Cultivating Connections & Changing Conversations About Men and Boys of Color
by Maisha Simmons and Jane Isaacs Lowe | Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
As promised, here’s an update on the Gathering of Leaders held in Philadelphia earlier this month. A more thorough report on outcomes from the Gathering will be available soon, and we’ll share it here on the Forward Promise Forum. In the meantime, we wanted to share our initial reaction to this event, which was truly a milestone for us.
We were thrilled with the remarkable turnout of more than 100 leaders working to address the unique set of challenges facing young men of color in America. Most of the participants represented philanthropies, but other attendees were practitioners, government policymakers, and members of the media (with representation from education, youth development, health, family, and workforce development/employment sectors).
Our goal was to start a conversation so that we are able to answer these fundamental questions:
- How can we better support one another in our work?
- How should we coordinate to make the biggest impact in the lives of young men of color?
- How do we take this work to scale and make it sustainable?
And while the gathering was hosted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, this type of work obviously requires all hands on deck. The Foundation wants to work with others in philanthropy and the young men of color field to build a movement that addresses disparities boys and young men of color face, creating changes that improve their health, social, educational, and employment opportunities and outcomes.
As we researched the field in preparation to launch Forward Promise, we noticed 1) a growing momentum in the field around taking action, rather than stand on sidelines watching, and 2) a desire to move past meetings that focus on identifying problems for young men of color. It’s clear that the problems have been named, and the challenge is how to coalesce around solutions. This thinking contributed greatly to our desire to gather key players in a room together.
At the Gathering, participants were able to make connections with people they’ve never met, or with whom they have never worked. Strategy sessions enabled participants to dig deeper and talk about supporting one another in a meaningful way. Practically speaking, the event highlighted how we as a field are connecting dots so we can support and collaborate with one another. For example, if programs in Oakland and New Orleans are doing similar work, how do we make sure they're connected to share best practices and learn from each other’s mistakes?
Notably, the makeup of the participants represented mostly African American communities, which was also the case with last year’s Forward Promise Call for Ideas. This might be due to relying too heavily on relationships we’ve had in place for some time and a need for broader outreach. Another reason we might not be seeing/hearing from more folks working with Latino, Asian Pacific Islander, and Native American populations could be because these groups haven’t yet thought about the larger issue of how the health of the populations they serve affects communities. It’s a question we need to explore further. Either way, it's a knowledge and action gap. Ultimately, we’ll continue to look for ways to accommodate these differences to round out the work of Forward Promise, specifically the diversity of the grantee pool for our upcoming call for proposals.
Overall, conversations during the two-day event largely affirmed the research of our policy work group, which has been assessing policies related to the health of young men of color. We’ll be releasing policy briefs - in partnership with the Center for Law and Social Policy - later this summer, which will share the insights from our policy team.
We are thankful to have had the opportunity to meet new people and learn new ideas alongside others investing in programs that tap the talent, smarts, and potential that all young men should be bringing to our communities and to our nation. The issue is of critical importance to all of us in society, not just communities of color. We’re ready to assume a seat at the table with others who have been in field for long time, and with others like us who are now explicitly focused on this population.
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Maisha E. Simmonsis Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on the Vulnerable Populations Team; Jane Isaacs Lowe is director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Vulnerable Populations portfolio.
