Philadelphia Nonprofit Joins Obama’s ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ Initiative

Today President Obama will announce plans for My Brother’s Keeper, an initiative aimed at helping young African-American and Hispanic men. KYW 1060’s Cherri Gregg notes a local nonprofit is involved in the effort.

BMe Community CEO Trabian Shorters will be in Washington today for the launch of President Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative, which will bring together non-profits and for-profit organizations to test strategies for helping young men of color overcome negative statistics. Men and boys of color are disproportionately more likely to drop out of school, be victims of homicide or to go to prison, but these stats do not tell the full story of this population.

BMe Community began as a “storytelling” project of the Knight Foundation in 2011, collecting the tales of 2,000 black men from Detroit and Philadelphia. It was spun off into its own organization last year. “BMe members are creating positive change through a variety of issues they care about,” says the website, “ranging from youth development to public health; stopping violence to helping former inmates; protecting the environment to community farming; and spurring entrepreneurship to improving financial literacy.”

Yahoo! News shares an adorable story of the president getting a Father’s Day card, then reports that the president is expected to continue to focus on issues facing young men of color when he leaves office.

[KYW 1060 | Yahoo! News]