My Brother's Keeper Alliance Regional Summit | Long Beach, CA

At the end of July, the nationwide My Brother’s Keeper Alliance convened over 250 representatives from the Western Region at their regional summit in Long Beach, California. Mayors, other city officials and community leaders, and over 80 boys and young men of color were present and engaged in two and a half days of programming focused on providing boys and young men of color with the tools they need to reach their full potential. In addition to coming from many parts of California, attendees also traveled from New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Montana, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and Indian Country.

San Francisco MBSK Alliance was well represented through the presence of San Francisco Human Rights Commission, San Francisco Unified School District, and Hope SF, as well as a panel presentation from SF HRC Senior Policy Analyst, Amelia Martinez-Bankhead, Amelia sat on a panel called Literacy and the Achievement Gap for Boys of Color, a topic directly related to our SF MBSK milestone, which is to ensure that all children read at grade level by the third grade. Seven young men of color won $1000 scholarships for their essay writing contest submissions on topics related to My Brother’s Keeper, and two of those young men were from the Bay Area.

Partners from Bloomberg Associates, PolicyLink, Cities United, the Executives’ Alliance, Campaign for Black Male Achievement, Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, and Casey Family Programs were all present and will continue follow-up work with chapters across the region.