Announcing:
“Healthy Men Healthy Communities”
Happy New Year! Welcome to the February 2010
Marginalized Males Funders Group (MMFG) E-Newsletter, the first issue
of the year. We have an exciting announcement for you.
As you may know, MMFG launched in September 2008 as a network
designed to support, inform, and equip foundation staff to increase
philanthropic investments that improve the well being of men and boys
of color.
This network has emerged from a number of formal and informal
foundation convenings designated to address this issue over the last
three years. MMFG received its initial investments from Loren Harris,
former program officer at Ford Foundation, and Rahsaan Harris,
program executive at The Atlantic Philanthropies. Loren and Rahsaan
have lent
invaluable leadership, ideas, and strategic thinking to develop a
sustainable venue and to organize the network’s resources.
MMFG began as an ad hoc effort to mobilize a small set of funders
around grantmaking that targets men and boys of color. However, Loren
and Rahsaan developed an advisory board to help build a venue within
philanthropy that provides tools for funders to engage in grantmaking
using a race and gender lens. The goal was to address the specific ways
in which men and boys are marginalized and the impact on the entire
community. Advisory board members Tonya Allen, Matthew Barnes, William
Buster, Shawn Dove,
Tina Gridiron-Smith, John Govea, Robert Phillips, and Phillip Thomas
have worked with Rahsaan Harris over the last year to develop a clear
and constructive vision and direction for MMFG.
One objective that the advisory group identified early on was to find
an organizational home for MMFG that would institutionalize its agenda
in the philanthropic sector over the long term. Similarly, one of the
charges of both Ford’s and Atlantic’s investments in MMFG was to “
identify and transition MMFG to institutionalize within a credible and
capable philanthropic intermediary institution.”
Additionally, the advisory group determined that although the term
“marginalized males” accurately defines the structural factors that
impede males of color from social and economic upward mobility, it does
not represent what the group ultimately desires funders to
invest in.
So, I'm excited to
announce that as of March 1, MMFG
will become an initiative of the Grantmakers for Children, Youth and
Families (GCYF). GCYF has long been a philanthropic sector leader
that advances agendas
integral to the well-being of vulnerable communities, particularly
children, youth, and families. MMFG is
also being renamed the Healthy
Men
Healthy Communities (HMHC) initiative,
a project of GCYF.
In the coming weeks and months, you will learn more about the direction
that GCYF, in cooperation with the advisory group, is planning for
HMHC. Newsletters will continue to be released monthly. In April, the
initiative will release a field position paper. Beginning this summer,
HMHC will begin to implement a targeted policy agenda; mobilize
foundation executives around the agenda; and naturally continue to
provide an array of venues online and at conferences that offer
valuable tools and information to aid foundations in moving the agenda
forward.
We are excited about these new developments and thrilled about
endeavoring to build this field of work and make noticeable change
within the philanthropic sector.
Dr. Stephanie McGencey, executive director of GCYF, has a featured
commentary in
this newsletter. We also have an article that recaps a briefing on
Capitol Hill convened by the College Board: “The Educational Crisis
Facing Young Men of Color.”
Sincerely,
Marcus Littles
Chief Executive
Frontline Solutions
Welcome from Grantmakers for Children, Youth
and Families!
I have learned some of the most important 
lessons
of
my
life
from
elders.
Older
men and women who told stories that inspired me,
challenged me, and answered my questions about some of life’s most
difficult issues. I believe these stories have helped me to navigate
the choppy waters of life—hopefully a little more successfully than my
ancestors.
Grantmakers for
Children,
Youth and Families (GCYF) will be sharing the stories of men and
boys of color in a new learning initiative—Healthy Men, Healthy
Communities (HMHC). Like the elders, our goals are to inspire you,
challenge you, and answer some of your questions about how to best
serve this vulnerable population. We will convene learning events to
listen, learn, and better understand the challenges marginalized men
and boys face every day. We will do more than present the data that
summarizes and often desensitizes their reality— we will sincerely
and earnestly try to give voice to their reality in such a way that the
grantmaking community will be
compelled to act.
