My Brother's Keeper: Volunteers sought to guide grant program designed to help young black men

Last year, Chattanooga answered a national call to improve the futures of young black men in America. Now, it's calling on local volunteers to be their brothers' keepers.

Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke and other officials Tuesday called for community members in a group conference call to step up and help the city find local organizations that can help meet the My Brother's Keeper challenge -- a federal grant program aimed at helping young black men achieve better education, gain employment and stay safe.

Gary Rudolph

The federal program was started in February 2014, and in March the White House announced it had gathered more than $300 million in grant pledges. That $300 million pie will be divvied up among a group of 200 cities, counties and organizations across the country to support participating programs.

On Tuesday, Berke said the city has interest from 50 organizations which want to be involved -- and get the grant funding. Now, the city needs volunteers willing to help interview and analyze all those requests.

It's an important job, Berke said.

"Our city's investment of people will have ramifications for decades to come," he said. "When one person goes to college that wasn't going to go before, that's a lifetime of things to happen that weren't going to happen before."

Chattanooga launched the program locally in December 2014. At the start, a forum of about 50 community leaders met at the Bessie Smith Cultural Center to address the challenges young black men face in Chattanooga and Hamilton County. For example, nearly 40 percent of black men in East Lake don't have high school diplomas, and black men in the Hamilton County Jail are three times more likely than other inmates to be repeat offenders, according to data shared at the forum.

The White House also supplied a list of issues for the group to ponder, such as the challenges of being born into poverty, having low high school graduation rates, scarce employment opportunities and the difficulty of transitioning out of a life of crime.

Gary Rudolph, assistant director of recreation for the city, is the leadership coordinator for the city's role in My Brother's Keeper. Rudolph, who also leads the similarly aimed Chattanooga Ambassadors Program, said four goal areas were identified after the December forum. And focus groups are assigned to work out solutions.

Rudolph said Tuesday the groups have been focused on getting pre-school-aged children ready to learn, helping high school students achieve further education, getting young black men ready for the workforce and focusing on making their communities safer.

"We already know what we need to focus on, but we need your help to find who in the community is doing the best in these areas and amplify our results," Rudolph told callers.

Chattanooga Youth & Family Development Administrator Lurone Jennings said the city already is reaching out to many families and improving lives through its Lexia reading program and Violence Reduction Initiative call-ins. But he anticipates big returns from My Brother's Keeper.

"What we are doing for young men of color is working already, we haven't fully rolled it out," Jennings said.

Contact staff writer Louie Brogdon at lbrogdon@timesfreepress.com, @glbrogdoniv on Twitter or at 423-757-6481.