Our Vision

All Californians stand to benefit by doing everything possible to ensure that young men of color have the chance to grow up healthy, to get a good education, and to make positive contributions to their communities.

We will reap the rewards of this investment. Boys and young men of color can make our neighborhoods safer and stronger and they can work hard, innovate, and keep California competitive in the global economy. It’s time for California to renew its commitment to making sure that all young people have a fair shot to grow up healthy and successful.

Our Goals

The Alliance is working to ensure that California’s boys and young men of color:

• Are physically and mentally healthy;
• Live in safe neighborhoods;
• Succeed in school and work; and
• Possess the knowledge, skills, and leadership capacity to contribute to their families, communities, and the state’s social and economic well-being.

Our Strategy

Working at the local and state level, the Alliance is actively pursuing reforms that will:

• Increase access to health services that recognize the strengths and assets of boys and young men of color while also responding to the trauma and chronic adversity that many face;
• Achieve 100 percent high-school graduation rates among boys and young men of color by strengthening the performance of public schools and reducing expulsion rates;
• Ensure boys and young men of color live in safe neighborhoods and can attend safe schools;
• Reduce the numbers of youth who enter the juvenile justice system and ensure that those who leave the system have the skills needed to succeed; and
• Increase access to the types of education and training that lead to meaningful employment.

For a complete list of Alliance activities, go to PolicyLink.org.

Questions? Please contact Ruben Lizardo, Deputy Director, ruben@policylink.org

Local Campaigns

With strong participation and leadership of youth, community and system players Alliance partners have launched campaigns in Oakland, Fresno, and Los Angeles. Each of these efforts is anchored by a local convener.

Oakland:

As the regional convener of the Alliance’s work in Oakland, Urban Strategies Council facilitates collaborative efforts between Alameda County and Oakland systems leaders and leading community based organizations. Find out about Urban Strategy Council’s work here. To learn more, contact Junious Williams, CEO, Urban Strategies Council.

Fresno:

PolicyLink, the Building Healthy Communities Program, and the California Endowment jointly facilitate the work of the Fresno County BMoC Task Force that includes community-based organizations, as well as youth and adult residents, law enforcement, education, health system leaders, and faith-based advocates. Find out about the Fresno BMoC Campaign here. To learn more, contact Nathaniel Brown, Program Assistant, PolicyLink.

Los Angeles:

The Liberty Hill Foundation leads the Brothers, Sons, Selves Coalition, which is dedicated to building the leadership capacity of young men of color to shape policy and system practice that impacts their life chances. The Coalition’s Steering Committee includes an array of national and local organizations. Find out about the Liberty Hill Foundation’s Los Angeles Work here. To learn more, contact Tonna Onyendu, Campaign Manager, Brothers, Sons, Selves.

 

Alliance members worked hard last year to build support for state policy proposals to fix school discipline. This included mobilizing letters of support for the slate of bills school discipline advocates and educators moved through the legislature. The Alliance’s Change.org petition to Governor Brown generated over 10, 000 signatures.

Meanwhile, through partnership with the Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color Alliance members provided a platform for more than 2,000 youth, community and system leaders to voice their concerns in the six hearings and six policy working groups that were held across the state. Alliance members’ advice about promising solutions and policy and system reforms on which the state could act were included among the sixty seven recommendations in the Select Committee’s Action Plan.

In November 2012, the Alliance hosted a policy convening with local and state partners to develop plans for a new state policy campaign to build on last year’s success. Aligned with our core policy and system objectives, this spring the Alliance is launching a Campaign to Make Health and Opportunity Happen for Boys and Young Men of Color. The campaign seeks to ensure our most vulnerable boys and young men of color:

• Attend schools that have the tools and supports needed to keep them in the classroom, ensure they achieve at a highlevel, and graduate ready for college and career;
• Live in neighborhoods that are safe and provide them with the supports needed to for healthy youth development and economic self-sufficiency;
• Have access to quality health services that build on their cultural strengths and address exposure to chronic adversity and trauma.
• Get the opportunity to work, through the removal of barriers to employment and through increased access to career education and training.

Select Comittee

After a year-long series of hearings, in August 2012 the Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color released a final report and an ambitious Action Plan with sixty seven recommendations related to health, education, employment, violence prevention and youth development. Read the Select Committee Action Plan here Under the leadership of newly appointed Chair, Assemblymember Steven Bradford (D – 62), the Select Committee will continue to champion the cause of ensuring California’s boys and young men of color are healthy and successful. Select Committee Chair Bradford will use the Committee’s Action Plan as the basis for engaging Committee Members and others in the Legislature.
Contact Select Committee Chair Bradford here.

The Select Committee’s new members as of February 2013 include:

• Assemblymember Steven Bradford (D - 62), Chair
• Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian (R - 35)
• Assemblymember Rob Bonta (D - 18)
• Assemblymember Cheryl Brown (D - 47)
• Assemblymember Beth Gaines (R - 6)
• Assemblyman Rich Gordon (D - 24)
• Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D - 59)
• Assemblymember Holly Mitchell (D - 54)
• Democratic Whip V. Manuel Pérez (D - 80)
• Assemblymember Anthony Rendon(D - 63)
• Assemblymember Phil Ting (D - 19)
• Assemblymember Scott Wilk (R - 38)

To read the Select Committee Report and action plan, click here.