Ferguson joins ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ community challenge

The Missouri community struggling with racial tensions after the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager — will join a new federal initiative to shrink the achievement gap between white and minority students, the White House announced Tuesday.

The “My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge” has more than 100 cities, counties and tribes all committed to meeting certain goals, including raising high-school and post-secondary graduation rates, along with keeping children safe from violent crimes.  

{mosads}“The recommendations that we have are going to play out in Ferguson, beginning with the very youngest children all the way up to college and career,” Jim Shelton, the deputy secretary of education and the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force executive director, said on a media phone call. “The same kind of community trust work really needs to happen in Ferguson, like it needs to happen in many communities across the country.

Both Ferguson and St. Louis have been the site of repeated protests and unrest since the August shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a white police officer. St. Louis is also a member of the new program.  

President Obama announced the “My Brother’s Keeper” program in February, but created the “Community Challenge” this month, which he unveiled at Saturday’s Congressional Black Caucus dinner.

The partner locations are expected to host a local summit within 45 days to hash out a strategy to achieve the White House’s goals and aim to launch that plan within six months. 

“The focus is local, and we can target our strategies and work with our local groups,” Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges said on the call. “And that’s transferable, any community can do that and this is an invitation to do that.”

Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx spouted off staggering statistics that he said underscored the need for action. Three year olds from low-income households have heard about 30 million fewer words than their high-income peers. One-third of Hispanic children and two-thirds of black children grow up with only one parent, which greatly increases the likelihood that they will drop out of school, he said.

“As a former mayor [of Charlotte, N.C.], I can tell you that at the local level, on the streets, in the schools, and in community centers, that’s where a lot of the progress is actually made,” he said. “That’s also where much of the challenge exists.”

Some of the nation’s biggest cities—including New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago—pledged to join the effort. But smaller cities like Maryland’s 8,200-person Mount Rainier and the 1,900-person village of Phoenix in Illinois will also take part.

“It’s a richer pool of potential assets in larger communities. The smaller communities, rural communities are going to need to be a little bit more creative and scrappy,” Shelton said. “But we are seeing communities do it in really successful ways.” 

Julián Castro, the new secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the former mayor of San Antonio, also joined the call.