We will come
together and explore this work from a "glass more than half
full" perspective. We know that some of you have already supported or
identified promising and exemplary approaches to meet the needs of men
and boys of color. We want to share what you have learned and
collectively think about ways to improve upon our existing efforts.
Finally, we hope to create opportunities for children, youth, and
family grantmakers to collaborate with social justice, racial equity,
economic and community development, criminal justice, education, and
health funders regarding the needs of men and boys of color. GCYF has
been the catalyst for important collaborative efforts within
philanthropy. We will leverage our resources and experience to support
this initiative.
It is very
important to acknowledge the stewardship of Frontline Solutions who
along with a group of philanthropic leaders nurtured this important
work from its birth to now. Over the next few months, GCYF will be
seeking your input on how to build upon the excellent foundation laid
for us and fully support ourselves with the tools we will need to be
most
effective in this important work. I look forward to hearing your
stories, sharing some of my own, and creating new ones!
Stephanie
Stephanie McGencey, Ph.D., MPH
Executive Director
Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families
Not Your Grandmother’s College Board
By Ryan Bowers
On January 26, the College Board took bold
measures to support the academic interests of minority males through
the release of its new report: “The Educational Crisis Facing Young Men
of Color.”
As one of the most powerful players in higher education, the College Board counts among its members over 5,000 of the nation’s top colleges and universities. It also serves as a gatekeeper for college admission and offers college credit for high school courses by administering the SAT and the Advanced Placement (AP) test programs, respectively.
The report is the product of a series of four Dialogue Days events
hosted by the College Board last year. Dialogue Days brought together
thought leaders and practitioners from a range of ethnicities to
discuss educational barriers and opportunities for minority males in
the United States.
The report has four main recommendations:
- Convene a national policy discussion on minority males and education.
- Support additional research on minority males and education.
- Coordinate institutions in the K-16 pipeline to ensure that minority males are prepared to enter and succeed in college.
- Identify and scale up successful programs supporting minority males and education.
Speakers
at the
briefing included Congressman
Mike
Honda (D-CA), Congressman
Danny
Davis (D-IL), and Congressman Raul Grijalva
(D-AZ). They identified recent and upcoming legislation affecting
minority males and the implications of reauthorizing the Education and
Secondary Schools and the No Child Left Behind acts.
The briefing also included a panel of academics and practitioners, such as Roy Jones, founder of the Call Me Mister program that recruits and trains African American male classroom teachers, and Dr. Lee Bitsoi of Georgetown University, whose research examines issues affecting indigenous males.
Stay tuned to the College Board’s Advocacy arm to see what next steps emerge from Dialogue Days, the report, and its recommendations.
Back to TopIn
Brief
The Schott Foundation names Nichole Sharpe
as the new director of the Black Male Donor Collaborative. On
February 3, Nicole Sharpe became the Program Director of the Black Male
Donor Collaborative administered by the Schott Foundation. Sharpe is
managing an initiative aimed at improving educational outcomes for
black male students initially within the New York City area and
eventually across the nation. In her prior position as the Executive
Director of the University of the West Indies Development &
Endowment Fund, she helped increase the fund’s endowment from $48
million to over $500 million over the course of 3 years. For
more
information
about
Sharpe
and
the
Black
Male Donor Collaborative.
New
Resources:
Visit our Resources page for details on these and other reports, articles, and links.
- Forum: Men of Color and Education: A Discussion on the Pursuit of Excellence. Forum to be held on Tuesday, March 2nd in NYC; visit the Teach for America site for registration
- Conference: First Annual Native
American Fatherhood Institute. On Tuesday, March 16 the Native
American Fatherhood & Family Association will stage “Strengthening
Families
Through
Fatherhood.”
- Conference: The 11th Annual New
England Fathering Conference.
“Stronger Fathers, Stronger Communities,” (in conjunction with the First Annual Native American Fatherhood Institute) will occur on March 17-19. For more info, please contact Karla Caballeros.
- Report: The W. Haywood Burns Institute has just released “The Keeper and the Kept," the second part of a series of reports that focus on reducing disparities in the juvenile justice system.
- Link: Black Male Donor Collaborative addresses the achievement disparities impacting New York's black males.
