much discussion, a rich body of input and insight began to emerge from the process, from which City staff was able to shape the Local Action Plan to meet the MBK Challenge.

View the My Brother’s Keeper Long Beach Local Action Plan.

Click on the following to view the My Brother’s Keeper Long Beach Brochures:
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CALL TO ACTION
In 2014, President Obama launched the My Brother's Keeper (MBK) initiative, and issued a nationwide call to action to encourage communities to address persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color, and to ensure that all young people can reach their full potential. In 2015, the City of Long Beach formally accepted the White House Challenge to build an MBK Community.

A key element to the success of building an MBK Community is mentoring. Mentoring guarantees young people that there is someone who cares about them, assures that they are not alone in dealing with day-to-day challenges, and makes youth feel like they matter.

As a part of the Citywide MBK strategy, we are issuing a CALL TO ACTION by challenging City of Long Beach residents to commit to volunteer to be mentors through an established network of mentoring agencies.

Take action to accept the MBK Mentor Call to Action.